Cherry Pickers

[mrwilburino]

Being a city dweller, I tend to spend a lot of my detecting time at local parks and other public areas. That can be a real mixed-bag. Sometimes you end up with a full treasure pouch; other times you walk away empty handed. I don’t mind if a site has been completely worked out, it just means that someone put in the time and effort to do it and they deserve whatever they found. Lately however, somebody has been blitzing the area with their disc cranked up leaving nothing but nickels and zincs. These aren’t deep silver sites either, just your standard clad producing spots. Now I realize that people have the right to hunt the way they want, and it probably IS the most efficient way to pull the highest dollar amount out of the ground in the shortest amount of time, but does anyone else see this as kind of a lazy, unsportsmanlike way of doing it? Certainly there are times that the practice is justified. It may be the only way to get anything out of an extremely trashy area. Those who have researched and discovered a vintage, virgin site may use it as a way of getting the silver out before someone else follows in their footsteps. Not to mention, nowadays it might be the only income that person is receiving. If so, I would be happy to hunt with them and give them whatever I could find. For the average MD’er however, going from tot lot to tot lot and sucking up the clad…..Is it really hunting, or more like shooting fish in a barrel?

 

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[deepskyal]

Guilty.

If I'm sure it's zinc, I don't dig it. I'll dig a couple in an area, know what it's peggin at on the VDI, embed the tone in my brain, and skip over the rest. Maybe I miss something, but I am going for the older silver in an old park that I've been at a few times. I got those numbers and tones memorized.

Al

 

[Lowbatts]

They're missing the gold too, that means you have the opportunity to find it. Take the time to appreciate the cherry pickers, they leave more than they know behind. Been there, done that, still do.

All depends on what side of the couch I wake up on. Got several pounds of trash today, many mems and some clad, one '40 merc, one '54 rosie, 11 wheats from '11 to '57. No gold. Next time out I'm cherry picking.

 

[jeff of pa]

Gotta Love Cherry Pickers

Trust me;
if they searched it with High Disc.
They missed deep silver too

 

[TerryC]

I've got a pound of titanium holding my back together. I pick it ALL. Every penny. It's called excersize....bending. As long as I can still walk past the rocking chair, and bend over, I'll keep picking it all. Besides, If I'm comming back, I've got less to "pick" through next time. TTC

 

[mrwilburino]

I guess there's pros and cons. I wouldn't blame anyone for not digging zincs, at least they're going through the trouble of detecting it.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

There are some turf zones, where the gold to aluminum foil/tab/slaw ratio would be multiple hundreds to 1. In environments like that I invite the "dig all lest you be sorry" folks, to "have a blast!". If jewelry is really your all-fired goal that much, why are you hunting sites like this, to begin with? If jewelry is your goal, simply go to areas where jewelry ratios are higher (swim beaches) TO BEGIN WITH! doh!

I had this conversation with a dealer, at a junky park, where we had gone to compare some new machines on the market, a few years ago. He utterly bristled at the mention of any sort of discrimination (barring perhaps iron only). Afterall he reasoned "you might miss a gold item". To which I told him, that at a deep turf silver location like this, I'll take my chances, and simply save my heroic gold item-hunts for the beach. Because I already knew, that the ratios were just going to be too punishing. Yet I knew there was deep silver there. But in his mind, he could "have the best of both worlds", if he simply dug all (ie.: the shallow zinc, foil, tabs, AND the deep silver, since, of course, he is "digging all"). On and on the debate went betweenst us. Well here's how it invariably ends up:

The other guy spends hours never progressing out of a single spot, going "BONG" to "BONG" (of shallow clad and zinc too, as he bristled and thought of passing shallow stuff too). At the end of the day, I have a few silvers, old green wheat pennies, etc... This guy has perhaps a single wheatie, a worthless orange no-date buffalo, a few clad, and a BUNCH of junk. He simply can't understand why he's not getting old coins too. But the factor is this: all the time I spend looking for those *just so right* deep silver/copper signals, he's trying to be a hero in junky turf, and never progresses to deep old silver, because his mind is becoming subconsciously tuned to the easy loud beeeoonngs of shallow stuff. And to the extent that ... yes it's true the dig-all person will eventually get a gold item that others have passed, yet he will come to the realization, that he's either going to get kicked out of the parks, or go insane. So inevitably, you don't see those "purists" last long in junky blighted inner-city turf.

This only applies to certain type hunt spots, where a little cherry picking is in order. Is this "fair" to the next guy, if he's a purist, and gets left with all the shallow clad and foil? Oh well, life's not fair. Sorry 'bout that.

 

[oldcoon]

When you are old,
and your health is questionable
and just walking to the top of a small hill tires you out,
cherry picking doesn't seem like such a bad idea.
Do you miss stuff?
Oh sure.
Do you care?
Heck no.
You have been around long enough and found enough
over the years
that losing a goodie here and there means absolutley nothing.
Leave them for the hale and hearty.
Excuse me.
I am going home to take a nap.​

 

[slowNsteady]

I'm like Terry and have a lot of metal in my back, so I'm in it for the exercise as well as the finds. If I'm checking out a new site, I'll do a quick cherry picking scan and see if I want to spend more time there. If so, I come back and work it slow, digging most targets. I do like to work high trash areas, mostly for the challenge. Because I'll dig most anything, I rotate sites doing something different each day. That way I don't run the risk of wearing out my welcome. I can only hunt for about 3 hours max before my back gives out. Towards the end of the hunt, I will work my way back to the car only stopping for a good signal. So, I go both ways. Don't really mind if someone was there getting all the high tones or numbers before me. There will always be something left for me to find.

 

[mrwilburino]

When you are old,
and your health is questionable
and just walking to the top of a small hill tires you out,
cherry picking doesn't seem like such a bad idea.
​

Yes, absolutely. Those who are not in the best of health deserve to find the good stuff too. Go ahead and pick a few cherries.

 

[Keppy]

Now i am like ....Terry & slowNsteady.... I have a lot of metal in my hip slowes me down some but i keep on going........

 

[deepskyal]

Between Tom and oldcoon, those are my reasons. Detected long enuf that parks I'll cherry pick. Some sites I'll dig all, but those are the secluded site where I can sit, mull things over, have a smoke...move on some more on a lazy day. I'm more interested in junk at those places.

I get plenty of exercise at work.

Al

 

[m bryan]

Now i am like ....Terry & slowNsteady.... I have a lot of metal in my hip slowes me down some but i keep on going........

Kep, it may be that jack hammer aggrivating the hip.....

 

[Coin Digger]

I notch out iron, foil and tabs and dig all good signals deep or shallow. If you can pin point dead on it only takes a minute or two to recovery. I use a coin probe and the coin popper and I'm good down to 4" before I have to cut a plug.
It would bug me to pass up on that shallow zinc even knowing it might be have eattin away. Those by the way are the easiest and fastest to recover. Just bend over probe and flick out of the ground.

I just love diggin them coins.

 

[bigtim1973]

If it is a tot lot chances are there may be some jewelry there after they go through and got the clad but in the parks and such you got the deeper good coins still left plus they probably did not get any old indian head pennies or coins on edge either.............I would slow down and go over it real good because chances are they were in a hurry and just got the easy targets. I will cherry pick an area also just to see what may be there then I go back and dig all good repeatable signals...That is just me though and I am usually the only one that goes detecting at the particular site anyways. I just hunt old houses and fields and stuff not parks and tot lots, Tim

 

[m bryan]

I notch out iron, foil and tabs and dig all good signals deep or shallow. If you can pin point dead on it only takes a minute or two to recovery. I use a coin probe and the coin popper and I'm good down to 4" before I have to cut a plug.
It would bug me to pass up on that shallow zinc even knowing it might be have eattin away. Those by the way are the easiest and fastest to recover. Just bend over probe and flick out of the ground.

I just love diggin them coins.

I envy you guys that can pop a coin out without digging a plug.......I guess it comes with experience.

 

[oldcoon]

[size=11pt]

I envy you guys that can pop a coin out without digging a plug.......I guess it comes with experience.

Me too!
I have over 40 years metal detecting experience
and I can not consistently pop a coin.
Even when I do, it can only be an inch or two deep.
Maybe I am just stupid.
To successfully pop a coin you must first have a machine that is an excellent pin pointer
which many of today's high dollar machines are not.
Then you must concentrate on 'feeling' the coin
with your probe and not concentrating on the pain in your back or
offering silent prayers your rickety old knees will let you back up.
There is nothing worse in metal detecting than to see an old hunter
crawling back to his vehicle on his knees because he can't get back up.
Should you ever find yourself in this predicament
be on the lookout for roving male dogs.
Since you will not be moving very fast and you are apt to smell a bit gamey
from your adventure, the dog may think you a suitable 'post' for marking.
That is just adding insult to injury, but it can happen.​

 

[Digger]

Cherry picking? I prefer to call it selective recovery. Yes I am a good example of a selective hunter. I've done my time as a "dig it all" and had a great time in the process, but now my time is limited and technology has given me the means to choose to go home with a full goodies pouch and little to nothing on my trash pouch. Lazy? is a person lazy for choose to only drill for oil AFTER they are pretty sure they will hit oil and not drilling at every whim?

 

[bazinga]

I am most definitely a cherry picker in every sense of the word. If I don't think it's an old coin, I just won't dig it. In trashy old parks I have no desire to try to find gold. I'm not that patient. But with my machine, I can pretty easily cherry pick silver, wheats, and indians. I will go into a park with a group of others and walk out with 10-20 old coins and generally less than 10 clad coins (unless there are a lot of quarter signals, as I dig all of those. I've found too many shallow silver halves, quarters, and dollars to not dig every quarter hit now). And then I see those with the dig everything approach, and as Tom said above, they have 1 or 2 old coins, some clad, and a whole lot of junk.

When it comes to farm fields and other similar sites without modern junk, then I do the dig every conductive signal approach.

 

[Coin Digger]

I notch out iron, foil and tabs and dig all good signals deep or shallow. If you can pin point dead on it only takes a minute or two to recovery. I use a coin probe and the coin popper and I'm good down to 4" before I have to cut a plug.
It would bug me to pass up on that shallow zinc even knowing it might be have eattin away. Those by the way are the easiest and fastest to recover. Just bend over probe and flick out of the ground.

I just love diggin them coins.

I envy you guys that can pop a coin out without digging a plug.......I guess it comes with experience.

I once so an old man with a Garrett, that was as old as him, using a screwdriver only to recover targets. I thought I have to learn to do that.
It just took a little practice and the right tools. I find it to be faster and it leaves all most no trace of me recovering a coin.
Once you pin point the target - probe the ground several inches working out in a circular pattern. You'll know when you hit the coin.
Then just force the coin popper in behind and below the target and then pop it out. 50% of the time the coin will fall back into the hole then you just stick your finger in and pick it out.