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My son got his Garmin GPS today and we went searching. We were in the forest with the points entered. Walking on the path we read so many feet and dirrection to the find. We walk to that point to get another reading.
I checked the number of satalites and found we had 5 or 6 each time.
Have used my GPS on the boat and neve had this problem. We found openings in the trees for best readings and never did we get solid point.
Any suggestions?
thanks for reading

Reception under tree cover is always subject to more error than when you have a clear view of the sky on the water. The best accuracy you can expect from recreational grade GPS receivers is +/- 3 metres (10 ft) under ideal conditions. Under tree cover or in difficult topography accuracy will be much worse.

For geocaching once you're close it's better to put the GPS away and start thinking about where the hide might be.

Thanks for the answer,
I do understand the search and find, but when the GPS tells me I need to move 70 feet south, and I do so. After I move the 70 feet south and the GPS tells me to go 300 feet north.
I just find it hard to find anything in a woods when this happens. How do we find a point we can trust?
thanks

There's not an easy answer to the problems you're seeing under tree cover. Check on the type of antenna your unit has and the preferred orientation to get the best reception. This used to be a simple rule of holding units with patch antennas flat and quad antennas vertical but is more complicated today with new antennas of different types.

Some folks have resorted to using external antennas mounted in their hats or on poles to get the best reception. Most folks I think develop a sense of when to trust the reception and when to ignore false readings due to multipath and other issues.

There are literally thousands of caches out there in forests and they are found regularly

I think problem lies in the antena