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What Is Your Standard Fossil/mineral Hunting Gear?


DeepTimeIsotopes

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As the title states what is your standard hunting gear? For those who need a prompt here is one: A fellow TFF member has asked you to join them on a hunt. They are keeping the location a secret. What do you bring?

Edited by Utahfossilhunter

Each dot is 50,000,000 years:

Hadean............Archean..............................Proterozoic.......................................Phanerozoic...........

                                                                                                                    Paleo......Meso....Ceno..

                                                                                                           Ꞓ.OSD.C.P.Tr.J.K..Pg.NgQ< You are here

Doesn't time just fly by?

 

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A pack of paper lunch bags for specimens. You can write notes on the paper bag.

Pen

geo hammer

backpack

water

snacks

notebook

camera

depending on weather report, maybe extra shoes and socks. I hate wet feet.

and that's about it...

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Rock hammer

Shoulder bag

Plastic grocery sacks (I check for holes first)

Boxes (on standby, if I actually find stuff)

The seat of my pants. :)

I'm pretty low tech.... until I find something really good. In that case, I return with some more substantial equipment.

Context is critical.

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My collecting bag has a wide variety of tools. On site I most often reduce what I carry to the following which I can carry in the pockets of my field vest, on my belt & in my hands:

Labels

pen/pencils

zip locks of various sizes, some film/pill bottles

10X magnifier

small kit with tweezers, small brushes and small picks

rock hammer w/belt holster

kneeling pad

hat & bandana

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My Standard gear is my Estwing 24oz chisel tip hammer, a 4lb estwing crack hammer (which I think is actually a bit too heavy, gets tiring quickly), a number of chisels, a 10x loupe, masking tape, pot glue and in foil. That's all I need.

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Energy bars, water, camera, GPS, ruler, Ziplock bags, rock hammer, chisel, larger bright red cloth bag that you won't put down and forget somewhere. |Oh, and some crazy glue.

Edited by JustPlainPetrified
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Oh I love wet shoes...the soggier the better!!! :P Don't forget a small first aid kit. mine is about the size of a man's wallet and carries just enough stuff to handle low key cuts and scrapes, aspirin, etc. Always in my pack and goes with me everywhere.

 

 

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I really like empty rice bags for holding fossils. they are very strong and usually have a zipper on the top.

A fossil hunter needs sharp eyes and a keen search image, a mental template that subconsciously evaluates everything he sees in his search for telltale clues. -Richard E. Leakey

http://prehistoricalberta.lefora.com

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Looks like I need to update my list of what to bring... On my limited number of hunts I usually bring:

Rock Hammer

boxes

plastic bags

my extreme on-a-budget, hunter chisel (old screwdriver)

water

snacks

A Collector's Guide to Rock, Mineral & Fossil Localities of Utah ( for Utah adventures)

Camera

Hat

Each dot is 50,000,000 years:

Hadean............Archean..............................Proterozoic.......................................Phanerozoic...........

                                                                                                                    Paleo......Meso....Ceno..

                                                                                                           Ꞓ.OSD.C.P.Tr.J.K..Pg.NgQ< You are here

Doesn't time just fly by?

 

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Oh I love wet shoes...the soggier the better!!! :P

My clothes can be soaked and that's OK, but if my feet are wet I really feel miserable. I can't explain it.

As for first aid, I usually don't notice I'm bleeding until I get home, so no problem. :D

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I've recently started carrying (in addition to most everything else listed above) some good sized pieces of bubble wrap and a roll of duct tape, just in case I find something that needs to be stabilized a bit, like this Placenticeras we wrapped up and brought back from Montana last month:

 

http://www.troutlillystudios.com//Files/MtWeb/BigPlacenticerousWrapI.jpg

when I was done wrapping, it was a solid package. It came out of the ground in articulated pieces, but we were able to keep it together enough to glue them back together when we got it back home.

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  • 4 years later...

Our collection area is a heavily eroded riverbed of Cretaceous ocean bottom. Don't need a hammer, but always 20 ziploc bags and a dozen cloth ones.  In the summer the water (a couple of feet deep) feels good, but in fall through spring I always wear chest waders.  They keep me warm no matter how cold or deep the water is. 

Mitchell

Don't Sit Still - - You'll Fossilize! :P

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My credit card and a good internet connection

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Looking forward to meeting my fellow Singaporean collectors! Do PM me if you are a Singaporean, or an overseas fossil-collector coming here for a holiday!

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Ha, Andy. So true, so true.  I must say, winning a last minute bid is almost as exciting as finding a mosasaur vertebrae. 

Mitchell

Don't Sit Still - - You'll Fossilize! :P

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No shovels, pry bar, protective glasses, gloves, knee pads, trowles or screens?

Y'all need to carry more junk in.

 

What I take on a trip is very dependent on where and what I will be hunting.

Hunting shark teeth in a river or beach environment, a hammer and chisel are not needed.

Cracking schale on a mountainside, probably don't need waders or a screen.

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Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys."

Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough."

 

My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection

My favorite thread on TFF.

 

 

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22 hours ago, ynot said:

 

What I take on a trip is very dependent on where and what I will be hunting.

I had written this post way before I knew how different collecting environments could be but this post is probably a good example of showcasing those differences.

Each dot is 50,000,000 years:

Hadean............Archean..............................Proterozoic.......................................Phanerozoic...........

                                                                                                                    Paleo......Meso....Ceno..

                                                                                                           Ꞓ.OSD.C.P.Tr.J.K..Pg.NgQ< You are here

Doesn't time just fly by?

 

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2 hours ago, UtahFossilHunter said:

I had written this post way before I knew how different collecting environments could be but this post is probably a good example of showcasing those differences.

Most certainly. We all use a different set of tools depending on location conditions. But in the lists above you will see some common items: labeling materials, containers, magnifiers, things for comfort and safety, etc.  Hammers, chisels, pry bars, shovels, sieves, saws, etc. are all more specific to each site. I own a lot of tools and gear and often have most of it in the car with me, but seldom would I ever need to haul all of it onto a site.

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As a minimalist, I hate to feel encumbered, so sometimes I lack tools and supplies when a good find is encountered.  This means that I consciously trade off preparedness for maximum range.  For me this is an acceptable tradeoff, as I'd rather be caught flat footed with a field problem than miss out on a good find due to restricted range. 

 

I probably miss out on some good finds by moving too fast.  My wife, on the other hand, likes to work a small area slowly.  I can enjoy that mode as well, once I establish good reason to do so, either through past experience or high speed rubbernecking. 

 

But my go-to mode is max practical speed, seeing (hopefully!) 75% (or better???) of the treasures, rather than a snails pace, seeing 90% of what is showing in a much smaller area.

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Grüße,

Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas

"To the motivated go the spoils."

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4 hours ago, Uncle Siphuncle said:

But my go-to mode is max practical speed, seeing (hopefully!) 75% (or better???) of the treasures, rather than a snails pace, seeing 90% of what is showing in a much smaller area.

I know that feeling. After several close calls over the last 4 years, I know what I want in my pack now. As of right now I don’t like going anywhere without my basic first aid kit, water, knife, and hammer so my pack is exactly between max preparedness and max mobility.

Each dot is 50,000,000 years:

Hadean............Archean..............................Proterozoic.......................................Phanerozoic...........

                                                                                                                    Paleo......Meso....Ceno..

                                                                                                           Ꞓ.OSD.C.P.Tr.J.K..Pg.NgQ< You are here

Doesn't time just fly by?

 

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  • 1 month later...

Since most of my collecting is roadcut/roadside my most basic tools are 4 eyes, two hands, and pockets, though i've been known to take off one of my socks to carry rocks home in if I don't have an empty pocket!. I love to be somewhere non geologic stick my hand into a pocket and find a little fossil, crystal, or pretty bit that I forgot to take out. 

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“Beautiful is what we see. More beautiful is what we understand. Most beautiful is what we do not comprehend.” N. Steno

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I wish I had been carrying all the right items, such as more than one kind of glue, every time I went out. If I were to go far afield, I would probably take extra care to ensure I had everything I might possibly need, but collecting close to home most of the time, I figure I can go up with the minimal, and if I realize that I need something else, I can run home and get it. But on at least one occasion, not having the right kind of glue, I kind of bungled an extraction - time was of the essence, as it turned out: the find was made on a Sunday evening and the site was bulldozed possibly the very next day. At least I got it out in time, but it would have gone smoother and quicker if I had some PaleoBond (crazy glue) or at least a thin Acryloid solution rather than a thicker one that did not wick into the cracks very well.

I wish I had known what I know now when I first started collecting that site 10 years ago.

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22 minutes ago, Wrangellian said:

I wish I had been carrying all the right items, such as more than one kind of glue, every time I went out. If I were to go far afield, I would probably take extra care to ensure I had everything I might possibly need, but collecting close to home most of the time, I figure I can go up with the minimal, and if I realize that I need something else, I can run home and get it. But on at least one occasion, not having the right kind of glue, I kind of bungled an extraction - time was of the essence, as it turned out: the find was made on a Sunday evening and the site was bulldozed possibly the very next day. At least I got it out in time, but it would have gone smoother and quicker if I had some PaleoBond (crazy glue) or at least a thin Acryloid solution rather than a thicker one that did not wick into the cracks very well.

I wish I had known what I know now when I first started collecting that site 10 years ago.

This is good advice not just for using on fossils but other collecting equipment as well. I broke a camelback hose clamp while out hiking in mid-July in southern Utah and had it not been for one of my buddie’s bottle of quickdry superglue, I would have lost all my water for that day of the hike.:doh!:

Each dot is 50,000,000 years:

Hadean............Archean..............................Proterozoic.......................................Phanerozoic...........

                                                                                                                    Paleo......Meso....Ceno..

                                                                                                           Ꞓ.OSD.C.P.Tr.J.K..Pg.NgQ< You are here

Doesn't time just fly by?

 

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You never know what might happen! But like Siphuncle says, if you go overboard and try to prepare for every possible eventuality, all that gear could slow down your collecting!

But that was luck (if not good thinking).

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9 minutes ago, UtahFossilHunter said:

This is good advice not just for using on fossils but other collecting equipment as well. I broke a camelback hose clamp while out hiking in mid-July in southern Utahand had it not been for one of my buddie’s bottle of quickdry superglue, I would have lost all my water for that day of the hike.:doh!:

A good quality wide mouth plastic canteen is a lifesaver. Camelbacks and storebought water bottles can break and be punctured. 

 

I like wide mouth Nalgene canteens that you can freeze or add ice cubes in such as: link

My goal is to leave no stone or fossil unturned.   

See my Arizona Paleontology Guide    link  The best single resource for Arizona paleontology anywhere.       

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3 minutes ago, DPS Ammonite said:

A good quality wide mouth plastic canteen is a lifesaver. Camelbacks and storebought water bottles can break and be punctured. 

 

I like wide mouth Nalgene canteens that you can freeze or add ice cubes in such as: link

Yep, I learned that the hard way. Here are the ones I bought right after that trip.3194AC08-94BF-4FE5-9662-31FF8DC46637.thumb.jpeg.5ed9204f9a7643d9d2f72cc85c283f3e.jpeg

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Each dot is 50,000,000 years:

Hadean............Archean..............................Proterozoic.......................................Phanerozoic...........

                                                                                                                    Paleo......Meso....Ceno..

                                                                                                           Ꞓ.OSD.C.P.Tr.J.K..Pg.NgQ< You are here

Doesn't time just fly by?

 

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