Suggestions on GPS for Hunting

[Zingnut]

I have a pretty good budget to buy a new GPS unit that I will be using for primarily hunting and some roadtrips. I also need to be able to tranfer waypoints or POI to Google earth, USGS Areial maps and USGS Topo maps. I have been looking at units and narrowed it down to the Magellan Xplorist 600, the Lowrance ifinder Hunt C Plus, and the Garmin 60csx. I am in the Illinois and will be using the unit under heavy forest cover of the local National Forest Land. I am hoping to get some feedback on what people would recommend to me for my needs. If you need more info from me please ask and I will answer questions to narrow the choices down. I am not limited to these three units either if anyone thinks there is a better unit for me please say so. Thanks Jeff

[Champlain Islander]

I like the Garmin Vista and mine is loaded with the topo maps of various states I hunt. I like the unit because it is small and works real well. I don't usually have any problem getting it to track even under heavy cover. On some rare occasions when it is slow to lock I just move to a small break between the trees and it pops right in. I have owned an older Lowrance and it too worked well but didn't have the mapping capability of the garmin. Whatever unit you get make sure it will download maps. If you want one mostly for hunting then a smaller unit will be easier to use and won't get in the way. Good luck.

[huntingson]

The Gharmin Rhinos give you a great 3D GPS with roads, lakes,etc along with the 2 way radio capabilities. They are completely waterproof and made for hunting/oudoor use.I love mine. You can dowloadmaps and all kinds of stuff to them too ifyou want.

[jiggs jr.]

I own a Lowrance i Finder Hunt c plus. Like yourself my wonderful wife told me to get whaterver I wanted as a brithday gift in January, I love her. I had a GPS on my Christmas list for 4 years,watching how they have changed in that time is really amazing. I use the lowrance alot just found it hard to leave the house without it for about a month. it has a pretty good base map allready on the unit. I had the green light on buget so I went with topo map software and it is great, even has some long driveways on it! I shopped around online got the package deal to my door for under $400. good luck but give the Lowrance a good look. oh yeah one other thing it runs on AA batteries and uses a SD card the same as my camera does. The recharge AA are always ready, no waiting while the unit sits and charges. check them out.

[dynatec]

I also use the rhino 120, works real well.Dropped it in the river,no problems.You would do better with the newer 540 rhino,with a longer radio range I think of 10 miles.I use it in conjunction with map source.
The features like peer to peer make it stand alone as far as hunting is concerned.

[PurcellSportingGoods]

I love the Magellans! They been good to me!

[Zingnut]

Bought the Garmin 60Csx unit and it is very nice. I have been geocaching with it and have found it to be extremely fast at acquisition and holding of sat's under heavy canopy. I will begin to setup routes to my public land hotspots and treee selections. I am very satisfied.

~Jeff

[ButchA]

One word: GARMIN!!! I have the Garmin eTrex Legend and it is an amazing GPS! [8D] Packed with so many features and very easy to use. I love the fact that it has 8MB of built in RAM so I can upload/download waypoints and install the cool (butexpensive) topo maps to it.

[kshunter]

If you're wanting a unit only for GPS, and without any 2-way radio options, the GPSMAP60CSx is deffinately the very best hunting unit available. You've made a great choice, and sounds to me that you've done your research.

[Kamil]

i will second that choice for the lowrance i hunt c in color....an amazing unit...has all the bells and whistles..