** GET THE GEAR ON AMAZON** We dive into the kind of maps you can load onto your Garmin GPS device and Basecamp. There are 2 types of maps: paid vs free.

Jan 22, 2015 - open MapManager and select 'File/Install Map.' And open the unzipped map file (*.gmap) open BaseCamp and select 'Maps/OSM generic routable'. If you don't want to use MapManager for step 7, you can try to skip it and open the map directly from Basecamp. That seems to be unreliable in the current version—sometimes the map gets installed, sometimes nothing happens. In any case, the gmapi files are installed into the directory ~/Library/Application Support/Garmin/Maps/.

Paid Maps: You can go and buy the various mapping products from Garmin, including the subscription service called Birdseye Imagery where you can choose between satellite or topo images. Loading these maps onto your device is fairly easy via Basecamp Watch this video on Birdseye However for hiking, topo images may be a better option than the satellite simply because they do not provide the detail we'd want. Also depending on your area, you may have low-res satellite images. Birdseye Topo is much more useful for hiking, but the main disadvantage is not knowing how old these maps are based on your area. Luckily, there is an easier & free method to get the same type of map. Free Maps: Making a Garmin Custom Map using Google Earth is a good option which can take a few minutes to build.

In our example, we've used the same data source to grab the latest published topo maps, cut a slice and made the KML file to import into Basecamp Watch this video on Garmin Custom Maps The disadvantage is that Custom Maps are picky and you might have to tweak your KML file to get the results that you want. The other free option is to simply search for 'Free Garmin Maps'.

A number of sites like and other sites will have repositories with submitted maps. Depending on your area this might be a useful resource. If you are in Canada, there is the Ibycus Topo product (), where the same government data source was used to grab the GIS (shapefiles) data instead of the raster images and produced Garmin maps using free tools. The advantage is that these are vector maps and will behave like the Garmin products like City Navigator or Garmin Topo. Meaning that you can zoom in tight and not have pixel distortion like the Garmin Custom Map or Birdseye Topo. Another Free option which is to use the Garmin Openstreetmap (). This is a free service that compiles garmin maps from openstreetmap.org Depending on your area, the detail might be lacking, however being an open source project, anybody including yourself can contribute to the map in a few clicks.

Installing maps on our device is straight forward, take the img files and drop them into a folder named 'Garmin' on your SD card. You can drop the file in the Garmin folder on the device, but there are limitation and you'll have to rename your file gmapsupp.img.

If you are using windows, you will find a.exe file as part of the download package to install in the right spot so that it appears in basecamp next time you start up the program. By placing your.img files on a SD card, you can rename them making it easier to manage. Also you can swap the card and insert into Garmin models.

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Contents • • • • • • • • • • • • Having a Garmin is a good idea for hunting but how to download maps to Garmin is even much more important. The reason is that if you don’t know how to do it, then your device is just a waste of money. You have just bought a brand-new Garmin and still don’t know how to download maps?

Well, I used to have the same problem, actually, I had to spend days searching for how to download maps. Marketplace suited. Finally, after a long time asking experienced hunters and searching on Google, I have already known how to do it. Now, if you have the same problem like me, then just read on and believe me, you can get what you need. Preparation Make sure you have the following things: • A Team HUNT account • Registered HUNT Download Map • High-speed internet connection • A computer with USB port or SD card reader • Free Basecamp mapping software • Garmin GPS with USB cable or SD adapter (if you have SD ) How to Download Maps to Garmin for Window Get your Garmin ready Step 1: Plug your Garmin into your PC and wait until the device is recognized.