I dont post on Youtube, so is there anyway to post a video up on the forum ??
Two weeks ago we were camping at Mannum, there were hacks everywhere from someone Detecting (not us).
Damaged grass, dying and dead grass.
Clearly a mattock in use.
We detect infront of City Council parks staff, and they have no issues with us, in fact happy and hoping we find something cool.
So I would like to show our techniques and how we deal with 'plugs', rather than 'hacks' with a mattock.
8 Years ago when we found that a Detecting Club used a park area near us for an annual Christmas Hunt, they salted the area with pennies by using a mattock,
encouraged the recovery of those coins by use of a mattock, and still later recovered un-found coins using a Detector and MATTOCK.
These were older experienced guys, and I watched them doing this from about 6 feet away, at that time I did not know better but thought it was a destructive practice.
Kato and I experimented with different methods, determined to not do visible damage and preserve the soil and root structure.
Soft soils with grass, we either
slit the ground and find the item with a pinpointer, or we use a 'plug digger' method for deep targets, with a square hole only.
The square hole is for plug orientation, and a keyway to hold it in the ground should a mower go over it.
Most round plugs by nature are shaped like a cone so can move/slip under foot or wheel of a mower.
Both these methods have been successful at preserving the integrity of the plug sod and grass roots, and easy to replace/repair, we often cant locate them a few minutes later.
Dry hard soils with grass, we dont dig into usually, particularly if the target is deep, we mark it and wait for winter rains.
However if it is clearly a surface target we will do the screw driver method using the point of our hand diggers, sort of like slitting the grass but no deeper than 50mm.
Dry hard or compacted soils, not in pathway or clearly not an issue to disturb because it is off the general public use area, we will dig with tools
BUT we are careful to fill the "small hole" and compact the soil as best we can to leave it level and unseen.
Unfortunately at Mannum the buggers didnt even fill their holes in dry dirt, pretty sad.
We went around and repaired their damage as we could find it.
How do I get videos up please ?
Plug digger template -
https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=19869