Looking for a new GPS

C

Colorado_Lew

New member
Mar 4, 2014
189
This may have been better in the gearhead section.
I am in the market for a new GPS, looking at the Garmin Montana series.
Anyone have one or other suggestions?
 
Not sure what the difference between a Montana and an Oregon are, but I sure like my Oregon. You do see them on sale, too.

(I try not to buy anything that isn\'t on sale.)

That said, I don\'t think the big screen is as big of a deal as I thought it would be. Frankly, for what I do, my old eTrex was just as good, and, frankly, I liked the toggle button better than the Oregon\'s touch screen, especially with gloves.

So, I qualified my answer with \"for what I do\".

What do YOU do with a GPS?
 
Lew, do you have any sort of smart phone? A couple guys in my camp have Droids and they downloaded an app for $5 that was essentially a GPS and more. If you are interested, I could get you the name. I think Cabelas actually owns it. A heck of a lot cheaper than a new GPS too. I think because of phones, GPS\'s are going to become obsolete very quick, especially after seeing what this app could do. It will function without any actual service (in airplane mode), won\'t drain the battery, and it will pull full topo maps as well as track everywhere you have been. Pretty darn slick compared to our old school Garmin that I carry.
 
Ok, can one of you techno geeks can tell me how it works as a gps in airplane mode?, only way I can imagine is by inertial tracking.
 
I really don\'t know, but it must still be able to track it without service. Multiple guys in my camp used it last year and I know they didn\'t have cell service. The only thing you have to do is download the topo of the area before you go (while you have service). But all of the tracking can be done without service. That way your battery doesn\'t get drained either...
 
I have used some of the apps for iPhone which were free and they are OK.
The GPS that I have now gets me back to camp or my truck with no issues. I was interested in the hunting maps chip from Cabelas that runs on Garmin. My main reason is for the plat map feature.
Also I know that I could run that chip in my Garmin Nuvi and that may be what I end up doing.
My old Magellan is great for hunting and I only turn it on to check where I am at about 3 times a season.
The new GPS would be called for double duty on the water, and that is one of the reasons I am looking at Garmin with the optional mapping software that is available.
I have a bunch of points save up at Cabelas and it looks like I may just need to go back to the store and check them all out again.
 
I have old gps. It\'s a de Lorme PN30.
It works good, and has topo on it.

Got a question tho.

With the new touch screens, what happens if its raining and the screen gets wet?
I heard that moisture on the screen will make it do screwy things

Or what about if its cold, do you need to your gloves off to use it?
 
I have always been able to protect mine from rain ... so I don\'t know about that. Dew doesn\'t seem to be a problem.

As for cold ... yes, you need to remove gloves unless they have the touch-screen fingers (yes, you can get those now).

As above, I don\'t like the touch screen. I thought I\'d like it because the screen is bigger, and my old eye like \"bigger\" but ... nah, it\'s not that great of an improvement.

There\'s a sale flyer from Cabelas in my mail last night with a Garmin 62 on sale ... can\'t remember how much but it was quite a sale. I\'d pick that one up and not look back.
 
This topic has been helpfull. I was thinking I would like a newer GPS with a larger screen but hear some don\'t think it is worth it. I have a Garmin Vista CX. I am used to how it works and it has never failed me. I have the US Topo CD and can put the whole state of where I hunt on the card. I think I will just stick with this one for a while longer.
 
whats the name of that $5 droid app? I\'d be interested in giving it a try.

I really like my Oregon, but the screen on my cell phone is a LOT bigger.

I have a couple buddies that would be interested in that too.

shane
 
The app is the Cabelas Recon Hunt app. I just looked and it is $3.99. As I mentioned, I don\'t have this since I don\'t have a \'cool\' enough phone (employers fault, not mine ;) ) but from what I saw of this, it is pretty slick. Much better than the older Garmin that I carry around, and at a much better price point too!
 
Derek,

does this tool work where you have no cell signal at all?

in my hunt area, there\'s no signal whatsoever (today.....).

shane
 
Yes, you don\'t need service. Our area is the same way, but the app still worked great. I believe they set their phones on airplane mode maybe, but either way it was working fine and didn\'t drain their battery. The only thing is you will probably want to charge your battery each night, so you more than likely need to be returning to a camp where you have a vehicle and can plug your phone in each evening.
 
Lew, I picked up a Garmin GPSMAPS 62S over the holidays along with the Hunting xMaps chip. You\'re welcome to borrow it and check it out. I haven\'t done much with it yet. Curtis has the model up from this one and it has a camera that captures you\'re coordinates with each shot - pretty cool feature.

The Hunting xMaps also has an app for my Droid which is cool in case I forget my GPS. They gave me a free year subscription for my phone after I purchased the chip - they had a promotion after I purchased mine but they honored it like a month later. Very good customer service.

Russ
 
I got the gps hunt from trimble for my phone and it seems to work fine in WI. We\'ll see in CO this fall. Its free and a backup to my gps.
 
I\'ve just been using a cheap backtrack gps. That\'s just in case I get turned around and need it to get back to camp. What is a good base gps that isn\'t real expensive. I want to hunt close to some private land but don\'t want to end up on some guys land with a phat ticket. Will a basic gps show public/private boundaries?? Any help guys. There was a guy I met up in the mtns last yr and he had a cool gps unit. Even showed all the little trails in the mtns
 
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