jindydiver

That is the beauty of them. They are super reliable these days and you just have a spare set of batteries in the bottom of your pack and you are pretty unlikely to not be able to use it to find a way home. My GPS has saved me hours of hunting time over the last couple of years. If I whack a deer across a steep and bushy gully and I want to find it quicker I take a bearing to the animals with the electronic compass and project a waypoint (knowing the distance with my rangefinder) and just take whatever easier route I need to to get to the deer. I have used the same technique to find arrows shot up cliffs and whatnot.

It doesn't have all the maps available for all those editions, so far it is just the places I have hunted. As I go I keep adding more and more and in a couple of years I imagine I will easily have over 2gb installed. I leave them loaded, they don't slow down the unit at all and I don't want to fiddle every time I go hunting, I only want to adapt and load maps for new areas. All of them are available to view on the Garmin software and it is good to be able to learn as much about an area as I can before I visit it for the first time. When I go to remote areas (the Cape and Aust Alps) it is great to be able to view sat images and make plans on the go. The ability to add custom maps is a big plus for the newer units. If you hunt in NSW the Six Images latest aerial pics are great and detailed enough in some areas to pick out bushes only as big as a couple of foot across.

It is fair enough to speak for yourself, but it does not mean you should claim to know what others might or might not need. My GPS has custom maps installed, Google images, Vic Fire maps, NSW Gov SixViewer images, Vic DPI deer hunting area maps, images of Natmap maps, Images of CMA Mps, all geo-referenced and available at different times for different hunts. I am already up to 1.3 gig and I can see plenty of other maps I might want to load yet and I know people who think I am lagging behind in wht I can find useful in my GPS.

That sucks My GPS sits in a pouch on the back of the right hip belt on my pack. It has a lanyard cord attached that is looped to the bottom of the right shoulder strap. I can pull it out and look at it any time and push it and the cord in the pouch when I am done and I know 100% I can't lose it if it falls out of the pouch.

Yep, works a treat too

use stuff sacks to keep your gear in tidy piles and use the compression straps on the bag to keep it all close to your back.

Hip belts are essential, they take the load so your shoulders don't, and sternum straps are allso essential, they keep your shoulder straps in place when there is no load on them, and help keep any load on your frame rather than on your shoulders.

Hills in Melb' do RWL very well

The new etrex are a great piece of kit at a great price. The etrex 30 gives you the features from the more expensive units for just over $300. I have a 62s and love it but if I was looking for a gps now I would go the etrex 30. Then again I might be tempted to have a touch screen and go an Oregon 450t (but price would probably help me resist)

Importing that knife in to SA wont be any problem at all.

Basecamp is an "update" to make it compatible with the Birdseye imagery (you get to use with the 62 series and others)

Why would you be fined? ACMA are allowing the old system to run in conjunction with the new system till 1st Jan 2016. Up until then your equipment will be perfectly legal.

The instructions on how to install are on the site aren't they? You might want to download a routable map from here too http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl/ And whoever told you installing non-OEM maps will void your warrantee is dead wrong. The 62 even has facility for making your own maps and installing them

It might do everything you need, but how do you know it does everything the OP needs?

I have a torrent and it isn't warm at all. You need to wear something warm under it.

They are trying to protect you as much as themselves, didn't you read about all the visa details that were stolen from the bank last week, or all the CC details that were stolen from Sony this month

The 62s can load Birdseye images (sat pics) and you can also have shonky maps (free) and the OSM routable maps (turn by turn routing, free as well). You can also load the Gov 5 meter contours and have them all loaded or just a selection at one time. A mate uses the 60 and has the Garmin topo and the only thing I have seen that his map shows that you don't get with the above products is green shading in the areas of National Parks. There may be some other differences in urban areas.

A standard EPIRB or PLB will be heard by various satelites and your location triangulated by those satelites. It requires some time as the satelites have to move to figure out the triangulation, and there is plenty of room for error. With a gps device in your EPIRB the EPIRB knows already exactly where it is (a short time after activation) and the signal it sends out will contain your location information meaning that the rescue service can tell where you are more accuratly and also much quicker.

So there is no confusion, the GPS enabled EPIRB nad personal beacons do not have a user accessible gps in them. YOU cannot use it as a GPS, all it does is send your current co-ordinates along with the emergency signal.

Cost doesn't always indicate worth. If all you want is a knife that can cut up a few deer without needing to be put on a stone there are plenty of cheaper options. I make my own knives and the L6 I use can be left at 60 and will quarter (and skin) half a dozen fallow without you even steeling it. Spyderco and others make knives out of S30V which is tempered to 60 and you get the same out of them. The problem for most guys is that when it needs a touch up they are not up to it themselves and they can never get the original edge back on it. You could also carry a much cheaper knife with a softer edge and just have a small steel with you as well. Just touch it up regularly. This little Benchmade did a whole fallow, and more back at camp before it needed any attention to the edge That knife and one of these is all I need to carry to cut up a weekends worth of deer kills One of mine I often carry in action Of course there are plenty of intangibles that come in to anybodies decision to buy almost anything. Style has influence of substance whether we recognise it or not. Plenty of people buy what they like and then spend a lot of time looking for reasons why it was the right choice, we all do it (and if it didn't work this way we would all be carrying a slaughter-man's knife set ), and the trick is to just accept that it will happen and move on

It is of course an overstatement of what you will get, it is after all advertising from someone hoping to make some money back for their investment in expensive equipment. The "friction forged" part of the blade is only along the cutting edge and is only a few millimeters wide (maybe 5), the rest of the blade is kept soft at not even 50Rc. This means that on a D2 blade you are only getting "almost stainless" as majority of the D2 isn't benefiting from the friction process. I know that there would be no way I would pay $400 for a 2.5 inch bladed skinning knife.

It's all good, this is a discussion not an argument It is good that people see the various view points and get an idea of the issues before they splash out and buy something this expensive.

It isn't a waste of money if you are in the crap and you have one with you. 99.9%?? Three of the major brands of PLB available in Australia offer over 5 years service life from the batteries. All these have (not user) replaceable batteries but they are common lithium ion batteries and don't cost the earth to replace. Are there really 297 other models available, or are you exaggerating the issue a little The SPOT unit you like costs quite a bit too. $200 odd to buy, plus US$115 to register PER YEAR, plus US$50 PER YEAR to access the "Track Progress" function. Say you want to keep it for the same time as you can get battery life for a GME unit (7 years) that cost AU$460, you would have to spend $200 to buy and $800 (US) to register. Already we are over twice the price of the GME. That is a fair bit of money to be able to activate a prewritten "pick me up early" message. A few days?? The longest gap between satellite passes over Australia is 5 hours. This would still be a long time for some people, but it is a damn sight quicker than waiting till you are overdue back home. I really hope you haven't had to use either, rather just carried them in case

Fireman DJ has it spot on. Where there is no legal requirement to carry an EPIRB there is no legal requirement to register it, but it is just crazy to go to the effort of buying one and then not spending 5 minutes getting the most out of it.

If all you want it for is to locate yourself on your map it is perfect.