Handheld GPS?

[LC]

I have two handheld GPS that are basically dust collectors now. I use Onx with my cell phone. You can down load maps and not need cell service to use. Can tell where you are at within property boundaries and who owns what property surrounding you. Great for out of state hunts or in state hunts. Like Joe I carry a back up battery pack that can recharge my cell phone four times. But if out of cell range I just turn off my cell service and adjust brightness etc and cell battery will last days. Hand held GPS are out of date now adays IMHO.

Dog tracking I have no clue. BUT I will say the Onx has the very best customer service of anything I've bought and used for years. It's like customer service USE to be 20 years ago! Great people!

[Whip]

I've heard good things about Gaia, but I'll throw another name in the hat. I started using Backcountry Navigator this year and love it. I don't know if Gaia has some features that BCN doesn't, but I've been more than happy - it has done everything that I need.  Download topos and aerials for offline use, mark way points, etc, etc.  And it was only a $11.95 one time fee - no annual renewal.

It works in airplane mode without cell service, and battery life is excellent. One thing that helps is to turn the GPS function on and off on your phone and use it only when needed rather than keeping it on all the time.

Last fall I went 8 days with a single battery pack to recharge my phone. I had along a solar charger but never used it.

I also had my old Garmin gps with me and never turned it on. A cell phone map package has made them obsolete, at least for my purposes.

[fisherick]

I need to look more closely at these apps.

[beendare]

My experience with GAIA.

I use it on my Iphone 7 plus- the big one. The Maps are better than on any GPS I've seen partially due to the bigger screen.

I used it on hunts this year in Alaska for 2 weeks, central Ca, Montana- worked perfectly.

You have to download the maps for the area you will be in prior to the hunt and save them to your phone. Fastest while on wifi but cell tower works too. You select how big of an area...and the resolution you want....but be advised....bigger maps with more resolution can be really big files. Easy to download maps. while in that screen an area is already highlighted on the map. you adjust it to the area you want...and in the top line check resolution [usually I use 1/24,000]Before downloading check file size- thats it.

Its an advantage to have the smart phone with a lot of memory. My typical map is about 4 mgbs but in Ak i did a large area JIC that was 12 mgbps.

The trick to using this without a cell tower is place the phone in Airplane mode....if not your phone eats the battery searching for a tower every 10 seconds. My phone lasted 5-6 days plus using it for GPS and taking a bunch of pics. I typically plugged it into one of those little Anker battery pack chargers to refresh it a little every couple days. I could probably go 8-10 days or more if i just used it sparingly for GPS only.

The GPS is as good as my Garmin with the best chip. The cursor is a '>' that gives you direction and GAIA has a built in compass...though I would always bring a back up.

If there is a negative; its that my phone is not quite as robust as my GPS. My phone is water and shock resistant ...my GPS is more so.

[Texoma]

I use the Back country navigator app,there is a limited free version and a pay version.I ended up buying the app works great.The only drawback is the battery life on my phone.