Hiding our first cache, coordinates please?

[+TeamFarfoot]

We are getting ready to place our first cache. We have a location picked and were scouting it out today. Now as far as the coordinates... I have a Garmin 450 T and to get the coordinates of our intended cache location I marked it as a waypoint on the Garmin. I then walked about 25 yards away from the location and programmed in the saved waypoint. The only problem was when tracking back to the waypoint the Garmin had me about 20- 25 feet past the original waypoint spot. Am I splitting hairs over 20 - 25 feet of a deviation or should I be more precise?

Edited September 21, 2012 by TM Farfoot

[+Sharks-N-Beans]

I'm not familiar w/ your GPSr. Ours takes multiple readings and averages. You can do this yourself by taking several readings and average them yourself. Twenty five feet is a bit inacurate. Hope this helps.

[+Lieblweb]

Are you using waypoint averaging??

I know our Oregon & 62s had this feature. Yours might also..

[+niraD]

I'd approach from multiple different directions, preferably on different days (when the satellite constellation is in a different configuration). If the arrow consistently points to the same location 25ft from the cache site, then I'd adjust the coordinates and test again. If the arrow points to various locations in various directions from the cache location, then that may be as good as you can get given your device and the GPS signal at the cache site.

[AZcachemeister]

Stand at the cache location, and hold your GPSr at arm's length over your head for at least ten minutes before marking the waypoint (if you want the most accurate co-ordinates possible).

[+TeamFarfoot]

Thanks all for the great replies, my GPSr does have waypoint averaging so is I'll try that as well as averaging the different readings from different approaches. I wasn't sure if 20-25 deviation was normal but now I see that it is not. Thanks again!

Edited September 22, 2012 by TM Farfoot

[+dprovan]

Thanks all for the great replies, my GPSr does have waypoint averaging so is I'll try that as well as averaging the different readings from different approaches. I wasn't sure if 20-25 deviation was normal but now I see that it is not. Thanks again!

I'm not sure I'd go so far as to say it's not "normal", but, yes, you can do better (as long as there's no distractions such as tree cover), so thanks a lot for asking and then working at being more accurate. After two and a half years, I'm still surprised every time it takes my GPSr a few minutes to zero in on the real location once I've stopped walking towards it. Averaging is definitely very useful, but I only start the averaging processes after I've been in place for several minutes, otherwise I'd just be averaging in the less than accurate values my GPSr had before is settled down.

[+T.D.M.22]

My

GPSr programs the waypoint from when I save it, so if I walk 20 feet away from the cache before I save it, the point will be 20 feet away. And yes 20-25 feet off can be a HUGE difference, considering someone else's GPSr may be off by that much as well, that could give you 50 feet difference, which may bot be so bad when looking for a large non cammo'd container but if it's camo'd well or if its a small container it's a lot of extra places to look.

[+JoenGPS]

We have had great results (and logs) by these steps... 1) determining the hide spot, 2) walking away as far as you can go (min 50 feet) the further the better. 3) Walking back to the hide spot in a straight line as you possibly can, without stopping, to your target with your GPS in front of you. 4) hitting mark as soon as you hand is over the hiding spot.

 

4) Write down the coords. DO it !!!

 

5) Go find your own hide with the written coords (prevents transposition errors) and even better enter the coords in a different gps unit and go find it.

 

We have found a GPS in motion gives the best coords rather than averaging. Sue and I do this religously. We both use a Garmin Csx. (Had to get two to preserve our marriage ) Follow this and you will get logs "Spot on coords". Our coords rarely differ more than 1-5 feet.

 

Good luck and happy caching. Wishing you many good logs on your first hide!

Edited September 24, 2012 by JoenSue