This topic contains 16 replies, has 12 voices, and was last updated by 
CEOandJ 10 years, 6 months ago.
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Here’s the question. When your out hiding a cache, what’s the standard or rule of thumb about how far or how close do you take your readings or marking the waypoint?
I can see standing off a bit in like an open field, don’t want to make it too easy. Now standing too far away in the woods or even many urban area’s makes for thousands of possible hides. I know that many GPS’s are suppose to be good to with in 20ft. Now if GZ is taken 15 – 20ft away that makes for even more hides (unless your GPS 20ft zone happens to place you right on the cache, unlikely).
I stand within 1 foot of the container. I would guess that 98% of the hiders also do.
I suggest standing at the coords. Bad coords don’t make for a harder cache but clever hides with great camo, containers and locations make great caches.
Following the signals from space.
What Chris said. He is of course our fearless leader.
Following the signals from space.
Put some clothes on!
We have a CO out here that purposely has coords as much as 60′ off “just to make it harder”
They have several hundred hides like this and do not maintain them!
You never know if you can’t find one because the numbers are bad or if a critter got it. BTW, pack rats are much worse on containers than raccoonsTo stay on topic, since most hides out here are on the ground, I stand above or as close to the hide as I can & pray the reception out here is good. Mountains are terrible on reception!
The best sig is no sig.
I recently had a discussion with someone about how to take coordinates with waypoint averaging. Some people stand in one spot and wait for their GPS to settle, others walk around the hiding spot and do a few laps. I wonder which one is better?
Not all who wander are lost. -J.R.R. Tolkien
IMHO, it can depend a lot on if there is an obvious beacon or not. If there is a hollow log or stump that is the hide spot, and it is the only one nearby, the final coords could be 30+ feet off and it wouldn’t cause a problem in finding the cache. Now a micro in the woods could be a bit more particular. taking sets of coordinates by shooting initial coords and walking a distance away and returning a few times can allow you to average those readings and feel pretty good about the numbers. I have know those who would take several sets of coords over several days/weeks to insure that it wasn’t just the way the satellites were working that day that gave good or bad coordinates. Overkill perhaps, but then again, maybe not.
Disclaimer : Always answering to a higher power.
I personally always use the waypoint averaging function on the GPSr and always hold it against the container because; like someone else mentioned, the difficulty should be about how well it’s hidden, not where it’s hidden. The idea is to have people find the containers after all.
The idea is to have people find the containers after all.
I personally always use the waypoint averaging function on the GPSr and always hold it against the container because; like someone else mentioned, the difficulty should be about how well it’s hidden, not where it’s hidden. The idea is to have people find the containers after all.
Ditto!
Oconto...the birthplace of western civilization:)
I stand as close to the container as possible, then I usually set the GPSr down or hang it from a branch above the hide while it averages.
All opinions, comments, and useless drivel I post are mine alone and do not reflect the opinions of the WGA BOD.
GPS receivers were far less sophisticated when we started in 2006. Our first 3 units were all Etrex Legends which were quite accurate. I got into the practice of taking 3 readings for each hide we placed. After each reading I walk 20′ away and then go back and take the next. After the last reading I walk away and then walk back. Then I see which one is closest to the hide and use that one. We have 3 different units now that will all average waypoints. but I have found that to be no more accurate than my method so I still do it the same we. Our hides have a reputation of being very accurate.
GPS receivers were far less sophisticated when we started in 2006. Our first 3 units were all Etrex Legends which were quite accurate. I got into the practice of taking 3 readings for each hide we placed. After each reading I walk 20′ away and then go back and take the next. After the last reading I walk away and then walk back. Then I see which one is closest to the hide and use that one. We have 3 different units now that will all average waypoints. but I have found that to be no more accurate than my method so I still do it the same we. Our hides have a reputation of being very accurate.
I did it the same way but would take 6-8 waypoints before averaging…sometimes would throw one out that seemed out of line with the rest.
Oconto...the birthplace of western civilization:)
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