Editorial Review:

Product Description:
Take aim at the all-new, waterproof iFINDER Hunt. Designed for hunting enthusiasts, this totally waterproof handheld is rugged enough to handle any harsh environment. The iFINDER Hunt features exclusive, hunting-specific icons to mark your tree stands, game signs, as well as your truck and ATV positions. It also includes a built-in electronic compass and barometric altimeter!The iFINDER Hunt Plus has the same great features of the standard model, with the added plus of exclusive MapCreate U.S. Topo mapping software with unique public hunting areas database, one MMC/SD memory card, and an MMC/SD card reader with USB connector - for making custom, high-detail mapping.

Amazon.com Product Description:
Designed specifically for hunting enthusiasts, the Lowrance iFinder Hunt Handheld GPS+WASS Receiver with Plus Package is rugged enough to handle the harshest environments. The GPS+WAAS receiver sports such features as exclusive, hunting-specific icons to mark your tree stands, game signs, and truck or ATV positions, along with a built-in electronic compass, a barometric altimeter, and a tough, watertight housing with a sure-grip rubber welt seal.

Displays rivers, elevation, and more. View larger.

Customize your display with hunting icons. View larger.

Nav screen compass display. View larger.

The Lowrance iFinder Hunt Plus Package delivers added mapping detail with the MapCreate 6 software. View larger.

Merely plot a route via the easy-to-use keypad, and the iFinder Hunt follows the path precisely, with intuitive navigating that keeps you from veering off course. As with the best GPS navigators, the iFinder Hunt is so reliable that its 12-parallel-channel GPS and WAAS receiver is accurate to within a few meters, making it appropriate not just for hunting, but also hikes, boating trips, and road trips. Each trip is completely customizable, with the ability to create new routes, waypoints, trails, and more. You can also easily recalculate your trip route should you get distracted and lose your way, and thanks to the MMC/SD card slot, the device can save and retrace up to 100 of your favorite plot trails, with up to 10,000 points in each path.

Although the iFinder Hunt comes with a custom built-in map, Lowrance sweetened the deal by throwing in its MapCreate USA Topo 6 software CD-ROM, along with an MMC digital memory card and an MMC/SD card reader/writer (Plus Package). MapCreate 6 offers a full set of searchable land features and more than two million points of interest, including restaurants, lodging, gas stations, emergency services, airports, shopping destinations, and more. It's the ideal mapping software for getting from point A to point B, whether point B is across town or across the country. The included MMC memory card and card reader help you transfer the mapping data from your PC to the iFinder Hunt. As a bonus, the iFinder Hunt also works with a variety of preloaded memory cards (no PC required), such as FreedomMaps, Fishing Hot Spots Elite, LakeMaster Pro Maps, NauticPath USA, and Navionics.

Folks with a zest for detail will appreciate the iFinder Hunt's dual processors, which let you scroll quicker and receive faster screen updates. The processors are particularly handy when using the 40 map zoom ranges (from 0.02 to 4,000 miles), or when recording up to 2,000 waypoints or 100 routes. It's as a hunting aid that the iFinder Hunt really excels, however. The compass option, for instance, helps you keep your bearing when the terrain is unfamiliar, while the barometric altimeter displays the elevation of your current location. Hunters will also dig the scouting function, which allows them to define their favorite hunting area by drawing a boundary on the map; the area subsequently appears on the iFinder Map, helping users keep abreast of their position within the scouted area at all times. The device also offers specific hunting waypoints with hunting-appropriate symbols.

Additional features include a 3-inch white LED backlit screen with 240 x 180 resolution, a port for connecting an optional external GPS+WAAS antenna, backup memory for storing your GPS data and settings, a cigarette plug power adapter for car trips, and a built-in microphone for recording voice notes. The pocket-sized unit measures 2.54 by 5.58 by 0.95 inches (W x H x D) and runs for up to 12 hours on two AA batteries (not included). It also includes a one-year warranty.


What's in the Box
iFinder Hunt, MapCreate 6 software CD-ROM, MMC digital memory card, MMC/SD card reader/writer, cigarette plug power adapter, and user's manual.

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Rating: - Software is not Windows-based
I am used to the MS Office applications so I found the iFinder and the MapCreate programs very irritating to learn. For example, if I had been working on a trip, finished it, and turned it off, the next time I'd turn it on it would be in the same place I was the last time. In Windows, you would be at the desktop on a clean screen. And the programs do not have a "Back" or "Return" button. It is "manual-intensive" and "menu-intensive" so you have to have someone drive while you read or guide you while hiking so you can learn out in the field.