Please post your gridding tips and how tos

abbynormal

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Berks County, PA
I have a confession to make. I am horrible at gridding. I try my best, but I always seem to veer off of a straight line path. I am not in places where I can actually mark the ground, so was trying to use orange marking tape tied to stakes to use as a visual aid as to what vector I should maintain. But I can't seem to walk a straight line.
Does anyone have any advice?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

I have a place where I've found lots of goodies last year and I want to thoroughly grid it this coming season.
 
My advice on gridding is not to believe it gets you anywhere close to all the targets, especially with masking. We'll do it at a new site just to get going, but after a quick once over we zero in on the hot spots and go from there. If you're talking about gridding large mostly clean areas I don't think you have to much to worry about... just enjoy the walk!
 
I pick out a land mark to walk towards and will glance up occasionally to make sure I'm on track. When I reach the end of the section I'll step over just shy of one sweep width and find a landmark going the opposite direction. Not perfect as I can veer a little, but works pretty well for my needs. I tend to err on the side of over coverage, so don't mind half hanging into my previous path if I think I might have missed some ground.
Good luck.
 
In the past I have done what bentrod mentioned and just looked for landmarks to walk towards. I just had a set of large orange bean-bags made for me. However, if you lack the ability to walk a straight line toward a point, I don't know if anything can help.

Just know that a little bit of waviness in your path is normal as you repeated stop to dig targets that are off the perfect straight line.

Don't put too much stock in IP's post, gridding an area will get you the most finds possible compared to just aimlessly wandering. If you grid north/south and have good luck, then go back over with and east/west gridding and then maybe even a NE/SW grid.

Jan 2013 I found 12 silvers including a silver dollar by gridding a spot that everyone else who wanders around had given up on.
 
...If you grid north/south and have good luck, then go back over with and east/west gridding and then maybe even a NE/SW grid....

Yes, highly recommended. Have found quite a few targets that either I missed on the first pass or didn't show up at the 90 degree change in direction. :waytogo:
 
Don't attempt this if you are anywhere near a bar.
Results will be less than optimum...
 

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I cheat, I admit it. :roll:

I got a bag of bright yellow plastic tent stakes a dozen for 2 dolla and I put 4 or so in my pocket when I venture into a park or home site that's big.

When I nail a particularly nice target in a big open area I put a stake and then circle it adding stakes for similar targets.

By doing that in an old park one day the pattern of stakes showed where a line of tree's were I never would have seen without the little yellow dots.

The dots lined barely perceptible dents in the otherwise smooth looking grass.
Removed tree stumps! :D

Got several nice old coins from that park, my first barber dime too.
 
grid

You need 4 stakes and a ball of twine.
1. Set up 2 stakes and twine N/S the length of the area you want to grid and then 2 stakes and string parallel to it.
2. Make the lane about as wide as your normal swing pattern
3. Swing in that lane until you feel it is thoroughly worked.
3. Move 2 of the stakes and the twine in one direction to create a new lane.
4. Work that lane and repeat in a certain direction.
5. Use the same procedure E/W to thoroughly work an area.

Remember where you started with your first lane if you want to move the opposite direction.
I have found this method extremely productive on sites that I know contain relics.

Hope this helps.

Dig Deep!

Mike
 
Early in the mornings the dew leaves prints and you can see where you've been. I also drag my feet just a bit in taller grass and the large tot lots and this leaves a trail. Don't feel bad-whenever you turn around you should always find a landmark as parallel as possible to your last path. Otherwise, the optical illusion caused by paths seeming closer together in the distance will mislead you and cause you to veer. The master hunter himself, Karl Von Mueller, would often work in circles after finding a target before getting back on the chosen path. Another thought: the faster your hunting the more you veer. My adopted way is to stop the searchcoil at the end of each path on the side next to the intended return path and walk around the grounded searchcoil until I'm facing as parallel as possible to the last path and then restart.:cool:
 
Best way I have found is when there is an inch of snow on the ground that away I can tell exactly where I have been.:lol:
 
I normally walk an "X" across a new site and mark any finds. Then I go back and grid the most productive spots first. I use two orange flags. I put one where I start and the walk a short distance (maybe 50 feet) and put my next flag. Then I will turn and work back to the other side of my first flag and move it over and continue this until I have worked a complete area. I have found very productive locations in fields that produced nothing in the initial walk through. I also GPS all my finds and this helps develop patterns of a site. We are currently working a Civil War site that we randomly walked over and found nothing. We almost moved to another location but decided to grid a small area. Sure glad we did because we the site has to date produced 133 artifacts and promises to have many more. Needless to say, I'm sold on this method of hunting.
 
Iron Patch, I see what you are saying and some places I've hunted there are large "dead" zones that would probably not warrant such attention.
But in the 2 fields I am concerned with, I have found good items all over them. Every time I go back I find things I missed before. Although there were definitely a few spots where there were good coins concentrated, I found all sorts of things just scattered all over the place. That is why I wanted to grid these areas quite thoroughly.

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions. I am going to invest in something colorful such as the mentioned tent stakes or surveyors flags, and I'm also going to take a ball of bright colored yarn with me to create lanes per Mike's suggestion.

I just get veered off track when I dig a target, and then when I check my visual cue of my stick, I realize that I am going off course again. I keep having this problem. And I don't even drink! I guess that's probably for the best since I can't walk straight when I'm sober, LOL.

I have been kind of lazy about marking and recording finds. I need to get better at that. Guess I have a New Years resolution after all! I will take a look at what I can use that will take advantage of the GPS on my smartphone.
 
Iron Patch, I see what you are saying and some places I've hunted there are large "dead" zones that would probably not warrant such attention.
But in the 2 fields I am concerned with, I have found good items all over them. Every time I go back I find things I missed before. Although there were definitely a few spots where there were good coins concentrated, I found all sorts of things just scattered all over the place. That is why I wanted to grid these areas quite thoroughly.

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions. I am going to invest in something colorful such as the mentioned tent stakes or surveyors flags, and I'm also going to take a ball of bright colored yarn with me to create lanes per Mike's suggestion.

I just get veered off track when I dig a target, and then when I check my visual cue of my stick, I realize that I am going off course again. I keep having this problem. And I don't even drink! I guess that's probably for the best since I can't walk straight when I'm sober, LOL.

I have been kind of lazy about marking and recording finds. I need to get better at that. Guess I have a New Years resolution after all! I will take a look at what I can use that will take advantage of the GPS on my smartphone.

Good luck to you! I cheat in the water too. :D

I drag my scoop point nice and deep to see where I have been. :D

I would bet some cottage owner walked out onto his dock one morning last summer and spit his coffee wondering what the heck left trails all over the lake bottom. :laughing:
 
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