Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Post Holing, Digging Caliche

It is like digging thru a solid thick wall of 10 year old dry wall, like sheetrock that has absorbed moisture, crystalized and dried out and solidified.

If you have ever unearthed an old adobe hut that has been buried for a thousand years, that is almost like it is only harder. I have no idea why the mexicans want to take it back but they do.

I've sat on ram hoes for hrs tryin to break a knob of caliche in a ditch

PTO posthoe digger - lmao- we aint got potato dirt here


bachoe ram dont get it - we get the bigger track hoe hammer

post apic of a 5/6 shank ripper bucket for caliche

I see potential..

From the 'caption this' files, I give you my humble entry:

The Last Thing I Saw,

by Hunter1960

Words that dont go together... "caliche soil"

Actually in the past few years I've had to dig maybe five bird house poles in the stuff, 36" deep and 24" wide.

"Digging" don't describe it, "carving" is more like it. And that 60" iron nail with a pointy end at one end and a chisel end on the other is your best friend (I forget how much it weighs 30lb maybe??).

You learn right away to let the weight of the nail do the work, trying to stick that sucker in there with muscle power hammers yer joints real quick. Just drop the nail reg'lar and put aside all thoughts of "hurry". The post hole diggers become what you use to lift the pieces out once the hole gets deeper.

Thats just Texas caliche, I would expect Arizona caliche is harder yet. One good thing is that a pole set in caliche NEVER shifts, everything I set in our local black clay tilts constantly. Clay or caliche? I'll take caliche every time.

Birdwatcher

LMAO

G'Mornin', Norm.

I think some of the other fellows here have covered the basic "Caliche Story",......would just add that it's one of the few geological structures that you actually have to go POKE, PROD, and SHAVE to get a feel for "What next?", that being which Tool, what sorta' Drilling fluid, and whether that will be a Bentonite or a foam type,.....

It can be VILE stuff to work with, and at the same time probably one of the better "Bedrock" foundations one can tie a structure to. Out here in my zone, we get an added challenge, that being High Volcanic Silicate content in the overburden ,.......so your tool will not only "skate" on the Caliche, it also grinds itself to death in the process. Aggressively SHARP tooling, and VERY high down pressure capabilities are mandatory, in consequence. Once a tool "Skates", the worked face of the cut can develop a Glass Smooth, Mirror like finish. "Surfactant" type drilling fluids ( Dish Soap'll work) seem to have an edge, and it's not uncommon for conventional "Mud Rotary" outfits that work in zones where Caliche is encountered to have "Foam Injection" as a backup solution.

Caliche, one of the original "Drilling Problems" from ancient times forward,.....

Nothing that one challenges with a farm tractor and a post hole auger,......the comments about it not being "Potato Soil" were bang on.

Best regards,

GTC

laffin' here

Mount that on a three point and the fur ought to fly!

This is not really a "straight rotary" setup,....

needs percussion, though SLOW rotation would make it more effective.

With rotation, production would go up, but wear rates would too,....

GTC

I picked up a jack hammer once. I tweaked my wrist when I picked it up. I put it down and concluded I didn't ever need one.

What Rancho said about Central Cali. Much of the valley floor is hard pan a few inches under the top soil. I had one house near a 100+ year old fig orchard, and I asked a farmer how in the heck they dug the holes for the trees, back in the day. His answer was, "dynamite, of course".

when i was 18 i had to dig a trench for a water line, in calichie using one of those bars birdie mentioned. took me weeks to dig that 12 inch deep 300ft trench.

Cross, I'm dumb about Caliche, so if this is a stupid question tell me. What does high pressure water do to it, ie taking a pressure washer and pointing it down the hole?

we use calichie for ranch and some county rd's because it doesn't turn to mud when its wet.

Dang. I was thinking the exact same thing.