Need to find survey marker rod!

[speedbump]

I don't think any metal detector will go 5' deep. A Schonstedt locator will find it. I have located well casing as deep as 12' with one. You won't want to buy one, they are very expensive but if you can borrow one, it will find the pin. Surveyors use them all the time. Schonstedt Instrument Company: GA-52Cx Magnetic Locator
I bought mine in 1976 and it's still working.

 

[dodge man]

Keep in mind any GPS short of what land surveyors use is only accurate to about 10 feet at best.

 

[Jstpssng]

Keep in mind any GPS short of what land surveyors use is only accurate to about 10 feet at best.

Feeling mighty generous tonight aren't you? ;-) I've always heard 30 feet... still, a handheld unit is a pretty powerful tool for non-legal purposes.

I confess that I find the nature of this thread to be disturbing... I can see accidently disturbing a corner, but destroying it to this extent?

 

[dmccarty]

Keep in mind any GPS short of what land surveyors use is only accurate to about 10 feet at best.

Feeling mighty generous tonight aren't you? ;-) I've always heard 30 feet... still, a handheld unit is a pretty powerful tool for non-legal purposes.

Most of our property lines are easy to find and are marked but there are some lines that have a good distance between pins. All of the pins are in woods but the longest runs are in deep woods with heavy brush. I have used my GPS to sorta find my property lines. This only works well enough to clear a brush and even that is iffy. On one of the lines, there are corner pins and two pins inside the corners. I can stand on the line between a corner and interior pin and watch the GPS bounce all over the place. Our GPS unit can display our property so I can "see" the line on the GPS while I stand on the actual line. My location on the GPS will move around while I stand still. Sometimes the GPS will show me on the line but other times I can be 20-30 feet away even though I have not moved.

No way would I trust my hand held unit to determine a corner or line to install something permanent. I might use it to try to find a pin but it would be problematic in my woods. Maybe with a clear sky it would work a bit better but I have used the GPS on lakes and it was amazing how my location would move as well as my speed.

Later,
Dan

 

[dodge man]

With our survey grade GPS, we can't work in the woods at all. Light tree cover in the winter maybe. What this means is consumer grade GPS doesn't work as well in the trees either.

Yeah 10' for consumer grade GPS is being generous.

 

[mjw357]

I confess that I find the nature of this thread to be disturbing... I can see accidently disturbing a corner, but destroying it to this extent?

He didn't destroy it at all. It's there, just under a few feet of dirt. Where it can't get plowed out or hit by a mower.

What's disturbing is the stories I've heard of road crews knocking out stones at sections corners with their road graders, back when most rural roads were dirt/gravel.

 

[dodge man]

I figure for every property corner I set, one gets knocked out somewhere else in my little corner of the world. In my area property gets bought and sold and usually doesn't get surveyed. I figure on average, and this includes rural property, lots in town etc., that less than 25% of the property corners are in place in my area.

 

[Ken45101]

A few years ago I had taken the map of the plats in the area which include roads and in an old copy of Photoshop overlaid this onto a 60 era USGS topo map of the area and estimated the coordinates of the corners and got the coordinates of the corners.

Do not trust plats done on maps. We have a piece of rental land in another county. The county GIS photomap shows a dogleg coming off of the road. The legal description has no dog leg, the property line goes straight and follows the center of the old (abandon) roadbed. Unfortunately a neighbor has built a storage shed right on the property line :-( It's something I probably ought to address but getting a current survey is almost $2000. As I understand Ohio law, adverse use of the land like that gives no legal standing so I don't consider it a priority worth $2K.

ETA: my understanding about adverse possession comes from talking with our lawyer.

 

[Jstpssng]

Do not trust plats done on maps. We have a piece of rental land in another county. The county GIS photomap shows a dogleg coming off of the road. The legal description has no dog leg, the property line goes straight and follows the center of the old (abandon) roadbed. Unfortunately a neighbor has built a storage shed right on the property line :-( It's something I probably ought to address but getting a current survey is almost $2000. As I understand Ohio law, adverse use of the land like that gives no legal standing so I don't consider it a priority worth $2K.

Adverse possession is brought up occasionally here... you're right that it isn't much of a concern.
What always bugs me is when people feel that it's ok to dump their trash, brush, demolition debris, old cars, washing machines, et.al.,on the line... inevitably it mostly seems to get thrown over onto the adjacent landowner.

 

[J_J]

I don't think any metal detector will go 5' deep. A Schonstedt locator will find it. I have located well casing as deep as 12' with one. You won't want to buy one, they are very expensive but if you can borrow one, it will find the pin. Surveyors use them all the time. Schonstedt Instrument Company: GA-52Cx Magnetic Locator
I bought mine in 1976 and it's still working.

This is right out of the manual for your locator.

[ An 18-inch length of 3/4-inch pipe can be located at depths up to 9 feet. ]

I have a new version of the yellow sticks with digital display.