Magellan eXplorist 350H GPS Unit
Lewis Creek Shooting School 09.09.13
I remember scouting for deer in the mountains of Montgomery County with my friend, Joe Clodfelter, about 30 years ago. Joe and I have been best friends since grade school. We roamed all over the woods for hours looking for deer sign, and decided to quit and go to Marvin Mulinix’s store for a lunch of hoop cheese and sardines. We’d found some good places to put stands, but decided that if we put stands there we probably couldn’t find them again. Once we agreed to go back to the car, Joe started off in a direction that was opposite the direction I thought the car was. We argued. Since we were equally stubborn, there was no resolution, so we agreed we’d split up and go our own ways. The first one to the car would blow the horn to help the other find it. The last one there would buy lunch.
I took off in my direction, and Joe in his. As I walked through the woods, I thought about how I’d rub it in that I got there first. Sure enough, as I topped the ridge where the car should have been, I saw it. Then I saw Joe coming from the opposite direction about the same distance from the car as I was; he spotted me about the same time I saw him. The car was on the other side of the mountain from where our argument had occurred and it had taken the same time for each of us to reach it by going around the mountain in opposite directions. We both broke into a run and reached the car at the same time. Had there been someone there to see us they would have thought we were crazy. We were laughing so hard we could hardly breathe. Sometimes, I guess it’s fun to be lost.
Everyone who’s spent any time in the outdoors has been lost. Daniel Boone once said that he was never lost, but he was once “confused about his location for a few days.” I have been lost in the woods, on roads, and on water. I’m most easily lost on water at night. People who can find their way around on water at night without a compass or other means of navigation amaze me. I was once lost on Bogue Sound in the dark and fog and was only about a hundred yards from the house where I had slept.
Today, with the widespread availability of handheld GPS units, there’s no reason to ever be lost again. A GPS can provide you with very accurate information regarding direction, speed, location and distance. Modern GPS units come with an internal map of the United States including many small dirt roads and trails. It’s amazing that you can carry all this information in the palm of your hand. I’ve recently been testing the Magellan eXplorist 350H; the H stands for hunt. The 350H has the ability to store over 30 hunt-specific waypoints. Before the season begins you can use them when scouting to mark trail camera locations, water, food sources, game tracks, bedding areas, and more.
My first GPS was a handheld Magellan that weighed about a pound and had a tiny screen with a green and black display. It often took five minutes to find its location and was remarkably accurate, getting me to within 30 yards of a specific spot. I didn’t know another soul who owned one but, at the time I was an avid waterfowler and I’d experienced several close calls trying to find duck blinds in total darkness.
While it’s designed for hunters, the 350H will also serve for general hiking and light boating situations and its light-years better than my old Magellan. The function I value most in a handheld GPS comes from those early duck trips—the track function traces your exact path to within a few feet. By closely following the track line, you can avoid obstacles and shoals in zero visibility. The track screen also indicates how far you’ve traveled and requires just a two key strokes from start-up to get it activated. Once the GPS is turned on, it has to locate the satellites and compute its position. The 350H located itself within less than two minutes and was ready to go. With the track function activated, you can mark your starting point and follow the exact path you’ve used before. In addition to getting where you want to go, you can find the foot log you crossed earlier or avoid the steep hill you walked around.
The eXplorist 350H also comes loaded with GMUs (game management units). Unlike in my home state of North Carolina, big game hunting permits out West are issued for specific areas, with some states containing hundreds of units—and they often overlap for different species. Having this data in your GPS unit can prevent you from accidentally getting into an area you aren’t authorized to hunt. This is invaluable for an unguided hunter working in unfamiliar territory, and the first time I’ve seen this feature.
Smaller than a pack of cigarettes, and weighing just five ounces, the eXplorist 350H features a 2.2-inch color screen and is waterproof. It runs 18 hours on two AA batteries. It has a USB port to allow loading additional information like aerial photos, and is PC- and Mac-friendly. It also holds sun and moon information based on your actual location and displays elevation. There are simply too many features to mention in this space.
At an MSRP of $249, the Magellan eXplorist 350H represents real value and is the easiest and fastest handheld GPS I’ve used. This is an item I’ll be keeping in my kit bag from now until they bring out a better one. Then maybe I should give Joe Clodfelter my old one.
Dick Jones is an award winning outdoor writer and a member of the Southeastern Outdoor Press Association Board of Directors. He writes for four North Carolina Newspapers as well as regional and national magazines. He’s hunted and fished most of his life but shooting has been his passion. He’s a former High Master, Distinguished Rifleman, and AAA class pistol shooter. He holds four Dogs of War Medals for Team Marksmanship as shooter, captain and coach. He ran the North Carolina High Power Rifle Team for six years and the junior team two years after that. Within the last year, he’s competed in shotgun, rifle and pistol events including the National Defense Match and the Bianchi Cup. He’ll be shooting the Bianchi, the NDM, the National High Power Rifle Championship, The Rock Castle AR15.com Three Gun Championship and an undetermined sniper match this shooting season.
He lives in High Point, North Carolina with his wife Cherie who’s also an outdoor writer and the 2006 and 2011 Northeast Side by Side Women’s Shotgun Champion. Both Dick and Cherie are NRA pistol, rifle, and shotgun instructors and own Lewis Creek Shooting School.
