Gridding you search field

A good way to grid your search field while detecting is to use neon colored orange golf tees. If you are starting out on a lot just remember a landmark such as a building or whatever on the side you are starting from.

Let's say you are going from the right side of the lot and each line you detect takes you further to the left side of the lot. On your first pass occasionally lay down a tee ( on your left side of swing area ) with the point facing the direction you are going. When you reach the end of the line you are detecting and head in the opposite direction, move the tees as you go and make them point in the direction you are now going.

If you find yourself getting up from a target,say in the middle of a line, and you lose track of which way you were headed, look at the tees. Half of them will be pointing one direction and the other half will be pointed the opposite direction. That is why it is important to just remember a land mark or which side of the lot you started from. The tees furthest from the side of the lot you started from are the ones to go by.

These tees will help you detect in a straighter line and will keep you going in the right direction. On a large lot you may find that your lines may become less straight because you may not always be swinging the same distance from left to right. If your line of tees become too far off,simply straighten them out by detecting with short swings in areas and placing the tees back on to a straight line.

Laying the tees on top of the ground like this makes them more visible.

I use a string box with a very fine line that's fastened to your waist belt,it's used in forestry work...tie one end and walk out your line....stop and move over four feet...run the line back and forth until you have the area gridded off.
Then go metal detecting between the lines...easy as pie

Cheers,
HH

If i am 'methodically' detecting a site i tend to carry and use small orange cones that i bought off Ebay that are generally about 10'' tall and used for kids goal posts,then use them too grid a small area and i mean small and then spend many hours detecting within that space.Currently have been using this method on a very early saxon animal enclosure going back a 1000 years.You can basically use anything that is bright just to guide you.

Another method i use is a spray paint method,if i am using a Pulse machine with a large coil on a pasture site i carry a tin of road marking yellow paint,when i get a signal i wont dig it straight away but spray a small dot for what i think is a shallow target and a ring for a deep target,then after about 30 targets and marking them i will then go over with a VLF machine and this will then tell me generally if its a deep diggable target or its iron.But as i use a TDI Pro which does offer a very good iron indication the spray paint method is gradually becoming redundant.And also i am using my Nexus with the dual 9'' coil on which being a VLF machine offers very good discrimination.

Some folks use reflective orange builders lines on pegs,basically you can use anything just to guide you,i also then once after gridding the field from one direction the do the same again but from 90 degrees,as usually you can miss target just by doing the one direction depending on the orientation of the find in the ground.Then if you are really methodically and after a real deep ploughing then you can start the full gridding of the field again as usually deep ploughing will and can drag new finds up from deep down.

I wouldn't string an area or spray paint or use traffic cones in a city park or residential lot but can see where those methods could be useful. The orange tees are not very visible from a distance and could even be left down while a person went to lunch and perhaps even left there overnight.
What else would be nice if visibility wasn't a factor is markers that could be picked up and moved to the other side of the line with a coil. That would keep a person from having to bend down and would make them easier to place at the right spot.

Kemper94 Wrote:
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> I wouldn't string an area or spray paint or use
> traffic cones in a city park or residential lot
> but can see where those methods could be useful.
> The orange tees are not very visible from a
> distance and could even be left down while a
> person went to lunch and perhaps even left there
> overnight.
> What else would be nice if visibility wasn't a
> factor is markers that could be picked up and
> moved to the other side of the line with a coil.
> That would keep a person from having to bend down
> and would make them easier to place at the right
> spot.

I totally agree with you on not using string or spray paint in park environments,but for the most parts we rarely detect in parks as usually the local authority dont allow it,they use the health and safety trump card to get around folks detecting,the very few occasions and i mean very few occasions they say that you can detect but not allowed to use a digging tool what so ever to recover the find,that ruling is about as good as a inflatable dart board or a chocolate teapot

I've found the most stand-out colour in general is bright pink, it seems to clash with every 'natural' colour out there. And pink golf-tees are readily available.

I prefer to use 'harmless' markers, from soft biodegradable cardboard, like breakfast cereal boxes. That way, if I leave any behind, it's not important, even if the park etc gets mowed, or it's a horse paddock on farmland and a horse eats one(!).

Kemper94 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I wouldn't string an area or spray paint or use
> traffic cones in a city park or residential lot
> but can see where those methods could be useful.
> The orange tees are not very visible from a
> distance and could even be left down while a
> person went to lunch and perhaps even left there
> overnight.
> What else would be nice if visibility wasn't a
> factor is markers that could be picked up and
> moved to the other side of the line with a coil.
> That would keep a person from having to bend down
> and would make them easier to place at the right
> spot.


Think you made reference to a search field....not a city park or residential lot...but to each their own...the string is the size of sewing thread.
If your in a sensitive area....pick it up before you leave..easy as pie