To make a long story short, my wife recently joined the Sheriffs Posse’s Search and Rescue team. One of the required items to have is a hand held GPS unit.

What is the best bang for the buck? I’m not asking for the cheapest. Hopefully you get what you pay for in a GPS unit. This is my bride we are talking about on horseback in back country that she is unfamiliar with.

What options can you guys not live without and what options did you pay for and not use?

Thanks for any help

Brad

I just recently got a magellan explorist 500 and love it. I havent got a chance to get the street or topo software for it but it has already proven itself helping find an unfamilar deer stand in the dark.
I picked it up at the Academy that wqas moving here in Arlington but the other Academy stores had them marked down to $250.
Recharable battery and you can buy a tray to use AA batteries.
Color screen and expandable memory card.
I would highly recommend getting a car adapter for it. Mine has proven to be invaluable.
Hope this helps

Garmin Rhino 120 GPS/radio has a buddy list feature that allows you to see where your partners GPS units are, updates locations every few minutes. Great for kids, guests, and wilderness conditions. Could see where it could have uses with SAR Ops.

I have the Rhino 130 and love it. There is probably better ones out there but this one does everthing I need and has the radio which is nice.

I have been using Magellans for several years and am very happy. You can't go wrong with either a Magellan or a Garmin. When I buy a new one, I am going to buy the one with the most features that I can afford, especially one that has an electronic compass built in.

I am not sure which one would be the one to get, but I have a Garmin Rino 120, and at the time I thought that the GPS/Radio combo would be handy, The GPS is ok, but the radio was not the quality that I had hoped. Maybe that is just the my unit, who know's

I've got my 3rd Magellan and have been very happy with it. If you use it in your vehicle get a cigarette lighter adapter because they all seem to go through batteries (mine goes 8-10 hours on a set of batteries). No problem if you just turn it on when you need it.

I have the Garmin 60C, they have come way down in price. I really like the one I have and it has tons more features then I ever use.

Magellan and Garmin have always made good GPS. id go with one of them

Garmin 76CS

Get the best now because they get outdated quickly.

the new 60CSx from Garmin

any of the new 60 or 76 x series from Garmin

they have the SiRF receiver....it is awesome

I too bought a Garmin series this fall and LOVE IT !!!
Buy the instruction video. It will help demonstrate. Much quicker learning curve for me anyway...

Whatever GPS you buy, I would highly recommend purchasing one with an electronic compass. I like Magellans and the models that they have with this feature are the Explorist 300 and Explorist 600. The 300 is around $150 but does not have an expandable memory. The 600 is around $300 on the internet and it is the top of the line in the handhelds. I have one of these and really like it. They are both also easy to use. The 300 is very good for your basic hunting and backpacking purposes, especially for the price.