Cherry picking vs digging everything

[Rothman]

So I went to a local park yesterday that dates back to the mid 1800's. I always start with the mindset that I need to dig everything but, this place was so full of ring pulls/pull tabs that I was averaging about 5 of them per swing of the detector. My Deus sounded like it was having a seizure. This place has obviously never been hunted. After about 30 minutes of digging every species of pull tab known to man and only clearing a few feet of ground, I started cherry picking and only digging high signals. I hate cherry picking because I know I'm leaving good targets in the ground especially in a site as old as this one. It's hard to maintain your sanity though when the ground is so full of aluminum. The variety of tabs here ranged in VDI from 62-78 so, obviously that's a nice wide range where gold could easily be hiding.

So here we have the conundrum.. In places like this what do you do? The choice is to dig every signal averaging about 5 pull tabs per square foot (could literally take years to clear out in a place this size) OR cherry pick only digging the best signals and just move on knowing that you are absolutely leaving some good targets in the ground.

I personally don't think it's worth the effort to try and clear when I could be somewhere else that's less polluted. Even if there is a good chance to find some quality targets, I'm cherry picking these kinds of spots and moving on.

What do you do?

 

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[airborne1092]

Q: How do you eat an elephant?
A: One bite at a time!
keep hitting the park, and dig everything. eventually, you'll clear out the trash and find the goods in the process!

 

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[seagullplayer]

The reason I bought a metal detector with beeps and numbers and discrimination is so I don't have to dig everything!
Or that's what I keep telling myself every time I upgrade mine.

The detector manufactures have got it made, they keep adding more bells and whistles on the next new thing.
And we keep "digging everything" so we don't miss something.

Yes, I often "cherry pick", if I had the time to dig everything I would work less and fish more.