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That Taurus I recommended is a good shooter. On the 15-yard range I can put 50 rounds in the 9-ring or better on the standard Texas CHL target.

Yeah, this is why I dislike caches behind businesses and around lamp posts or other electrical items. Not to mention there is a lot of copper theft in this area, including one particular cache location -- we got a DNF the first time, and when we went back all the wiring that connected the multiple light poles together had been stripped, leaving live wires exposed where one might be inclined to look for the cache. IMHO, caches should be hidden in such a way as to not arouse suspicion and the container and markings should be chosen accordingly to not cause undo alarm.

Yeah, this is why I dislike caches behind businesses and around lamp posts or other electrical items. Not to mention there is a lot of copper theft in this area, including one particular cache location -- we got a DNF the first time, and when we went back all the wiring that connected the multiple light poles together had been stripped, leaving live wires exposed where one might be inclined to look for the cache. IMHO, caches should be hidden in such a way as to not arouse suspicion and the container and markings should be chosen accordingly to not cause undo alarm.

Its probably more environmentally friendly to use a reusable bottle, and once it gets washed out a few times the chemical residue is probably a non-issue. However, there are stainless and aluminum (if you don't believe AL causes Alzheimer's) bottles available as well. Most are pretty pricy, but Walgreens has had some pint stainless bottles 3/$10 around here.

Are you using a routable map? If I recall correctly, the base map and topo map are not routable, so you can't get the GPS to show you turn-by-turn navigation. You'll need something like City Navigator® North America NT to be able to do that. There are some utilities that are supposed to make standard maps routable, but I haven't tried them.

As far as the waterproofing and padding -- you can probably wrap a baby in enough bubble-wrap and drop him off a roof, down a cliff and into a lake and he'll probably survive. However, it may take all day to change a diaper with that level of added protection installed. Same with electronics. You can add waterproofing and padding to any device and make it more durable, but it will probably make it harder to use. And if your home-brew -proofing doesn't work, well DUH! Better to start off with something made for what you are going to use it for.

What make-model .357 would that be? I'm looking for something portable. I'm less concerned about what I'll find in the wild than what I might encounter in the parking lot these days. I definitely prefer double-action wheelguns too. Jim If you just want simple, reliable urban protection, a Taurus 650 CIA model fits the bill. Double-action only, hammerless and doesn't rip your hands up shooting full .357 loads. Can be found much cheaper than MSRP at the gun shows.

I did a quick Google and it looks like if you reload you can buy lead-free bullets. Not sure if you need special dies or what, but it might be easier than trying to find the ammo. Hmm... wait a sec... Looks like Cor-Bon makes some lead-free .357 and Midway USA is selling it. Cor-Bon Lead-Free .357 Ammo I found these, but the $10.00 shipping makes the rounds $2.12 each Well, it sucks to live in CA. Since this is gonna be a carry round and its in a revolver, its not like you have to waste a whole box to make sure its gonna feed. You might as well enjoy being able to carry until it gets banned as well.

I did a quick Google and it looks like if you reload you can buy lead-free bullets. Not sure if you need special dies or what, but it might be easier than trying to find the ammo. Hmm... wait a sec... Looks like Cor-Bon makes some lead-free .357 and Midway USA is selling it. Cor-Bon Lead-Free .357 Ammo

Does this apply to anyone in any country?

As far as big knives, if you want something you can keep really sharp, go with a carbon steel blade. You do have to keep it oiled to prevent rusting though. Stainless holds up better in a wet environment, but the thicker blades are harder to sharpen and don't hold an edge as well. If you go with a larger knife, you will limit your carrying possibilities. I prefer having it attached upside down on my right pack / LBE shoulder strap, versus on my belt, so it can be drawn quickly with either hand, without fumbling around. The old Ka-Bar military knives and their copies are pretty durable, and many come with a sharpening stone in a pouch on the sheath. The fancier (read newer design) knives typically have a polymer sheath and retain the knife without a strap. As suggested, a Woodman's Pal is a great tool and replaces a large knife / machete and a hatchet. Just pack a good pocket knife for the fine work and you are all set.

Just Google 'identifying animal tracks' and pick one of the results. Usually the education sites have some pretty good graphics.

Geez -- could you not resize the iPhone photo? Firstly, you can make any device pretty small if you want to use a multi-layer (read more expensive) circuit board. Secondly, a more dense board is harder to populate, harder to repair and more fragile. Thirdly, when the board is more dense and more complex, fewer smaller (read cheaper) shops can build them. Garmin also had to make the case larger to allow for larger batteries in order to have a decent battery life and the type of antenna they chose, assuming the fat track around the perimeter of the board is the antenna. My personal opinion is that Garmin has way too many different models in their stable, most likely confusing the consumer and making other brands more appealing. If they would have simply made a Colorado 300 and an Oregon 300 with the base maps and more memory, then offered the topo, marine and street maps at a better price, I think people would have been happier. There are 27 Nuvi models currently on their web site. I'm sure some are probably discontinued, but stll, thats a heck of alot of different units to choose from. TomTom has 13 models.

Long before R.A.M. came out with the mount for the Colorado, I made one out of a piece of brass sheeting and a R.A.M. threaded ball. It actually slipped around the plastic piece and into the slots. The nylon strap was in the way.

By track management, you mean the ability to pick one of several tracks, highlight that track, and follow your path back from whenst you came?

Best one I found locally was a round piece of wood painted a rusty color and stuck to the side of a rusty, unused electrical panel in a city park. I pulled my hair out trying to find it -- walked away, glanced back and finally noticed it. I call it a Sesame Street moment -- 'One of these things is not like the other...'

I've used quite a few of those lanyards and badge holders over the years and I haven't broken one yet. I figure the plastic mount on the Colorado is gonna go first, since you have to take it off every battery change and when you use a R.A.M. mount. However, I mostly carry my GPS in hand with a small microfiber camera lens cleaning cloth attached to the plastic badge holder. The lanyard sees very little actual neck use.

I never said retractor. I said a neck lanyard. What you want is one of the badge holder lanyards that has the flat, clear plastic badge holder with the snap (like a small clothing snap) that goes through a hole in the badge. This will fit perfectly on the carabiner mount piece off the Colorado.

6:30 AM on Saturday was 61 degrees F at the Fort Worth dog park. This morning at the same time it was 21 degrees F at the same place. Last night you could watch the temperature drop on the thermometer like the NYC new years ball.

Didn't Magellan already take a shot at the MP3 / Camera / GPS / Flashlight concept with predictable results? As for the cell phones, I think I had my first one back in like '86 and the first GPS around '97 or so. My latest GPS and phone work way better, the batteries last longer, etc.... but they aren't the be-all, end-all. At any rate, I think the OP is either clueless about developing commercial and consumer electronics, or is most likely just trolling.

Micro or Regular? -- Regular Traditional or Multi? -- Both Mystery or Earth? -- Earth In a group or alone? -- With spouse Hiding or Finding? -- Finding Virtual or Webcam? -- Virtual Letterbox or Wherigo? -- Wherigo Favorite GPS? -- Garmin Colorado Social(event) or not? -- Social Event FTF'er or not? -- Not Podcast listener or not? -- Podcast Out of state or In state? -- In State "Extreme/Hardcore" or Layed back? -- Laid Back Urban / Rural? -- Rural

If you take the carabiner and the nylon strap off the plastic piece, you can use a neck lanyard with one of those clear plastic snap-type ID badge holders. Fits just fine, works good.

Sounds like the run I did for our motorcycle club. Every week they put on a run of some sort with a game or whatnot that ended at a restaurant. The winner got put on the list for one of the future runs. I told everyone my run was a scavenger hunt. I had three tubs with slips of paper listing items. each person drew a slip from each tub. The instructions said "Figure out where to find these items and then meet at XXX restaurant at 9 PM." The items ranged from a package of athletic socks to a horse shoe, condoms, dental floss, railroad spike, etc... In no way or fashion did I ever say to get these items -- all I said was figure out where to find them. Probably 3/4 of the people got the items on their slips. One guy went to Wally World and bought a horseshoe toss game. So much for reading comprention.

There is an awful lot they don't tell you about the unit -- something smells fishy. *IF* the Linux kernel was compiled to support a USB GPS module *AND* you can install other applications, you *SHOULD* be able to run WINE, which allows you to run Windows applications. The fact that Linux is pre-loaded on a chip and you don't have a way to upgrade or replace it is pretty problematic. You would also have to install a mapping program, such as GPSDrive, and download the appropriate maps for your area in order to have something similar to a GPSr. A Linux geek could probably do it, but someone with only Windows experience would probably go nuts rather quickly. In reality, I would find one of the other brands of mini laptops that has XP loaded on it and go that route. I've heard the Asus eePC models in Europe have the touch-screen, which would be cool.

From Wikipedia: DID YOU KNOW? Glass "bottle trees" originated in Northern Africa during a period when superstitious people believed that a genii or imp could be captured in a glass bottle. Legend had it that empty glass bottles placed outside the home could "capture" roving (usually evil) spirits at night, and the spirit would be destroyed the next day in the sunshine. This practice was taken to Europe and North America by African slaves. While Europeans adapted them into hollow glass spheres known as "witch balls" the practice of hanging bottles in trees became widespread in the Southern states of North America, where they continue to be used today as colorful garden ornaments.