Owing to the complexity of the electromagnetic scattering characteristics of man-made targets, it is difficult for traditional extraction methods to discriminate all potential targets from polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (POLSAR) images. To overcome this shortcoming, a novel scheme based on scattering mechanism identification and azimuthal symmetry decision is proposed in this paper. The novel scheme is implemented based on the difference between man-made target,and natural clutter on scattering mechanism type and the property of azimuthal symmetry. Compared with traditional methods, our scheme has the advantage of obtaining a more successful result, and targets exhibiting different types of polarimetric characteristics can all be well extracted. The validity of the novel scheme is verified by fully polarimetric SAR data.