Has this become a rich man’s game?

[K0rpl]

I still have my Garmin GPS-12XL.

I haven’t used it for caching, but with Stacy being Broke, I think I may have to!!!

[sandlanders]

@K0rpl wrote:

Well, it appears that Stacy has directed me to her last cache, and has went to a place where she will be granted her wings!…

…The injuries appear to be fatal, however she has lived a good Life.

The Wake will be in the Very near future, with burial to follow as a new cache container.

RIP Old Girl! You will be Sincerely Missed!

I thought Stacy was more than “broke”.

[sandlanders]

Back to the topic…

We use our yellow eTrex H that we got a year ago. We don’t do tons of caches, so we’ve kept things on the cheap except for gas. The receiver gets us close to most caches, just once in a while giving us fits with now five feet, now forty, etc.

When it was consistently off, we found that the coordinates were off because other cachers would mention that in their logs. Usually we start looking for obvious spots when we get close to GZ.

When placing a cache, we find our spot, back off, go back, etc., a few times to get some readings, maybe 5-7. Then we average those to get our coordinates to post.

We even hand enter coords. when searching for caches–tedious, but it’s something we can comfortably do rather than going through a bunch of bells and whistles with receiver and computer.

[Miata]

I have used my neighbors Garmin 12 ans found it yo be better under tree cover than my Garmin III. I’ll give ya twenty bucks for it. 😉

[Timberline Echoes]

Our Megellan’s are the original ones that we bought when we started 4 years ago. Did grab 2 little Garmin Foretrex as they were on sale for $69 and we use them often to teach Geocaching classes.

We would be richer if we did not cache.. most our money goes into gas…

TE

[TyeDyeSkyGuy]

Roger, you’ll do just fine. We’re used to the idea of your coords being a little off, and are prepared for it when we go hunting them. 😀

If you want to hide some caches, and are not sure on the accuracy, come grab or GPS before you go. That ay you can compare coords and do a better average.

[shrek and fiona]

well when I put a cache out and every one says my cords are off well I reply with my gps was spot on when I placed it
it must be yours that is off.

[Trekkin and Birdin]

Ours must be off too, shrek and fiona, cause we find yours and the coords are usually pretty good!

We’ve been out caching with groups of friends, all of us carrying the exact same unit. And amazed at how far off we can be from each other!

[Vegas Gamblers]

Wow, this GC thread was just started. You have company with the use of the GPS 12.

http://forums.groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=202982

[hogrod]

@Vegas Gamblers wrote:

Wow, this GC thread was just started. You have company with the use of the GPS 12.

http://forums.groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=202982

I just saw that too, LOL.

[Team Deejay]

Ya know, I remember someone who used to have this webpage which espoused the idea that you should measure coordinates by approaching your new cache from 8 different directions on 3 different days and then averaging the 24 values. For some reason, I can’t quite remember who it was who made this suggestion, but I remember thinking it was a pretty good idea. I actually used that for my “Get Your Free Maps Here” cache with my etrex, as well as most of my other caches. I wonder whatever happened to that guy…

[Barry Butrymowicz]

we started with a gps 12 back in 04 and used it a year and a half, most of the caches we placed in that time are still out and being found from time to time, we always used the adverage feature and let it settle down to under 10 ft accuracy. It will take somewhere around 200 readings to get to that point, but it will be damn close to GZ for the new fangled GPS’s. we are still using our GPS72 we bought in early 06 and it treats us well yet

Barry and Valarie of sweetlife

[GetMeOutdoors]

What I hope you don’t run into is those (hopefully) well-meaning cachers who say, “Oh, I found it but the coordinates were way off. We moved it to where the coordinates pointed us which looked like a good hiding spot” Usually those are only in the woods in the middle of nowhere. I haven’t personally found any of your hides yet (regrettably) but I get the feeling you’re hides have a more unique character anyway and aren’t the typical ammo can in the tree crotch.

On the GPSr issue, despite the fact that Mathman makes fun of me, I have a magellan explorist that I got for $150 and I’m very happy with it. It’s certainly not the “top” of the line but it’s also not that expensive. There’s only been a couple times where it’s been off by 60 feet or so for the whole day… sun spots or something.

Don’t stop hiding even if you don’t upgrade. Like the other guys said, if it’s off, someone will let you know. Depending on the source, you can just update the coords on the listing.

[rogheff]

@Team Deejay wrote:

Ya know, I remember someone who used to have this webpage which espoused the idea that you should measure coordinates by approaching your new cache from 8 different directions on 3 different days and then averaging the 24 values. For some reason, I can’t quite remember who it was who made this suggestion, but I remember thinking it was a pretty good idea. I actually used that for my “Get Your Free Maps Here” cache with my etrex, as well as most of my other caches. I wonder whatever happened to that guy…

You know I used to have something like that on my Groundspeak profile page when I first started. That is basically what I did in the beginning – you know back when my coords were consistantly waaaaay off. Go figure.

I still do try to average the coords as much as possible, but never over several days. I do walk a hundred feet or so in several differant directions, then record and average the coords.

Thanks for everyone’s comments. I think I’ll place this cache, but will mention on the cache page (not that anyone reads the cache pages) that it was placed with this particular GPSr so be prepared to hunt.

This cache that I’m thinking of placing will be the most complicated, most expensive cache I’ve ever placed. It won’t be a micro either. I can’t come back to cachign after a six month absence and place a pill bottle in the crotch of a tree, now can I? 😈

[Lostby7]

@rogheff wrote:

This cache that I’m thinking of placing will be the most complicated, most expensive cache I’ve ever placed. It won’t be a micro either. I can’t come back to cachign after a six month absence and place a pill bottle in the crotch of a tree, now can I? 😈

Be sure to share the listing when it goes live…..

[Author]

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