Its Official-we suck at this

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bohart
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Joined: 02 February 14 6:41 pm
Location: Stockleigh 4280 QLD

Its Official-we suck at this

Post by bohart » 01 March 14 7:35 pm

So on our first hunt we went to one site and found the cache. It felt great and we were so excited we bought lots of little goodies, including ones to take overseas to say the hunters had been from Australia.

Today we picked four sites, most were marked easy and many comments about recent finds and how easy they found them. We found nothing. Even with hints. Even using google earth for satellite to see if we had missed the "significant clearing". Nothing. Nada. Zip.

Yes, we saw some lovely and interesting spots but to not even find one. Hubby is walking around with a face long enough to stretch to the moon and I am hot and tired.

I know we will try again but if anyone out there has succeeded at Jedfire, Scooby Doo where are you, George Philp Bridge or the new Forest of Histories in the 4280 area, please feel free to let me know exactly where they are so I can work out what we are doing wrong.
Thanks for the rant- I feel better already. ](*,)

Bohart (thinking of changing to SeriouslySuck)

ian-and-penny
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Re: Its Official-we suck at this

Post by ian-and-penny » 01 March 14 7:37 pm

what device are you using to find caches with?

bohart
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Joined: 02 February 14 6:41 pm
Location: Stockleigh 4280 QLD

Re: Its Official-we suck at this

Post by bohart » 01 March 14 7:38 pm

Ipad with metroview. I know we are finding the correct locations, we're just terrible at spotting caches.

ian-and-penny
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Re: Its Official-we suck at this

Post by ian-and-penny » 01 March 14 7:49 pm

bohart wrote:Ipad with metroview. I know we are finding the correct locations, we're just terrible at spotting caches.
You may suck at the moment, but you will get better at it.
I suspect that the inbuilt gps/compass of the iPad is not as accurate as you think. You could be some metres away and miss the cache entirely.
If you you decide to continue the hobby you should purchase a proper GPS. You will definitely find that location accuracy will be much better.

bohart
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Joined: 02 February 14 6:41 pm
Location: Stockleigh 4280 QLD

Re: Its Official-we suck at this

Post by bohart » 01 March 14 8:09 pm

Thank you, after reading your reply we are already searching for a better app to use.

crew 153
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Re: Its Official-we suck at this

Post by crew 153 » 01 March 14 9:53 pm

I have sent you an email. I have a few clues as to finding these caches.

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Bundyrumandcoke
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Re: Its Official-we suck at this

Post by Bundyrumandcoke » 02 March 14 7:53 am

I am not convinced that any smartphone/tablet/ect device is as good as a stand alone dedicated GPS unit. I have around 2800 finds since 2006, from all states in Oz, found almost exclusively with dedicated GPS units- Garmin GPS60, and GPS60CSx. With the experience of all those years, I generally get very close to GZ first time around.

Last week, I searched for a simple, out in the open cache. I only had my smartphone with Geocaching app to search with. It eventually got me to within about 10 metres of GZ, and I stumbled on the cache from there. My Garmin would have taken me straight to it.

Also, what Terrain/Difficulty were the caches you failed to find? Start out nice and easy. Look for caches with rating up to 2 or 2 1/2. Don't go looking for caches- especially ones with difficulty ratings over 3 or 3 1/2. These can be difficult, obviously, and the higher the rating is, the harder they are to find. You will get used to it as your experience level grows.

crew 153
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Re: Its Official-we suck at this

Post by crew 153 » 02 March 14 8:45 am

Looking at the caches which you have picked to find.Some of them are not the easiest to find.

One is a fake bolt which is 10-12m away from the posted coordinates. One is a puzzle cache which is easiest to be done at night. Another is a small cache which is well hidden if you are a beginner.


As a beginner I suggest you should be looking for small/regular size caches until you get accustomed to looking for caches. You should also look at the Difficulty and Terrain ratings and pick ones which are 2 or less.

I agree that the apps in smartphones etc appear to be accurate enough for most caching. You have to ensure that you do not have the maps locked onto the roads.


If you want any more information on the specifics of the caches which you have been looking for give me a call. I have found the 3 older ones but not the new one yet.

bohart
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Joined: 02 February 14 6:41 pm
Location: Stockleigh 4280 QLD

Re: Its Official-we suck at this

Post by bohart » 03 March 14 6:17 pm

Thank you all for your replies, you have given us plenty to think about. I would prefer not to be purchasing much more until we get into it.

To the person from Calamvale- that is exactly what I needed. We are picking easy caches in area we know reasonably well but have been looking for the wrong sort of things. I already have a better idea as to how well these are hidden.

And to all, I apologise for the delay in responding to your kind hints. As per normal, when one thing goes wrong- others follow. It has been a couple of nasty days.

Bohart

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the Monkey King
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Re: Its Official-we suck at this

Post by the Monkey King » 03 March 14 10:19 pm

Do try some virtual caches found on Geocaching Australia - some can be a challenge, but they are great fun too.

crew 153
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Re: Its Official-we suck at this

Post by crew 153 » 05 March 14 4:14 pm

Bohart

I see that you have not yet activated your Profile on the www.geocaching.com site.

This is important so that Cache owners can contact you through that site.

Wimad1101
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Location: Central Coast

Re: Its Official-we suck at this

Post by Wimad1101 » 07 March 14 2:22 pm

Probably a litle late, but I currently get by with Locus on my Galaxy SII. It's good for the easy finds but I have to read the hints, past logs and then think outside the box for anything over a difficulty of 2. This is because it gets me to within 5-10 metres of the cache and it's HUGELY annoying not knowing which way to turn to find what i'm looking for.

I currently have 30 caches which isn't much but am about to get a Garmin much like what has been suggested because as a hobby, this gets awesomely addictive. Don't give up!

toy hunters
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Re: Its Official-we suck at this

Post by toy hunters » 07 March 14 4:26 pm

I agree that iPad/iPhone devices are not the best thing to be using - I usually use them when I go somewhere and want to see if there is a cache nearby. If you want a cheap but efficient GPS to start off with, I would suggest the Garmin eTrex H. You can't download cache descriptions into it, but it is accurate and easy to use. As a member of club BCF, it cost $100 - not too bad.

Good luck with the caching, as stated before - you will get better.

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