dont get me wrong, that wasn't a go search thing. I find the whole concept pretty interesting

Papaw would do it with two copper rods. Mostly used it to find utilities before digging a hole to plant another fruit tree. I have used it to some success to find water lines in the yard. Not precise location, but within a few inches. Close enough to be careful digging.

I've used copper wires to find buried sprinkler lines.

When I started with a utility one of the first jobs we did was replacing gates on a substation in a small town. We called the appropriate people to make the utilities. The city showed up in their backhoe which they just drove around town. They hopped off and pulled out his rods and located the pipe. Then he hopped back on the backhoe and dug it up.

I grew up in the city and had heard about these things, but I was absolutely shocked how quick and accurate it was.

My dad worked for a telephone company and he could find the cable with a pair of marking flags.

I saw a demonstration from an old timer who was visiting friends that owned a nearby cabin to one I owned in the country. He used bent coat hangers. I followed his instructions that involved nothing more than holding the wires very gently between the thumb and forefinger (he said it doesn't work for everyone). I then went to my cabin and found the buried sewer line going to the septic tank, later confirmed by the previous owner.

I worked in a group of chemical engineers and I told them about it. We went outside and quickly found a buried natural gas line, confirmed by the location of the gas meter outside the building. Everyone was interested and no one could come up with a plausible explanation and there doesn't seem to be a scientifically based one. But it's really easy to go out i to your back yard and see for yourself.

I've seen people have success locating underground utilities, with the caveat being they were locating something we knew was there just maybe not the exact spot. The water locating I've seen it work and I've seen it not work. So I'm a little more skeptical on water locating.

If there is a large aquifer under your property you're going to hit water if someone comes out and "witches" it or not. So if they come out and "witch" it and say drill here and you find water, sure it worked. Would you have run into water just picking any spot in this large aquifer scenario? Probably so.

I had an old man teach me. Admittedly with little success, however...

I was at one of our facilities in Fontana, CA that had to find and dig up an old water line. I grabbed two welding leads and stripped the flux off of it. I got several hits on a straight line. I told the guy that I was dealing with that this is where I would look.

They called a professional. He found the line... right where I said it would be.

Everyone at that facility in CA thought I was crazy. After that, they thought I was a witch.

I've had it work 2x at my job. The other was searching for a water line in Commanche, TX. Those guys didn't blink an eye.

I've had it not work many other times.

My dad and I tried it once looking for a pipe on my family's land and it worked. So 1 for 1 here.

I install water lines for a living. I think it's nonsense. I think the people that do it successfully already knew where whatever they were looking for was.

But I also think it's fun and have done it with my kids. I have a good time watching someone do it. It's not something I want to see die.

I used to feel the same way about it until I did it myself. A homeowner was involved in a right of way acquisition across the front of his property, and we were trying to determine if the septic laterals were in the taking. He knew there were four laterals. I walked perpendicular to them with some rods I'd made from a coat hanger, and they crossed four times. Turned around and did it again, and they crossed four times. I kept this pattern up until I hit the end of the lines. I've also read that it's not real, but someone will have to convince me otherwise.

GentrysMillTX10 said:

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I've used copper wires to find buried sprinkler lines.

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Watched a guy use them to find underground irrigation pipes on a farm.

I've seen it work. We were on a site visit with a contractor and needed to probe a 24" gas line for depth of cover. He probed in line with the marker posts down to 12' but didn't hit anything. His witching sticks looked like car antennas, they telescoped so they fit in his console. There were handles on the bottom with the antennas coming out at a 90* angle.

He walked the ROW and about 6' from the marker posts the sticks both moved in one direction and lined up. Probed there and the line was about 5' deep. Now, a 24" gas line operating at 700-ish psig will be magnetic and will also have indued current for cathodic protection, but it worked.

Damn. Lots of witches hanging out on the OB.

This is what Salem in the late 1600s must have felt like.

Chewy said:

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Damn. Lots of witches hanging out on the OB.

This is what Salem in the late 1600s must have felt like.

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Obligatory.
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