Large Dirt Piles

[Pimp Lenin]

My neighbor recently acquired four large dirt piles. Each is about 8 feet high and about 15 feet across. He won't be spreading it out anytime soon. It was just free dirt offered to him so he took it for anything he may need it for. Since it will be in pile form for some time to come, any suggestions on how to detect them? I don't want to dismantle them, so I guess the best I can do is just go over the surface unless ya'll have some tricks. These piles came from a riverside in our local town which has been established for nearly two hundred years so there is bound to be something in them.

[truckinbutch]

Nobrainer . Work every inch of the surface of each pile to the best of you and your detector's ability . Dig every beep .
When he starts breaking them down do it all over again .
Sounds like a golden opportunity .

[Jeffro]

Move each pile one shovelfull at a time, detect the new pile as you go. Place the next pile in the previous pile's place.

[mts]

Wow! What a cool opportunity. I wonder if they do any screening of the dirt before selling it. Seems like they would at least run it through a coarse screen to make sure it doesn't have anything dangerous in it like a handgun or knife (you just never know).

I like the idea of moving it a shovel full at a time to be thorough. But it would be VERY tedious and you might not find anything anyway. You might also just wait until he spreads it all out and then detect those areas. Whatever he lays on the ground will surely be relatively thin. Unfortunately, you will also pick up trash signals in the ground underneath the newly placed dirt.

Such a tough call. What to do, what to do...

[swizzle]

Sorry if this is an old topic and all but I think I have a better solution. You offer the guy some free help whenever he decides to do anything with those piles. Make yourself a large swinging sifter on an oversize saw horse. Use a few pieces of plywood to build 3 sides of a box. Place a tarp down, then your 3 sides and then the sifter over the top of everything. Shove a wheelbarrow into the box and sift the dirt into the wheelbarrow. Make sure the wire mesh will allow everything smaller then a dime to go through. You may even be able to work out a deal with him where you can move the piles around until its all sifted. You never know what you'll find. Everything from pulltabs to arrowheads and CW relics, small bottles, marbles, pipes and well anything. Swiz