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Author: Golden Owl Hunter
The game measure
I go along with the generally accepted theory that the game measure is 33cm.
The third clue enigma 780 talks about ‘where you must by the compass and the foot.’
The ‘foot’ most likely refers to ‘pied du roi’ , and it the word ‘step’ in the title also hints at this measure. A common value was close to 33cm.
The visual shows a compass. The compass has a diameter of 10.5cm, which Max confirmed. The method to work out the perimeter of the circle = 2 x Pi x radius, where the radius = diameter / 2 = 5.25 cm and Pi = 3.1415, or about 22/7. So, the perimeter of this compass is 33 cm.
The 33cm measure fits very well with the measures mentioned in the book, to give neat whole numbers eg. 185km rather than messy numbers like 176.457889km!
Other ideas for the measure
Some people think the measure is the compass AND the foot, so 10.5cm + 33cm so 43.5cm.
The historic measure the ‘foot’ had many variations over the centuries, as this French Wikipedia page devoted to the ‘Pied’ shows. The 74 cm foot is used by some owl hunters.
The word “measure” appears in the puzzles. 500 , 420 and 650 , as well as an additional clue : ” For good measure, there’s only one in the book ” .
What we know about the owl’s location
Max revealed many details about the location of the buried owl.
The general area where the owl is located
The cache is more than 100 km from the French coast.
The cache is at a lower altitude than mountain snow.
The owl is not on an island.
In a humorous mandit Max also ruled out a few places the Elysée, Matignon, the Bourbon Palace, the Senate, the Palais Brogniart, and Ginette’s bar in Mourmelon.
The place to dig
It’s public land, not private grounds.
It’s accessible at all times (except in extreme weather conditions.)
The immediate vicinity of the cache is on a less steep terrain than 20%.
The cache is more than 50 m from a human construction (this covered buildings, tarmac roads etc. but excluded molded or carved objects such as statues or standing stones.)
The cache is more than 150 m from private land.
The cache is more than 25 m from water.
The cache has no remarkable features, it is innocuous, Max left nothing on the site to mark that it was there.
The cache is in the open air not covered (so it’s not in a cave or similar.)
The owl is neither on a path, at the edge of a path (2 to 3 meters), nor is it in a ditch or at the centre of a crossroads of 2 paths that intersect.
The owl is not in a graveyard.
The owl is not buried at the foot of something and it is not backed by anything, you can go around the hole without encountering any obstacles, even spreading your arms, there is nothing within 2 meters of the cache.
The cache can not be pointed at the precise map because it is too small, but by checking things on the precise map it is clear where the cache is on the ground.
The cache is easily and quickly found. There are no “tricks” once you reach the location, there is no reasoning to be done on the site.
If you dig at night to be safe from witnesses, it is better to find the cache in the day.
To unearth the owl, Max Valentin thinks it will take 30 to 45 minutes.
You can not find roots by digging up the owl.
We do not see the site in any of the clue pictures.
See also
The final stage- The Super Solution