Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Garmin Rino GPS

Going to hunt Mule Deer in Utah next year and the guys I'm going with all have these and are begging me to get one too. I have no clue as to what I'd do with a GPS on my own, or what any of the features do. My friends are telling me the 530hcx is the one to get. Of course it is the most expensive one they make. I have found it for as little as $350, but I will need to get the battery pack and car charger so it will be right around $400 by the time I am done.

I have read a few reviews and it seems they are an ok gps unit, but you need to download topo maps to make it better. What does that mean? Are the maps in the unit no good or what? I could really use a little guidance and thought some of you would be helpful.

I have that unit and it is a good one. It will allow you to poll your fellow hunters and its a radio with 5 watts so its pretty good not great but it works fine. As to the maps if you get one you will need to get a chip for it. If your friends have the software they can down load the maps to your chip and send it back. The cool thing is they can send to you all their way points if they have been out scouting the area ahead of time.
Once you get there your ready to go. I have both the garmin software and the National Geo software. Be aware the maps are ok but I use mine in conjunction with a topo map of the area and pack a compass as a back up.

Last year there 5 of us with them and it was cool we were hunting a new elk area that I scouted in the summer. I took way points and was able to send them to every one and then we all had starting points to hunt to. It was kind of fun to down load to a lap top and to see on the map the area we all covered. It was something to do at night but we were not backpacking

I have the 520 hcx- its cool. I have the garmin topo loaded in mine. The scale is 1;100,000 so its only enough to give you an idea of terrain.

Heres my take; if you don't need the maps get the cheapest high sensitivity receiver version. I can scroll on my unit to see what is on the other side of a ridge or if its rimmed in.

Heres an example; I had a bull down on a 45 degree slope and my buddy didn't know where I was. I had to climb out to get my hunting buddy on the radio- line of sight.This told him my direction and distance on his 130. He went to go get the mules and paged me on return across the main ridge. Since I could see his progress on my unit topo, I guided him past my location -rimmed in from the top- down a finger to the contour I was on and then right to me. Easy pack out.

I have the 120 and the 520. The 520 is far superior. My buddies were able to hear me clearly, when I was out of range of the lower transmit powered 120's. I really like the color screen, the ability to text message rather than talk, and the memory is much better. I stored half the US on the card with room to spare. The 110 and 120's only have 8 megs. The 520 has a weather radio as well.

I have a 530, two buddy's have the 520's, and one has the 130, we also have another 530 in the group who doesnt hunt much anymore. What we like about them is the ability to transmit your location to the others at any time. We don't talk that much but like B Lance said you can direct a person to where you are or you can track a person to his last location. I shot an elk two years ago and marked it went to take a load out and was able to get two other people back to the elk to haul it out without talking to them, just sending the mark. We love them.

The rino 120 has everything you need and nothing you don't. It's smaller, lighter, and uses AA batteries. If everyone is on foot the radio works fine. If you are on four wheelers you might want more power, but the only real reason to pay more is if you can get free maps from your buddies.

Cirles the 120 unless they changed it doesn't come with the HCX antenna if so its not in the same class. You can't hardly keep it locked on in any tree or cloud cover the HCX I have yet to completely lose the signal even in the fog or under tree cover. I know from personal experience the radio is not near as good. Its 2 watts vs 5 watts on the 530.

I agree that the newer models are "bigger, better, and faster" than the 120. Guess I should have been a little more specific. I've been using one for several years, and I've only lost signal once in a snow squall. I carry my rino on my left pack strap and have never had trouble keeping a signal in tree cover. When starting up, it might take longer to lock on under tree cover but I've always gotten a signal. The radio works fine for about half a mile over hill and dale, up to ten miles line of sight with good conditions. The best feature of a rino is to get a distance and bearing to other rinos, the 120 does this as well as any other. I like the smaller size and weight, have no use for bigger color screens, and I like that it uses AA batteries like most of my other field electronics. If you are running the GPS and radio all day count on using a set of batteries every day.

I compared my 520 side by side with a buddies 120 and had places where his just could not acquire a signal and mine could.