TEmbry

pends on how much land you hunt.....200 acres?? you should be able to walk it with your eyes clothes half drunk......a couple square miles up in canada, id be stayin at the truck if i didnt have one if it was dark. in the daylight you should always be ok without one so long as you dont walk a long long way.

that being said, i just got one and use it every time i go fishing now....wherever i go, if i hit a hotspot i save the coordinates, so ill always know where that spot is. i have spots here in kentucky on rivers and lakes, all the way to offshore spots down in the gulf. im sure ill be saving some hunting spots in there come fall.

skeeter 7MM

I don't leave home without a GPS anymore, it may not be requiredeverytime but I like to have it none the less. I do a lot of hunting the forest and fringe areas thatis pretty thick and even though I may have been hunting it for years previous, things change every year and especially in low light the ability to turn on my Garmin and get an instant handle on my location/where I want to be is something I have grown to really like. I use rechargeable AA's but always carry spare reg AA'sJIC. I also carry a compass as well. Besides maps/topo, routes, waypoints, etc. I like the sunset and sunrise times for the exact location I get and push of the button. Mine also has a electronic compass soI can get bearing reads without moving which i find useful for hunting purposes.

whitetaildreamer

I suppose that it would be a good idea, especially if it is a new large area, or you are the the type of individual that just has no sense of direction. A guy that I hunt with sometimes is like that (great guy and hunter but boy does he get turned around). I hunt a huge area (northern interlake Manitoba) and if you get turned around there are no roads till you hit the tundra but I have never felt the need to use one for hunting (I had a guy from PETA once try to follow me into the bush to mess up my hunt. I took that boy so far into the bush that it took the RCMP and Consevation 3 days to find him. Don't think he'll do that again). As for finding a tree stand in the dark, hey it's not like the first time I've been there. With the amount of scouting that I have done before I place the stand I've been there as well as the area in general many times before. If I wound have to rely on a GPS I believe that I wouldn't have done enough pre-hunt work. My first stands are a good mile and a half from where I park my truck and I have never missed being in themwell before first light. So is a GPSa need...NO, it's just another toy, but I guess there is nothing wrong with another toy. (he who dies with the most toys wins).

Champlain Islander

You said it all. The same goes for me.

Predator26

QFT

tatonka

They are absolutely, 100% necessary.......if you don't have one, how are you going to remember all theplaces with the prettiest girls (ok gals, or guys ? With a GPS, you can plot them right there and maybe find them there again.

lucas_flesher

Ive been thinking of getting one myself, but I cant get the info I need to determin which one would best suit my needs.

I definatly want a contuor map of NW;if not all ofMontana,
I want to be able to plot known locations; tree stands, exc.
Reverse path,
Color screen,
Internal compase,
I dont care if it has radio or com. radio, thats already covered.
Decent batt life,
Palm size,
I also want to be able to down load info from it to computer and viseversa
If it has a road map of sorts that would be fine
$599 is prolly my limit
I have no prefrences in brand exc I once used a magelan vehical road system that was realy cool,

If your experianced with one tell me (us) about it

8mm

i say no u dont need one because if u know the woods u hunt or the stream u fish u should not have to have something to tell u where it is just like a scope on ur rifle dont need that if u can shoot

Phil from Maine

I have always used a compass and have not used a gps though I have been thinking of getting one my self. I would be using it mostly to find certain areas that I have hunted where it is hard to get back to the same spot. Or fishing where I can mark the spot I want to find every time I head out.. I would be considering the delorme earthmate line of gps though and I know the PN-20 is what I would get unless others make a few new changes..

ButchA

I have a Garmin Legend (the blue one) GPS and like it. It works great, does what I need. It came in real handy when I first got it and brough it to the deer camp. I hiked up the main trail and far as I could go, marking popular intersections with other trails and other landmarks. Then I downloaded all those waypoints onto the computer and pulled them up and reviewed the images. Very cool... I printed off a copy of it and gave it to the guys at the deer camp. They think it's awesome and really handy.

Granted, I hunt in the George Washington Nat'l Forest in Virginia and it's all public land, but still, it's huge.... If you are not familiar with it, and/or go off the beaten path, you could very well get turned around and into trouble.


Butch A.