Specified Coordinates

[+archeangelsk2002]

hello folks,

tis' ye olde balde headed archie here

okay guys and gals, i have a question. is it common practice to hide a cache upto 100 feet from the specified coordinates. myself and lostfool went caching saturday and sunday. we both did prety good on finds, but, we ran into a cache the really tripped us up. we found the cache, not by its specified coordinates...but instead nothing less than pure dumb luck. the cache itself was placed 134 feet from the coordinates. it was not an offset cache it was a traditional ammo box to be honest, im not even sure this was the cache we were actually looking for, all i do know is that my etrexlegend and lostfool's lorance both zeroed us to within 9 feet of the coordinates but nothing was there. after an hour we stopped searchingf and were leaving then i spotted an ammo can back off in the brush 134 feet away.

regards

ye olde balde headed archie

[+º]

Nope - that's not common practise. Just contact the owner that his coords might be off.

[+ShowStop]

Sometimes solar conditions, bad weather and other factors can cause bad readings. Depending on the experience level of the hider, they may not have known their coordinates were that far off. This is the reason why GC.com allows you to post coordinates for your find. If a cache has alot of user posted coords, then the original posted coords might not be that accurate.

[+CompuCash]

as was stated - coords could be off but 100' is pretty far - not that I'm an expert but never seen 'em that far off.

 

if the did it deliberately then there should be some note to that affect.

 

For instance, I hid a cache recently and had only a few birds - was concerned about my numbers so mentioned that on the page.

 

I even got a sarcastic note - 'sure enough you had bad coors.' Well DUH!

[+Kai Team]

It would be very bad form to deliberately hide a cache at a location other than the stated coordinates (not talking offset caches here).

 

As others mentioned, the coordinates may have been accidentally inaccurate (I've seen coordinates off by 80 feet), which is why it's good practice to average several readings when you hide a cache. Some GPSr's have waypoint averaging built in, but this approach is almost as easy:

 

Set a waypoint at the cache, walk off 50-100 feet, come back and set another waypoint, walk off in another direction come back and set a third waypoint, etc. Then manually average these waypoints to get the most accurate reading (depending on the accuracy of my GPSr when I hide a cache, which depends largely on the terrain where it's hidden, I'll average 3 to 5 waypoints).

 

It's also possible that someone moved the cache from its original location (no self respecting geocacher would do this, but caches are sometimes found and messed with by the uninitiated).

 

In either event, I would post your coordinates in your "found" log and, if you think the cache may have been moved, email the owner so that they can check it and relocate it if necessary.

[+Ed & Julie]

I have seen caches placed in dense tree cover, with the coordinates pointing to a

clear spot with a note stating "the cache is 40 feet west of the coordinates due to heavy tree cover".

 

There may be several reasons for your find being so far off. If the finder had a bad GPS day, and you had a bad GPS day, the coordinates may be way off where you believe it should be.

 

Just make a waypoint and add it to your log. It might alert future caches that the coordinates may be off, and yours may help. Or the next cachers may say "Nope, the stated coordinates were spot on".

 

Ed

[+Robespierre]

Remember the "sun spot" thread. Check for it. Anyway, there are supposed to be some problems this summer. The last cache I placed was on a day with 50' accuracy the best my Garmin would admit to. The first two to attempt it were 100' off or more, but I showed up to shoot the coords again at just the right time when the second guy was about to leave. So we went back together and after he found it, we did a thorough check on the coords and corrected them. Even then, some have trouble, so I put a plastic marker in the 200' vacinity to let people know they're in the right direction.

I want people to find mine. Proper coordinates are my responsibility.

[+Imajika]

It could also be that a muggle found it and moved it. Or a new cacher found it and placed it where his/her GPS "said it should be" (which happened with one of my caches once. The new cacher moved it 45 feet!).

 

I would just post a note to the cache page and let the owner go check on it.

[+NightPilot]

CompuCash, the thing to do is take an average over a couple or 3 days to get good numbers, especially if you know you have poor satellite geometry. At least walk away and come back a few times to get some sort of average. Otherwise you can expect the notes, and shouldn't be surprised or offended.

[+Allen_L]

I alway use the theory if I find it the coords are good enough.

 

Note I have found one where my GPS said the coords were 600 feet off. Had to use the hint on that one.

[+AtoZ]

Where you both using the same DATUM as the cache posting? If not then that can account for the differance. Around here one cache use a benchmark, very accurately placed none of this poo poo GPS stuff. And all complain it is so far off well the benchmark is NAS27 and everyone is using WGS84 I have heard some caches are placed with NAS27 so maybe not sure but I know here in CO the differance is approximately 40 meters or about 135 feet. Just a thought.

cheers

[+LostFool]

Man, I gotta get to these forums more often than this! Pardon my very late arrival to this topic. But...

 

For what its worth, yes, we were both using the same DATUM as was posted on the particular cache. We always check, re-check and then double check all the particulars when doing any cache. (Paperless caching is SO cool!)

 

Arche and myself were just wondering/pondering about this back when we were first teaming up and had stumbled across a particular cache. And all of the above is very true. Atmospheric conditons, weather conditions, DATUM, and even muggles can all affect cordinates of a cache.

 

Thoughout time tho, we've come to learn that a Geocacher within our locale has a inaccurate GPSr.. guess a resistor in his GPSr popped somewhere along his trails, so anytime anyone does one of his caches now they know to add/subtract about 30' to get close. Hope one day a event cache here can gather enough tips to buy him a accurate GPSr.

 

-- Lost Fool

"Never Underestimate ..."

[HIPS-meister]

I think it's entirely correct to presume that, if you can confirm that the coordinates are 100' off, some error has probably been made. Simply notify the cache-owner privately, providing the coordinates you received especially if you are confident of your own reading. Every cache owner seeks to provide quality-control, as do the reviewers, but mistakes do happen.

[+JMBella]

How old was the cache. Were there other finders on it? I think 2 or 3 times I have found caches more than 100 feet from the coords. It's probably not intentional. Next time just take a WP of the cache and post it with you online log. I usaually do that if it's more than 30 or 40 feet off.

[+Pork King]

The cache is not near an airbase, is it? We got an airbase close to here. The birds train alot, and during landing and takeoff, the airbase scrambles GPS signals for the area. Makes readings go screwy sometimes.