good gps?

h20 ifinder from lowrance, good hand held unit

Garmin  GPSMAP 76CX,  Easy to use.  Good lock-on.

The Lowrances are good units, but their menus are ANYTHING but intuitive!

I have a 3 year old Lowrance ihunt, not real impressed with it, it's hard on the batteries but if you can plug it into a 12v system it's fine, Plus as long as you are in the open it works great but inside the truck it has a very hard time recieving sats, a external windowshield mountable antenna takes care of that. As stated earlier the menus are hard to get use too. Maybe the newer units are better???

For the all around sportsman I recomend the Garmin Rhino 530 HCX (Lithium Ion rechargable pack and runs Lakemaster chips and TOPO data chips), I have a couple and they are great useful units. GMRS/FMS Weather Radio, altimiter, compas, ...ect..ect..loaded and easy to use. No card reader needed, easy exchange of info from PC/Laptop to GMS.

Garmin Vista HCX,  Garmin 76 CX

If you've got a boat with Lowrance electronics then I'd get a Lowrance handheld.  The menu's are the same and swapping points between the units is quick and easy via MMC cards.

Garmin's menu's etc are a bit more intuitive/easier to figure out if you're starting from scratch.

I own a Lowrance H2OC.  I ordered the regular H2O but they sent me the colored one by accident.  Anyway I like mine.  You can download and upload your track/routes and then display them over google earth later.  I have taken my snowmobiling and not had a problem with it.  One thing I do like is the AA batteries, which seem to last at least 10 hrs, and when they die I just grab the spares I have and I'm good to go.  I don't have to wait to get back home or the pickup to recharge.

I have a lowrance i finder expedition c with a NDTRAX chip, and I do like it alot!

There are so many good ones out there that it's  tough choice. 
I got a Lowarnce XOG cheap on sale for around $100.00 mostly for finding our way in strange cities,  which is marketed as a dual water/land GPS.   I bought a ND chip with PLOTS and public land and lake depth contours from that fellow who sells them on FBO and WOW! 
 For a computer illiterate idiot like me, it is easy to use and really works!  I even use it in my plane to watch the lake depths and PLOTS land go by.   The only trouble with it in the plane is that I play with the darned thing too much and don't watch out the window as much as I should to dodge flocks of geese and last night a kamakazzie heron!  But that's my fault, not the GPS! 
Discovering more stuff on it every day. 
That chip would work as well in the ifinder or any of its clones, and he also sells chips for all the Garmin ones and some others.  The one drawback to the XOG is that it only runs an hour or two on its rechargeable lithium battery.  It's more of a plug in GPS, unlike the Ifinder series. 
I'm not getting any commision and have even forgotten his name but that is a really great chip packed with info.  For the money you can't go wrong! 

I mimic horsager.  Go with what you have in your boat.  It will make life much more easy.  I also agree with Allen but it doesn't stop just at Lowrance.  All handhelds I've used seemingly lack user friendly menus, etc.

I'm not sure how some of the companies even come up with their ideas.  I was upset for many things and sent a letter to the company saying that the next time they update a product or introduce another that I'd volunteer my time helping them come up with practical layouts.  That and being in the GIS world they do NOT MAKE EXPORTING AND IMPORTING features easy.  It shouldn't require extensive knowledge to get it done and believe me, it requires having working (real world) experience with getting data, custom maps, etc into these handhelds.  Many will not do such stuff but it shouldn't be so hard for those that would like to.

But getting back to it.  I do like the physical design of my Lowrance.  It locks nicely and has good speed and clarity to it.  I have the Expedition C.  It works just fine but if you want to do custom things it is a pain.  All units are that way (Garmin and Lowrance for sure...I've played with both of them).

Good luck with your decision.

Thanks guys for all the input

I just gave a reply on a similar topic on this thread. I hope it helps.