Fill Your Holes on the Beach

[mn90403 986]

I went out detecting yesterday and last night a bit and I came across a place where someone had used one of the long handle, shovel scoops. This scoop makes a very sharp edged hole. The person who was doing it was leaving their trash finds (bobby pins, iron and other stuff) behind and they were also missing things that I found. I picked up their trash and under it might be a quarter or something several times.

Other than them being sloppy they were also dangerous. It might have been daylight when they were digging their holes which were close to the water and a few hours later the tide would cover some of the holes but I could have broken my ankle. Most of the holes had not been filled and there was no attempt to fill them.

Please fill your holes even on the beach.

There were people walking along the beach at night without a light. I have a light and I still had to be careful. I filled at least 50 holes.

When someone gets hurt they are going to complain to the state, city, county and everyone that will and won't listen. Our hobby will be restricted or banned. This has happened in Seal Beach, California. No detecting on the beach is allowed there.

Please, please, please fill your holes even if there are sand castles and holes dug by kids using the beach. If I can trip over a scoop hole so can someone who will sue and then when the beach patrol comes along we will have to hide or run.

Mitchel

[fredmason 1,135]

The greedy, sloppy bastards will never learn...it is the same everywhere I go...holes and trash left with no regard to the good of the hobby or the safety of others...

fred

[garimpo 2,301]

Guys I run into the same thing here.....even in the jungle holes should be filled, that at least shows respect for the farm.

[adam 3,137]

I was jogging on Mission Beach and fell into someone`s dig hole. I had to wait till the tide came in so I could float out of it. He must have been using a GPX5000

[El Dorado 965]

Mitchel, as you know that is a sensitive subject for me too. Here in the Motherlode, even some respected detectorist can't seem to fill back in their digs. I spend way to much of my time filling them back up......

[fredmason 1,135]

You make a joke, Adam...but, when the shovel brigade works the beach that could happen...they have no concern for anyone or anything except the goodies they are after...

fred

[mn90403 986]

I am out in the desert now and I went to an area without many holes but I have developed a new method for digging with the big coil.

Since I don't know how deep it is going to be I first move the surface rocks (the ones that have the patina) out of the way with my foot. If the target isn't there then I scrape a bit and pinpoint the target. I get the dirt and rocks out of the hole making sure not to cover up my surface rocks. After I dig the target I go in reverse order. The patina rocks are put back on last. I'm trying to make the hole invisible or at least after the first rain.

I make an effort to leave the ground like I found it which is more than just filling the hole. I got this from Boy Scout training as a kid so that you could set a trap for an animal if you wanted to get one and also from many summers of making money doing mowing, pulling weeds and making a place look good.

These places I go are like my yard and my garden and BLM just does the big stuff.

Mitchel

[garimpo 2,301]

I have the same digging technique here Mitchel. I try to leave no trace of a dig. one of the big ranches here that I found great gold on a few years ago has been prohibitited for about 5 years now. But one man from this town who also used to beep there on the QT now has permission to beep the ranch and he also uses the owners tractor. His targets are the holes that prospectors left years ago. I drove through the ranch a few months ago and he hasn't dozed any of the areas where I found good nuggets because there is no "clues" for him. I honestly believe I'm the only one in Brazil that back fills their holes.