I could not find any specific thread about water wells, except for posts, and they are spread around. Since water is one of if not the most important resource to sustain all sort of life in the planet, having a thread listing different methods of digging a well by hand, may be useful for some folks developing their own land, I am still researching and learning about it, then I am not an expert, I don't have all the answers, I hope with this thread others could add their experiences and also the mistakes then we all can learn from it.
One very important thing is soil type, some are not easy to dig, like rocky soil, but let's keep it simple, and only post what can be done by hand without using any machinery.
Here is one of the best videos I found on digging a well by hand, also it is a great work out
Here is some experience I had since I started looking into this:
I inquired someone about digging a well in our land, the price was ridiculously expensive and out of question for me. The bore hole in question was about 12 inches in diameter and around 20 ft deep, but they gave no guarantee that water could be found at 20 ft and I would have to pay for any extra feet dug into the soil if necessary, of course I declined the offer, and after talk to my in laws and few other locals, they said I could find water digging around 10 feet deep, and in fact a few of them have it with solar pump and also manual pump (pitcher pump - this is the one that interest most for me), they have 6 inches bore holes, dug by hand, pretty much the same way shown in the video above, except they use a different type of auger tool, the ones here looks more like a driller with extensions that can be attached to it as you get deeper into the soil and they have sizes from 6" to 18" if I am not wrong, the common ones are 6" and 8", anything above that I guess it becomes heavy to dug by hand.
I got interested in wells, because since last 2 or 3 years, our seasonal stream is not providing enough water anymore, the seasonal river that runs down the mountain is completely dry, except in the raining season, it was not like that years ago.. many months ago after a long drought we had an insane flood, it covered many crops, people that I know had to move out of their land due to the water (this never happened before, and there is folks there in their 80's they can't remember any event like that), it took weeks to things get back to normal. I am seeing some extreme weather first hand here.
All right folks feel free to contribute whatever you can, much appreciated and thanks for reading it.