A site like that can keep producing good finds for years. You can go back multiple times a week, change your approach, and still pull out targets you missed before. I personally have about four homestead sites that I visit a couple of times a week and have been returning to with friends for years, and they continue to produce awesome finds.
Honestly, I would not start with a true “dig everything” strategy at a site like this. On your first passes, focus on the strong, desirable high tones with whatever detector and coil you are using. Then come back with a different coil or even a completely different detector and work the site again. You would be surprised by what another machine can hear differently. Even something inexpensive, like a Bounty Hunter. Small coils can be especially valuable at a site loaded with iron and trash because they provide better target separation and make it easier to work between nails and other unwanted targets.
Once the obvious good signals start to disappear, that is when I would begin digging more questionable and mixed signals.
Another technique we use is what my friends have coined “pinpointer whoring.” Find a small section that feels especially dense with targets, sit down, open up one recovery area—basically dig a hole—and then work through the soil with a good discriminating pinpointer. The Nokta AccuPOINT works especially well for this because it can discriminate between iron and other metals. In heavily contaminated ground, that feature can save a tremendous amount of time when you are sorting through soil full of nails. I would also recommend having several extra pinpointer tip protectors on hand because this type of searching can be hard on them. In the right spot, you can pull out good coins, buttons, jewelry, and small relics hiding among what feels like a million nails. It is slower and much more methodical, but on a productive homestead site, you can find some seriously sweet targets this way.
If there were horses at the homestead, be prepared to find a zillion brass rivets that sound amazing. Don't discriminate them out because the same tones might make you lose silver coins, silver thimbles, pocket watches, and so on.
I have written about working sites like this on my website several times; I have been returning to them with friends for years, and they continue to produce because we keep changing detectors, coils, search patterns, and recovery techniques rather than assuming the site is hunted out.
