JD
I've been metal defecting for a few years now. I've been in areas where I've searched an area pertty good, and then went back and searched it again. I've found coins and relics but never a cache. With the thousands of people that metal detect you just don't hear of to many people finding a cache, and very rarely a hoard of silver or gold. I use dowsing as a tool to put me in a area where the odds are much better of finding something, weather it be a coin or ring or possibly a cache. You say you might of missed targets, but you can also miss them with a metal detector. I've been out some days and only found a few cents before I started dowsing. Places where you would not believe people have been. But than you get in there and find where someone has been digging. Now If I dowse it before I go in, and I don't get to many hits I'm not going to spend to much time there. I will move on to another place where I'll get more signals. I don't care how it works, it works for me, I'm doing much better.
Rich