Help selecting a product

First let me introduce myself as the polite thing to do.

Mike here from South Georgia. I am a farmer and in the land clearing business.

I am in search of input from folks who are much more in the know about these devices than myself.

I need a hand held instrument that I can carry with me to different locations on a tract of land and pinpoint property corners and then be able to calculate distance between the points and total acreage.

Im not on a pinch a penny budget but I do not want to buy a lot more than I actually need.

Thanks in advance for all your help.

Mike

 

Mike,

For many years I worked as a real estate investor buying and selling vacant acreage. Often times I needed to use a consumer grade GPS to help find ‘lost’ survey stakes or to find approximate property corners on land that had not been surveyed. Not long ago I decided to buy a new Garmin GPS and wanted one that was well suited for this type of use. I reviewed the specs for the current crop of Garmins and narrowed it down either of the following:
1. Garmin eTrex 20. Buttons. $200
2. Garmin Oregon 600. Touchscreen. $400

Both of the above models can see botht he USA satellites and the Russian GLONASS satellites. More satellites = more data = better accuracy.

I bought the Oregon 600 since it has a bigger screen and it has the ability to let me load multiple custom basemaps (aerial and topo for example) and easily switch between them.

If you are curious you can read more about my recommendation at PropertyLineMaps.com. Look for my GPS page.

Keep in mind that a consumer grade GPS will not “pinpoint” property corners. If you set the GPS up correctly and if you learn how to operate the GPS in order to get the best accuracy, then in my opinion the average accuracy you will get will be around 15 feet.

But, all of this begs a question.

How are you going to get coordinates for property corners to put into your GPS?

Joseph