Thursday’s hunt was trying to open up a new site just a quarter of a mile from the recent honeyhole — you figure if one site gives up 65 silvers, the one down the street might give up a few as well.  But it wasn’t to be — all I found is midrange depth clad quarters from the 60s to 80s.  Usually a good tell, but it worried me that I found no dimes or pennies.  The mineralization was brutal, and I guess I’m not seeing them, so I’m not gonna see a silver dime.  Maybe a silver quarter, but I didn’t have the patience.  I only remember this happening once before, in the red clay soil of North Carolina, where you struggle to see clad quarters, and have no chance of seeing smaller coins.  Not sure it is the case here or not, but the site is probably a failure.

Moved on to a big park in the area that I wrote about the other day where I pulled a merc, and I was hoping to open up the site with more silver, but it wasn’t to be.  The park really is pretty hunted out, but I was in a zone that had given up the merc, and it was giving up tons of clad, which is usually a good tell, but all I got was one wheatie and this sterling elephant ring.  Its such a big park tho, there is still a chance of pulling something in an out of the box zone, but again. mineralization is an issue here.

Saturday I met up with some guys at at a massively huge park for some woods hunting — last time I was here, I pulled 3 silver coins, but it was all due to sticking to an old roadbed in the woods, and I worked that paradigm pretty hard last time, so I wasn’t sure where the silver would come from this time, just randomly swinging in the woods, but guys have pulled seated halves, dimes, reales, and so forth from these woods, so you have to give it a go, and besides, its more fun to hunt with others, even if you don’t find anything.  I didn’t find anything, other than a couple of corroded wheaties.  Not sure anyone else did; if they did, I don’t know about it.

I had to attend to some errands, then had some time for another hunt closer to home, at yet another site on my prospective list that I have never been to, and I was again skunked.  This is an old school, and these can be hit or miss, but this was bad, not a single deep coin in the “obvious section”.

But the out of the box section, the corner of the property gave up some wheaties, and I was optimistic, but was not to be.  The wheaties were shallow, and I pulled 6 of em, which means I’m owed two silvers, but sometimes it just doesn’t work out.  The mineralization was the most brutal I remember ever seeing — I was getting an auto rec of 9 for a good part of the hunt, and almost always lower than 15.  I like to be above 21, and consider below 19 pathological.  This site is mostly a writeoff as well, except for one huge old farm field that I may wonder sometime when I’m in the mood to go for a one in a million field score.

So, two prospective sites, both dudding, as well as that park I was hoping to develop, but now looks bleak as well.  You get times like this you feel you will never see silver again — one of the downsides of working a site dry and then moving onto the next one.  One day, there will not be a next one.  Maybe that day is today, who knows?  These sorts of sites do not grow on trees, and meanwhile the competition has been at work on others with their Minelabs as well.   But, I feel like I had a good run since May 2010 if I never find another good site, but I’ll keep trying for a while, or maybe I’ll get more serious about door knocking — but that’s not my style — when I’ve done it, its generally just for the day, and I enjoy the experience of solving a site day after day.

What I’m not understanding is this all or nothing vibe I run into.  Some sites give up 20 to140 silvers, and some give up bupkis.  All basically look the same in the research.  I wonder why.  I wonder if it is about the intense and variable mineralization we seem to have around here, or if it is just the case that myself and the competition are in the process of cleaning everything up, sort of the tail end of a golden age.  Who knows?

Well, at least I won’t have to write blog entries that often, and I can learn to play the lute.