GPS units for hunting

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dgannaway

New member
HI guys, new member to the forum. So, I am looking at handheld GPS units, how are you using yours? I am planing to expand my hunting to a new area that has flood timber and marshy backwater off a large river. I want to be able to map out some spots but mostly just have it for peace of mind. Tell me what models you are using and how well the base maps cover river systems and such

Thanks Dan
 
I have had the Map 76 about 6 years now and love it. It is a hand held mapping GPS and after owning it I would never go back to a non-mapping GPS. I used it out on Long Island Sound (console mount & 12 Volt power cord) for fishing and big water hunting. Knowing were you are within 14 feet is incredible. Having the complete set of charts for the sound loaded into it is unbelievable. I have located wrecks miles off shore in a mater of minutes. Finding rock piles to fish is almost unsporting.
Deer hunting: the 76map is right at home in the big woods. Topo map loaded it's off to the big woods of ME. It tracks new tote roads that you can transfer over to your computer or onto your hard copy topos. We drive the new logging roads with the tracking on to locate these new roads. In the non-mapping days we just kind of sketched them in but not very accurately. My buddies can give me their stand co-ordinates so I can plot them on my GPS and know where they are, both for safety and to give them elbow room.
The unit is a true marine GPS, it’s waterproof and floats. It has tide info along with the normal sun and moon charts. I’m getting older now and added a larger screen unit to the boat, a Garmin 172. It uses the same blue charts and I could upload tracks and way points from the Map76 into the 172.
I do wish the Map76 had more memory (S-unit has 3 times as much). A couple of years ago I contacted Garmin to see if they had a memory upgrade for the map 76, no luck.
Magellan units have memory cards, which would be great, but I have never messed with one of their mapping units. Memory cards sound like a great feature. Scott
 
Scott filled you in on those new fangled things. I have a round thing that points North. It's never let me down. Before that you might be confused for a few days ,but never lost as long as the sun comes out. You can always use your muzzle loader to start a fire to keep warm. Glad to be of help. Welcome to the site.
 
Dan,

Welcome to the forum! I've got a couple different units. I've got a Magellan Sport Track that works very well, I bought it to replace my Map 330 that died when my computer locked up while trying to do a firmware upgrade. I wouldn't recommend anything but a mapping unit that you can download detailed maps into. My Magellan has 16mb memory (no card, built in memory) available to download detailed maps, this is enough for me to load the entire state of Iowa which is where I use it mostly. If I need anything different it only takes a few minutes to plug it into the PC and change it. If I were doing a lot of traveling out of state I'd look at one that accepts memory cards. I use my unit for work occasionally, it's kind of handy to setup a route to a jobsite on the PC, load it into the GPS and use it to help find the turns.

The map coverage of the base map vs. the downloaded details maps is night and day. The base map doesn't show near the detail of the back waters of the Mississippi river as the downloaded maps.

Another nice feature is the backtrack, you can use it to help you find your way back or you can print it out on the computer for a paper copy. This has worked well for me when I've taken it along to look at some hard to find jobsites, if another crane operator gets sent in my place I can give him a map to find it.

As far as battery life goes my Sport Track is a lot better than the old Map 330. I get about 8-10 hrs. on the Sport Track vs. the 5-6 hrs. I used to get with the 330, they both use 2 AA's. I think some of the Garmins are advertised to run 20-30 hrs. on 2 AA's.

I've also got an Eagle Fish Elite 480(I think the model is right) fish finder/GPS unit in my boat. I needed a new depth finder last year so I bought one that would do both to eliminate one extra thing on the dash. The Eagle has a port for a SD memory card rather than having to hook it up to a computer. I haven't invested in the Eagle software so I don't have a comparison of the downloaded maps against the basemap.

Hope this helps and like Wispete suggests, carry a compass and a map even with a GPS. Batteries go dead and GPS units can fail. I talked to a guy who did search and rescue work with his Golden Retriever out in Wyoming, he said they have seen an increase in people who have gotten lost out in the boonies with just a GPS, no maps or compass.

Jim S
 
I'm hard on GPS's. I've had two Magellan handhelds die after less than a year, the last was the 330M. I bought a Garmin Map 300 or something, supposedly waterproof, died after it's first exposeur to rain. Sent it back and for $50 in shipping and handling, got another one, it too died after it's first exposeur to rain. Now I've got a Magellan Fortex, I bought for the Peregrine and also to double for Turkey hunting. I've left it in the rain, day after day. Forgotten about it. Go turn it on and it works. I've had it for at least 2 years now. That's a good GPS. Very basic, tiny screen, but it's dependable.

Ed.
 
Ditto, stay away from the little Magellans. I love the Garmin on my Grady White but had nothing but trouble with the little Magellans. I'm back to compass and chart on the duck boat and having no problems with those.
Best,
Harry
 
I've used both the megellin explorist 100 and 200. The map data works well for where i hunt (costal Va). I did have some trouble with the 100 after one year but the 200 has been well worth the money.
 
I got a lowrance I finder hunt c bundle last year that would not acquire satelites so I returned and had another one shipped next day air so I would have it in time for an out of state hunting trip, only to have the screen malfunction on the replacement. The funny thing is that I passed the lowrance factory on the way to Texas, my hunting buddies found this quite amusing. When I got home I returned it .
 
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