DetectingWales.com

Last summer I was out inland with Geoff (eddiethefly)  ( red hot day) and he had A cracking signal on his ctx 3030,,
 (in the middle of the field ) it was showing deep an hour later I went over to see what it was but he was still digging he had dug through loads of flint and was down 12+ inches the detector was still giving A good signal so on we dug we ended up putting the coil into the  hole and the signal was still the same crisp + clear still having to break through the flint we had the problem now that the contents were wet through and little pools of water were forming at the bottom of the hole we removed the wet soil but it was still reading 9nches + on the detector we checked all round the edge inside of  the hole with the pin pointers but the signal was at the bottom we got about half way up the spade handle after 3hrs  digging then we called it and filled it in we still talk about what could of been down there  and should we of carried on digging  just thinking how deep would some others go to see whats down there  ???

Fair play on leaving it there, I don't think I could cope with the possibility of reading about a  hoard found were I had been detecting  ;D

They had a Roman anvil from a fair depth in that program featuring Mud Men Johnny Vaughan and Steve Brooker

It would kill me thinking what could still be down there.

Jcb time....just fill that hole back in afters haha.

I work flint fields and have dug seriously deep holes, and had a hoard at 18 inches! The only way I would stop digging a hole on a good signal is if I saw flames and the devil himself told me to f**** off! Go back and finish the dig mate ;) ;) ;)

Basically by rule of thumb you shouldnt dig deeper than the plough soil depth.

In reality it is very difficult to walk away especially if you are sure that the signal is a good target. Personally I would have probably carried on till I had found it.

A while ago on a roman site, I too had a cracking signal. I rang the farmer to ask permission top dig a large hole and did have his blessing. 2 feet down and a large hole later, I found roman tiles and a gigantic piece of lead approximately
12 x 3' !

Brecon museum sent it down to Mark Lodwick, unfortunately no one could say one way or the other whether it was roman or not.
Though seeing that it was near roman tiles I felt it was roman  ::)

I'm with everyone else; it would have to come up even if it meant going back another day just to excavate that signal !

John

Yea, I fell for that one once.  So deep I gave up but it nagged me to go back. I ended up with a huge hole at the bottom of a bank under a tree and what was it...................an old cattle grid.   Mind you that was back when I had the Whites machine.  The Safari is much more reliable. ::)

Val

Never give up - Never surrender...  (Galaxy quest)

 I remember one off the first times I went out too search a field and within an hour my day went from using my machine and turned into a ground work crafting day with the spade. I also gave up on it and it played on my mind so I went back weeks later and could not find any signal there. Puzzled me!! I no for certain I wasn't wearing toecap boots so it couldn't off been that lol. Since that moment I will not give up on any signal until I see it with my own eyes after all I'm out there too retrieve whatever it may be that gives me a good enough signal and tells me too dig that target in the first place.  ;)

Rule of thumb  ???shouldn't dig deeper than the plough soil ???how does that work, some of my best finds have been below that, not by a lot admittedly  ;) ;) and a lot hoards on display in museums probably came from that level, mine certainly did, and the archaeologists who removed most of it was glad I dug it and saved it  ;)

I don't know why we cant go deeper than the plough soil? is the reason arachnology? most farmers only plough 10-12 inches, but what about the 24 plus inch subsoiler ripping through, what most use before the plough to brake the ground.

had a signal at the penmark rally a few years ago , dug down and down , hole got deeper , wider , different machines used to test the signal all said the same thing DIG IT  , through the top soil , through a layer of stone , more soil , im at around 24" and 1/2 ton of spoil and a flat stone at the bottom , its gotto be a hoard , uuuummm no it was a reinforced patio slab /concrete thing with galvanised rebar within it  >:( >:( >:( >:( , how the f#### did it get there  :-\ :-\ :-\

chef told me a story once of a large hole dug to expose the corner of a fridge freezer which the farmer new nothing about  :D

if it sounds like a good un' dig it , one day it might not be just rubbish  ;) ;)

Was there any food in the fridge ?

it would niggle away at me , curiosity killed the cat, but i would have to know wether it was rubbish or not ...it could of been anything.........and i would certainly dig below plough soil .you dont get hoard buriers ,thinking i will  only bury this treasure in the plough soil  ;D

A very interesting post, Now i will have to go out and try to find those signals again.

There is one thing to remember with things buried deep and that's the owner of the land.  Personal experience has shown some Farmers to be like Hobbits.  I have 2 old cars buried in my field by one previous owner and I know the Farmer at the back of us buries his old rubbish,  just takes his digger, digs a big pit and I mean big, then disposes of old machinery he can't use or sell.
Makes you wonder how long they've been doing it. :-\

Val

When we dig deeper than the plough soil we are disturbing on the whole natural layers of the ground. You can argue that sub soiling machines go deeper.
They dont go that much deeper as far as i am aware. ;D

Look up subsoiling they go deep, its one of the deepest tools, along with the mole plough, the normal plough just skims the surface, compared to them........have you ever detected ploughed land dry on top with all the water sat on the sub soil? that's what its designed to stop, so it needs to go deeper than plough soil.

when I detect a field what the subsoiler has been through I worry about what items that has fell down the deep rips never to be seen again :-[

Wrong way around Dale, subsoiling increases moisture retention at depth ;)

yeah by opening the ground to allow the water to drain away, did I go wrong in my last post somewhere? It may be years of missing school ;)

We did a rally in Hereford winter 2012 I think it was, and the furrows the farmer had ploughed in the potatoe field were over knee deep

i had similar tale ,it went on for weeks ,with 2 machines to check it out ,but the crater got deeper and wider .
in the end i put it down to minerals in the ground and no large object was there .
i must have dug the hole in and out for 15 times to no avail.
i used to dream about it ,it got so bad .

dont stop till u hit gold

When the fat lady sings  :D

my mrs cant sing boooooger :D

I kept getting a diggable signal on Barry beach the other day. Kept going down and down even checked with my pinpointer but couldnt find the damn thing. Eventually I stopped scanning and dug like hell wider than than the coil diameter. Eventually found a tent pin that had kept slipping down through the sand as I was digging it.

Ive also had a strong diggable signal on a roman villa site which turned out to be a 6 inch wide lump of melted lead about 24 inches down.

Or the multiple plow shears we all had on a DW rally in Boverton where the stoney subsoil was just ruining plows and leaving huge chunks of iron behind.

Eric