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Garmin Oregon or Montana


carnivalman

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I bought an Oregon 600 last week (upgrade from the 400), and had a tinge of buyer's remorse when I saw a Montana in the store a few days ago. The larger screen was pretty attractive. But I run and hike a lot while caching, and I think the bigger unit would be a bigger pain to haul around. So the Oregon is probably best for me.

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I like the Montana because of the larger screen. Is their much difference.

 

I have a Montana. Yesterday I did a 13.5 mile walk (picked up a couple of caches en-route). Most of the time the Montana was set to view the map and was in a pouch. I just whipped it out from time to time to check progress/time/distance. When I got near the first cache, I changed to Geocaching mode, to show distance to the cache, etc and hand held it. I have a short lanyard with a clip on the end; I slipped the clip round a finger, so it was "tethered" to me and held the GPSr in my palm. Very simple and it fits snuggly with the thumb on one side and the tip of the fingers just curled around the other side. After finding the second cache, it was just a couple of double clicks to the power button, to return to the Recreation profile so I could again show the route mapping and data. (Shortcuts on the Montana and Oregon make it very simple to switch between modes.) In summary, the Montana is a bit bulky, but IMO the larger screen size is a bigger "plus" that offsets the increased bulk.

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I really wish people would take the time to actually look at the specifications before saying it's too large or bulky. It's only .5 inches wider, 1.2 inches longer, and .1 inch thicker. It weighs 3 oz. more. Yes, it's larger, but not THAT much larger. Unless you have really big hands, it's only one finger segment longer and half a finger segment wider. I have a case with a lanyard and I rarely carry it in my hand until it either beeps or I feel I'm close to GZ. I have a phone that's bigger (H and W) than the Montana and Oregon but not nearly as thick as either. I think the two biggest differences are that the Oregon uses GLONASS and the Montana doesn't and (not sure about this one) that the Oregon supports .ggz (?) format to load more caches while the Montana doesn't.

 

https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/catalog/product/compareResult.ep?compareProduct=113538&compareProduct=75228

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The Oregon model has been along for some time, but you have older and newer models here.

 

I have the Oregon 600 now and had the Montana before.

I love both, they both do the same, more or less.

Sold the Montana a few month ago because the model got older and once there's a new model the older model is hard to sell for a good price.

The Monterra is not considered by me.

Once a new good working model with a large screen pops up I will buy the larger model again.

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Hi we are new to geocaching and need a gpx I see that the Oregon is used a lot, but I like the Montana because of the larger screen. Is their much difference.

It depends on which models you're comparing. The Oregon 600 series has a new "tabbed" Geocaching interface, Glonass (may allow faster satellite locks in certain situations), "glove-friendly" touchscreen, and can hold "millions of Geocaches". I especially needed a decent touchscreen, so after comparing features, bought an Oregon 650T.

 

My brother has a Montana, and the car mount is excellent. The Montana speaks during car navigation, just like a regular Nuvi. Pretty sweet, since I spend half my Geocaching time just driving to caches. I place one or two choice caches on my Nuvi to get into an area. I also sometimes use my Oregon for a tricky street routing, and at those times, the Montana would really shine.

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