Thank you for this article. I know I go too fast trying to cover a lot of ground thinking that's how you find more. Looks like not the best strategy.
All I can tell you is what I do and my experiences.
When I have a site with a lot of real estate to cover I sometimes travel pretty fast but with a goal in mind...find the areas with a greater concentration of targets both good and bad, trash and coins.
When I find those areas I slow way down and concentrate on hunting small parts thoroughly...usually with a small sniper coil.
The numbers and percentages say I will find more that way than trying to cover vast amounts of real estate and that is what usually happens for me.
I am not saying there isn't treasure in other places, there well might be and I have found my share just wandering around wide open spaces in the past, but numbers rule my life in this hobby and I believe I found way more by slowing down and hitting small well used areas than I ever would have if I had just tried to cover more quickly.
Case in point...
Due to circumstances I am not able to roam very far to public parks all over my region like I used to.
Luckily there is an older park that is huge within walking distance and for the last few months I visit there pretty much daily.
This is a well hunted park where most hunters never visit anymore because it has been hunted for 60 years and the easy to find great targets were scooped up long ago.
Also this is one of the most challenging sites you might ever come across as far as difficulty.
Heavy mineralization, iron infused into most of the soil, even the low clay content black stuff that severely limits depth on all brands of detectors, plus most if the place was built on an an old landfill and there were old houses knocked down in several areas so the amount of iron and other garbage, big and small from shallow to deep, is absolutely insane.
I have walked all over this place looking for higher percentage areas and despite all the problems I have done well.
I found a Peace Dollar in a really out of the way place but that was just luck.
Still, when I reached this area I was still moving slow with a sniper coil which is why I found it.
I found big gold in another area that was filed with trash.
There is an area in this park that is an entrance and one of the most popular parts since the park was built in the mid 20's.
Every hunter around had to have hit this area since detectors were invented, most believe it is totally hunted out but I never thought this way.
I believe no place is ever really hunted out, there are usually targets around but either deep or well hidden...or both.
Here depth isn't the issue so much, masking is a much bigger problem.
In this entrance area, a place that supposedly had nothing left to find, so far here is my list of what I have found going slow and having the patience to not be in a hurry.
Several old wheaties
Indian Heads
An 188? Worn V nickel
Silver dimes
A sterling Masonic coin
Old WWl lead toy soldiers
Some modern clad
And just recently an 1875 seated dime...my first ever.
Let your detector do its job but make it easy for it to lock onto the good stuff by going slow and listening well.
The reward will be well worth it.