Garmin Inreach Explorer+

[TRICER]

Well after my wife called the forest service to report the boys and I missing a few weeks ago I had to find a solution to keep in touch with her. (I got ahold of her just in time to call of the search) I spend a lot of time in the back country, a lot of which is by myself with no service. So I broke down and bought a Garmin Inreach Explorer+ for $450. With a month to month $35 subscription I get 40 text messages from anywhere in the world, my wife can track and see where I am with updates every 10 minutes, and it has an SOS feature that when pressed notifies search and rescue of my exact location. For $65 I can have unlimited text but who wants to be texting that much while hunting honestly one of my favorite parts of hunting is no emails and service.

The only downfall that I see to this unit is that it does not accept chips so I cannot run ONX on it. But Garmins earthmate hunt app for $35 a year gives you basically the same thing as ONX for the the entire country. I don't think it will be as good as ONX but man that is a lot cheaper than I pay for a yearly US subscription to ONX and the Chips are $100 per state for ONX. All in all I am happy with the purchase I will be 5 miles back by myself this weekend now my wife will have peace of mind and I can scout and build blinds knowing that if I get hit by a rattler or break a leg help is a puch of a button away.

The big plus for me is that I will now be able to stay in touch no matter where I am in the world. Since Garmin bought out Delorme inreach I can guarantee in the next year or so they will accept a chip but for now it is what it is.

 

[Bugsy71]

I'll have to look into this, thank you.


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[Bonejour]

Thanks Drew for the post. I have the Garmin Rino 650t as backup for my OnX. It's nice to have both when you're in NM, WY or somewhere with no service over a very large area. Plus the Rino has a radio and can track your hunting partners who also have a Garmin with similar features. The new Garmins have touch screen features and other improvements, though the screens aren't as good as a smart phone.


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[Fowl Play]

Definitely a good product to have in the field. Especially for solo trips. Just in case anyone doesn't want to drop the $450 for the newer Garmins, I purchased one of the older Delorme InReach SE's a few months back and have been very happy with it. Same safety 2 way messaging/SOS functionality as the new Garmin's (minus being able to use it as a stand alone GPS). You can find them for under $250 if you look around.

 

[fish dog]

I got the InReach Explorer+ a few months ago myself. Haven't used it as of yet but figure as I get older this is a smart thing to have in case things go south. There is a phone app for it also that allows you to Bluetooth it to your phone which makes it much easier to text than using the little screen on the Explorer. Figure it's pretty cheap insurance and gives the better half peace of mind when I go off into the unknown.

 

[SurfNHuntSD]

Good thread Drew.. I've been in the market for one, so this is helpful info.

 

[DoubleTrouble]

Good thread Drew.. I've been in the market for one, so this is helpful info.

Same here... Thanks!