What's the quickest you have found a cache after its been published?

[+shellbn4]

Tonight I was a FTF 5 minutes after it was publish. I live less than 3 miles from the cache . What is your quickest cache find. ( not counting the ones you knew were going to be published or even being there when it was place)

[+weinema]

I got one of my FTF within ca. 23min :-)

Revieved the SMS notify, grabbed my stuff, hit the gas and found it easily.

Martin

[+smcpeaknkids]

20 min.

[+Driver Carries Cache]

33 minutes... and at 42 minutes I was home having Pizza and a beer!

 

Driver Carries Cache found WALLAWATTA (Traditional Cache)

 

It's 0.3 miles from my home coords (which only makes it the third closest!).

 

DCC

[+Zop]

I think I found one within 15 minutes of it being published about 5 miles away.

[+webscouter.]

I found and logged a cache 29 minutes from it's published time.

 

Back In Time

Edited November 18, 2007 by webscouter.

[+apetro]

When I found my first (and only) FTF I checked my mail and nothing, a few minutes later I checked again before logging off and there was a publish notice for Big Blue River Dam. I live a block away so I walked over and found it. I would guess 5-10 minutes.

[+briansnat]

I was FTF on one probably within 15 minutes after it was published.

[+Harry Dolphin]

Four hours. I saw the 'published' on lunch break, but I had to go back to work. Found it after work.

On the other fin, my longest FTF after publication was 13 days! Hee hee hee. We beat the third and fourth to find by fifteen minutes.

[bogleman]

About 12 hours. Thats amazing in my neck of the woods, it involved a 5 mile hike, I guess that's why I got it, plus it was published mid week and I was off

[+SUp3rFM & Cruella]

14 minutes. Published at 10h05pm. Found at 10h19pm.

 

GC17BM0 - King. It's .175 mi from our home coordinates. It took us 14 minutes mainly because I was already in pajamas...

 

Log

 

edit: spelling

Edited November 19, 2007 by SUp3rFM & Cruella

[+Thrak]

I'd guess maybe 15 - 20 minutes after publication on a couple of them. I just got my 140th FTF the other day so I was bound to have a few of them that were signed soon after publication. Mostly I get them at night which can make the search take a little longer and I often have to put on shoes, etc. before I can leave.

[+egami]

2 Months, 5 Days....purely coincidence.

[+StarBrand]

Hard to say for sure - I found one within 15 minutes after I got the notification but another time got there within 5 minutes only to find another cacher signing the log. He had got his notification email a good 20 minutes before I got mine.

[+Lakeshore Geocachers]

20 minutes for one,35 minutes for another one..For the first one, I was sitting on lunch break with the laptop in the Jeep when it came up...the cacher who placed it worked in the office is was behind..I went in and introduced myself as the FTFer...He didn't even know it had been published. The second time I was on lunch again, one came up less than mile from my own house...On my way home, my wife called to tell me she was bleeding following a surgery she had had the week before...I told her I would take her to the doctor's office right AFTER I got the FTF...

[+LewisClan77]

I have found numerous caches within 10 minutes from them being published, and quite a few more within 20 minutes. And I live in a very, very competitive region.

[Dj Storm]

Eight months and 30 days... my only FTF to this date.

[+FatherAndProgeny]

How do you get notification of a cache being published?

[+The Bee Gees]

How do you get notification of a cache being published?

Good question! I used to get emailed notifications, but I don't anymore... Haven't changed any settings, so I don't know what happened to that!

[+NinjaCacher!]

What is your quickest cache find.

 

24 minutes: here

 

How do you get notification of a cache being published?

 

Basically, by setting them up here. You need to be premium member to be able to do that.

However, I had trouble with this in the last couple months, a large part of the "published" notifications didn't get to my mailbox. There's a series of about 40 caches in my notification range placed within the last 2 months, and I only got notifications for 3 of them. Not sure what is going on there or where the issue is - still hoping that it magically starts working again sometime...

[+Cav Scout]

About 20 minutes.

[+StarBrand]

...this brings up a small something about the notifications.....

 

More than once I have run off to the cache and been on scene within 20 minutes after getting the notification in my email - then I see somebody else was there 45 minutes ago. I have seen thier notification and it was time stamped nearly an hour before mine.

 

Other times I was first and another had a 20 minute difference.

[+Photographer Jim]

MINUS 5 hours!

 

To clarify: I attended Team Alamo's 25K Event Cache a few months ago. A number of us attending met in the local open space\regional park. At a prearranged time in the morning, someone came to the sight of one of the existing caches in the park area and handed out a list of six new caches established for the event. I was FTF (my only one so far) for one of the new caches after about 20 minutes. (went to the event from there, ate some pizza, drank some beer, had a good time, etc.)

 

When I returned home later that evening I went online to log my days finds only to find that the new caches from the day had not yet been published online! They were "officially" published and appeared on the web site a few hours later - I'd estimate about 5 hours after I had actually found the cache.

[+Keruso]

not sure when the cache was published, but i was still FTF on it. GC11P4E. i was actually looking for the TB hotel on Googlemaps, didnt have a GPS yet, and noticed a cache where thier wasnt one a day before. We got some FTF hogs around here in western PA, and i didnt think id find it first. it was also my 20th find. now i need to get my 50th find soon

[+Generalsterlingprice]

I came across 2 that were published at the same time that just happened to be near each other, so I had 2 FTF's in about 40 minutes.

 

I was happy with that!

[+Miragee]

We found one just minutes after it had been published, but didn't know it was a brand new cache when we signed the crisp, clean log. We just thought it was a replacement cache for one that had gone missing from the same location.

 

The second-to-find, who got there 12 minutes after the email hit their InBox was sure surprised to see two signatures in the log when he opened the cache . . .

[+joranda]

I had one that was pulished just blocks from my house, so it probably took 10 to 15 minutes for the FTF.

[+PJPeters]

14 minutes. Published at 10h05pm. Found at 10h19pm.

 

GC17BM0 - King. It's .175 mi from our home coordinates. It took us 14 minutes mainly because I was already in pajamas...

 

Log

 

edit: spelling

You stopped to change? Your PJ's must not be decent!

 

We're a bit cut-throat over here. If you're not really on top of things, you ain't getting it. My average time is like 10 minutes. I have, however gotten them in much less, since there's a popular park for caching across the road. The most time consuming part of the whole thing is downloading the coords into the GPS. And that's really not all that bad.

[+Blaidd-Drwg]

I found one about an hour after it was posted. Of course I had to get dressed and drive 15 miles to reach the cache.

[+Blaidd-Drwg]

I found one about an hour after it was posted. Of course I had to get dressed and drive 15 miles to reach the cache.

[+BilLow]

About 10 minutes - a quarter mile away through a park (no driving). I was recovering from neck surgery and it was up a tree about 8 inches beyond my reach - oh well. I made the leap, grabbed the branches and claimed the prize. Later that night I needed painkillers to celebrate my FTF.

Edited January 18, 2008 by BilLow

[+HarleyPiper]

A geoacquaintance of ours was looking for a good place for a cache, and stumbled upon one several days BEFORE it was published. He just waited until it showed, and found it officially.

[+Puppy Dawg]

You won't believe this, but it's totally true. I found it 9 min after publication. But, alas, the FTF competition is fierce here and nobody has many. I was STF!

[+Team Cotati]

26.5 hrs.

[+aggiejwp]

You think that people around your area are FTF hounds, you should move to Houston

[+OzGuff]

I was sitting at my computer when the cellphone rang -- new cache. Looked it up and saw it was 0.7 miles from home. Raced out the door, found the cache, raced back home, and was logging Eight plus Five less than five minutes after publication.

[+NotThePainter]

A cacher in our area used to love pre-finds, maybe he still does, I don't know.

 

His best record that I know of was -3 days.

 

And note, this is not done by accompanying the hider. My bets guess is that he was using the bug in the old WAP interface.

[+kraushad]

Wow, I sure would like to have at least one FTF in my resume, but with the times you guys and gals are talking about, I am guessing it will have to happen by luck !!

[+egami]

Wow, I sure would like to have at least one FTF in my resume, but with the times you guys and gals are talking about, I am guessing it will have to happen by luck !!

 

Try the navicache site...one navicache near me is like 4 years old with no find logs.

[+4 Sneetches and a Fwiskas]

We made a FTF last evening 6-7 minutes after it was posted. Before we left the cache site, two other caching parties had already arrived. You got be fast to FTF around here.

[+whistler & co.]

Wow, I sure would like to have at least one FTF in my resume, but with the times you guys and gals are talking about, I am guessing it will have to happen by luck !!

 

Not necessarily luck...try to determine when your local reviewer generally gets online to publish caches. Check the fine print on the bottom the the cache page to see the "last updated" time when new caches in your area published by the same reviewer pop up. Before they are first found, it will show the actual time the cache was published. Then do your email checking and other stuff on the computer at the time every day until you get a FTF!

 

Or be willing to DRIVE. We have a couple of FTF's that sat unfound for a long time because they are in the boonies. One of them has ONLY been found by us so far, not because it's hard, but because it's in the middle of nowhere. Short & Sweet

 

Edited to add: That cache (Short & Sweet), by the way, is about 50 miles from our house!

Edited January 18, 2008 by whistler & co.

[+egami]

I wonder if, on a FTF, anyone has ever taken the cache a short distance away for a while to monitor the next person to arrive and then watch them stuggle looking for it.

[+whistler & co.]

I wonder if, on a FTF, anyone has ever taken the cache a short distance away for a while to monitor the next person to arrive and then watch them stuggle looking for it.

 

I haven't done that, but I have cheerfully yelled "You're too late" at approaching cachers while signing in!

[+badlands]

I wonder if, on a FTF, anyone has ever taken the cache a short distance away for a while to monitor the next person to arrive and then watch them stuggle looking for it.

 

I haven't done that, but I have cheerfully yelled "You're too late" at approaching cachers while signing in!

 

 

Sure did. I had the first stage multi in my pocket when I saw another cacher enter the area. I let him look for awhile than then we both went to the final for a co-ftf.

 

On another cache, I was walking down the trail about six o'clock in the morning and I passed a gentleman coming down the trail the other way. I said "Good Morning", he said "You're second". Had a good laugh and stopped to talk for about 20 minutes.

 

On another occasion I got FTF and then waited to see who would show up. 2nd to find was 12 minutes after the cache was published. We also had a nice chat before moving on.

 

Lots of fun and interesting people can be met in a FTF race.

[+Rattlebars]

I just yesterday stumbled on a cache that has not even been published yet. I noticed that the top of a fence post was a little crooked. Looked suspicious. Pulled it off. Yup, 35mm film can in there with Liquid Nails. Popped the lid. Empty log roll. Looks like it's been there awhile.... can't find a listing. There is one close by.... but

 

RATTLEBARS

[+TrailGators]

I found one that popped up outside where I work in just a few minutes. I didn't have my GPS with me at work, so I zoomed in on the satellite view on the cache page and then knew exactly where it was. Then I did a quick dash out to GZ and bagged it. Woo hoo!

[+Wazat]

I was dropping off and picking up some TB's at a cache when the owner showed up. He mentioned that there was a new cache he was about to place in the area. Did not tell me where so I was checking the new caches page every now and then the next morning. It was about 2pm that afternoon when the cache was published. It was just over 150 km from home and I was at work. Then I got a call to go to a town just beyond the one where the new cache was. The same town that I met the owner the day before at his other cache. It was on my way. I called my son and asked him if he was keen on getting a FTF. He was so off we went. First had to do a bit of work and then on the way back we stopped to look for the cache. Found it at about 6pm. So 4 hours and we had a joint FTF over 150 km from home. But we could have found it in 2 if it wasn't for me having to do some work first. We also stopped to let my son do another two caches before that one while on the way.

[+KJcachers]

We had a new cache hit the inbox at 10:30 this morning and we were at GZ by 11:30. spent 90 minutes searching and came up empty so I guess you could call that our fastest FTDNF Have emailed the owner for a little help so time will tell. The owner only has 3 finds and this is their first placement and the parking coordinates were way on the othe side of town so hopefully the cache coordinates were off too and I wasn't wasting a saturday looking in the wrong place.

[+Geoboss]

I just found my 99th FTF tonight in 20 minutes. My phone went off at 8:02pm, I checked my email and went to the cache page to download the coordinates. I had to get my winter gear, as the temp was about 0°F. I found the cache and signed the log at 8:22pm in the dark, 1.4 miles from home. The next cacher showed up about two minutes later.

I have found several caches within 20 minutes, but there are a couple cachers here who are usually there before that. It depends mostly on where the cache is and where you and the other FTF hunters are when the cache is published.

My longest time from publication to FTF was 25 days on a 5/5 cache. The second to find on that cache was just short of nine months from publication, and the cache has been found only four times in a year and 21 days.

Another cacher and I hid a cache in a town nearby which has not yet been found and was published on November 6, 2007. We think it will be quite some time before it is found.

[+dakotacache]

The previous poaster on this forum (GeoBoss) is one of the FTF Hounds in our area. I would say on a good day, our FTF's are found in about 10-15 minutes. That's about average. Some consider me another one, but I don't have the numbers like the others.

The quickest for me is about 15 minutes. It's all about Location, Location, Location. There was one that I was at Ground Zero within 10 minutes, and my name was 3rd on the list. What the....?!

First To Find is a fun segment of this "hobby/Game". In our area, there are only a few that play the FTF "game". I wish there were more, it would make things quite a bit more interesting. We have actually started calling each other to get a feel for our chances.

Another fun challenge is to discover caches before they are published. So far I think I've found 3 that were about to be published. I signed the log and contacted the owner. I even found a night cache before it was published. The owner was as suprised as I was!