Land survey related question

Anyone got an easy way to find a missing pin? Missing in as I can't find it, not necessarily taken or moved.

I have my plat and I can find one pin at the end of a line, but am trying to reverse engineer my way to the starting pin in that line using the bearings and distances, but for some reason this has proven tricky.

I have looked so much in person and at my plat that I have made myself dumber and I am now unsure if I should quit before I forget how to tie my shoes.

If this is the wrong section for this, mods feel free to move it as I could not figure that out either.

 

I measured off from the visible pin first. That got me in the ballpark area. Then my neighbour helped me with a metal detector. Pin was buried a bit, and grass grew over it, so it wasn't visible.

 

Are you using a metal detector?

 

Yep. Found 2 square nuts and a Mt. Dew can lol.

 

Calling in a surveyor might be your only option.

 

See this is what I am trying to do since I have one pin. The other pin is 265.739' feet from it. My problem is I am unsure how far off I actually am at that distance.
The line between the 2 pins has a bearing of N 04°44'22" E. Shouldn't I be able to reverse the directions and convert the bearings to a degree? That's where I am anyways.

 

Oh god lol.

 

Roughly 4.5 degrees north, would be roughly 184.5 degrees south going the other way. Unfortunately just with a compass that's within your margin of error. Might as well determine the exact distance from your known pin, and just use your metal detector within 10-20 feet each side (E and W).

 

One of my pins was removed when the gas company put in new utilities. My neighbor and I found two others so we used basic geometry to find boundary line. Used the old 3,5,7 trick.

 

This is exactly what I set out to do to find the pin. I'm looking for the pin that should be 50' from the centerline of a gravel road, then from that missing pin to the next in the line it is315.xxx'. Past the pin I can find is exactly 50' to the centerline of another road.
So I originally started out at the 315" pin and searched the area it "should have" been in. I'll give it another go. It just gets frustrating when you set out to do something that should be easy and turns out to be anything but.

 

Any chance it's a buried monument? Detector would not find that. I've found about everything from 1-1/2" galvanized pipe to 1/2" rebar used as a pin.

Depending on age and material, it may be dust.

I typically find the pin by using a shovel, going at an angle like removing sod, but not digging a hole till the shovel hits the pin. Most are at least a couple inches below the surface.

You can reset the pin using your plat if you can get two transits set at the right bearings where the sight lines cross. A person on each transit and one at the pin site with a stake to get close, then a plumb bob to mark the pin position. Set the pin and recheck with the bob.

Primitive, but that's how I learned to survey, before the optical and laser stuff. We didn't even have a hand calculator to figure triangulations, we just used a logarithms and arithmetic.

 

See this is what is making me nervous as the power company has come through my land and clear cut the hell out of it and now one of the property neighbors is helping himself to the free firewood on my property.


I am assuming the pin is still there, but if I can't find it I might be wrong with my assumptions I guess.

I'm looking for this pin so I can put up a no trespassing sign on the line, followed by a fence.

Followed up by a sniper nest lol. Stocked with Capri Suns and candy, he can stay out forever. He's a better shot than me, but not quite as good as his mom.












Kidding obviously about the fence.

 

My survey plat has marked as a 5/8 rebar with a cap. 2 of the other pins I have found are as they are marked. Survey is less than 5 years old. I'm still working under the assumption that I am just an idiot and suck at Easter egg hunts.

I could look for another pin and triangulate it but I honestly didn't think it would be the adventure is has turned out to be so the thought of doing any real work never occurred to me initially.

My boy has had great fun digging up stuff though, so it's not all bad.

 

It's good to know (to me) where all your corners are anyway. Just because. On properties I've owned like that I like to set a fence post 1' in from both lines that hit the pin.

Makes it easy peasy to find the pin again when it's time.

 

Good idea. My plan is to set out to find the others once the weather makes it easier. I have looked for 3 pins and found 2. Unfortunately I really need the one I can't find of course.

 

Is your property flat or does it have a fair amount of terrain change?? If there is much change, that could be your problem, as all surveys "assume" the terrain is flat. If you go up, down or both and you measure along the ground, you will end up short. To correct this you need to "slip the chain" - I really can't describe this procedure in detail, SORRY.

Also are you using a GPS unit?? If so they aren't 100 percent accurate either. Margin of error changes every few (6?) seconds or so depending on the satellites.

A GOOD metal detector should find it if you are close. A 5/8" rebar with a colored plastic cap having the surveyor's name and 4 digit code is standard for newer surveys in Ohio. Typically yellow cap around here, but have also seen orange and red.

 

What County in Ohio?

 

Luckily for me, the pin I am searching for in the line is relatively flat. Unfortunately it is covered with thickets and brush from hell. the elevation change from the 2 pins I have found in like 212' though.

I was using my GPS originally but I could see the approximation on it was like 6-12ft typically so I decided that wasn't really helping me much.

All my pins are from the latest survey and have the Surveyors PS# on orange or pink caps (can't remember which exactly off the top of my head). According to my survey, they reused some older survey pins, but I have not looked for or seen those. Survey has what they are numbered with though so it should be fairly straightforward.

 

Jackson.

 

Couple thoughts:

magnetic declination matters if you’re just using a compass.

Survey ‘projection’ can matter, sometimes, as well as the ‘geode’ model a GPS is set to use.

If there is structure or other feature on the map and you have one corner, you can triangulate that way too, without having to find another corner.

I have other thoughts, depending on how hard you’re going for this...