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All Forums >> [Bottle Forums] >> Digging and Finding >> Best areas to dig

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Best areas to dig - 2/13/2003 10:07:43 AM    Guest Hello out there. I' m new to bottle digging. I have a couple old homeplaces here in Alabama I' ve been pokeing around in. I' ve found many pieces of colored glass in the area. Its been spread around from previous logging. The man who lived there apparently was a blacksmith. I have found tooling forged by hammer and fire. The old home place has long been gone. But one area is full of old square head nails. So I would asume thats where the house was. Any helpful hints from successful diggers would sure be appreciated. Thanks, Matt from Alabama.   Post #: 1

RE: Best areas to dig - 2/19/2003 6:02:35 AM    woody   Posts: 1615 Joined: 10/29/2002 From: Gilmanton, New Hampshire Status: offline What I try to do, Matt, is to determine where they dumped their trash. If there are stone walls surrounding the foundation/building, then, walk the walls with your metal detector. Paying special attention to corners of the walls and areas where there are embankments to throw the trash down. Don' t overlook going across the road from an old settlement, also. Many times I' ve found dumps across the street, rather than behind the building. Look for the obvious signs, rusted cans, broken glass, metal hoops, busted pottery. You have the advantage by having a metal detector to search with. I use a White' s Spectrum XLT to do my business with. Hope this helps. _____________________________ Woody (in reply to Guest) Post #: 2

RE: Best areas to dig - 2/20/2003 9:54:53 PM    Guest go to your local library. ask for sanborns early maps for fire insurance of your local town get the oldest pre 1900 copys if poss.study back yards. some show outbuildings.some are privys.get permission and probe. stay near allys and property lines in town. put the sun at your back and look for depressions.probe all depressions.country digs are tough, look near a creek in a natural drainage channel. probe on a 2 foot grid till you hit trash or untill you hit something that feels strange.talk to oldtimers in the area.get old plat maps from library.some have drawings of local homes and farms.get a probe and learn to use it. it will be your best friend. (in reply to Guest)   Post #: 3

RE: Best areas to dig - 3/18/2003 8:54:12 PM    Guest Yep, good advice digger sounds like he knows what he' s doing with the probe. I use the trunk spring out of an old car...An old ford Falcon makes an excellent one. Take it out, sharpen one end...but not to sharp, put a " T" handle on the other end and you have a springsteel probe...but be careful if you probe to hard you might break the prize bottle before you even dig it. Steve (in reply to Guest)   Post #: 4

RE: Best areas to dig - 3/18/2003 10:44:41 PM    Guest matt, your probe should bebout 4.5 feet long to start with. a real long probe is hard to use. do yourself a big favor and have someone weld a tip on it for you. the tip should be shaped like a bullet and just slightly larger then the diameter of your prob.what this will do is to poke a hole just slightly larger than the probe greatly reducing friction on the shaft.the tip will need replacing from time to time.i can dig holes all day but a poor probe will wear you out in no time.for deeper probing get a 6-7 footer and follow it in a hole you make with the short one.be carefull when probing.push slowly as not to poke a hole in the objects oyu might hit.look at the end of the probe from time to time sometimes you will bring up ash or cinder or red brick on the tip.this might be an indication of what you are probing.look around and dont probe gas lines.a friend did this once and it cost us a few bucks.he thought it was a root and pushed through it.probes can break from time to time dont lean your body in to it ,if the handle breaks you could get hurt.when you find an area that feels different work with the probe four directions away from that spot untill it feels harder to probe call that out. and scratch a line with your probe you will end up with a square or rectangle usually.this is what to dig.dig straight and keep your holes square. if you hit clay probe through it it could be a plug.the good stuff is at the bottom of privys the high stuff is late fill.get a book called the secrets of privy digging by digger odell. it is a good start. the rest is practice and common sense. digging in the country can be a challange. there were unlimited places to put privys and trash pits city digging is much easer because you will find patterns of privys along fence lines.good luck have fun and wear gloves (in reply to Guest)   Post #: 5

RE: Best areas to dig - 5/19/2003 12:29:09 PM    Guest matt,here along the cape fear coast a few of the brave hearted will black water dive. you guessed it , no visibility. unfortunately in day' s of old people who lived along the river used it as a dumping ground.this trash would eventually make its way, with help from the current, into natural bottlenecks along its path to the ocean.these bottlenecks would collect and store articals, mostly bottles, in the mud banks when the river narrowed.some of my better finds have been in these mud banks.safety is an important factor due to objects that you may encounter while on scuba. thick coveralls and gloves a minimum. this type of digging is not for everyone( scuba certified a must) , but its an interesting twist to a great hobby. (in reply to Guest)   Post #: 6

All Forums >> [Bottle Forums] >> Digging and Finding >> Best areas to dig

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