What percentage of lost discs do you have returned?

[Zanguini]

Lost 22 Returned 2.... Found 6, Returned 4, gave away 2.


Normally i ask for it to be dropped off at the local pro shop. If it is there great... if not i have usually bought a replacement after a couple of weeks.

 

[jeffmonty]

I don't lose many, but I would say 75-80%. Most of the regulars all know me, and most of our courses have a lost disc drop box, so that makes it simple for people instead of having to call or track someone down. When I see that some people virtually never get any back, I wonder if it's maybe a regional thing.

 

[Tripper]

It really depends on where I lose them. If I lose one in the pond on my home course, Plastic Thunder gets them back for me 90% of the time. If I lose them at one of the several private courses I play, they are returned 100%. Well, not returned so much as left where lost discs gather. The ones I have lost on road trips never get returned. If I turn one over into the lake at Buckhorn, she gone! For typical local courses 10% is about right.

 

[ODRB]

Used to be almost all of them came home. Now almost none do.

Disc golfers are the worst.

 

[RFrance]

I've had 3 discs returned out of about probably 15 or so lost over the years. Two were returned by a call from the Suncoast Disc Golf Store who called me after they received them from the local lake diver trying to cash in.

 

[tbird888]

I can think of four that have come back, and two of those were from friends finding them. I've lost more than I care to think about. It still doesn't stop me from trying to return others' discs that I've found.

 

[TheLouisianaKid]

I always ink my discs with my signature, but I also never lose any.

 

[Broken Shoulder]

I don't put contact info on my discs.

It's too much of a pain in the a$$ trying to hook up with people to try and get them back.

If I lose a disc, it gets a moment of silence and I move on.

I usually lose one disc a year, so it's not a big deal.

Yup.
I quit inking discs a while ago.

 

[Moose33]

I don't get them back really. I always try to get them back to the owners but it's about 60% since many have no ink.

 

[ThrowBot]

I voted 10%, which might be a little pessimistic, but certainly 25% would've been far to generous.

Either way, a small minority of my lost discs get returned. Part of reason is that I'm typically pretty obsessive about going back to find my discs. I'll often spend>1hr in the search for a single piece of plastic. As a result, the ones that I lose and can't personally find are REALLY lost.

 

[Tripper]

My best lost disc recovery story was a putter I lost at Middle Creek DGC. I found it in a tree where it was stuck for 3 weeks only 10 feet off the ground.

 

[dysmike]

Pretty much the only discs I've had actually returned (in the last 3 or 4 years), were ones I gave away.. and the person I gave them to never changed the #. I really don't expect anyone to bother these days.

 

[Lewis]

In my experience it has a lot to do with what course I lose the disc at. From one local course I almost always get back my lost discs, but at others it's rare.

 

[ericb45696]

Oh sweet rationalization , how we love thee.

 

[XC_Eddy]

Oh sweet rationalization , how we love thee.

Pretty much. The logic of not returning someone else's disc because you haven't gotten all of yours back is utterly counterproductive.

The best way to get your discs back is to give others theirs back because doing so helps to facilitate a culture in which people return discs. It also is a good way to make connections. Disc golf communities in which a lot of the players know each other have a significantly higher return rate.

I get 90% of mine back at my 2 local courses in part because the person who finds it usually knows me. At the course I often play an hour from home the return rate is currently 1 out 3. Less established club over there = less established culture of returning discs.

 

[Dr. Bogey]

I get probably 50–75% of them back.

Lately I've had more people telling me to keep their discs when I find them. Used to almost never happen, now it's maybe half the time.

 

[kevdiv48]

5 to maybe 10% for me. The relatively obvious ones find their way back but have my fair share of odd returns as well. Have multiple where my disc has been found at a course I never played at before, indicating someone found it, didn't call, then lost it as well.

 

[deyo7]

Well I misread it.. I voted every time because I thought it was percentage that I returned.... not got back.. i skewed it, sorry. my actual vote would be zero, nada, neva get my discs returned to me... Despite my name and number clearly written on each one. WTH?

 

[SD86]

For a while, I got most of my lost discs back, over 50% return rate. The past year or so, almost none have come back; I think I got called about one Krait that the wind redirected into the lake. I ink all my discs with name and phone number.

Most unusual story with this was a white F2 Pro SL that I lost in or near the lake. Didn't find it, moved on. Some months later, in winter, a guy was trying to get a disc off the thin ice on the lake. This guy was going crazy, trying to climb a tree that overhung the lake to try to get a long stick on it. I tried the disc retriever with the string and another guy used a stick from the shore. We finally got the disc back and I asked what disc it was. He said he didn't know. When I looked at it, I saw that it was my lost P-SL, that he'd dyed over the name and number on the bottom and the unique marking on top. I didn't say anything; I'd abandoned my disc and he'd found it. If he wanted it so bad he was willing to do a complete dye job to eradicate previous signs of ownership, then consider it my gift.

Later on, I saw that same disc again, in the used bin at PIAS. I suspect he threw it into the water and someone else found it and sold it at PIAS. I didn't buy it back; I'd moved on.

As to discs I find, I always will call the number if there is one. Some have said I could keep the disc, some persons were in places like California, Wyoming, Texas, and Tennessee, and said I could keep the discs. Some I arranged to return; they sound grateful their discs were found, and Disc Stalker is good about holding discs for the owner to retrieve them. Some don't call back, like the person whose Groove I found in the middle of the fairway. If they don't call back or if the disc isn't inked, I own another disc...

 

[Disc Golf Doctor]

I was getting cynical about people returning discs the other day, but then I lost a teebird3 in an area that should have been easy to find. I was really frustrated, but about 30 minutes after the round I got a text saying it was found. I suppose it is the course I play at. It is a fairly nice course that attracts people from all over but also has quite a few regulars. Maybe it just comes down to which of those categories the people who find it fall within?