hiispy4u

I just checked Cachestashes stats, since joining in Feb, he has found three caches. Or maybe that is just his flaming troll account.....anyway, if I understand this forum correctly, I can close this topic down, as I started it. Seems this horse has been beaten to death and everything valuable has been received and appreciated, all the negative was useless anyway....

From Cachestash If I bury my cache 6 feet under the ground on the exact coordinates I list but you have no idea I've done so and you can't find it would you get upset

You said it, we didn't! ROFL

Here, Here! Well said, and whatnot....

Actually, you made my point for me...I was being a bit sarcastic in what you quoted me as saying, in response to all those saying accuracy, circumstances, equipment, etc. is all the same and doesn't matter.....I was trying to answer West's question on how I have improved my accuracy, etc. and what he can expect from different units, and possibly using a $20 Gilsson antenna, etc. But to read the other posts, it just doesn't matter..... One dead horse please, well beaten....as opinions obviously differ.... (typos, again.....dang my typing ) and oh yeah, with all that accuracy, I'm still a noob with only somewhere around 11 finds, but that wasn't what West was talking about either, oh well.....

This thread began as a topic of accuracy, so I thought, not specifically finding a cache with your available resources and specific circumstances. To read all the posts, ulimtately West (who asked the question) seems like you're out of luck and stuck with what you got. Oh well..... edited to add above!!! Good point!

Now this is getting interesting, so the accuracy of my GPSr when receiving 12 sats, with WAAS enabled and the latest algorithms, not using the patch antenna, but an ampified one that is above my head, reporting 6.2 feet of accuracy is really just the manufacturer's way of making me feel better, when a cardboard box with radioshack parts, built to receive signals, with no amplification, for $2.37 is just as accurate. Now I get it, and how was that for a run-on sentence?

Maybe that is what he meant, and when you get down to it, it doesn't matter how accurate YOUR GPSr is, more so how accurate the PLACERS was, when they hid the cache. Besides, I don't think a Garmin iQue and a $20 antenna on top of a stick I cut from my backyard is a heck of alot of stuff. I do have a back-up GPSr, an eMap, that my wife uses, and it works too......it was just replaced because I wanted the combination of a GPSr/PDA that the iQue offers. I thought JamesJM was suggesting that they are all equally accurate (or inaccurate).....I guess it depends on your point of view. Personally, I'd rather be within 6 or 7 feet (supposedly), than 30 plus feet, just so I feel I am starting in close to where the dang cache is. (and if the placer of the cache was of by 30 feet, and then I'm off by 30 feet, and it's one of these camo'ed micros I'm finding in my area.....things start to get difficult.....oh well, I (and the discussion of accuracy, etc.) could go on ad nauseum, but somehow I may have already reached that point. edited for typos...

I have a Garmin iQue and use an external, Gilsson helix antenna (amplified) on the top of my "poking stick" so it remains above my head most of the time. This allows me to not block the signals with my body as I am hiking in and also lets me stick the antenna above some of the lower, dense cover, when nearing the cache. Today, I had 6.2 feet accuracy reported, with WAAS enabled and 12 sats locked. Although I am a bit confused as to what JameJM means by just curious....

Again, thanks for the replys and the introduction to a truly cool sport. As a newbie, and obviously with limited experience, I have to concentrate on the only factor that I can insure I can minimize the negative factors. Maybe that isn't the best way to put it. If I don't know what to look for, based on lack of experience, etc., then I want to use what IS available to me, tech, tools,etc. to get as close as POSSIBLE to the spot where the cache SHOULD be. Then I can flop around like a fish out of water and hope to get lucky now and then..... A word to you pros then, make them hard, cool, make them little and camoflaged, cool, make then disguised as a cow flop in a pasture!!!!.....Just make sure your coords are good, your hints aren't useless, and I'll get it....eventually. and a sense of humor doesn't hurt for all of us, huh?

LOL, I guess I was a gizmo geek, and GPSr lover before getting into this, now I am just using all that crap to enjoy the new sport. I have learned, since my original post, that one of the caches that had caused so much frustration is MIA and another was (erroneously) hidden by another cacher EXACTLY where the hint said it wasn't, it had fallen out of the tree it was in..... Not that you all care, but things are getting better, and more fun!!! The more you look, the more you'll find. Thanks for all the insight... Jeff edited to add this.... Your version of caching doesn't even need a GPSr, I'll give you one to find....go out to the end of x road, walk into woods and find something (lol, no hints now, ANYTHING) in a 100 foot by 100 foot area. Could be in a tree, on the ground, disguised, covered up, organic oriented, manmade....whew?! What fun.... No logs, no clues or hints, within 100 feet and putting away the equipment? You must have some whimpy woods and haven't come across any caches in a pine cone, a fake rock, or an old split log, like I've seen here. No offense meant, but "You talkem' big, Keemosabe!" I find the same neighborhoods around the corner, only I know I'm on the right street, not the one 100 feet away!

Thank you all for responding so quickly....you have given me some newfound confidence to keep at this. I guess I just hate "failure", when I can't find one....but I guess the point is to enjoy the environment (saw a baby armadillo today, an alligator day before yesterday), enjoy the hunt and move on to the next cache! (edited: and YES the weather has been GREAT!)

I spent a good deal of time getting set up for this, I have a Garmin iQUE and an Emap. I have CacheMate, CacheNav and am a premium member, so I get the gpx files. I made a "cache poke stick" thing, that serves as a combination poking stick, hiking tool AND I have a Gilsson amplified external antenna mounted on the top of it that I can use to make sure I am getting above a good bit of the ground clutter, getting sub 15 feet average accuracy in heavy tree cover and often, better than that....below 8 feet at times. I am ex-Army and am experienced in ground navigation....but here's my concern.... If I can accurately get within 10 feet of a cache, but am STILL having problems finding some....then what is the point to this game? I promise, I could give someone EXACT coords to a specific spot, heck, I could even take you there and PUT you on a spot and say "find it", having hidden IT to where NOONE could find "it". But what is the point? Why is a GPS even involved here when many cache hiders seem to love the smaller the better and the more difficultly hidden, the better, etc. I understand some kids even enjoy this with their parents...my wife and I looked for over an hour today for a cache that we were supposedly within three feet of, at times, that was only rated a 1.5 difficulty. How could a kid enjoy this, when an adequately equipped (and trained) adult has problems (setting myself up for some serious ribbing here)? I have found 6 of 9, so far, so I won't give up yet, but how about some tips or LOGIC into the mindset of this concept? I am at your mercy and thanks for reading my rant. (Yesterday, I got bloodied legs "bushwacking" through palmettos, today I climbed 12 trees, looking.....aarrgh) Any thoughts or tips appreciated.......