good luck digging, well I am digging my spot with only a 3 fingered hand tool, a short pair of limb cutters, (for the roots that slow it way down and hender ur view of the dirt.) I pull the dirt into 3-4 5gal buckets, then I stand up, stretch, walk about 5-10 ft away from where I am digging and sift there. I do not hold the sift, I lay it down and drag the buckets of dirt there then tip em over and lift the bottom up and empty into it. (so far no straining at all) then I lift 1 side of my sift resting the weight on the other side and shake it side to side and walk it up down slowly not straining my muscles.
I can set a pace and do that for 4-6 hours before I really feel like I need to stop. In that amount of time, I can usually move about 70-90 buckets of dirt, and most times at least find a couple nice ones at least and several tools/brokes. I never really lift much but my arms get an awesome workout. I'm in pretty good shape for 44 and have a lot of endurance because I climb ladders and attic and crawls a lot in my job. Not to mention all the walking plus field hunts I do from time to time.
The spot I'm at, I have moved around in a large area several times. If I go several dig days with no nice ones, I move down the creek 10-20 ft and dig there. I kinda move as I find more flint . I've got most of the area (since it is on a hill side,) where I can pull dirt down off the hill into a standing bucket sometimes.
The last few days I dug, I'm actually digging under the ground level of the creek, I.ve got about a 6ft circle about 9-12 in down. I lay my bucket down and pull from the walls into the bucket and try to fill at least half the bucket with bottom dirt too. so I go down some each bucket.
Do not rush, go at a pace that ur body can keep up with. They are not going anywhere. The more dirt u move today, the closer u are to em tomorrow.
I've noticed I find more whole pieces close to trees. of course those trees were not there when that tool was laid there. I think because of the area they laid there tools out by the creek and left em in certain areas and cleaned/cooked/prepared whatever for so long in that spot, that over time that area is more rich in the soil so the trees pop up growing there more than areas not as rich. that s my opinion of course, but for a fact most of the best ones I have gotten were in roots within 1ft of trees.
hope this helps
Tree
