Surge Philosophizes About Disc Golf, Volume II: Returning Discs

[Surge5]

Yeah, finally back to this again. Got time on vacation so here we are.

These are my personal rules for when I find a disc:

If the disc has a name/number, they get a text basically immediately on the course. If they respond we sort out what to do with it. If no response I text again a few days later and possibly call. After that it goes to one of the local shops, I don't take it.

If the disc has no name/number, I post on the local page saying "Found a *disc color* at *course, hole number.* Name the mold and I'll return it to you." Works about half the time. If it goes unclaimed for a week I will either throw it or give it away. Feels scummy to me getting used disc credit for it so I don't do that.

It's rare I find a disc I'll actually use that goes unclaimed (cause if a disc is good they usually want it back). Only significant one has been the Grace I used for about a year. Snagged a birdie on the cake hole from the longs at Eagle's Crossing with it.

Your personal rules?

 

[Thomashasfun]

You're a better man than I, I admit.

First thing I do is call the number, if no one picks up I leave a voice mail, and send a text. If they don't get back to me in 24-30 hours it goes into my "throw away" pile for throwing off of mountain tops and courses with lots of water. If they get back to me after 30 hours and I still have it I'll get it back to them if they are willing to come to me or find a suitable meeting spot not too far from my place or course I visit frequently. My philosophy is that it's your disc, and your responsibility to come and get your disc back, not mine to drive all over hell's half acre or jump through hoops to get it to you. If they respond but are iffy about picking it up/don't get me a good time/date/location to get it to them then same thing, goes in the throw away pile. I did my job to call you and offer to get it back to you, now it's your job to come and get it. If it doesn't have a phone number (or email but that's pretty rare) or some other way to contact you, a name is not good enough and off to the throw away pile.

Side note: Too bad War Eagle is banned (not really) or maybe it was Katana, can't remember been 15 years now he would have had a field day with this one lol....

Edit: It was Katana and not War Eagle, doesn't matter though just 2 old trolls from years and years ago.

 

[jupiterboy]

I had good luck early on but our local FB return page is a screwed, and I recently had a guy contact me with a disc but after three weeks of comms and him not being able to tell me where to pick it up I'm getting skeptical.

I do return a bunch though. Easiest if you catch the person still on the course.

Some people are very paranoid about meeting I suppose. Some, like me, really are not worried and are happy to have a disc back. All kinds of people out there. Idiots gonna idiot.

 

[Surge5]

I do return a bunch though. Easiest if you catch the person still on the course.

Found three in one round. One drove back to the course as we were finishing, one got dropped off at a shop, and one was uninked and is possibly going in the bag after a week on FB.

 

[Surge5]

Which direction would Katana go @sillybizz? I found it it's mine, or always return discs to the shop no matter when?

 

[Thomashasfun]

In which direction, @sillybizz? I found it it's mine, or always return discs to the shop no matter when?

You seem to go the extra mile for lost discs like it's your duty. To me it's an inconvenience and find that a majority of people don't put the effort in or expect you to put the effort in to get them their disc back. Good on you, I remember when I was more like that but now I'm old and jaded and... you know WHAT?! WHO ARE YOU TO QUESTION ME LITTLE BOY?! I GOT SHIRTS OLDER THAN YOU!!!!!!!!

I kid, I kid

 

[Thomashasfun]

Which direction would Katana go @sillybizz? I found it it's mine, or always return discs to the shop no matter when?

Oh Katana haha sorry I read that post completely wrong lolol must be the flu meds. I think he was on team "finders keepers" IIRC. Mostly he just made the same thread over and over with similar titles like : "Would you return DX discs?" or "Would you return a disc in water?" threat titles like that over and over and over and over and over and would troll those who said they would. If memory serves me right (and frequently it doesn't, keep that in mind) he got into it with someone who accused Katana of stealing and they got into it pretty hard until they were banned but I don't remember who the other user was. War Eagle was on here panhandling for paypal money saying he'd return it later lol.

I'll do some digging but the search engine here is garbage now and I think this is all landfill or who knows where.

 

[Thomashasfun]

A few gems I found of Katana:

If you throw your disc in the creek or pond do you expect
someone to call you and return it if you have you name
and number on it.


i do not

i do not expect a call if i throw my disc in.... if i get in to get some ones disc out i view it as mine because i worked for it
same for anyone that finds my disc on land or water i think thats how everyone should view it
maybe i should call but i view it as too much work to meet up with someone i dont know for a
15$ investment at the most

Alot of you say 14-17 dollars isnt worth my time to look for it longer than
30 - 45 mins but how come you think people should allways call if they find
your disc returning ones takes that much time sometimes.

if you found a disc that was cracked would you return it?

yes
no
i would glue it back together and use it at a tournament

everyone like the thread until this post.
you all just jump on the band wagon.

yes if they put there name and number on a disc means that they want a call.
but also if they wanted that disc back bad enough they would have looked until they found it.

leaving it on the ground is as bad as not calling.

 

[Thomashasfun]

Stupidest thread in DGCR history that doesn't involve War Eagle.

^ Fantastic haha

Sorry Surge you asked.

 

[lee76007]

My approach, if you have your contact information on it, I'll do what I can to get it back to you. I'll start by calling on the course, and followed by a text hoping their still on the course. If not, arranging a hiding place, I've dropped off a few that were on my way home, and a few that picked up at my home. A very few I wasn't able to reach the owner.

If their is no contact information, the disc is mine. I don't do hoops and hurdles, and I don't expect anyone to do it for me . I've only kept one of those discs, the rest traded in at PIAS. Here's a few fun finds.

My first disc found less than 3 months playing, on a heavily wooded course was laying perfectly against a log in C1. A Roc with no contact information, but on the back the dates of two Aces, the oldest had been 8 years ago. At the time I hadn't lost a disc, and thought why would someone just leave their Ace disc here. Eventually I figured out that someone had also found the disc close by, and left it in plain sight hoping the owner would come back by, and here I came by not having a clue about getting a disc back to someone. I had it for a few months until it became one of my first lost disc.

The same course a year later my most bizarre find. On the F9, 7 Latitude 64 discs stack neatly on a bench. Looked very new, no contact information. It looked like they were abandoned or gifted who knows, weird. I had my 7 year old grandson with me, no room in my bag or his. I knew nothing about the brand, maybe their duds left them there. If that was today, I'm carrying them out.

The only disc I kept. I'm walking under canopy, wind blowing 30 mph Plus. Dropping from the tree about 50 feet in front of me, a Pro Destroyer. Used it for a few years, before losing it. I've found a few others along the same fairway over the years, with strong wind blowing, raining disc.

The most comical find, thick fog can't see 200 feet in front me, fog horn blaring. I can hear "has anybody found my Wraith", "Did someone lose a Heat". I found a new Teleport, so I start yelling "did anyone lose a Teleport". I can hear people yelling, fog horn drowning us out, and can't see anybody. Throw your disc into the fog, and watch it disappear. The whole scene was funny. No one claimed the Teleport.

 

[DavidSauls]

On a public course, I save myself the moral dilemma by not taking the disc, to begin with.

If there's contact info in the disc I'll call or text it, because I've often found that the owners are still on the course. Otherwise, I'll leave it -- usually where I found it, or nearby, on the grounds that the owner may come back to search for it.

I don't need or want more discs, and there's about a 1% chance that any disc I find will be of any use to me, anyway. And it's impractical for me to be returning discs -- I live a long way from anywhere, and don't frequent any particular courses enough to arrange to meet someone.

 

[zontar]

I will call, leave a voicemail and a text. then I will likely give it away to someone eventually. as David said, it's very unlikely it's something I want. Fairways and midranges I'll likely keep and experiment with, though

 

[HyooMac]

On a public course, I save myself the moral dilemma by not taking the disc, to begin with.

If there's contact info in the disc I'll call or text it, because I've often found that the owners are still on the course. Otherwise, I'll leave it -- usually where I found it, or nearby, on the grounds that the owner may come back to search for it.

I don't need or want more discs, and there's about a 1% chance that any disc I find will be of any use to me, anyway. And it's impractical for me to be returning discs -- I live a long way from anywhere, and don't frequent any particular courses enough to arrange to meet someone.

I'm probably closest to this in my approach, because most of my play is bagging courses that are increasingly distant from home. So if it leaves the course with me, I'm expecting to have to mail it.

When I hide it on the course, I'll take a few pictures to guide them if they respond after I leave.

I'm not against mailing though - I've benefitted from a half dozen or so being returned to me that way. I always offer to reimburse and I appreciate it when others offer the same to me.

I have an SE Fission Wave that was quickly returned to me after losing it at Quaker's Challenge. I still use it on most rounds, and sometimes remember how fortunate I am to be in is subset of society that looks out for one another.

 

[BogeyNoMore]

On a public course, I save myself the moral dilemma by not taking the disc, to begin with.

If there's contact info in the disc I'll call or text it, because I've often found that the owners are still on the course. Otherwise, I'll leave it -- usually where I found it, or nearby, on the grounds that the owner may come back to search for it.

I don't need or want more discs, and there's about a 1% chance that any disc I find will be of any use to me, anyway. And it's impractical for me to be returning discs .

This is pretty much what my behavior has evolved to.

 

[DavidSauls]

We have a private course, which is an entirely different story. We're dealing with way too many discs to contact everyone, not to mention return them. So we post descriptions on our Facebook page in batches, and pull out the lost & found for events (or dig through it if players visit at other times, and ask). After 2 or 3 years, we start poaching or selling them, because they're filling up a storage shed.

(Mostly due to a pond that people just can't help throwing discs into).

 

[HyooMac]

A friend of mine leads a local club, and takes responsibility for Lost and Found returns covering a half-dozen courses. Watching him on FB, this seems to me to be a special ring of Hell. Reminders, dealing with special requests, posting times and locations for returns, dealing with people who suddenly pop up asking for long-lost discs, etc.

It seems like no matter what rules you state and live up to, somebody's gonna call them unfair.

Some people are just jerks. Credit to anyone who tries to do the right thing, regardless.

 

[aclay]

My philosophy is simple: If there is a phone number, I text from the course, usually a picture of the disc. If I have not heard back before I leave the course, I drop it in the lost disc box if there is one; if not, I take it with me. I have more than 100 courses within 50 miles of my house, and I rarely play a course more than 4-5 times a year, so it's unlikely I'll be back at the course where I fond the disc anytime soon.

I'm willing to make some small effort to return the disc, but It's up to the owner to do most of the work at that point. I made a return trip to a course near my house to leave a disc in an agreed-upon spot, but I'm not doing that if it involves a 40-50 mile drive.

If there is no phone number, I keep the disc. If you didn't care enough to make it easy for someone who found it to contact you, then you clearly don't care about getting the disc back.

My phone number is on every disc I throw, and I've returned WAY more discs than have been returned to me.

 

[PastorofMuppets]

I used to put in a ton of effort to return discs... text, call, meet up, mail them, hold on to them for them till convenient, etc. It became cumbersome and like a second job trying appease everyone's unique request to return their discs. Unless I personally know the person who's disc I found I'm not putting in much effort. I will text the number on the back with a picture of the disc when I locate it and finish my round. If I have heard no response by the time I leave the course, the disc is going in the lost and found (if they have one) if not, the disc is going next to #1 tee pad. I send a text saying where I left the disc, and go on about my day. It shouldn't be my burden for coming across your disc. You left it, it's your problem. I don't put my number on my discs anymore, though I do mark them for identification, because no one ever calls or texts me anyways. Maybe I'm just jaded and burnt out from the entitled people demanding you jump through hoops to return them their discs?

 

[biscoe]

Number/email on disc: text or email once. No response=eventually given away.

No info: given away much more quickly.

 

[Surge5]

Email? Is this 2003?