Jump to content

Thoughts on Montana by Garmin?


Recommended Posts

I'm in the market for a new GPS. My old 400T is not doing well. It has been crapping out in many ways for some time and is only getting worse.

 

Time to look at a new one.

 

I was sorting GPS's by features on the Garmin website and wanted something with topo maps, paperless caching, and a large screen. It came up with the Montana, but I've never known anyone who has cached with it, so thought I'd ask around here.

 

The info on choosing a GPS pinned at the top of this forums is from 2009, so is WAY out-of-date. Technology changes quickly, and thankfully, we've got much better GPS's now then we did in 2009.

 

If you don't have experience with the Montana, let me know what your favorite is, especially if it has the qualities listed above.

 

I'm open to other brand possibilities too. I've had such great customer service through the years with Garmin, it's hard to change, but I would consider it.

Link to comment

I'm in the market for a new GPS. My old 400T is not doing well. It has been crapping out in many ways for some time and is only getting worse.

 

Time to look at a new one.

 

I was sorting GPS's by features on the Garmin website and wanted something with topo maps, paperless caching, and a large screen. It came up with the Montana, but I've never known anyone who has cached with it, so thought I'd ask around here.

 

The info on choosing a GPS pinned at the top of this forums is from 2009, so is WAY out-of-date. Technology changes quickly, and thankfully, we've got much better GPS's now then we did in 2009.

 

If you don't have experience with the Montana, let me know what your favorite is, especially if it has the qualities listed above.

 

I'm open to other brand possibilities too. I've had such great customer service through the years with Garmin, it's hard to change, but I would consider it.

My brother has one, and it's mounted in his car. Charge it in its mount like a Nuvi, pull it off to use it has a handheld. Pretty cool. Plus it has voice street routing, loud and clear. It's a kind of on the large size, as a handheld. Kind of small as a Nuvi. He uses it as his car GPSr (no geocaching).

 

I looked at the Montana and others, but decided that street routing (voice prompts) is for my Nuvi. I imagined being at some unfamiliar place, and then losing (or breaking) the Montana. Now I have no GPSr in that scenario. But its capabilities are still pretty cool.

 

I'm very happy with a Garmin Oregon 650T. And I bought a street-routable SD card map of the US. And a "hunting maps SD card" to swap out, which has property boundaries w/info, for the whole state where I live. For ease of hiding more caches. :anibad:

Edited by kunarion
Link to comment

You might like the new Oregons (600/700 series). Though the screen is the same size and resolution as your 400, it's much brighter and easier to read. And I really like the capacitive screen. While the Montana does have a larger screen, it's still the same style screen as the older oregon models.

 

I notice that you live in the Seattle area. Save yourself a few bucks and don't buy a unit with Garmin's 100k topo maps preinstalled. I bought an Oregon 450t as my first GPS and quickly found myself using free topo maps from gpsfiledepot.com (check out Northwest Topos made by Moun10bike. It's the best topo trail map for a garmin GPS out there). When I upgraded to the Oregon 600, I didn't get the version with the topo and I haven't missed it.

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...