Iron boundary markers

[JoelB]

I feel really stupid asking this--but I am learning. I have had an e-trac for about 3 months now and enjoy it immensely. I was hunting last week and when I finished I drove about 2 blocks and a man waved me down and asked me if I was the one metal detecting--I said yes. He proceeded to ask me if I could find his property pins. Real quick I thought to myself --sure I can--I have one of the best detectors on the market--so I said OK. He said it was worth $20 if I could find the 2 that abutted the rear neighbors property. well I got out of my truck and WHAM it hit me--How do I find iron pins other than going into all-metal mode. Well I tried--but there was alot of other targets in the area and we never did find the pins. I declined the $20 as I felt pretty worthless. Clue me in--Probablly something simple.

 

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[stefen]

Not all property corners are marked with metal pipes or pins...it depends on the jurisdiction and the surveyor...

Sometimes they use a wood stake with a nail or nail and tag...have seen old axels used...

 

[andy from de]

Out east here a lot of them are stone, with a hole in it to stick a stake.

 

[ToddB64]

I feel really stupid asking this--but I am learning. I have had an e-trac for about 3 months now and enjoy it immensely. I was hunting last week and when I finished I drove about 2 blocks and a man waved me down and asked me if I was the one metal detecting--I said yes. He proceeded to ask me if I could find his property pins. Real quick I thought to myself --sure I can--I have one of the best detectors on the market--so I said OK. He said it was worth $20 if I could find the 2 that abutted the rear neighbors property. well I got out of my truck and WHAM it hit me--How do I find iron pins other than going into all-metal mode. Well I tried--but there was alot of other targets in the area and we never did find the pins. I declined the $20 as I felt pretty worthless. Clue me in--Probablly something simple.

Hi JoelB !

Ask "Tabdog". He is a retired surveyor and has years of experience metal detecting for iron stakes !

Maybe he will share some of his secrets.

ToddB64

 

[Swartzie]

They should give you a real strong signal. Put your sensitivity down low and listen for a real strong iron tone. I've actually found a couple of survey pins in the woods before. Dang near blew my ears off.

-Swartzie

 

[Bum Luck]

I am a registered land surveyor.

This business can be a complex one, and one of the pitfalls is people that move property pins. They might be dead and gone, but the pin is in the wrong place.

Sometimes your pin is gone, but there is an adjoining owners pin that is not your corner, but some feet away.

99% of people have NO idea what we do or how we do it. It takes years of schooling and years of experience to do this properly. If you're not a math person, you're not going to get it.

When you do find a pipe or rod, you have no idea if it's any good or not.

If this was easy, no one would ever pay me to do it.

 

[Ism]

Drive a pipe in the ground and test your settings over it. You may find you can set the disc fairly high before discriminating it out.

 

[deepskyal]

I owned a house once that the rear property markers were trees...

Talking to the neighbor, he replaced one of the fallen trees with a concrete pillar with a fence post in it. Back in the day, sometimes markers weren't as necessary for close neighbors so they used obvious markers like trees or telephone poles, as was my case in a rural town with acreage.
I had my property surveyed and there were no original benchmarks anywhere. The surveyor got within about a foot or so and said without original markers, that was the best we'd ever get.

I put my own rebar in one corner but the park I abutted kept pulling them out so I resorted to spikes burried in the ground.

Guess I should have used bigger spikes because I couldn't find them two years later.

Al

 

[Bum Luck]

I owned a house once that the rear property markers were trees...

Talking to the neighbor, he replaced one of the fallen trees with a concrete pillar with a fence post in it. Back in the day, sometimes markers weren't as necessary for close neighbors so they used obvious markers like trees or telephone poles, as was my case in a rural town with acreage.
I had my property surveyed and there were no original benchmarks anywhere. The surveyor got within about a foot or so and said without original markers, that was the best we'd ever get.

I put my own rebar in one corner but the park I abutted kept pulling them out so I resorted to spikes burried in the ground.

Guess I should have used bigger spikes because I couldn't find them two years later.

Al

This is one reason I wrote what I did above.