How often do you DNF caches?

[+phillies26]

I'm not talking about logging them, although you should do that, I mean how often do you look for a cache and not find it? Lately I've been thinking that my family and I seem to do it a fair bit even though we've been caching for 6 years. So yeah, I was just wondering if it's more common than I think or if we're just lagging in our caching skills, haha.

[+Flintstone5611]

Well, we started logging all our DNFs pretty early on in our career, we saw the value in it very quickly. We currently have 276 DNF logs, I would add another 25 or so to account for the late start and any that we missed, that would be about 8% of the time or about 1 in 12.5 geocaches. I know we have had better and much worse days though!

[+crazypig88]

I'm not talking about logging them, although you should do that, I mean how often do you look for a cache and not find it? Lately I've been thinking that my family and I seem to do it a fair bit even though we've been caching for 6 years. So yeah, I was just wondering if it's more common than I think or if we're just lagging in our caching skills, haha.

For me, I usually DNF something every five or ten caches. I once DNFed four caches in a row and decided to go home after that.

[+wmpastor]

I've got a fair number of DNFs, but my average time to find caches is going down. I find some tricky ones now (especially disguised containers like hollow bolts) that I never would have found two years ago.

 

Take a look at online pictures and videos showing unusual hides. That way your mind will be looking for more possibilities.

 

Finally if you're stumped and get a hint that hugely narrows down GZ (eg, it's in the last 10 feet of the guardrail), you can "brute force" it. You go inch by inch and examine *everything* from *every* angle, & don't assume *anything* is what it appears to be.

[+jwmoe1973]

Depends. Some days are near perfect. Others... My most memorable day was finding a 3.5/5 that had only been found once in the two years since it was published. My hardest find yet at the time. After finding it, I planned to sweep my map of several 1.5/1.5 caches but DNF'd all of them that day. Seems I used up my luck on that first one.

[+BAMBOOZLE]

We log all our DNF's and I'm guessing that would amount to about 5%. My wife and I cache as a team and each of us has a GPS unit so that helps. For a cache that we spend a lot of time on I'm tempted to log 2 DNF's....it would more correctly represent the cache status.

[+Chrysalides]

For me, I usually DNF something every five or ten caches. I once DNFed four caches in a row and decided to go home after that.

I can relate to that

 

My rate is currently 11.3%, calculated as (DNF) / (DNF + Found).

 

Worst DNF streak : 7 consecutive DNFs, no find. Apparently a cache thief just went through the area a couple of days before me.

 

That tied with most DNF in a day with another outing, but that day I had 58 finds, so it didn't feel as depressing.

[+T.D.M.22]

Depends on the day. I've been known to touch and step on the cache and not find it, but I've also found a cache in 5 seconds that others spent 15 minutes on. Sometimes it's just luck...

[+Sagefox]

I have kept a spreadsheet of all our caching activity for the past 13 years. Our dnf rate has remained constant and never varied by a full point:

 

7% of total cache attempts result in dnf when the cache is in place and findable.

10% when missing cache dnfs are added in.

[+niraD]

My DNF logs total almost 9% of my Find logs.

 

Take that for what it's worth. There are some caches that I've DNFed that I've never found, and there are some caches that I've DNFed multiple times before finding.

[+Isonzo Karst]

You can get see your DNF count here

http://www.geocaching.com/my/logs.aspx?s=1&lt=3

 

In a 2005 thread, I recall reporting that my DNF rate was about 10%. Now about about 6% overall.

 

Rate down because I now cache rather selectively. Early on, I hunted everything - put myself in the way of urban micros that I was either going to find fast, or DNF fast, not comfortable with those hunts. Now I don't do those hunts.

[+coachstahly]

I"m at about a 10% DNF rate. One of the things I like to do is to find a previous DNF for the vindication on my end that some days, you just don't have it and some days you do.

[+MountainWoods]

Overall I'm probably close to 40% to 45% DNFs to Found Its. I tend to take things too literally. Since this is supposed to be a GPS-bsaed game, I go heavily by the coordinates, and then look for the usual "where would I put it" hiding place. But so many times the coordinates are 50 to 100 feet off that that kind of thinking just won't work. To keep from letting it frustrate me, my maximum search time (another topic!) is 20 minutes. Or less if the cache was supposed to be Difficulty 1 or 1.5. I do better with caches that were placed using a GPSr to get coordinates.

[+Heimdall5008]

According to my statistics I have about 6% DNF quote. As I do not log every DNF (sometime I write a note, or a NM, or write a mail directly to the owner) and I often DNF multipletime at the same cache (and only log it once, if there was no change), I would say that I do not find every 10th cache.

 

On multis most of the time it is a calculation error or a wrong understood question...

[+Harry Dolphin]

Still running just over 10%. Of course, I can trip over a 1/1 and not find it.

[+Isonzo Karst]

I do better with caches that were placed using a GPSr to get coordinates.

 

I'm guessing you mean GPSr as opposed to smartphone?

Funny because this thread got me looking at my early DNFs, and a lot of them were due to really bad coords, all from GPSr.

Loose coords have always been part of the game. Of course, the GPSr units and firmware in 2002 and 2003 weren't getting coords as good as what you can get from a smartphone now.

I'm not convinced that the smartphones are at issue, as much as the sheer volume of new hides by new cachers, who don't know how to use whatever is they're using.

(There were caches placed with units that only refined to Minute hundredths. Those were serious hunts.)

[+Pork King]

After taking out events and locationless caches, my DNF to F on actual physical caches is about 7.2%. The actual number might be slightly higher, based on a couple of caches that I may have forgotten to DNF and those caches that I DNF, but then go back to and find before I have a chance to log everything online.

[+hzoi]

According to my logs, around 10% of the time.

 

Sometimes, at the end of a caching day, I will just run out of patience and call it off. I didn't use to log those, I log them now. So my percentage is likely low.

[+wmpastor]

The lead question in this thread asks about percentage of DNFs, and mine is probably in the neighborhood of 10%, about the average of replies here.

 

The between-the-lines question is how we can improve the find rate. One way is to go back another day. That help me & others greatly. A search reaches a point where frustration/boredom/fatigue sets in. Leave and return. My most recent DNF was found when I returned two days later in *different lighting.* The cache is well-camoed and extreme sun-glare from one key direction prevented me from finding it the first time.

 

There's one nearby DNF that I know I could "brute force" if I had an hour to waste searching every crevice. Not doin' it!

[+kunarion]

I was just wondering if it's more common than I think or if we're just lagging in our caching skills, haha.

Taking a straight DNF/Finds ratio in my Profile and considering no other factors, I have 32% DNFs. If I was with a group, someone found it, and who knows if that would otherwise be a DNF, where my percentage would be even higher. I'm really bad at Geocaching. If I was with a group, they all said so.

 

It's a good thing I still have a bunch of cards left.

 

Edited October 26, 2014 by kunarion