Tried to get out yesterday, but there was too much snow at the sites I went to.  It melted some more overnight, and I was able to find a section of an old site that had patchy snow to about an inch left.

This was one of my favorite sites, before today a 55 silver site that has given up a little bit of everything: my oldest coin, a 1723 Wood’s Hibernia copper, a seated quarter, a stunning SLQ, a pair of gold rings, a flying eagle, countless coppers, and more (never gotten any Barber silver here, tho, and of course, nothing from the dead zone).  A true honey hole.

Almost all of this was in 2010 and 2011, and the last time I was there was July 2012, finishing up a couple of zones, and getting a couple of rosies.  Its a huge site, and I had pretty much written off all the other zones, as prospecting never tuned up anything, and there was never any reason to believe anything should be in any of them, but now we are a bit smarter about things.

I didn’t expect to find anything, its sort of like random field theory, but I wanted to get out, it was the first time I could in a while, and I wanted to test that new battery, so out I went.

And, surprisingly, I found a pair of mercs, and a silver fish.  Not another big fish, unfortunately, but a silver fish nonetheless.  Pretty cool.  Just in the middle of a field.

I can’t get a date off the one merc.  Too bad.  As for the RNB Innovations battery, it worked fine.  I didn’t really detect any difference, nor did I expect to.  Its lighter than the stock battery, and after 4 hours of hunting, I still had full bars.  In the colder weather, the stock battery would have been toast by that time.  I don’t know if it is deeper; I didn’t get any deep, iffy targets, except things I was pretty sure were ferrous.  And besides, I forgot the stock battery anyway to comparison test.

Well, it will be about 60 today, and 70 tomorrow.  I expect all the snow around here to be completely gone in the next 36 hours.  So, it looks like my season isn’t over yet at all.  Not sure where or when I’ll go next, with the holidays and all.

As for hunting in the snow, its a pain.  The snow cakes on that Big Unit coil, making it really heavy, and every hole you dig is a mudfest.  (That was another reason to choose this site, as  I did not expect to dig many targets).  So, good riddance to the snow!

Well, I guess I shouldn’t be whining; at least I can detect again.  And, just a little bit of mud, I guess —