BF Hammer

It is a very nice handheld gps and well worth the price. I bought one earlier this year and it has met all my expectations and needs for geocaching. I particularly wanted to have topo maps for my gps as my prior Garmin GPS 72 was a very basic model and had no maps. Garmin's Topo maps get criticized for not being detailed enough. I find it works quite well, I have not walked off of a cliff yet (I do look where I'm walking people!) and being able to see water features between me and a cache helps me make much more intelligent decisions on my approach. I also like that I don't lose satellite signal every time I walk under a tree canopy as my old unit did. I would say that if you want to use this model as a dual-use device for auto navigation as well as geocaching, you may wish to look for a different solution. There is no voice-guidance and the screen is pretty small to look at while you are trying to drive. Works OK if you have a co-pilot to read the unit and tell you when to turn.

Strictly speaking, topo or street maps are not necessary. My first 4 years with this hobby, I used a Garmin GPS 60 which really has no maps at all, except for dots indicating major cities. However, in the first 3 years I was only logging a dozen or less finds each year. Last year I stepped up my activity a lot, and discovered 2 things: 1-I needed a H-model gps (really was getting frustrated under tree cover) 2-I really wanted topo maps. Losing signal for half a hike in woods really gets frustrating, and having the direction pointer roam all over the place as you near ground-zero just makes you want to give up early sometimes. A new H-series gps really enhances the geocache experience. As for maps, after finding myself on the wrong side of a creek or road a few times too many as I approached caches last year, I decided I wanted topo maps to see these obstacles as I progress. I really seek out rural, wooded hikes so this is what suites me best. A person who is about gathering 50 finds in a weekend will be wanting street maps with routing so they can dash from location to location, seeking out shortcuts. My choice for a new gpsr was an eTrex Legend HCx and Topo2008 by Garmin. I gave the eTrex Venture some consideration, but in the end I decided that I would not be able to load enough maps to suite me into the 24MB of internal memory of that unit.

I use magnetic north for this reason: I carry a magnetic compass and have had to resort to using using the compass method of triangulating on more than one cache location with my old GPSr. It would almost always lose signal or go very inaccurate under tree cover, so caches hidden in trees would be a real problem. I would stand from the clearings and read the bearing to the cache of the GPSr, then use the compass to site that bearing, and repeat from other angles. You want the GPSr set to display the magnetic north bearing in order to make this work right.

I also bought that very model from Amazon, along with a 1GB microSD card and Topo 2008 all at once for around $280. I waited and monitored the price for 8 weeks until I saw the price drop under $200 for the Legend HCx before buying. You will see more than one vendor show up in an Amazon search, many with a lower unit price, but with a shipping price added on that brings the cost back up to the Amazon direct price with the free shipping option. I have bought many items like this directly from Amazon in the past and always have been happy with each transaction. As for buying from the other listed vendors, well then it's kind of like picking somebody to buy from on ebay. You never are quite sure if you found a good guy to buy from.

I just recently upgraded from a 5 year old Garmin GPS 72 to an eTrex Legend HCx. I am so far very happy with my choice. I was after 2 specific things on the upgrade: higher sensitivity chipset (the GPS 72 is awful under tree cover) and the ability to have topo maps so I can view water terrain obstacles as I navigate to a cache. On my initial run with the new unit last weekend, it performed just fine. Combined gps unit, 1GB memory card, and Topo 2008 DVD purchased from Amazon for under $290, money well spent in my opinion. Can't wait to see how it does in mid-summer with my usual forested heavy-leaf-cover treks. I was originally looking at the 60 CSx last summer, but I'm glad I waited and discovered the HCx eTrex series for at least a $100 savings. I find I like the smaller size in my hand better also.

I just bought a Legend HCx myself this month. I did buy a 1GB memory card and Topo2008 along with it. Here was my reasoning: It is the topo data I'm most interested in while caching. My previous gps had no mapping at all for it, so I always used paper maps for driving to locations. I want to know what obstacles are between me and a cache location after I get parked there, especially any water features. I tried both the topo and streets online, and found the topo maps to give better mapping of water features, and of course steep hill slopes are also there to be seen. There are plenty of roads displayed on Topo2008, if not quite as fully up to date as the Streets maps. I pretty much see all the streets and roads displayed in and around my hometown. When I decide I want auto navigation with routing and turn directions, I will buy a dedicated product for automobile use. An eTrex gps is just not the most appropriate tool for that job, IMHO. As for memory use, I loaded Wisconsin, and most of the surrounding states (my area of interest) onto the 1GB card and it occupies less than 300MB of it. I read complaints about how slow the process of loading onto a card is, but it was all done in about an hour from beginning to end for me. Definitely was not an all-night thing like some people have reported. Now I just am waiting for the blasted snow to stop accumulating so I can get out and search for a cache or 2. Also keep in mind the caching style of a person's advice. A good day for me is logging 3 caches. I like to fully explore the trail and parks that the cache is leading me to, and I don't play the numbers or FTF games. I often will spend more time taking photos while exploring than searching for caches. Somebody who does a lot of "cache-n-dash" activity and logs many caches per day will likely find the topo maps meaningless and want the streets maps with auto-routing.

Thanks for the fast replies. That does add some food for thought because I could also easily remove all the metro areas in southeast Wisconsin (I prefer rural caches) and just squeak in under the 24MB limit with my areas of interest. Now I have to decide how much added convenience and having maps for future caching trips outside my home area would be worth to me, in dollars.

I need a little push to get myself focused on buying a Garmin Etrex Legend HCx instead of the Venture HC. Yes, cost is the issue. I definitely want to load topo maps of my main search area in southern Wisconsin. Would somebody be able to check what the size of map would be in Topo 2008 for the southern 1/2 of Wisconsin for me? It would be a true PITA to keep deleting and transferring maps to fit in the 24MB of the Venture, but if my area of interest would all fit, I might just have to save the 60 to 80 dollars. All else considered, the Venture would be right for my needs, except I really want the topo maps to help in seeing water/land obstacles. I've been muddling along with a GPS 72 for 4 years now, really am looking forward to having the high-sensitivity chipset in forest cover. Thanks in advance.

I have been using a Garmin GPS 72 since I began geocaching. I bought it the very day I discovered geocaching.com. I have been feeling limited by it the last 2 years, and I will (for absolutely sure) be buying a new Garmin etrex Legend HCx before this spring (along with the Tropo maps and a memory card). The GPS 72 is really a marine unit, b/w display, no mapping, and has severe problems holding a signals in the summer and early autumn under even the canopy of a single tree. It was a relief when the leaves dropped this autumn and I could trust my position again. I want to stick with partly Garmin because I really like the Garmin Communicator plug-in that was added to geocaching.com this last year. It has made preparing for my cache excursions so much easier and quicker.

I don't know where to get Garmin's official answer, but I can explain it. The circle represents the error factor. The gpsr thinks you are at the triangular spot it shows, but since the positional accuracy is not exact, the circle represents that your real position could be anywhere within that circle. (related to signal strength and number of satellites visible to the gpsr).