Good Day Digging

[Garscale]

A friend and I had a pretty good day digging last Thursday near the Brazos. About 50 completes and another hundred or so broke. Fun day.

 

[A2coins]

Wow Ive been wanting to make a display case of those and searched the old Indian trails for the last few years havent found even 1 LOL Wow those are really awesome you had a very good day all those relics you saved, thats what we do save history. Well done. Thanks for sharing them.........Tommy

 

[kentucky Quinn]

Wow, blown away by this thread.....I would love to see a few pics of you’re setup. I’m busy working in a few cliff rock houses where time allows. Can’t really get any kind of modern equip in there, we use small hand trowel, shovel and bucket method with 2x2 sifter on a saw horse. Haha. I’ve found some neat things, but your process really looks to be super effective to me. Congratulations on all your finds, pretty damn impressive, in my humble opinion. Keep sharing please. Thanks

 

[Garscale]

Wow, blown away by this thread.....I would love to see a few pics of you’re setup. I’m busy working in a few cliff rock houses where time allows. Can’t really get any kind of modern equip in there, we use small hand trowel, shovel and bucket method with 2x2 sifter on a saw horse. Haha. I’ve found some neat things, but your process really looks to be super effective to me. Congratulations on all your finds, pretty damn impressive, in my humble opinion. Keep sharing please. Thanks

I have done plenty hand sifting in my life. I can change your world on that too. Get you four stout trampoline springs and put one on each corner of your 2x2 screen. Stretch tight to whatever you have it on. It will screen dirt with a hundredth of the effort.tight springs are the answer.

 

[kentucky Quinn]

I have done plenty hand sifting in my life. I can change your world on that too. Get you four stout trampoline springs and put one on each corner of your 2x2 screen. Stretch tight to whatever you have it on. It will screen dirt with a hundredth of the effort.tight springs are the answer.

Thank you for the advice. Yesterday we tried the tying sifter between two trees as opposed to saw horse(didn’t feel like packing all the usual equipment in to location). It worked pretty nice actually once I got the softer hung up at right height for me to work. So put tramp spring on each corner of outer sifter, then hang tight between the two trees then? Thanks

Btw, yesterday was first time we’ve been back to this location to work. It’s where I found first piece of chert on that huge rock back in February that changed my life forever. Now I’m in caves, cliffs and overhangs on my land with any free time I have to search for ancient relics. Have no idea how people find the old camps elsewhere on their property. Have yet to find anything walking my creeks, but all three spots in the cliffs I’ve checked have produced points and artifacts. Yes I’m completely addicted for the rest of my time here!

 

[Garscale]

Killer overhang. There will be thicker material right outside along the drip line. The tighter you get the springs the less effort it takes to sift.

 

[kentucky Quinn]

Others have said that as well. I haven’t touched drip line. We scraped the surface stuff right around the large rock and behind it. Mostly just skimmed surface area in here. Dug a little below and behind the big rock. Maybe we will try starting to shovel out the drip line area in front today when we head out there. Just had found lots of little chert chips in dirt right around big rock so I started there. Thanks for the tip

 

[southfork]

Killer overhang. There will be thicker material right outside along the drip line. The tighter you get the springs the less effort it takes to sift.

Here's what I use .

 

[kentucky Quinn]

Here's what I use .

Nice. Is that the base or frame of a table turned upside down you are using as the base? I’ve got some big springs somewhere I can use. Thanks for sharing, definitely looking for more efficient / effective methods, not to mention my sore back!

 

[kentucky Quinn]

Think I’ve got an old patio set that might do the trick! Got the wheels spinning now!

 

[Garscale]

Here's what I use .

Looks like an old rocking horse frame. I used one for years and remember telling about it in aology. If you could get the springs mounted tighter to where it literally sets level with the springs it will sift even better.

Might need a turnbuckle on both springs on one end so you can tighten it after springs are connected.

 

[southfork]

Looks like an old rocking horse frame. I used one for years and remember telling about it in aology. If you could get the springs mounted tighter to where it literally sets level with the springs it will sift even better.

Rocking horse frame with a few mods over the years . I like the solid model when the soil is wet .

 

[kentucky Quinn]

Hit lots of wet areas for sure. Have to literally press material through the sifter initially I was carrying the large bucket full down about 100 yards away and sifting in creek to wash everything for visibility. That was just too great a task for each bucket but I did find everything with the “panning” method in creek. Too labor intensive so built wooden sifter and just press the wet stuff through current set up. Hoping change to drip line area will give up some dryer materials for the sift.

 

[newnan man]

Get a D9 & scrape the whole rock shelter down to the creek. Then you can sift with water.

 

[unclemac]

clear this up for me, are you sifting an old farm field, an open area, a meadow...what kind of landscape yeilds that many points and why? Can you post a picture of a similar landscape?

 

[Garscale]

clear this up for me, are you sifting an old farm field, an open area, a meadow...what kind of landscape yeilds that many points and why? Can you post a picture of a similar landscape?

I have leased or owned quite a few sites. All have two things in common. Available water and a hump above flood plane. The Brazos camp is over grown pasture land. I recently dug a site on my property that was in 75 ft tall pine timber. I dug the trees up and covered them in the hole behind me as I went. Shook the dirt out of the roots and screened it. Not a huge deal as most of the layers were deeper than the root ball. Lots of roots to throw put of the sifter but it was averaging 7 points per yard. Just had to be careful when I had a big tree Almost dug up.

Please understand that the day I posted in this thread was digging very marginal camp. Would have been absolutely agonizing to dig with a shovel. One point per cubic yard of dirt average. Virtually any site that has occupation will yield at least one point per yd. I generally won't dig for less than a 3 per yard average but the quality birdies there makes it worth while. Just a lot of dirt to deal with.

 

[joshuaream]

Hit lots of wet areas for sure. Have to literally press material through the sifter initially I was carrying the large bucket full down about 100 yards away and sifting in creek to wash everything for visibility. That was just too great a task for each bucket but I did find everything with the “panning” method in creek. Too labor intensive so built wooden sifter and just press the wet stuff through current set up. Hoping change to drip line area will give up some dryer materials for the sift.

Depending how small the creek is, the land down stream and how much dirt you are going to move, that might be a lot of dirt to run through the creek. Double check your local regulations or who's down stream, but there have been diggers in Kentucky who were dinged under old mining regulations for fouling a creek.

If the land is secure, I know people who basically create piles of broken up wet dirt in the summer and sift the dirt when it's dried out a bit in the fall.

 

[kentucky Quinn]

Depending how small the creek is, the land down stream and how much dirt you are going to move, that might be a lot of dirt to run through the creek. Double check your local regulations or who's down stream, but there have been diggers in Kentucky who were dinged under old mining regulations for fouling a creek.

If the land is secure, I know people who basically create piles of broken up wet dirt in the summer and sift the dirt when it's dried out a bit in the fall.

I’m not looking to mess anything up, the creek or the land if I can help it. Not looking to change the areas I’m working. Keep all the rocks in one spot and sift dirt down bank in another. Quit the creek runs early on, someone on this board shared the logic of what can happen to the creek over time of adding all that dirt. I appreciate the input, fee like i hijacked the original post thanks

 

[Garscale]

Here is a "B" frame of birdies from the site to get back on track.

 

[welsbury]

B pretty good.

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

What causes the prickly looking spines sticking out of some of them?
What type of material are they made from?

Looks very fragile. Many of those points look like they were definitely never used..part of a cache?