Who to blame? The cacher? The GPS? Moi?

[Alansee]

Rainbow Spirit said: "No one is the perfect cacher, everyone gets some DNFs, even the most experienced fail sometimes!"

Sometimes? lol Try regularly!

I have developed a little saying - "SYFASYD" - Some You Find And Some You Don't!

Experience helps but every one I speak to agrees that sometimes you walk straight up to a cache, and the next person can't find it, and vice versa. It actually wouldn't be quite as much fun if you found them all straight away - the hunt adds to the challenge and the satisfaction of finding.

My find rate on a second search must be about 90% - "How did I miss that!" Although one cache did take me FIVE goes! (Geometry by maccamob)

[Yurt]

Based northern Sydney we do most of our caching although in the past few months I've been a regular traveller to Perth and Brisbane and have managed some solo caching there. Interesting to compare - I find in Perth they can be quite tricky and have recorded my fair share of DNFs there - although I have to proudly say I've been back and found all of them on subsequent trips! That must give me extra points on the "obsession index"! In Sydney it's variable but there's so much bush and sandstone around, in the north at least, that it can be pretty challenging - also some nasty nano hiders out there! In Brisbane I haven't done a lot and have limited my caches to those with travel bugs - I usually do a swap to put kms on them - but of the small number (15?) I've never had to look for more than a minute or two. Not much in the way of rock (caves, crevices) in the places I've been so the hides have been fairly apparent on approach. No comments on elsewhere as I haven't had the pleasure yet.

Anyway just my two bobs.

[Tuena]

Well if you have reached level three on the DNF ladder then I am definitely on level one. I religiously record DNFs to the extent that I am now the 4th (best) in NSW & the 11th (best) in Australia, or at least I was the last time I looked . Recording DNFs has its advantages as owners have sent me unsolicited emails pointing out exactly where the caches are & on one occasion, the owner acted as my guide (TDC). IMO if you cache as a Team or in a family group you will have less DNFs than if you cache alone. If I haven't found a cache within 10 minutes then interest starts to wain whereas a family of five would have spent the equivalent of 50 minutes searching. I view caching as an interest, with both DNFs & finds leading me to places I may not have ordinarily visited. As to the "easy find" comments I saw one recently where the cachers, having spent 30 minutes looking, concluded that it was an easy find - sure. I view these comments as a bit of a stir. If DNFs are getting you down (they have that effect on me occasionally) then add GCA locationless caches into your mix. I particularly like Bundyrumandcoke's 'only the lonely' & 'ramshackle & rundown' ones as they are well suited to rural areas where hidden plastic boxes are few & far between.

[Richary]

Yurt - my DNF ratio always climbs when I go to a new place, and I do a bit of interstate travelling for work and was in NZ last week on a holiday. I think you get to used to the hiding styles and places where you are. A new place means different plants or rock formations (whatever) to hide them.

I heard Ballarat was nasty because the first cacher there was into really nasty hides, so other locals followed the lead because that was what they thought it was about. Don't know names or anything.

Still I log DNFs if I have had a good look. Hmmm be interesting to go back to my Wellington DNFs and see if they have been found since.

[caughtatwork]

I religiously record DNFs to the extent that I am now the 4th (best) in NSW & the 11th (best) in Australia, or at least I was the last time I looked .

Australia:
http://geocaching.com.au/stats/cachers/ ... _not_finds
http://geocaching.com.au/stats/cachers/ ... inds_ratio

NSW:
http://geocaching.com.au/stats/cachers/ ... _not_finds
http://geocaching.com.au/stats/cachers/ ... inds_ratio

[Big Matt and Shell]

http://geocaching.com.au/stats/cachers/ ... _not_finds

Now thats one graph you don't want to be on top of...oh....hang on!

[Geodes]

It's educational to compare the graphs of highest dnfs with the equivalent graphs of highest numbers of finds - in the main, they're a pretty close matchup (i.e. more finds => more dnfs). It makes it pretty easy to get an idea of the teams that don't log their dnfs

[CarrollEyre]

Hmmmn sometimes I blame the tool especially since I starting using two GPSr's to determine co-ordinates. I found that the challenges of finding co-ordinates in steep, tree infested, cloud clogged conditions forced the tools to make guesstimates of where they were.
The accuracy of 20+ m is to be taken with a grain of salt, the differences in reality were sometimes over 250m ..... .However the Magellan and the Garmin happily agreed with each other when the accuracy was under 5 m....
That is why two of my caches have really descriptive clues.

As for DNF's, I prefer to receive DNF's as it gives me an excuse to check on the cache.

[Yurt]

Finally got back and found the nemesis cache, it was a question of 'digging', through leaves that is. Found another previously DNF cache the same day which was also under leaves. I've seen a few that are difficult in this way - especially under garden mulch (like "Who planted this cache?") and pine needles.

So now I've only got 3 DNFs left to find (currently). Glad we didn't get any DNFs while in Canada recently! It's a long way to go back.

[Shael6636]

I started caching in March this year, so far I have logged over 16 DNF's.

At 1st I dint log them all but now I log every single one, as I ahve hidden my own caches it gives you a much better idea on whether or not you need to updated the description of the cache, which I ahve had to do with one of my caches as no one seemd to be able to find it (even though I though it was an easy find)

A lot of my DNF's come down to a combination of the GPS,myself (usally cause I didnt spot the obvious location) and sometimes though rarely it can be the Cache placement.
Most of the time I just try to think "where would I hide it' and that usally helps but not all the time (check out my log for Dour Blows! Cant belive I missed that one the 1st time

The best thing is going back to a DNF and actually finding it, the satisfaction is very rewarding but then there is a cache in perht that I just do not wont to go back to after 3 failed attempts with both of my regular caching partners I just couldnt cope with a 4th DNKF on that one