gridding out a site

[pookie-princess of rust]

i know some of you guys grid off a site while detecting. what is the best way to grid it out. what is the point of gridding off areas anyway?

 

[funkman]

you grid the site to gets the most coverage with your detector and to get the most goodies. I usually pick a spot in the distance and walk towards it swinging and when I get to that spot I turn around and move over a little and walk in the other direction. Back and forth making sure you overlap your swings and the rows that you are walking. When done that way sometimes we will go 90 degrees and come at it from a different angle...like go north and south until you cover the whole area the go east and west to cover the area again. This will help with coins on edge.

Others will chime in also and tell you what they do. All will help.

Funkman

 

[deepskyal]

I only physically gridded off a place on a hand made map once. I used landmarks drawn in and would detect each section, tracking what I was finding. It was a virgin park...many moons ago. You know the saying...the only virgin park is an ugly park...lol

I'm still very guilty of going to some new, out in the sticks place, then going at it hap-hazzardly. I still find stuff...but I could do better by gridding and slowing down. Lots of territory can be overwhelming and breaking it down is the only really sane way to do a good job of really hunting a site.

And lets face it...it's better to work one really good site for weeks on end, than to jump from place to place hoping to get lucky with some clad....no offense to anyone that randomly coinshoots clad.

Al

 

[BudP]

Go to your neighborhood 'Home Depot' or hardware and buy four metal BBQ skewers and a roll of Mason's line (braided string-line). If you go to a 'Mason Supply' you can get a plastic reel to roll the line on for handy-ness (think I just invented a word).

At your hunt area, tie line on one skewer and stick it in the ground. Pace off a distance (your choice), tie to another skewer, stretch the line and stab it in the ground. This is one side of your search area. Be sure you have brought long golf tees and push them into the ground next to the skewers so you do not lose your starting points as you move your grid lanes.

Move over the width of your COMFORTABLE swing. This will be a distance that you do not kick up the coil at the end...it stays flat. Tie off the third skewer and push it in the ground. Walk parallel with the established line and finish your 'grid channel'. This will be the beginnig of the grid. After you set up your machine, detect the channel carefully, overlapping sweeps as needed (concentric will be different than DD).
At the end of the run, turn around and work the same path in the opposite direction. This will assure that you have covered a N to S AND S to N swath. You can get target hits in one direction and not the other!!!

When you get to the starting point, pull your outside line and re-stretch it to establish another grid-lane and go again(do not move the tees). After you have covered a chosen width you can do as Funkman said and 'grid' at 90deg. to cover the area completely. Do not forget to use the LONG golf tees. Before I pull the outside skewers on the first lane OR the outside skewers on the last lane I insert the 'tees' so I do not lose my perimeter.

You might also wait a time for different moisture in the ground and do it again on the same spot. I will definitely do this if I have found lots of goodies. Different moisture means TOTALLY different read.

Make sure you bring a notebook and record where your search area is so you can continue it if needed. You will NOT just remember and you will pull the tees before you go home. I use a GPS and record the outside edge (both ends) as waypoints.

Try it and you will never do it haphazardly again.

Bud