Hand held GPS?

[Axle2010]

Hey what gps do yall use? I've never used one and I don't need anything crazy or fancy, I'm not going to hunt alone in New Zealand or anything. I'd like to use Garmin since I just ordered the xero1 chrony so maybe they'll sync (for what reason honestly idk) and I'd like to stay under $600, I don't care if it's handheld or wrist mounted. So what do I need to knew and what do yall suggest? Thanks for your help.

 

[Rifleman97]

I have a Garmin eTrex 22x. It’s “okay”. It’s kinda slow, sometimes annoying to use, but it works well other than that. If I had the budget for a nicer one I would look past it, but it’s handy for us budget guys doing backpacking, far far better than nothing. Battery lasts a good while too. As long as it’s not on constantly it’ll easily last a week or two even in cold temps if you use it wisely, checking it semi frequently but not having it on and lit up constantly. Highly recommend it if you don’t have a handheld gps and don’t want to go crazy on spending. It’ll get you where you need to go.

 

[Mekaniks]

Garmin Inreach Mini.

It works as handheld GPS that pairs with your phone. Also has texting feature that works from anywhere in the world. I have used mine in Antarctica, Northern Alaska, Namibia, Caribbean....

If your looking for handheld stand alone unit (does not pair with your phone) then the Garmin 78 is hard to beat,

I have both and have used both extensively, but mostly just use the Inreach mini the last few years.

 

[375er]

Garmin GPSMAP 67i. I have one and it served me well.

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

I recently got a Garmin GPS Map 65s. I mainly got it for "almost as good as surveying." I tried using an iPhone to try to establish a straight line between known surveyed corners on a wooded piece of property I have in Oklahoma. An iPhone gives me degrees, minutes and seconds. Unfortunately, one second of longitude at 35 degrees latitude is +/- 83 ft. One second of latitude is about 101 ft. You can walk around 20-30-50 ft and the coordinates on the iPhone won't change

The Garmin GPD 65s gives degrees and minutes, with four decimal places. Gets me within a foot or two accuracy. You can move a foot or two and the coordinates change. I wish it gave seconds and then a couple of decimal places, but I can do the math and make the conversion. I walk through the thick woods with flagging tape, flagging every 10-20 ft and can keep a straight path to the next corner. I've done this on 1/4 mile and 1/2 mile property lines. Once I have the line well marked, I have a guy with a track steer mulcher machine clear the property line and then we fence it.

There's a lot of other functionality to the Garmin 65s, but I'm not sure I need or will use it for half the things it can do.

 

[sureshot375]

Garmin Inreach Mini.

It works as handheld GPS that pairs with your phone. Also has texting feature that works from anywhere in the world. I have used mine in Antarctica, Northern Alaska, Namibia, Caribbean....

If your looking for handheld stand alone unit (does not pair with your phone) then the Garmin 78 is hard to beat,

I have both and have used both extensively, but mostly just use the Inreach mini the last few years.

I have enjoyed the in reach mini on trips to Zim and Argentina.

I like that I have an independent way to communicate off grid. The plans are super affordable.

 

[Nkawu]

I have the Garmin ETrex 32x. Very affordable, colour topographic maps, and loads of features. Last weekend I lead a group on a 20 mile hill challenge navigating a route I had loaded onto it- very easy to use. What I love is that it is small. When I am hunting it lives in the side pocket of my bino harness. When I am hiking I attach it to my backpack shoulder strap.

 

[Ray B]

I have a few- Garmin & Magellan, older models. They are pretty cheap now since most, like my sone have the maps on their smart phones. He has his phone, so sees a GPS as unwanted duplication.

 

[Striger]

Okay I will admit that I'm not real tech savvy. But have you considered putting onX on your phone. I have it on my phone (well I should admit that my son was kind enough to install it for me). Anyway I do like it and even for me I find it easy to use. Can even sit in your house and do some scouting and look country over and get an idea of what things look like. Just a thought.

 

[375er]

Okay I will admit that I'm not real tech savvy. But have you considered putting onX on your phone. I have it on my phone (well I should admit that my son was kind enough to install it for me). Anyway I do like it and even for me I find it easy to use. Can even sit in your house and do some scouting and look country over and get an idea of what things look like. Just a thought.

Great when used in combination with a GPS. If you are in an area without cell service you can have problems. Been there, never again.

 

[Rifleman97]

Okay I will admit that I'm not real tech savvy. But have you considered putting onX on your phone. I have it on my phone (well I should admit that my son was kind enough to install it for me). Anyway I do like it and even for me I find it easy to use. Can even sit in your house and do some scouting and look country over and get an idea of what things look like. Just a thought.

Doesn’t work well if you don’t have satellite phone service. I tried it and still use it to scout public lands, but if you don’t have signal on your phone, you’re outta luck. It also relies on your phone, and in my experience phone batteries don’t last long in the cold and require a lot more battery power than handheld gps devices which don’t have to have all of the other background crap running in the background to run battery down.

 

[Arty0802]

Forgive me if this was already suggested, I only did a cursory scroll through the previous responses.

When I was on active duty the Garmin Foretrex 401's were very popular. If i wasn't wearing it on my wrist (which I suspect you wouldn't want to do either) then I could attach it the shoulder strap of my plate carrier (on your belt would work too). Super easy to use, very simply operation. I still pack it for hunting trips out west.

 

[Axle2010]

Great when used in combination with a GPS. If you are in an area without cell service you can have problems. Been there, never again.

This is exactly what I've been thinking! My service sucks since I changed to Tmobile and my Oconee almost never works in the woods. I do use OnX with my side by side but the icons isn't any good when I don't have service. Thanks for the suggestion and you're right about sitting at home and looking over another place.

 

[Arty0802]

Forgive me if this was already suggested, I only did a cursory scroll through the previous responses.

When I was on active duty the Garmin Foretrex 401's were very popular. If i wasn't wearing it on my wrist (which I suspect you wouldn't want to do either) then I could attach it the shoulder strap of my plate carrier (on your belt would work too). Super easy to use, very simply operation. I still pack it for hunting trips out west.

I should add that this model does not lend itself to navigating property lines, etc. It's more of a strictly navigational "get me to a point on the map" device.

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

I played with my Garmin GPSMap 65s some today, in the air conditioned comfort of my home office. I Googled about seeing if I can convert the DD MM.xxxx format to D M S. Google said yes, but the instructions led to a dead end. I went to Garmin's website and found correct instructions and now have it formatted to read Degrees, Minutes, Seconds. The seconds are to two decimal points, so that's down to about one a foot sensitivity. It works best in open areas. A tree canopy hinders the unit from connecting with multiple satellites I'm impress with this $300 handheld GPS.

 

[pilar]

garmin inreach mini , I like that it pairs with my phone.
When I was a boat captain I used a Magellan hand held as a back up to my other 3 gps plotter on the boats & when I was on the ranch or hunting , but it didn’t have a topographic map screen if you needed one