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GPS and cloudy weather

Are some better than others? I knew the canopy could cause problems but someone told me they had trouble when the cloud coverage was extremely heavy.

Some can. It depends wich one you buy. Because they need an unobstructed view of the sky, that is why they do not work well in thick woods.

Read some online reviews before you buy one. You'll find if they work well on real cloudy days.

Afetr seeing a guy have one in a hunt a few years back, and saw that he could not get a reading cause of the cover we were under, I decided that a GPS was not for me and the area I hunt. I still use the old fashioned compass.

I knew someone that went in a five mile block with a compass and GPS, if the GPS would have worked it would have saved hours and miles, on a long walk a little off on a compass can add up. All I use is a compass and I'm trying to decide whether to waste my money on a GPS or not. The first time I needed it and it didnt work I would probably throw it in the swamp.

Or you can do like some do. Keep a tracking collar turned on at the truck and track your way back to the truck.

Out west here the country is more open and the GPS works pretty good but in thick timber, fog or heavy cloud cover it's a good idea to have the ole compass handy. I was hunting in Nevada last winter and using my GPS to get to a water hole, a fog bank rolled in and I spent the next several hours wondering around like a blind man. This is when I learned to leave a tracking collar on in the truck!

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I agree birdsnot. Mine was very inconsisntent. I just use a compass. I dont coonhunt out in an open field.

It depends on how much money you spend. They are like anything else, you get what you pay for. Don't expect the E-trex to work very well in any decent canopy.

On the other hand you can spend a little more and get one with a better antenna and it will work great, even in heavy cover. All of them will lose signal from time to time, but not very long and certianly not long enough to get you lost like the cheap models do.

The best one I ever seen was the Lowrance Global Nav 100. It would work in an "ivy" (Mountain Laurel) thicket that you had to crawl through in the bottom of the gulf between two mountains. Course it was fairly expensive, but it worked great.

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GPS AND COMPASS GO HAND IN HAND YOU CAN NOT DEPEND ONLY ON A GPS WHEN THAY WORK THAT WORK GOOD CAN SAVE lot of walking

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GPS

Hophop You do not waste money on a GPS .....You invest money on a GPS beleive me.

The way I understand it, inteference from "cloud cover" is negligible, if any. I can say I've also never experienced any degradation in reception due to weather conditions...

Get an eTrex. 90% of the people on this board that use one can't be ALL wrong...

That what my hunting buddy uses, when we are in the heavy canopy it doesnt work well. When we have had problems with cloud cover it has been very cloudy, like right before a storm

Hiphop and Darrell,

I personally field tested several different models, side by side at the same time in the exact same conditions. I had the yellow E-Trex, the Magellan 310 and 315.

The Magellan 310 and E-Trex were about the same. They lost their signal quite a bit in a fairly thick canopy, but if you paid attention you could still use them most places. It would suffice in fairly open woods and during the winter time.

The 315 was better than those two, but it still lost it's signal in really thick canopy between mountains, in a laurel thicket etc. However, it was about the most I could afford and it did really well even in pine thickets, just not the extreme cover that you are hardly ever in anyway.

It was nowhere close to my brothers Lowrance Global Nav 100, but I didn't have that kind of money either so I bought the 315 (it was about 50 bucks more but the difference in performance was worth it to me).

Like I said before, no matter what product you are using you usually get what you pay for. I would recommend you doing exactly what I did. Narrow your decision down to a few models, make sure you can return the product if you are not satisfied with it, then test them side by side. That makes it easy

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Thanks Rip, but I don't need to test them. Mine hasn't let me down yet. If I'm in something so bad my eTrex can't get a signal, I probably don't want to be hunting there...

Darrell, I wasn't meaning you particularly should test them. That at the end was a general statement to help folks considering a GPS purchase. If the one you have works in your conditions great. That's all that matters. If I had tested in your hunting spots I would have bought the E-trex myself since it performs good there. I bought the cheapest one that would do the job in my huntin spots (hence I didn't go up to the Lowrance).

However, mountains and "ivy" are a whole different world. I am sure that the 315 that I use would not be adequate in the Rockys either, and likely not in the Florida swamps. My guess is I would have to spend the bucks on the Lowrance there.

The reason I suggested folks test them is because it is obvious his buddies E-trex can't get the job done in his terrain. That's why I didn't just suggest a model, everybodys hunting conditions are different. Heck for all I know he may hunt in places you need to chop a trail with a machette and my 315 would be worthless there as well.

If he tests the other models he can do like I did, get the cheapest one that will still do the job where he hunts.

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I use the Garmin Rhino 130. It has an external antenna, and rarely looses signal for more than a few seconds, and it has an electronic compass that functions when the satellite signal is lost.....

It also has a built in radio, along with a weather radio. Probably more than what most people need, but I like mine. You get what you pay for!

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