Fill your holes in remote areas?

[IMAUDIGGER]

I occasionally detect some open public ground that has been hammered over the years.
You can see evidence of cut brush and rolled rocks but that's about it.

In the last couple years somebody is going up there and leaving 6"-12" deep holes everywhere.

How freaking difficult is it to kick the dirt back in the hole?!
Lazy with no respect is my first impression.

I figure this guy probably also craps on top of the ground, then leaves a little pile of toilet paper next to it...

 

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[meMiner]

Big holes are a great place to discard your empty beer cans (joke). In all seriousness, leaving as small a footprint as possible is always the best approach.

 

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[Toecutter]

Let me get this right, you would get into a physical altercation, and might even go to jail, over someone not filling their holes back in?

That reminds me of that old guy that shot the teenager for walking across his lawn. Now I fully understand property rights, but the action has to fit the crime too.

Attack my children and you will see the south end of a north facing shotgun, but put a dent in the Scott's Turf-Builder Plus sod on the front lawn...mmmmmm...no, said gun will remain inside, and never see the light of day. I am not going to jail over some crimped clover.

The same with beating a guy up over some unfilled holes. It may be rude not to refill a hole, but even worse to invoke a fistfight over it.

(Note: I did not mention defending my wife because she has a cute little Kimber Micro 9mm)

I would provoke hopping the lazy hole guy would assault me, and then... the ass whoopen would commence.... fight to the death!!!

 

[Toecutter]

people who provoke fights shouldn't carry. open or concealed..... something i read from another thread.

Hahahaha good point!!

 

[catyron]

I like AARC's three rules -- "Have permission... Fill holes... Dispose of trash." It just the right thing to do. When i am out wildcrafting for herbs, mushrooms, and roots, i follow the same rules. I even dispose of the trash that other people have left. My mother taught me to respect nature, public land, and private land.

 

[bowwinkles]

If you are MAN enough to dig the hole then be MAN enough to fill it in and respect the standard rules of our hobby. Altercations leads to no good and also becomes a reflection back on others who may follow and are mannered hobbyists. This rule also applies to the fairer sex with digging tools. Keep it cool.

 

[IMPDLN]

I find this post a little odd myself. I guess it really depends on how and what you are detecting as to when the ''fill your holes'' comes into play. I myself am usually on shallow exposed bedrock in a dry wash in the desert. Most of my "holes" are nothing but a small cleaned out crevice. Not really a hole there to refill. Never see dredgers or dry washers go back and fill in the areas they have been working. No need to do that really as the dredge hole will go away in spring floods and the dry washer isn't usually digging a hole per say, they are usually just cleaning off shallow bedrock and vacuuming clean.

Now if I am working deep ground with a large coil and digging horse shoes from the bottom of bomb craters, of course I will pull the dirt back into said bomb crater as I don't want anything to fall and get hurt, human or animal. Of course if you are relic hunting in a park you better fill your holes if you want to continue enjoying that type of hunting. Nobody wants their park to look like it's covered with gopher holes.

In my opinion it really depends on what kind of situation or circumstances are involved with the type of metal detecting that is being done. If we get onto an area that we decide to placer out, we aren't filling those areas back in. It is a work in process as we continue to return and rake and recover gold as we work forward looking for a source. However that isn't really a hole, just a scrape usually.

I certainly can't see why anybody would want to threaten bodily harm over a little detector hole. Sounds like something an extreme environmentalist would do to me. Good way to get a free ride to the gray bar hotel. Assault is assault, period. Extremism certainly isn't necessary over a divot. If you see somebody doing something stupid, try talking to them and educating them nicely. It's like idiots leaving trash behind. Ask them to clean up the mess if you witness it. If not seen when it happens but we come across it, most of us would pick it up and take it out. Do the same if you find holes that disturb you, fill them in. It isn't rocket science. Dennis

 

[russau]

Someone would get a ear full and would be provoked to fist fight, I would do my darnedest to get that guy mad and to come at me so we could duke it out, love teaching lessons

NOT to start any argument BUT provoking someone into a fight (in todays environment) might be really risky! There are a lot of people caring hand guns that MIGHT have a shorter fuse than you and end up in a very bad situation for all!

 

[Goldwasher]

I find this post a little odd myself. I guess it really depends on how and what you are detecting as to when the ''fill your holes'' comes into play. I myself am usually on shallow exposed bedrock in a dry wash in the desert. Most of my "holes" are nothing but a small cleaned out crevice. Not really a hole there to refill. Never see dredgers or dry washers go back and fill in the areas they have been working. No need to do that really as the dredge hole will go away in spring floods and the dry washer isn't usually digging a hole per say, they are usually just cleaning off shallow bedrock and vacuuming clean.

Now if I am working deep ground with a large coil and digging horse shoes from the bottom of bomb craters, of course I will pull the dirt back into said bomb crater as I don't want anything to fall and get hurt, human or animal. Of course if you are relic hunting in a park you better fill your holes if you want to continue enjoying that type of hunting. Nobody wants their park to look like it's covered with gopher holes.

In my opinion it really depends on what kind of situation or circumstances are involved with the type of metal detecting that is being done. If we get onto an area that we decide to placer out, we aren't filling those areas back in. It is a work in process as we continue to return and rake and recover gold as we work forward looking for a source. However that isn't really a hole, just a scrape usually.

I certainly can't see why anybody would want to threaten bodily harm over a little detector hole. Sounds like something an extreme environmentalist would do to me. Good way to get a free ride to the gray bar hotel. Assault is assault, period. Extremism certainly isn't necessary over a divot. If you see somebody doing something stupid, try talking to them and educating them nicely. It's like idiots leaving trash behind. Ask them to clean up the mess if you witness it. If not seen when it happens but we come across it, most of us would pick it up and take it out. Do the same if you find holes that disturb you, fill them in. It isn't rocket science. Dennis

most gold hunting is done in previously disturbed areas. Or shallow bedrock. Filling holes equates to "virtue signaling"

If your lucky enough to be somewhere that you can hunt elluvial deposits. Your pretty likely to end up with a wide scrape rather than a hole when you hit gold.

Inherently most deep holes are gonna have a piece of trash a the bottom. So, push some dirt in with your boot.

Maybe more if there are cows.

Heres a secret...wild animals learned to avoid falling into holes thousands of years ago.... (mine shafts don't count)

Applying park detecting (yuck) rules to nugget hunting is really gonna slow you down.

Yelling at some guy in the hills who carries a five pound detector pick is not very smart, no matter how rightous you think you are.

 

[Toecutter]

NOT to start any argument BUT provoking someone into a fight (in todays environment) might be really risky! There are a lot of people caring hand guns that MIGHT have a shorter fuse than you and end up in a very bad situation for all!

 

[oneguy]

most gold hunting is done in previously disturbed areas. Or shallow bedrock. Filling holes equates to "virtue signaling"

If your lucky enough to be somewhere that you can hunt elluvial deposits. Your pretty likely to end up with a wide scrape rather than a hole when you hit gold.

Inherently most deep holes are gonna have a piece of trash a the bottom. So, push some dirt in with your boot.

Maybe more if there are cows.

Heres a secret...wild animals learned to avoid falling into holes thousands of years ago.... (mine shafts don't count)

Applying park detecting (yuck) rules to nugget hunting is really gonna slow you down.

Yelling at some guy in the hills who carries a five pound detector pick is not very smart, no matter how rightous you think you are.

Half these guys whining about holes are park/beach hunters and most likely have no real clue as to what types landscape conditions a nugget shooter deals with out in the brush in previously heavily mined areas...…

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

I doubt this was some cocky guy that doesn't give 2 squirts what other people think.
Just lazy I think. I envision the guy wore himself out gettting down to the rusty can...stood up on his wobbly legs and wandered off to look for a deeply buried horse shoe or nail, forgetting his sandwich bag and bottle of water laying on the ground next to the hole.

I'm not about to go chasing after people filling in their holes. That would be a tremendous amount of work. It's work enough to clean up after myself.

Many of the places I've seen that were heavily mined at some point have significantly recovered.
Not the big dredger tailings, but the ground sluiced areas, and hand mined stuff.

The holes will also eventually heal up and the trash will get buried under leaves.

I tend to fill my holes back in from force of habit, even when I'm miles from the truck.
I'm not going to say I leave no trace.

I live where I do, because I enjoy the country.
From my last hike through a heavily mined area......then a small hole left behind.

 

[CASPER-2]

i dont care if im in the woods or in a farm field - i fill all my holes -Ive lost farm field permissions because others went in (most without permission)
and left monster holes -when i land hunt = I use a large knife and cut perfect plugs and try to keep all the dirt in the hole when possible - if you follow me
on a park,school or residence lawn - you can not tell ive been there - i learned this practice as a kid at age 12 when i started in 1975
it does not take long to fill any hole - people just dont care
let someone do that in their front lawn and see how they react

 

[Goldwasher]

it's pretty dang hard to cut plugs in gravel and bedrock

 

[southfork]

I dig Large holes on private property and screen all the dirt and refill at the end of the day . After I backfill and rake I replant with native grasses and wildflowers . I guess that why I still have access after all the these years I've hunted this property and others using the same method for artifacts . Most of my gold mining is on land that was turned upside down during the gold rush and can't be hurt or at least you would never notice .