Hit rate

[GeekKitty]

I am wondering what sort of hit rate other cachers are getting, as in number of DNF's to Finds. It's getting infuriating with the number of DNF's I am getting and am wondering if it's me being totally inept, or if the proportion is normal.

 

I had an entire series in Denmark (with the hint of "Tree") which I failed to find any of, before giving up and going for a bike ride.

 

What's your hit rate?

 

J

[+Amberel]

I am wondering what sort of hit rate other cachers are getting, as in number of DNF's to Finds. It's getting infuriating with the number of DNF's I am getting and am wondering if it's me being totally inept, or if the proportion is normal.

 

I had an entire series in Denmark (with the hint of "Tree") which I failed to find any of, before giving up and going for a bike ride.

 

What's your hit rate?

 

J

I've not actually worked it out, but I'd guess about one DNF in 20 (over the long term). Depends to a large degree on what sort of caches you go for, and how experienced you are.

 

Oh, and I would say that my DNF rate is higher when I'm abroad than when I'm in the UK. Maybe different styles of hiding, maybe just the environment, the language, maybe some inhbitions about getting up to bizarre antics in a foreign country that I wouldn't have in this country.

 

Rgds, Andy

Edited August 19, 2011 by Amberel

[+mpilchfamily]

There are so many reason for a DNF. Ranging from the size of the cache, difficulty lvl, accuracy of the cords, how helpful the description and hints are, experience of the cacher, and weather or not the cache is still where its suppose to be.

 

In the first few months of caching i logged allot of DNFs. Over time they have diminished. Often the DNF is due to the cache being missing or its a nano that is very well hidden thus it had a 3 or 4 difficulty rating. There is one guy in my area that loves to hide some very evil nanos rated 4 diff. My DNF average on those is very high.

[+*mouse*]

I can go through spells. Sometimes it's weeks before I DNF something, then all of a sudden I'll go though a patch where I fail to find loads (recently I DNF's 4 caches in a day and didn't make a signal find). Most cachers don't log every single DNF so don't assume that what you see on the site accurately reflects what other people are up to.

[+NattyBooshka]

I didn't find one 7 times!

 

It was close to home... It was easy (it really was when I found it)

 

I only logged 2 or 3 DNFs because I didn't want to log more than 1 or 2 of their visible logs as DNF. It may put people off.

 

As it happens it was one of the easiest finds in 15/16 years of doing this... But I have strong reasoning to believe that it was not there on my first visit. I am quite proud of the seven actual DNFs though.

[+drsolly]

I am wondering what sort of hit rate other cachers are getting, as in number of DNF's to Finds. It's getting infuriating with the number of DNF's I am getting and am wondering if it's me being totally inept, or if the proportion is normal.

 

I had an entire series in Denmark (with the hint of "Tree") which I failed to find any of, before giving up and going for a bike ride.

 

What's your hit rate?

 

J

 

About 95%, I think. I'll usually spend 20-30 minutes before I finally decide I'm not going to find it.

 

I did one yesterday, after 20 minutes I was about to give up, when I decided to check somewhere *really* silly, and there it was, buried in the ground. When I looked at the log, it hadn't been found since June, and when I read the logs on the site, the cache had gone missing in June and been replaced. So, I think I found the original cache, and couldn't find the replacement.

 

It's always an extra buzz when you go back to a previous DNF, and find it. I did that a couple of weeks ago for one that I'd been to *three times* without finding it, and this time I spotted it immediately, in a very easy and obvious place.

[+Gushoneybun]

Our hit rate is a little over 95% (as our DNF's are around 4.8%) The DNF's range from ones where muggles were in the area through to blinding obvious caches right in front of us normally then found by five or six newbies straight after us

[+AbbieK]

I've got 45 finds and 14 DNFs (which are 9 different caches) {I think, my brain is a bit tired). I tend to cache in my local area, and have visited the same site 3 or 4 times on a couple of occasions, trying to find a cache.

[+mcwomble]

My DNF loggings depend on how far away from home I am.

If it's local then I'm of the mind that I've just not looked hard enough and I'll come back again. I'll probably only log a DNF on the 3rd visit or if I'm sure I've searched everywhere.

If I'm away from home then I'll usually log a DNF there and then, in the hope that the CO comes back with a reply. In one instance of a missing Church Micro, the CO replaced it within an hour so I called back in on the way back.

 

As for my cache hides, I have on which has approx equivalent numbers of Finds vs DNFs and I'm really not sure why? Even DrSolly had to make a 2nd visit!!!

[+drsolly]

My DNF loggings depend on how far away from home I am.

If it's local then I'm of the mind that I've just not looked hard enough and I'll come back again. I'll probably only log a DNF on the 3rd visit or if I'm sure I've searched everywhere.

If I'm away from home then I'll usually log a DNF there and then, in the hope that the CO comes back with a reply. In one instance of a missing Church Micro, the CO replaced it within an hour so I called back in on the way back.

 

As for my cache hides, I have on which has approx equivalent numbers of Finds vs DNFs and I'm really not sure why? Even DrSolly had to make a 2nd visit!!!

Which one was that?

[+mcwomble]

As for my cache hides, I have one which has approx equivalent numbers of Finds vs DNFs and I'm really not sure why? Even DrSolly had to make a 2nd visit!!!

Which one was that?

 

Sidetracked - Shenfield

[+Hawkins2.5]

Have had a look and I find the cache just under 90% of the time. DNFs account for 11% of my caching logs. It's been interesting for me to look at the circumstances under which most of my DNFs occur. 80% of my DNFs are micros or nanos, they drive me crazy! I only started caching in March so I still consider myself relatively new to this and I haven't yet got the hang of spotting the nanos in particular. My attitude is just to enjoy the area and the hunt regardless of whether it's a find or not. If I'm not liking the area I'm having to search then I just walk away, if I am enjoying it then it's worth it find or DNF.

Edited August 23, 2011 by Hawkins2

[+The Brat Pack]

Last weekend it was three finds and seven DNFs - but it was urban caching and two of the DNFs have had subsequent DNF logs from other cachers so I suspect they had been muggled.

[+Smurf]

As it happens it was one of the easiest finds in 15/16 years of doing this..

 

Wow . . You have been doing for 4 or 5 years longer than it has existed []

[+drsolly]

As for my cache hides, I have one which has approx equivalent numbers of Finds vs DNFs and I'm really not sure why? Even DrSolly had to make a 2nd visit!!!

Which one was that?

 

Sidetracked - Shenfield

Yes, I remember that one. Really hard to find.

[+Smart Mart +2]

I don't use GPS currently to find caches, just rely on logs and the decrypted hint. At first, my record was woeful and I remember a time when it was worse than 50%...

 

But I maintain that the more you do it, the better you get and get to sniff out caches whereas before you might miss them. I reckon I'm up to about 75% overall now but that is based on 90%+ recently.

[+FancoverFive]

It's rare that we have a day with 100% success rate. Bearing that in mind, our hit rate is probably somewhere around 60-90%.