Stone detecting

[manumuskin]

Hi
My name is Al and I'm new here and I come with a question.
Me and a friend of mine have a highly unusual hobby.We search out old survey stones used to mark property.Some of these stones are in excess of 200 years old and all are at least 100.I have some experience with cheap metal detectors so I thought you guys might be able to help.You see to find the stones we use old maps and surveys and then plot the stones using computer programs,guesswork and some good map/topography savvy.Then we hit the field with handheld gps units after plotting an exact location or a declination arc but when we get there if the stone is above ground it is usually found quickly but if it is underground due to humus accumulation or purposely buried by the surveyor as some are we are stuck.Are units commonly only get down to about 16 to 24 ft accuracy.Thats a 32 to 48 ft diameter circle and if there are no surveyor clues as paint,blazes,nails in trees,ditches,etc then we have to stab the ground with pokers and hope we hit the stone and a 48 ft diameter circle is a lot of ground to cover in thick brush with a poker.My question to you folks is this.Would it be possible to either build a detector or modify a metal detector to detect stone an concrete and not confuse it with wood?If it confuses it with metal this is no big deal because most places we hunt are in the woods and there is very little metal outside of an occasional bottle cap or shotgun shell.Stone and concrete would be less dense then metal so I assume it would need a detector more sensitive then the normal metal detector.I live in southern NJ and our soil is mostly sands of quartz very fine and hardly any natural rock to speak of except on tops of the higher hills there is some native sandstone and this is what most survey stones we find are made of.It is very coarse and fragile compared to most sandstone and the coarse stuff can frequently be broken by hand or a light tap.The professional surveyors use gps units accurate to the foot to find old stones but they are thousands of dollars an unavailable to the general populace.Can any one offer any advice?
Thanks,

 

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[Bum Luck]

Yeah, my first advice as a professional land surveyor is to leave the stones alone.

They don't belong to you; they not only belong to the land owners, but they mark out their property, and as such, they're very valuable. In place, and undisturbed by amateurs.

Please get another target for a hobby, and leave the stones alone.

 

[manumuskin]

we don't take them Nimrod.You need to know who your talking to before you make accusations.We document the locations and photograph them and then rebury them if they were buried.We tell no one of the locations except the state when they inquire as to their boundaries when they don't want to pay a surveyor.They do get stolen especially when inscribed so we tell no one.You really need to ask questions before you start pointing fingers.
Al

 

[manumuskin]

Tell me Bum Luck are you always so quick to jump to conclusions about people and to boss people around you've never met or talked to? I have run into surveyors like you before (I;ll jump to a few conclusions of my own) who get pissed whenever anyone speaks of looking for stones because when they take stones it makes the surveyors job harder.I understand that fully.You see many of the stones we look for are "Lost stones" that is all the property around them have been acquired by the state and the stone will np longer be surveyed to again.No we don't take those either and they are special to us because no one will ever look for them again so they are ours alone so to speak.Yes we do look for stones that are still in use and we also leave these alone.We have plane coords to every stone that borders now or did in the past to Wharton State Forest so these are basically easy to find unless buried since their coords are dead on and all we have to deal with is gps inaccuracy of perhaps 20 ft.Surveyors have usually left clues such as paint still on the trees fro 83.nails in trees,stumps from cutting so they can get a gps fix.I know being a metal detectorist that may of you guys are into it for financial gain and as far as I'm concerned thats ok.A metal artifact left in the ground will eventaually disappear and there is no need for that.On the other hand a buried stone protected for erosion and frost wedging is basically there forever.I know the money minded mindset because as a caver I have been questioned as to why i go into caves.There must be gold or buried treasure.Actually a mammoth tooth or a native american skull is more likely and not being a paleontologist or an anthropologist they are not my treasures.Rest assured I'm not stealing stones.Hey,sorry about the Nimrod comment.You really pissed me off this morning.maybe your no more a Nimrod then I'm a stone thief.
Al

 

[manumuskin]

http://forums.njpinebarrens.com/threads/stone-searching.6141/page-5#post-73170


I"m manumuskin my friend is Teegate.I found the WS7 stone shown by an old map he acquired and sent me.

 

[manumuskin]

I guess Bum Luck is speechless? Can't talk around his foot.If I were an amatuer I would be finding buried stones and I don't have a multi thousand dollar gps to help me. The leaves are falling,stone season begins!