My group wanted range and went to the pros at a Communication shop. All the ones you buy over the counter at Bass Pro or Walmart are limited to roughly 5 watts and thats on a good day. It will be line of sight and in woods don't depend on much more than 1 mile. We went with models that were in the $400-$500 range still only 5 watts and guess what? We got maybe 1.5 miles.By law thats all thats out there. At work we use $2000+ radios and when talking unit to unit without a repeater we get less than 2 miles consistently.

Bottom line is this:
(1)5 watts is 5 watts.
(2) Line of sightjust that line of sight.
Without a repeater you are not going to get more than 1 maybe 2 miles under best conditions. Buythe $80 set that has the features you like and you're about as good as it going to get. Now if you hunt the same land all the time and have the place and money for a repeater (and required permit) you can have a system set up that will get you 5-8 miles. However get your check book out.