Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Hunting with Garmin RINO GPS units?

I am looking for folks using the Garmin dual use radio/GPS units in the field. In particular:
1. Half watt FRS or 5 watt GMRS radio?

2. How do you charge your 5 watt unit battery?

3. What sort of ranges do you see for the hunter position displays?

I hunt with a group in Oregon that wants to use the RINO 5w. radios for blacktail deer hunts in the Cascades. The feature we most want (in addition to GPS) is the ability to see where the other hunters are on the GPS display.

I have hunted with some folks in Colorado who used the one-half watt FRS units, and they worked well in that more open terrain.

I would like to get a handle on how well the 5 watt radios are likely to work -- before we all plunk down our bucks.

thanks...jim

Bump, as I too would like to know. I am disappointed that their higher end models have the Lithium-ion batteries. kind of hard to recharge on a long backwoods hunt. Can you substitute AA or some other battery if necessary? The Li-ion must be required for the 5w transmit power. Anyway, I am leaning towards the 130 just so I can carry batteries.

Can't comment on the newer units. We use 130's. AA only.

When you get down to 0 or 1 bars on the battery meter you will receive a message that says something like 'battery power too low to transmit'.

The ability to see other hunter's locations is the last thing to go. All that requires is enough battery to receive a data packet even if the audio is poor. Don't count on transmitting your location with low battery though.

On this year's hunt I tried using 'battery saver mode' for the first time. I only changed batteries once during the week wheras my brother with an identical unit was changing batteries nearly every day.

The 130's speak GMRS but I'd be interested to know if they can actually muster 5w with AA batteries. I'm wondering if you need the lithium model for that.

I have been asking Garmin's customer support about these issues, which is a hunt in and of itself. (Kind of like a lawyer questioning a hostile witness.)

So far I have learned with repeated questions that if you have AAs in the unit, radio power is limited to one-half watt for all models. Even with the monster AA pack to replace the Li ion battery pack, the unit will only do half watt.

Talking to a friend who does battery systems he tells me to plan on taking a deep-discharge battery or two and using them with some electronics to recharge the Li ion batteries.

jim

I can't speak for the rhino's. I have some 5 watt Motorola units. It is all based on line of sight. The area's I hunt in Colorado are not open. The 12 mile units give around 1 to 5 depending on where you are as opposed to where the person you want to talk to is.

The more trees and hills/mountains the shorter the distance you can talk to the other untis is. If the location of the hunters is based off of GPS you should be good to go as long as you have a satelite signal.

I have the 530hcx rino and love it. The hcx models are much more sensitive GPS units. The radio worked well on my one and only guided elk hunt (on drives), and on deer hunts. The rechargeable battery lasts a very long time if you don't transmit much. I also used the unit while driving (it will calculate routes if you put waypoints in from your computer), for elevation, etc. Loved the earpiece, but the PTT mike didn't work. Just had to use the button on the radio. Bought the AA battery packs - 2 of them because I lost one - off Amazon, and then found out they were for the non-hcx 530. Oh well. I highly recommend the 530hcx if you have the money. It is big and heavy, but takes the place of radio and GPS. Get the 12V adapter for vehicle and 12V power supplies, or buy extra batteries. About 18 hour battery life. If you turn it off when you don't need it, it will last a week of hunting. BUT when off you don't have a track log of your hike.

Von

I have the 520hcx.
The radio is pretty much line of site- Poor to nothing in deep canyons but 5 miles from mtn to mtn is no problem.

They have an accessory battery pack that can be used when the internal battery dies. I have used mine on a 10 day backcountry hunt without even close to needing recharging. [I don't use the radio but for short conversations]

Here is where these shine; I had a bull down on a very steep hillside. My buddy went back to go get the mules and on his return, I could see where he was in relation to topo features on my unit. No way he could get down the slope so I guided him past me on a long finger ridge and once he hit the same contour level I was at- had him find a game trail to come in on. Piece of cake. Mules right at the kill.

With these as long as your buddy can poll you-[ steep canyons are tough] you can see exactly where he is- very cool.

and the higher sensitivity of these units is very good.

Oh, and I forgot the topo map. Some (flat) places it isn't worth much, but others it has been very useful. Wish it came with the machine.

Way to many gimmicks in one package. If one wants radios, get radios. If one wants a GPS unit, do the same.

Stemshot,

Roger that on line of sight and range. one to five is pretty good for us, we usually can figure where folks should be, but sometimes they wander off after game or whatever.

Von,

Good to know what you get when you work to conserve battery.

B Lance,

We are thinking about the 520HCx units as well.

Guys, thanks for the experiences...jim

Some people like to talk while hunting, and they will have a battery problem.

But if you hunt the a.m. (walk to your area with GPS for an hour or two), and then do a drive after lunch (listen to drivers for an hour), and then use it for an hour on the way home...loooong battery life.

Guys who still hunt all day and want the track log, but don't talk much, will have a few days (2-3), but not a week.

Guides coordinating hunters will not need a daily spare, but will have to charge everyday.

It really is a pretty impressive machine. There is a learning curve for the SW. But I like to know what is going on and don't like to be lost. For me, it's great.

I've had no problems with it except one time it froze up in 2 years. Turned it off and back on and GTG. Of course, bring a compass and pay attention just in case. I just bought a Bushnell backtrack for a secondary GPS. Seems to work. If I was going really remote without a group, I would probably bring a 2nd radio with AA's. But if it's elk, I wouldn't be alone, and for deer, the conditions aren't that remote for me.

Von

When I got the 520 these units were brand new and the 530 was- as I recall- $100 more. I felt the compass and barometer weren't worth the extra but if the 2 were coloser in price- 530.

To a guy just wanting to get back to the truck or camp these units are overkill. But in my example above, it literally saved us a day of packing- meat.

The topo sold by Garmin for these is only 1;100,000 which for hunting purposes is enough to give you a rough idea what is over the next hill, general contours, water sources,etc. If you do much bushwhacking its enough to help you pick easier routes, which I have done many times....grin.

There are some clever individuals who have downloaded 1;24,000 topos to these-free- from other internet sources but I have not taken the time to do this. I can point you in the right direction only.


I am normally a KISS type guy so I understand some of the negative comments. These units aren't "Too gimmicky" to a guy who really gets into the thick of it.

I have been using a Garmin GPS Map 60Cx for the last two seasons, so I expect I know a lot of their system already. I was buying the 1:24,000 topo microSDs for the states I hunt. Since I use a Mac I didn't have the CD option, but now that Garmin supports Macs I can go that route too.

The only thing I don't like about the microSD map data is they don't mark the chips, so if you are not careful you will be putting the chip back in the GPS to find out what map it is before you can put it away. You can imagine how I know this.

jim

The number one reason I want one is to be able to quickly get to someone else (dad who is not getting any younger) if something happened.

We have in our group two 530's. two 520's. and a 130. We use them to track each other and to get to one another in case of need. You can send your coordinates to everyone and they can respond. We all have Garmin 1/24000 maps instaled and the topo is very helpfull. My 530 mic has quit working and another 520 has quit sending, going to send for repair. My 530 will last 4-5 days with not much talking, good thing my mic is bad. The AA pac will last several days as well. We love our unit for what we use them for. YMMV!

I have many two-way radios and many gps units. I also have 3 of the Garmin 530HCX units. I don't see any gimmicks in it at all. The 530HCX is a highly functioning and very good GPS unit. It is also as good of a two-way radio as any of my other FRS/GMRS radios. Couple those features with the polling feature and, in my opinion, it is a very good unit.

I like to think I've taught my son and daughter well when it comes to navigation and survival. However, having them carry these and being to poll their positions gives this father some peace of mind.

We use them in the thick northern Minnesota woods and general have about a two mile range. They make it easy to keep track of everyone and get help for whatever reason, usually to drag deer. We do go through a bunch of AA's.

I was able to buy a lightly used 530HCx from one of the Campfire folks in the Classified forum. I haven't been able to try the radio portion yet, but I will get together with a friend and give it a go after Christmas.

Thank you all for the help on this issue, and Merry Christmas!

jim

I've had the Rino 530hcx for about three years now and have been 100% satisfied with its performance. We got them initially for hog hunting in southeastern swamps where everything looks the same. The radios work a lot better than the FRS radios we had before. The main feature that we use however is being able to send a location to another radio. When dogging hogs in the swamp, we can catch and tie a pig, send the location to the others and they can get 4 wheelers or whatever to come in and get the pigs which may be a couple miles in from a road. It has really saved us a lot of work getting pigs out.

I've used it in Colorado hunting and the radio works good if the terrain is not too steep. The locator feature works almost always within about 5 miles even when the radios won't work. I get about three days continuos use out of the unit when not using the radio and the topo really helps out in the mountains.

Any time I can replace two high quality pieces of equipment with one high quality piece of equipment, it's a win - win situation. I love my Rino 520HCX and haven't found any gimmicks, 'cept for maybe the games.