What Am I Doing Wrong

[drgrizzly]

I recieved a gps for Xmas(explorer xl). I didn't know what geocachig was until I read about it and this web site in the manual. Found some local caches that looked to be easy. I thought this sounds like a grat family adventure. Kids off of school, parents home from work, lets have some fun! Well We only found 1 of 4 I tried to locate. I believe I was very close but my gps said accurracy was anywhere from 3 to 20 feet. Is this normal and I am not looking hard enough or is the gps not accurate enough. It was reading anywhere from 7 to 13 sattelites and at times said waas. Is that kind of accurracy typical? this gps wasn't cheap(I wanted color screen). My children were very dissapointed and I would like to have better success and keep them interested. I am so glad I looked into geocaching and found this site. Thanks to everyone involved.

[+GPSOkie]

If you look at the log of any honest goecacher, you will find some DNFs ! Out of the last 5 caches I've hunted, I've only found 3. Cachers are pretty tricky sometimes and they can be hard to find. Trust me, they are there, just hard to locate. Keep up hunting for them and you will eventually get good at seeing the hard to find caches !

[+Geo Froggy]

Hi,

 

I expect your GPS is fine. Look for the caches that are 1 or 1 1/2 star caches, as they should be fairly easy to fine. You also should read this thread about containers to give you an idea or what evil things hiders will do.

 

Good luck,

Jackie

Edited December 27, 2005 by Geo Froggy

[+Airmapper]

Welcome!!!

 

In general accuracy is not as important as you might think. The person who placed the cache probably had 15 foot accuracy, and you come with 20. Let the GPS get you to "Ground Zero" as we like to call it. (Where the distance says 0.00ft) and then start looking and forget the GPS. If you don't find it, then use the GPS to make sure your near Ground Zero, and keep searching. I've seen caches as much as 30 feet from "Ground Zero", normally it will be better though.

 

Don't worry, you'll get a feel for finding them before long, and become hooked like the rest of us.

[+Team Neos]

Hurray for you and your family--You found one and are now official addicts!

Sounds like the GPS is working fine and you have it set correctly, since you found one. I think that we found 2 of the first 6 that we looked for, so you probably have the right ideas.

 

What most people do when they first start out is to rely too much on the GPS. When it says you are close, put it away and start looking for the cache. Think where you would hide the cache if you were trying to hide it. Think big, think small, think camouflage, and think odd containers. The GPS may have you 30 feet away from the container, even if it is saying you are standing on top of it. There is some error when the cache was being placed, and some while you are looking for it, too. Some people suggest even bigger margins, but I have usually found the cache within 20 feet of where my GPS says.

 

Make sure that you start with easy ones, especially if the family is with you. Choose regular size caches rated 1/1 to about 2/2, especially easy to get to caches in ammo cans in lightly wooded areas that you can walk to quickly. (I love micros, but some of them are a real pain to try to find..they are just so small and could be so many places!).

 

Analyze what made the one you did find so easy to find, and then look for some others like it for your first dozen or so tries. After that, you begin to develop the sixth sense that you need to find caches, I think.

 

Lastly, re-read the cache page info while you are standing there. Sometimes, the cache page has little hints in it that you don't even realize are hints until you are in the area. Is something bolded? underlined? misspelled? It could be a pun or a clue or sorts. Is the name of the cache helpful? ("I'm pining for you" might mean the cache is hidden in the pine tree next to the letter U in a sign, for example)

 

The good news is that you get better--the second time we went out, we found about half of the caches we looked for. The third time, we did even better. Nowdays, we usually find all of the caches we look for...so there is a learning curve, at least for some of us!

[+geoshelley]

Don't get discouraged, you've had some great advice so far. Today we went out and this one microcache had most of the family ready to give up...my son kept looking and looking and it was in this silver metal box thing and it looked like a screw that belonged on this box. very clever...but if that had been one of our first ones, we never would have looked that long.

 

Funny story...we took one of my son's friends out geocaching. Told him how much FUN it was. Decided to be the FTF (first to find a new cache.) Well...........after 45 minutes of getting muddy, sliding down hills into rocks, then getting wet, we still couldn't find it. Come to find out I'd put the coordinates in the GPS wrong.

 

Went back the next day with the correct coordinates, plus a couple of clues from people who HAD found it the first day, found it in about 5 minutes.

 

We get to the 0 mark on the GPS and then do a 30-40ft circle to find the cache. Since we've started doing that our find time has decrease ALOT.

 

one hint try to find geocaches near parks so if the kids get bored they have something else to do or bring a football, jump rope, bikes, soccer ball etc. just in case. Sometimes I bake cookies or have something special at the end of our searching. The kids get hungry and so do I.

 

Good luck...pretty soon you will learn what to look for and in and you will get more finds than not finds.

[Cape Cod Cacher]

Read the manual a few times... Turn off the computer, TV, kids, cell-phone etc... Practice, practice, practice. Read the manual again. Play, play, play. Read the manual again. After you get past the initial learing curve, you'll get it. It's not an instant gratification thing.

I sold GPS units Xmas of '97, people called up or stopped by the store afterward asking "How does it work?", most hadn't read the manual more than once. You'll get it.

Then you have to figure out the caching part.

[+briansnat]

Let the GPS get you to "Ground Zero" as we like to call it. (Where the distance says 0.00ft) and then start looking and forget the GPS.

 

We get to the 0 mark on the GPS and then do a 30-40ft circle to find the cache. Since we've started doing that our find time has decrease ALOT.

 

I think in perhaps 4-5 out of 500+ cache hunts have I been able to "zero out" my GPS. It's this effort to reach this "ground zero" that is the chief mistake of novices. Once my GPS says I'm within 40-50 feet I put it away and start looking. If I'm skunked then I'll pick it up and check it again.

 

The GPS will get you to the general area but when combine your unit's error with that of the person who hid the cache, it could be 50 or more feet from where your GPS is telling you it is.

 

Once you get the distance down to around 40 feet start looking. First check the obvious spots. Rock crevices, hollow trees and stumps, alongside down trees (particularly where branches split). If you come up empty the nex step is t look for something that doesn't look quite right. An unnatural looking pile of ricks, sticks or bark for instance.

 

If its a micro, many of them are magnetic, so concentrate on metal objects in the area. Check the undersides of objects, use your hands to feel around in spots that you can't see.

[+saxdiva and mr. vibes]

If its a micro, many of them are magnetic, so concentrate on metal objects in the area. Check the undersides of objects, use your hands to feel around in spots that you can't see.

...which is an excellent reason to make sure you have a pair of gloves handy. Well-hidden caches also sometimes come with security-guard spiders. Have fun!

 

-Leanne

[Twister65]

My first hunt last summer ended up being a DNF after an almost an hour's worth of searching. It is pretty discouraging, but you can't let it get to you. I also brought my son along, and he was ready to give up after 10 minutes.

 

I've went out a few more times last summer. I've come to accept the fact that I'll probably like one or two DNFs on each outing. As long as I find at least ONE each time, I'm happy.

 

Some of my enjoyment from this hobby comes from adding various caches to my watch list and reading other peoples logs as they find them. It's not all hunting for me.

 

Scott

[+ZingerHead]

You're doing it right, believe it or not .

 

Stick with simple caches - traditional, not multi, regular sized containers, not micros. That is the simplest type of cache to find because it's large, and there's only the one thing to find.

 

As the others have said, don't concentrate too much on the GPS - it's done its job once you are within a 30' diameter area around the cache. It's an extremely rare occurrence when your GPS zeroes out, you look down, and there is a cache at your feet. Almost never happens.

 

I'm not familiar with your GPS model, but if it has mapping capability I find it useful to look at the map while I'm closing in to orient myself to the cache based on my direction of travel.

[+Airmapper]

It must be just me, cause I have no problems getting one to zero out. Y'all must be using <<removed insult toward certain brand of receiver>>

 

I've got a Lowrance, that explains it.

Edited December 28, 2005 by Airmapper

[drgrizzly]

Thank you everyone! It is always nice to know you are not alone. Thanks for sharing your experinces with me. I have explained these replys to my family and we can't wait for the weekend to give it another try. Thanks again!

[+Henki]

Ditto what everyone else said. And here's a tip: Until you're more experienced, don't try caching in a big city. Yesterday in the French Quarter my teenager was exceedingly frustrated because the signals bounced all over the place due to the buildings. We ended up sticking with the virtual caches in the area to keep her from being TOO discouraged.

 

Good luck, and enjoy the hunt. It's addictive!

[+Zzyzx Road]

My GPS (Brand witheld to avoid insults) gets us within 10-15 feet and it show a pointed arrow for "You are HERE". That point will scoop around as you turn back and forth, giving you an idea of where you want to be heading.

 

On one of our finds, we walked around a bush in the landscape about 5 times, and the arrow kept pointing towards, next to, darnit! We passed the thing again!...Finally I stopped, looked around (making sure there were no OTHERS watching) and dove into this huge shrub. The gardeners had hedged the thing in such a way that it looked fine from in front of it or driving by. Walking up to it however, it was hollow inside, without much top. Looking down inside there was a very-well cammo'd can. Yippee!

 

The first DNF I got was because the shrub it was in I am allergic to.

 

Add an adequately sized poking stick to the gloves. You can tap around in some of the debris to find the container rather than blindly sticking hands in dark spidery places .

 

Good luck and have FUN!

[Twister65]

It must be just me, cause I have no problems getting one to zero out. Y'all must be using <<removed insult toward certain brand of receiver>>   

 

I've got a Lowrance, that explains it. 

Hehe yeh mine zeros out AFTER I find the cache.

 

I can spend hours walking in circles, chasing a waypoint... then after I give up looking at the GPS and search the area, I'll find he cache... look down at my GPS and it says "DUH, RIGHT HERE!"

 

Scott

[+Toidy]

I'm a newbie too and I'm sure that if some of our more experienced geocaching brothers and sisters could have seen me out in the California desert last weekend they would have died laughing. LOL I have plenty of DNF's already and I'm still having loads of fun. The most frustrating thing for me has been learning how to properly use the GPS and getting my PDA to read pocket queries...but I think I've got the hard part done now.

 

Give it another try...you'll see how much fun it is. I made two attempts before I found my first cache and once I found it I was bouncing off the walls the rest of the day....all over a little black box hid in some ivy. LOL

 

Welcome to the game!