Two person team-alternate digging and searching?

chirper97

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Has anyone tried working as a two person team, one digging/recovering and the other detecting?

Simply switch roles when needed.

An additional bonus would be communication that could develop and maintain skills including:

Detector adjustments made in the field to increase sensitivity and accuracy
Target identification before digging made by the detectorists
Another pair of eyes apprising the detected target and vicinity
Security and situational awareness
More careful digging and target protection
More fun and less overall physical fatigue Documentation log including GPS locations and photography
 

Jason in Enid

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I'm sure some do use something like this, but I don't think many simply mark targets and move on for the digger to follow behind. Many targets aren't exactly where the detector says they are. That would leave the digger working blind without his/her own detector for scanning and rescanning holes to find the target. If they had their own detector, why not just have both hunt and dig their own?

There are special circumstances such as an injury/illness that would prevent the "hunter" from easily digging and so it might be necessary to have another person to dig their targets for them.
 

Terry Soloman

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Doing this with your child or spouse is one thing, doing it with an adult "buddy" is another. I don't want to "share" the overall experience - or the booty! I don't feel I need, or want additional help.
 

Davers

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I,m with Terry on this one + I don't trust anyone to dig my targets .[ nicking up nice coins/relics]
Davers
 

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chirper97

chirper97

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Mar 28, 2005
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south charleston, wv
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Great posts to further this thread. However, I think this 2 person technique would be a good way to 'mix it up', and to bring better digging implements to bear upon difficult rocky ground conditions like we have in WV. Rarely do I find the nice soil conditions seen in online videos when relic/civil war detecting. Often a long handled shovel and mattock are required to penetrate the rocks and roots, and these tools are difficult for the detectorist to carry and manage.
picks-long-short.jpg


If the two detectorists are planning to divide the finds anyway, it makes no difference who digs or detects. Agree to flip a coin if the finds are unequal.

One alternative for a solitary detectorist is to use marking flags for good signals, then return with the implements, every 5 markers or so, and dig, using a pinpointer.
 

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GatorBoy

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Doing this with your child or spouse is one thing, doing it with an adult "buddy" is another. I don't want to "share" the overall experience - or the booty! I don't feel I need, or want additional help.

Bingo
 

Silver Simon

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Two dudes in one hole does not seem like the best use of man power. Divide and conquer if its a big area.
 

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GatorBoy

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Two dudes in one hole does not seem like the best use of man power. Divide and conquer if its a big area.

You ever want to crack a joke but just know its not the right thing to do?
8-)
 

fuzymunky

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That's how my son got into it.

I'm 100% disabled vet with bad knees. I'd swing coil and he'd dig targets. At 12, he got bit by the "bug" so hard that now, at close to 15, he out-hunts me 7 times out of 10.

However, there ain't a grown man in my hunting group that would come along just to "dig holes"...even if it did mean switching off
 

BryanM362

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Doing this with your child or spouse is one thing, doing it with an adult "buddy" is another. I don't want to "share" the overall experience - or the booty! I don't feel I need, or want additional help.

That's what I was going to say. I have done it with daughter, not marking targets, but working together (usually me digging). I don't think I would want to do this with another adult. Half the fun is finding and recovering the target yourself.

I think your point is, that it might speed the process, and allow you to cover more ground. if that is your goal, it might work.
 

lastleg

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Feb 3, 2008
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That works in sifting, one digging the other spreading, but the tension comes with dividing.
 

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