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etrex vs Magellan 315


orygun & tag along

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I owned both units. I used the etrex exclusively as the Mag 315 was pretty much unusuable with the higher auto-averaging speed. Magellan now has a patch that will lower the speed that auto-averaging kicks in, and makes it friendlier to use for geocaching. You will have to buy a cable in order to install it, and a cable for a 315 is about $30+shipping. On the other hand, I used the etrex to hunt over 70 caches, and I thought it was a great little unit. Also a cable for the etrex can be gotten on ebay for about $10 plus shipping. I believe the Mag 315 has a better antenna than the etrex. The Mag 315 uses batteries faster than the etrex. I think the etrex is a little friendlier to use. One thing that bugged me about the Mag 315 (also on my Map 330) is that the strap attaches to the little screw that holds the back on. This is kind of awkward. I like how the etrex strap attaches to the bottom, and can comfortably be hung around your neck. I don't use the strap on the magellans. So between the etrex and the 315, I recommend the etrex.

 

In the GPS model of the universe, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line...through creeks, thorn bushes, horse piles, whatever....

 

[This message was edited by Hinge Thunder on May 14, 2002 at 01:44 PM.]

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i've owned magellan, trimble and garmin units. trimble is top dog, garmin second, magellan is junk. i had lots of problems... display segments going out, wont lock under trees or heavy cloud cover, etc. go with the garmin.

 

urbo

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I use th Magellan 315. I belive the mag315 has better reception. I baught it new and it already has the newest firmware version ver 3.15 so there is no need to also get the cable

 

Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal: a mind-bogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you - daft as a brush, but very very ravenous

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JUNK? It's to bad you have to bad mouth a product just because you had bad luck with yours. I bought mine on sale and got a 20.00 rebate on top of that. The mag.315 had the v3.14 so the salesman offered to update it to v3.15 for free. It works really well at pulling in signals where my brothers Venture has a harder time keeping locked on, although his batteries seem to last about an hour longer. I just carry extra recharables, both are very good at getting you to your destination,but mine seems to work a little better under the trees...Try em both hands on and you'll get a better feel of what you wanticon_wink.gif.

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JUNK? It's to bad you have to bad mouth a product just because you had bad luck with yours. I bought mine on sale and got a 20.00 rebate on top of that. The mag.315 had the v3.14 so the salesman offered to update it to v3.15 for free. It works really well at pulling in signals where my brothers Venture has a harder time keeping locked on, although his batteries seem to last about an hour longer. I just carry extra recharables, both are very good at getting you to your destination,but mine seems to work a little better under the trees...Try em both hands on and you'll get a better feel of what you want;).

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If you got lost with the 315 I would not want to be trying to follow you. I only found about 175 caches with the 315. I used it to find my way back and forth from deer and elk stands and hunts.

I would think you would have troubles with just about any GPSR if the 315 gave you troubles. Just MHO. If I had to choose again, I would still get the 315. Or even the 330 if I wanted to upgrade a bit.

 

Tell you what orygun, you get the 315 and let me know when you are coming to the east side, I will give you a cable to hook the 315 to your computer and car/truck. Later, logscaler.

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My 315 works great, the last cache I found it got me within just 15 feet with the new v3.15 updates. This unit has everything you would ever need to get started in this hi-tech sport. I purchased XpertGPS software for topo mapping and works great, but you will need the serial port / liter cable. Get the cable, you can run the unit off your cigarette liter and save battery while driving. Magellan DateSend CD also works great, you have the choice of around 44 categories of POI and store up to 10 different categories in the unit, if you are traveling on vacation you can load exit ramps, service stations, hotels, campgrounds . . .

 

Like Logscaler said, great for hunting, all I do is bow-hunting, get out several month before the season starts and enter waypoints for tracking deer for several weeks and load them into XpertGPS http://www.expertgps.com/purchase.asp I can see ware the deer travel on a topo map and see ware I want to place my tree stands.

 

The bottom line, I cannot say anything bad about the Magellan 315, it’s a great unit:D.

 

xpertgpa has a 14 day free trial ofer, try it you will love it.

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My 315 works great, the last cache I found it got me within just 15 feet with the new v3.15 updates. This unit has everything you would ever need to get started in this hi-tech sport. I purchased XpertGPS software for topo mapping and works great, but you will need the serial port / liter cable. Get the cable, you can run the unit off your cigarette liter and save battery while driving. Magellan DateSend CD also works great, you have the choice of around 44 categories of POI and store up to 10 different categories in the unit, if you are traveling on vacation you can load exit ramps, service stations, hotels, campgrounds . . .

 

Like Logscaler said, great for hunting, all I do is bow-hunting, get out several month before the season starts and enter waypoints for tracking deer for several weeks and load them into XpertGPS http://www.expertgps.com/purchase.asp I can see ware the deer travel on a topo map and see ware I want to place my tree stands.

 

The bottom line, I cannot say anything bad about the Magellan 315, it’s a great uniticon_biggrin.gif.

 

xpertgpa has a 14 day free trial ofer, try it you will love it.

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quote:
Originally posted by orygun:

So I can purchase either a Garmin etrex or a Magellan 315 for the same price. Brand new to GPS and Geocaching? Really need pros and cons of both units. Thanks


 

I agree with a previous post, both are fine units. The eTrex is smaller, lighter, sturdier, and waterproof. It also gets about twice the battery life.

 

But, many users report better reception with the ant. in the GPS315, especially under heavy tree cover.

 

-jjf

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Does that mean you're getting 30+ hours out of your eTrex batteries then ? I get minimum 15 power-on hours (if it's not continuous usage that goes as high as 22-23 hours) with my Magellan 315 and only had one shock when it lost all the ephemeris data (turned out to be a fault in firmware - cured by a unit cold reset)

 

----8<--------8<---CUT-HERE---8<--------8<----

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