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Photos/Images of bad cache containers


L0ne.R

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They tend to leak. I've found dozens and probably can count the ones with dry contents on one hand.

 

haven't found one yet that leaked, .....

 

Most of the film containers I have found show signs of at least past leakage if not currently wet and ruined logs. Sure it depends on where they are placed but that does not change the fact they are poor containers for keeping out moisture.

I use the white film cans in my fake rocks. They tend to stay quite dry. In fact, my test mule has been in the field now for years and the log remains completely dry.

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I found one covered in a thick black felt fabric to help camo the container under it. When I lifted the fabric to move it (my friend refused to do it), a cockroach slithered out - EWWWWWWW :unsure: There were more little slimy friends underneath.

I had a similar experience yesterday. A favorite CO of mine placed under a tree a tin inside of a handmade cloth bag with a velcro top. A lot of attention & care was put into this cache (I'm not being facetious).

 

I should of known there would be a problem when I moved the bag and a whole family of pincer bugs scattered. As it turns out the inside of the bag was loaded with pincer bugs. It took a lot of work to get them all out of the bag before I sealed it.

 

Before anybody comments on the tin...A lot of the urban caches around here are in tins of one type or another. The one's in the lamp posts are usually in OK shape, the rest tend to be pretty rusty. I don't recommend them, but I have enjoyed one prolific CO who does some very interesting camoflage jobs on these tins. He's also been good about cache maintenance when one gets damaged or muggled.

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GC10PZ1 - Pipe bomb look-alike

f4f7dcbe-f9ae-4d4a-be5b-1b86c897468f.jpg

 

Wow... That just screams "Oh! Oh! Over here, Bomb Squad! Pick me! Pick Me!!"

 

How does someone not see that as a problem??????? :unsure:

 

IMO that's no better/worse than some of the ones in the 'clever containers' thread that look like potential electrical outlets that stick to what appears to be power poles. No offense to anyone but the last thing I want to see some juvenile geocacher doing is probing around an actual dangerous pole on the off chance that some devious cacher might have hidden something there.

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IMO that's no better/worse than some of the ones in the 'clever containers' thread that look like potential electrical outlets that stick to what appears to be power poles. No offense to anyone but the last thing I want to see some juvenile geocacher doing is probing around an actual dangerous pole on the off chance that some devious cacher might have hidden something there.

 

Prolly the same guy that hid this one...

 

zap_cache.jpg

 

somegeek

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Alright, I'll jump in. Just to avoid being PC I'll say you are all right, and all wrong. It all depends on placement. Keep your cache dry with good placement and the container won't be too much of an issue.

 

That said, my take:

 

35mm film containers: white "innies" fare better than black and gray "outies". Both do OK overall but too many are filled with mush over time. The key around here is the inner baggie.

 

Key holders: Work great for the first year or so. The plastic flip top ones tend not to be as waterproof but do better in the long run. The metal hide-a-keys really start to rust after a few years and get very difficult to open. Those and the Hillman ones also tend not to be waterproof so unless a good inner baggie is used the logs turn to mush.

 

"Bison" tubes: Love these myself but they don't hold up great over time. At least they are cheap and are easy to replace. Biggest problem is O ring failure causing a breach in the SRB joint allowing pressurized hot gas...err...I meant to say O ring failure leading to moisture getting into the seal. This can cause the contents to get moist but also can cause the top to rust onto the container. I carry pliers now due to the number of bison tubes that have become fused shut.

 

Small containers: Glad lock and other small "Tupperware" containers are hit-or-miss. Remember that the latest, cheaper, Glad and Ziploc brands are designed to be disposable, and over time develop cracks in the lids or the containers themselves. The "Lock & Lock" containers are a notable exception and hold up quite well. In my experience they are easy to camo tape and still seal well.

 

Ammo cans: Great, great, and great. In all my geocaching I have not seen an ammo can with water in it unless the lid was clearly improperly closed by a previous finder. I've found a number of underwater ammo cans. The latest here lasted several weeks before someone didn't put the lid on right and it sank. Just check the sealing ring when buying one and you should be good to go.

 

Alternative containers: food tins, novelty items, are fun at first but usually don't last. Most of the completely homemade containers I have seen are ingenious in their designs and fun to find but not all are designed with longevity in mind. Blood collection vials are definitely waterproof. Just think about making log retrieval easier. Some logs I've seen have used a paper clip bent around the log to pull it out. Works well until the paper clip rusts.

 

Biggest key: maintenance. Replace the container. Replace the baggies containing the logs. I only keep about 25 caches active at any time because that is all I can actively maintain.

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GC10PZ1 - Pipe bomb look-alike

 

 

Wow... That just screams "Oh! Oh! Over here, Bomb Squad! Pick me! Pick Me!!"

 

How does someone not see that as a problem??????? :blink:

 

IMO that's no better/worse than some of the ones in the 'clever containers' thread that look like potential electrical outlets that stick to what appears to be power poles. No offense to anyone but the last thing I want to see some juvenile geocacher doing is probing around an actual dangerous pole on the off chance that some devious cacher might have hidden something there.

A cache that looks like a pipe bomb is in an entirely different category than one that resembles an electrical outlet. One may get an electrician needlessly called out, the other, the bomb squad.

 

But aside from that, after you've been caching for a bit longer, come back and let us know just how many "juvenile cachers" you run into that cache without adults. I'd venture to guess it will be few, if any.

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IMO that's no better/worse than some of the ones in the 'clever containers' thread that look like potential electrical outlets that stick to what appears to be power poles. No offense to anyone but the last thing I want to see some juvenile geocacher doing is probing around an actual dangerous pole on the off chance that some devious cacher might have hidden something there.

 

Prolly the same guy that hid this one...

 

zap_cache.jpg

 

somegeek

 

Yikes. Creative - yes. Clever - yes. Wildly inappropriate and foolishly dangerous - yes.

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IMO that's no better/worse than some of the ones in the 'clever containers' thread that look like potential electrical outlets that stick to what appears to be power poles. No offense to anyone but the last thing I want to see some juvenile geocacher doing is probing around an actual dangerous pole on the off chance that some devious cacher might have hidden something there.

 

Prolly the same guy that hid this one...

 

 

somegeek

 

Yikes. Creative - yes. Clever - yes. Wildly inappropriate and foolishly dangerous - yes.

Uhhh, I think it was just a joke.
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GC10PZ1 - Pipe bomb look-alike

 

 

Wow... That just screams "Oh! Oh! Over here, Bomb Squad! Pick me! Pick Me!!"

 

How does someone not see that as a problem??????? :(

 

IMO that's no better/worse than some of the ones in the 'clever containers' thread that look like potential electrical outlets that stick to what appears to be power poles. No offense to anyone but the last thing I want to see some juvenile geocacher doing is probing around an actual dangerous pole on the off chance that some devious cacher might have hidden something there.

A cache that looks like a pipe bomb is in an entirely different category than one that resembles an electrical outlet. One may get an electrician needlessly called out, the other, the bomb squad.

 

But aside from that, after you've been caching for a bit longer, come back and let us know just how many "juvenile cachers" you run into that cache without adults. I'd venture to guess it will be few, if any.

 

Lol - no need to be condescending. I admire the creativity - I would never, ever find some of the containers on that other thread - but believe it's reckless to encourage people to poke around other peoples' electrical equipment. I'm sure you're right about the unaccompanied juvenile cachers - that's probably a great point, but then again most of us older (if not juvenile, senile?) cachers would do well to avoid messing with some of this stuff as well.

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GC10PZ1 - Pipe bomb look-alike

 

 

Wow... That just screams "Oh! Oh! Over here, Bomb Squad! Pick me! Pick Me!!"

 

How does someone not see that as a problem??????? :(

 

IMO that's no better/worse than some of the ones in the 'clever containers' thread that look like potential electrical outlets that stick to what appears to be power poles. No offense to anyone but the last thing I want to see some juvenile geocacher doing is probing around an actual dangerous pole on the off chance that some devious cacher might have hidden something there.

A cache that looks like a pipe bomb is in an entirely different category than one that resembles an electrical outlet. One may get an electrician needlessly called out, the other, the bomb squad.

 

The electrician cost more per individual responder. If they send out the whole line crew it could bankrupt a smaller state.

 

But aside from that, after you've been caching for a bit longer, come back and let us know just how many "juvenile cachers" you run into that cache without adults. I'd venture to guess it will be few, if any.

 

We had a few of them around here. Rode their bike everywhere. I know at least one of them still caches occasionally now that he has a drivers license.

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Has anybody ever heard of a cacher being electrocuted while hunting for a cache? I only ask because it occurred to me that this comes up often and yet I have never heard of an incident.

 

I'd be interested to hear that too. Dunno about caching but I used to work for a local power company and met a guy (professional linesman) that had been spectacularly electrocuted. Yikes - made a believer out of me.

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IMO that's no better/worse than some of the ones in the 'clever containers' thread that look like potential electrical outlets that stick to what appears to be power poles. No offense to anyone but the last thing I want to see some juvenile geocacher doing is probing around an actual dangerous pole on the off chance that some devious cacher might have hidden something there.

 

Prolly the same guy that hid this one...

 

zap_cache.jpg

 

somegeek

 

Yikes. Creative - yes. Clever - yes. Wildly inappropriate and foolishly dangerous - yes.

 

Dude, did you just put an arrow on a photo of an electrical substation? Aren't those usually totally off limits/ guarded by razor wire? Anyway, I can see your argument about hiding something in a 'dangerous' spot. Really I would guess that the danger would actually be that once a cacher learned that such hides were possible, he might go tearing something apart while searching for a different cache location. I actually chose that spot because there are enough alternative hiding places that the cacher would not immediately assume that the cache was on the pole. I already am planning to move this cache, my original idea was to stick it to the side of a metal shed, but found that the magnets don't stick well to the corrugated steel siding. As for lone kid cachers, this hide is 6.5 ft. off the ground, so they likely couldn't get it even if they wanted to. I guess I didn't think it was a super dangerous spot, compared for example with a hide in an area with lots of poison ivy or where rattlesnakes might hang out. It seems like there are tons of those. Maybe I am wrong (and I wouldn't want to be).

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Worst I've found was several years ago. It was literally... a black kitchen garbage bag. The tradeables and logbook were just tossed inside (can't remember if the logbook had a separate baggy, but the tradeables for sure didn't). It was rolled up and crammed under a bush at the end of a grassy area on university property.

 

Other caches at the university... excellent. This one... seriously, what were they thinking? At the absolute bare minimum, it wasn't "oh hey... cramming this bag under the bush might get it torn apart and full of holes anyway".

 

Can't remember what happened to it, but I imagine some cleaning crew probably came by eventually and threw it out, thinking it was someone's... y'know... garbage.

Edited by Kabuthunk
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On the first page of this thread, briansnat mention tackle box as a bad container.

 

Saturday I found a tackle box cache placed in July 02 that was in pretty good shape. Original logbook too, somewhat dampish, but August in Florida, damp is a given. An exception to the norm. Unusual design - no holes in the lid, and an extra deep gasketed rim on the box.

 

Probably a more expensive box then you find in the Big Box stores.

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Dude, did you just put an arrow on a photo of an electrical substation? Aren't those usually totally off limits/ guarded by razor wire? Anyway, I can see your argument about hiding something in a 'dangerous' spot. Really I would guess that the danger would actually be that once a cacher learned that such hides were possible, he might go tearing something apart while searching for a different cache location. I actually chose that spot because there are enough alternative hiding places that the cacher would not immediately assume that the cache was on the pole. I already am planning to move this cache, my original idea was to stick it to the side of a metal shed, but found that the magnets don't stick well to the corrugated steel siding. As for lone kid cachers, this hide is 6.5 ft. off the ground, so they likely couldn't get it even if they wanted to. I guess I didn't think it was a super dangerous spot, compared for example with a hide in an area with lots of poison ivy or where rattlesnakes might hang out. It seems like there are tons of those. Maybe I am wrong (and I wouldn't want to be).

 

I was wondering about this as well... back when we were new cachers and didn't know any better my husband tried to hide a cache at a substation and it was immediately rejected by the reviewer because of the location... it just seems like bad news on several fronts to me now that I know better.

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IMO that's no better/worse than some of the ones in the 'clever containers' thread that look like potential electrical outlets that stick to what appears to be power poles. No offense to anyone but the last thing I want to see some juvenile geocacher doing is probing around an actual dangerous pole on the off chance that some devious cacher might have hidden something there.

 

Prolly the same guy that hid this one...

 

 

somegeek

 

Yikes. Creative - yes. Clever - yes. Wildly inappropriate and foolishly dangerous - yes.

Uhhh, I think it was just a joke.

 

Good... someone got it. :laughing:

 

somegeek

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I found a black and gray film canister yesterday for my 3rd find but it was in a VERY protected hiding place. Our light poles in our town have little plastic 'skirts' around the pole over the cement top. This little canister was shoved under the corner of the 'skirt' Very good hiding place and it was not even damp!

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I found a black and gray film canister yesterday for my 3rd find but it was in a VERY protected hiding place. Our light poles in our town have little plastic 'skirts' around the pole over the cement top. This little canister was shoved under the corner of the 'skirt' Very good hiding place and it was not even damp!

 

Just say it was a "skirt lifter". Takes less typing and EVERYone knows what you mean.

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I found a black and gray film canister yesterday for my 3rd find but it was in a VERY protected hiding place. Our light poles in our town have little plastic 'skirts' around the pole over the cement top. This little canister was shoved under the corner of the 'skirt' Very good hiding place and it was not even damp!

 

Assuming this isn't some kind of a joke...

 

That hiding place is not as protected as you might expect it to be. That film can you found wasn't even damp because it hasn't been there very long. You'll notice that the cache page says the cache is in a magnetic key holder. It's been replaced.

 

Indiana might be different (though I doubt it), but here in the Carolinas we have a lot of film cans under lamp skirts, and most of them are damp.

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I found a black and gray film canister yesterday for my 3rd find but it was in a VERY protected hiding place. Our light poles in our town have little plastic 'skirts' around the pole over the cement top. This little canister was shoved under the corner of the 'skirt' Very good hiding place and it was not even damp!

 

Assuming this isn't some kind of a joke...

 

That hiding place is not as protected as you might expect it to be. That film can you found wasn't even damp because it hasn't been there very long. You'll notice that the cache page says the cache is in a magnetic key holder. It's been replaced.

 

Indiana might be different (though I doubt it), but here in the Carolinas we have a lot of film cans under lamp skirts, and most of them are damp.

 

Well a friend of mine irl found it in March so it's been there at least that long. We've had some pretty crazy storms since then too. So it seems to be doing an ok job.... But I'm not sure why this would be some kind of a joke

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...But I'm not sure why this would be some kind of a joke

Those kinds of cache hide seem prety neat the first time you find one. Problem is, they are everywhere. Most people on the forum have found hundreds just like that, and so it is a bit of an inside joke about how lame they are. Personaly, I have only found one. Then again, I don't usualy cache in parking lots.

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I found a black and gray film canister yesterday for my 3rd find but it was in a VERY protected hiding place. Our light poles in our town have little plastic 'skirts' around the pole over the cement top. This little canister was shoved under the corner of the 'skirt' Very good hiding place and it was not even damp!

 

Just say it was a "skirt lifter". Takes less typing and EVERYone knows what you mean.

"LPC" is even less typing :D

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I was visiting my dad in Eatonton Ga, and hunted for "The Real Brer Rabitt", finding the final to be a Wally World plastic bin.

Not sure how anyone could think something like this could ever be even remotely water resistant.

0b93a346-1e9c-4227-ae0a-a52209de5c62.jpg

 

This is a TB I rescued from the cache, cleaning it up as best I could and mailing it back to the owner for some TLC.

fc8538fe-03d7-4c82-ac34-3c1dc5dc01d1.jpg

 

This is the log. Proof that using a baggie doesn't make a crappy container less crappy.

3fdd23cc-4d26-47b3-acf5-6dd456d0f681.jpg

Edited by Clan Riffster
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Disney claims she is a pixie.

Hmmm... Well, Pixies are also of the Fae.

Perhaps whoever wrote that advertisement feels the terms are synonymous? :)

In the book, "Peter and Wendy", Barrie was specific that Tink was a Fairy.

In Disney's animated version of that tale, "Peter Pan", she was also clearly labeled as a Fairy.

So too, with the movie's "Hook" and the recent "Tinker Bell".

 

My vote would be for Fairy... B)

 

(Don't we debate the derndest things in here?) :grin:

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I was visiting my dad in Eatonton Ga, and hunted for "The Real Brer Rabitt", finding the final to be a Wally World plastic bin.

Not sure how anyone could think something like this could ever be even remotely water resistant.

0b93a346-1e9c-4227-ae0a-a52209de5c62.jpg

 

 

That's a lot of water. Excellent example of why it's so important to use a watertight container.

Edited by Lone R
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I was visiting my dad in Eatonton Ga, and hunted for "The Real Brer Rabitt", finding the final to be a Wally World plastic bin.

Not sure how anyone could think something like this could ever be even remotely water resistant.

0b93a346-1e9c-4227-ae0a-a52209de5c62.jpg

 

 

That's a lot of water. Excellent example of why it's so important to use a watertight container.

 

That's holding plenty of water. What it needs to be is air-tight so that it holds air.

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Speaking of coffee...

In October 2008 I found this plastic Folgers coffee tub, full of film can seed caches, stuffed into a white plastic grocery bag. The lid on the coffee tub was busted, and the contents were soaked, including every single log in every single film can. While this pic isn't from when I found it, it'll give you an idea of what it was like. So far as I can tell, it's still a mess.

837502d1-2b67-4403-9625-ffd77300d7f9.jpg

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Disney claims she is a pixie.

Hmmm... Well, Pixies are also of the Fae.

Perhaps whoever wrote that advertisement feels the terms are synonymous? :)

In the book, "Peter and Wendy", Barrie was specific that Tink was a Fairy.

In Disney's animated version of that tale, "Peter Pan", she was also clearly labeled as a Fairy.

So too, with the movie's "Hook" and the recent "Tinker Bell".

 

My vote would be for Fairy... B)

 

(Don't we debate the derndest things in here?) :grin:

 

So, can I get a ruling on this?

 

I think I might have killed a fairy.

 

See, I hid a film can. But I was replacing someone else's existing film can that had gone missing. It's right by my office, and I had a film can in my desk, so when I heard it was missing I replaced it for her and saved her a trip.

 

So I'm assuming that a fairy died when the original hider placed the first film can. But did I kill another one when I replaced it?

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So, can I get a ruling on this?

 

I think I might have killed a fairy.

 

See, I hid a film can. But I was replacing someone else's existing film can that had gone missing. It's right by my office, and I had a film can in my desk, so when I heard it was missing I replaced it for her and saved her a trip.

 

So I'm assuming that a fairy died when the original hider placed the first film can. But did I kill another one when I replaced it?

The quote said "every time...", so it looks like two fairies were killed with one cache...

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Disney claims she is a pixie.

Hmmm... Well, Pixies are also of the Fae.

Perhaps whoever wrote that advertisement feels the terms are synonymous? :)

In the book, "Peter and Wendy", Barrie was specific that Tink was a Fairy.

In Disney's animated version of that tale, "Peter Pan", she was also clearly labeled as a Fairy.

So too, with the movie's "Hook" and the recent "Tinker Bell".

 

My vote would be for Fairy... B)

 

(Don't we debate the derndest things in here?) :grin:

 

So, can I get a ruling on this?

 

I think I might have killed a fairy.

 

See, I hid a film can. But I was replacing someone else's existing film can that had gone missing. It's right by my office, and I had a film can in my desk, so when I heard it was missing I replaced it for her and saved her a trip.

 

So I'm assuming that a fairy died when the original hider placed the first film can. But did I kill another one when I replaced it?

You killed a Pixie

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Worsed container I've ever found was off the edge of a cemetary in a Listerine pocket pack like this that dispenses those breath tabs.

 

Not only was the log soaked (incredibly had already been in place for years with several complaints that the container was inappropriate for geocaching) but who would place such a container in a stone wall in a cemetary to begin with? Heck, I love that someone brought me to the really nice old cemetary with headstones going back hundreds of years, but the impression I walked away with was that geocaching = trash. Not the kind of image we should be putting forward.

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Speaking of coffee...

In October 2008 I found this plastic Folgers coffee tub, full of film can seed caches, stuffed into a white plastic grocery bag. The lid on the coffee tub was busted, and the contents were soaked, including every single log in every single film can. While this pic isn't from when I found it, it'll give you an idea of what it was like. So far as I can tell, it's still a mess.

837502d1-2b67-4403-9625-ffd77300d7f9.jpg

Were they the black and grey or white film cans?

TWO fairys die if a black and grey film can is hid.

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I found one at the coast that was literally a cardboard box. It was mostly frozen and the log was too. I could possibly see something like this in a desert, but not near the beach where seasonal rains and the occasional hurricane are very real dangers...

 

I recently found a cardboard soup container (the type you get to go from a restaurant) placed in a rain gutter! What on earth? It was falling apart, so I replaced it with something waterproof.

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I'm very guilty of putting out film containers. Haha!! But if i put them in trees, i at least camo them. I don't mind them. I guess i have never really considered a cache container to be "bad" or "good." Unique, different or challenging, yes. But not "bad" or "good." Personally, i don't care what its in as long as i can sign a log! <_<

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Anyone ever used those film canister like containers that diabetic test strips come in? Any good?

 

Z.

 

757230ca-9744-490d-8ee1-e4dd5f6a5cff.jpg

 

This is one of mine that has remained impervious to three complete deluges and been completely submerged for more than a day at a time while sitting next to my porch where it fell out of my cache bag one day. I found it a month and a half later.

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I'm very guilty of putting out film containers. Haha!! But if i put them in trees, i at least camo them. I don't mind them. I guess i have never really considered a cache container to be "bad" or "good." Unique, different or challenging, yes. But not "bad" or "good." Personally, i don't care what its in as long as i can sign a log! <_<

 

Bad or good not in the righteous or evil sense but rather in the performance for the purpose sense. There are far superior containers to use instead of a film can, particularly the black and grey ones.

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