help picking gps for hunting
12-26-2007, 01:25 AM
#2
Spike
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location:
Posts: 7
RE: help picking gps for hunting
I got the Bushnell OnixCR for christmas....this thing is awesome. It's a lil over your budget at $299.00 but they make just the regular onix for 199.00 which has a black and white display instead of the color. I got it before christmas and have used it on a couple of hunts. The main feature of this gps is that you can download aerial images just like the ones on google earth and use them on your gps. It's really cool to see real life images of trees and creeks and fourwheeler trails as your using it. You can also download topo maps as well. I bought it from cabelas and was a little discouraged because it had some bad reviews but i got it anyways because having aerial photos on this thing makes it awesome. But it definently has some major disadvantages.
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/pod/standard-pod-wrapped.jsp?id=0045004&navCount=1&parentId =cat21350&masterpathid=&navAction=push& ;cmCat=MainCatcat602025-cat21350&parentType=index&indexId=cat21350 &rid=
The main ones to me are as follows.
[ol][*]The battery life stinks! After about 30 mins of constant use the batteries are drained. It has a feature called safetrack that puts it in sort of a sleep mode...and you can periodically check your position and mark rubs and waypoints and put it back in sleep mode. Doing this you can get 4 or 5 hours out of the batteries. To help with this i went to walmart and bought a pack of rechargeable batteries for like 20.00 bucks. With four of these i can make it through a whole days worth of hunting pretty easily, then just pop the batteries in the charger for the night and i'm ready for the next day.[*]Aerial maps have to be downloaded from bushnell and are the only ones compatable with this unit. The maps cost 1.00 a piece so this can get pretty pricy. There is an option for 79.00 where you can get unlimited downloads for a year which is what i did. Theoretically you could download pictures of the entire united states if you have the hard drive and the time. The good thing about the maps is they are embedded with lat and long coordinates and they automatically set themselves in your unit...so all you have to do is download them and they install themselves in the correct position and your ready to go.[*]The buttons on the unit are really hard to push. It's in a really rugged case and is said to be waterproof but the way they had to seal the buttons in the rubber to make them so really makes them hard to push. It's not terrible but it's a nuisence none the less.[*]The software and the user interface on the unit is not the best in the world. I've used gps's with a much better layout. With a little practice one gets used to it and it becomes kinda easy the more you use it.[/ol]
With all that being said...I DO NOT REGRET THIS PURCHASE. To me the aerial photographs make all the other negatives not that big a deal. I consider myself pretty computer literate and the same goes with electronic gizmos. Yes, the computer software is a little cumbersome and some of the features of the unit aren't that self explanatory so i could see someone with not much experience having trouble with it. This is bushnell's first try in the gps market...and over time with some fine tuning i can see them coming out with some really great units. Right now this unit needs some work and isn't perfect but to me the positives override the negatives and anytime i get frustrated with it i just say to myself "How freakin' awesome is the aerial images on this thing".
If your looking for a good reliable gps without some of these features you should check out a magellan or lowrance which have been on the market a long time and are very good units.
Lowrance makes the IHunt from which i've heard great reviews and was looking at before this purchase. It has hunter friendly features like markers for rubs and deerstands.
But all and all i give the Bushnell 3 out of 5 stars. It's not great but it's not terrible either. The aerial photos was the deal breaker for me. If your looking for more of a user friendly model check out the others, but if you want the aerial and think your experienced enough to figure out the user interface on the bushnell i say go for it.
Sorry for the lengthy review...hope this helps in your decision.
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/pod/standard-pod-wrapped.jsp?id=0045004&navCount=1&parentId =cat21350&masterpathid=&navAction=push& ;cmCat=MainCatcat602025-cat21350&parentType=index&indexId=cat21350 &rid=
The main ones to me are as follows.
[ol][*]The battery life stinks! After about 30 mins of constant use the batteries are drained. It has a feature called safetrack that puts it in sort of a sleep mode...and you can periodically check your position and mark rubs and waypoints and put it back in sleep mode. Doing this you can get 4 or 5 hours out of the batteries. To help with this i went to walmart and bought a pack of rechargeable batteries for like 20.00 bucks. With four of these i can make it through a whole days worth of hunting pretty easily, then just pop the batteries in the charger for the night and i'm ready for the next day.[*]Aerial maps have to be downloaded from bushnell and are the only ones compatable with this unit. The maps cost 1.00 a piece so this can get pretty pricy. There is an option for 79.00 where you can get unlimited downloads for a year which is what i did. Theoretically you could download pictures of the entire united states if you have the hard drive and the time. The good thing about the maps is they are embedded with lat and long coordinates and they automatically set themselves in your unit...so all you have to do is download them and they install themselves in the correct position and your ready to go.[*]The buttons on the unit are really hard to push. It's in a really rugged case and is said to be waterproof but the way they had to seal the buttons in the rubber to make them so really makes them hard to push. It's not terrible but it's a nuisence none the less.[*]The software and the user interface on the unit is not the best in the world. I've used gps's with a much better layout. With a little practice one gets used to it and it becomes kinda easy the more you use it.[/ol]
With all that being said...I DO NOT REGRET THIS PURCHASE. To me the aerial photographs make all the other negatives not that big a deal. I consider myself pretty computer literate and the same goes with electronic gizmos. Yes, the computer software is a little cumbersome and some of the features of the unit aren't that self explanatory so i could see someone with not much experience having trouble with it. This is bushnell's first try in the gps market...and over time with some fine tuning i can see them coming out with some really great units. Right now this unit needs some work and isn't perfect but to me the positives override the negatives and anytime i get frustrated with it i just say to myself "How freakin' awesome is the aerial images on this thing".
If your looking for a good reliable gps without some of these features you should check out a magellan or lowrance which have been on the market a long time and are very good units.
Lowrance makes the IHunt from which i've heard great reviews and was looking at before this purchase. It has hunter friendly features like markers for rubs and deerstands.
But all and all i give the Bushnell 3 out of 5 stars. It's not great but it's not terrible either. The aerial photos was the deal breaker for me. If your looking for more of a user friendly model check out the others, but if you want the aerial and think your experienced enough to figure out the user interface on the bushnell i say go for it.
Sorry for the lengthy review...hope this helps in your decision.
