Staking mining claims with 4x4s is a common occurrence in Idaho and Washington, whose state statutes both require posts to be at least 4″ square or 4″ diameter to establish claim boundaries.
You have the choice in both states of using trees or 4x4s for the posts, but in treeless areas, of which there are many, you’re going to be using 4x4s.
This Article In A Nutshell
We’re going to spoil the article by giving away the ending: Panke Claim Staking Services (PCSS) mills our own lightweight 4x4s and 2x2s to save you money. Our homepage https://pankeclaimstakingservices.com/ states that one of our goals is to complete your claim staking project and “charge you a reasonable price for your project that is less than the industry norm”. Lighter 4x4s means we can pack more posts on a packboard, which leads to quicker completion of a claim staking job. That is one reason why we consistently bid less on clients’ projects than other claim staking companies.
A typical mining claims project with 4x4s
Below is a map of a recent Idaho job where we were staking mining claims with 4x4s. The waypoints are the claim corners and the red lines are our tracks (township/range info and names have been whited out for confidentiality):
We had ATV access which is the kind of oblong loop shape along the interior of the picture. We brought 4x4s on the ATV and then packed the 4x4s on pack boards along the 600′ end lines. You can see 12 or so pack board trips out and back from the ATV track.
4x4s are Heavy!
The cheapest 4x4s are found at your big box stores, but it’s a crapshoot on whether their lumber will be dry or green, and green 4x4s are heavy! To prove my point, I took my scale to one of the big box stores to weigh their 4x4s. I grabbed the first ten 4x4x8s from the shelf and weighed them:
- 23.1 lbs
- 24.1
- 25.3
- 22.0
- 26.9
- 30.7
- 28.2
- 30.8
- 24.0
- 24.6
The ten posts had an average weight of 25.97 lbs, so 26 lbs each. Those are 8′ posts, so cut them in half and each 4×4 that you carry into the field weighs 13 lbs.
Looking back up at our map, you can see that we were carrying 4 – 6 posts on our lines out from the ATV track. 6 x 13 = 78 lbs. Add in 6 sticks of rebar to secure the posts in the ground at 1 lb each, a 4 lb hammer to pound the rebar into the ground and the post onto the rebar, the weight of the packboard and some miscellaneous other gear, and you’re 90+ lbs. Yikes!
PCSS’s Old Solution
If you want to take the time at the lumber store, you can take your scale and sort through pallets of 4x4s, weighing them all and only taking the lightest ones. We’ve done that plenty of times, and we can get the average weight per 4×4 down to 11 – 12 lbs that way.
Then, if you want to take that a step further, you can buy 4x4s in advance and stack them out in the sun to give them a chance to dry out. We’ve done that too, and we’ve gotten the average weight down to 10 – 10.5 lbs.
PCSS’s New Solution
But why not go all in and mill our own posts, and what band of hardy Idaho claim stakers wouldn’t want their own sawmill?
The reason that we can mill lighter posts is that the untreated 4x4s from the lumber stores are douglas fir, which are fairly dense. We mill white pine, which is less dense. We cut green logs but then get them drying. Here is our stash last June, baking in the sun:
By the end of September, the lightest one weighed 7.8 lbs and the average was about 9 lbs.
In case you’re wondering if we’re scrimping on dimensions, the lumber stores’ 4x4s measure 3.625″ x 3.625″. We set our cutting width and depth at 3.7″ x 3.7″, so our posts are actually slightly bigger than store bought posts.
We’re prepping posts now for a job so we weighed some, and they’ve actually gained some weight back because it’s winter and they’ve been stored outside. Next summer we’ll build covered storage so we can move them under a roof when summer is over. There are six posts on the scale in the pictures, weighing 57.5 lbs. 57.5 / 6 = 9.6 lbs average.
The End Result
57.5 lbs for six 4x4s on a packboard instead of 78 lbs. Add in the other stuff and now we’re carrying 70 some lbs instead of 90 some lbs. We’ve shed 20 lbs of weight. We can move faster or carry more posts, and as a result, we can complete a project more quickly! Less days in the field means that we can bid lower than other companies and save you money!
Your Next Claim Staking Project
If you have an upcoming project where you are going to be staking mining claims with 4x4s, give us a call and let us bid on your project (although truth be told, if you call around the first of October, we’ll listen politely and then say we’re too busy elk hunting in October and that we’d rather pack elk quarters on our packboards than 4x4s. Work/life balance, you know!)
By the way, the same math applies no matter where your project is. Nevada, Wyoming, California and Oregon all allow 2x2s as posts. We cut 2x2s and dry them just like we do 4x4s.
