Technique for Geocaching with a "real" GPSr?

[+FlashJT]

Background: I started geocaching last November using a TomTom car navigation GPSr that displayed the coordinates of my location. I would just print off the coordinates for several caches and head out. I found this method to work really well for me. The only problems with it: crappy battery life on the TomTom, and no paperless geocaching. So a new GPSr was needed....

 

I just recently bought a Oregon 450, and really like the unit from the short time I've played with it. The whole idea of having an arrow point to the cache location and telling me how far it is away is very nice (compared to just walking until two sets of coordinates match up). I'm just wondering if there's a technique to geocaching this way that I'm not picking up on, because I'm actually finding it a little harder to geocache this way.

 

While out on Saturday, I was at a cache and the pointer seemed to be all over the place. It would say it was 12ft to my SW, then after I walked that way a little it would tell me it was 9ft in a different location. Even when I finally found the cache it said that it should be 7ft in another direction. I never really had this problem with the TomTom. Once I got the coordinates to match up, I was almost always right where I needed to be.

 

I wasn't under a particularly heavy canopy.... definitely nothing that the TomTom couldn't work it when I used it. I also have the latest firmware so I'm hoping this isn't the so called sticky problem. I know a GPSr only has a certain accuracy, but I would certainly hope that my $300 Oregon would be better than a <$100 TomTom auto GPSr.

 

Anyone have any suggestions on how to cache better with a "real" GPSr like this? Is this just normal GPSr behavior (am I crazy to think it should go close to 0ft when I'm at GZ?)?

[+StarBrand]

The generally accuracy of our handheld units is around 15 to 25 feet under most normal conditions. Once you are inside of that radius - the readings can seem quite erratic and shifting as the the sats move overhead. Best advice I have is to put the unit away and start looking for likely hiding spots. The handheld dedicated units can recalculate position frequently and once you are well inside the accuracy - they just don't do much better. What you describe is quite normal.

[+Hasty Javelinas]

As mentioned above, once you get inside the error radius the GPSr itself tends to get a little jumpy. Normally what I do is once I am within error, if I have not already spotted the cache, I will just stop right where the GPS pointer tips over and starts telling me to go in a different direction, and search in small circles from there, not really utilizing the GPS at all.