GPS Maps Tools

[OG DramaLlama]

Looking for some user feedback on GPS hunting maps that focus on private land ownership while still providing some of the function I'm familar with on Garmins Bird's eye view subscription, Topo version. In the past, I have primarily focused on hunting public lands with no access issues. This year some of the backcountry I am thinking of accessing looks to be a bit more complicated due to surrounding private land.

My biggest concern on getting away from my current system is my heavy reliance on the Garmin basecamp tool. I rely on Google Earth to do some of my prescouting and I like that I can mark areas on the topo and then transfer to google earth. The cross funcionality is a big plus for me.

I also use this for fishing and camping access as well.

Garmin Huntview?
HUNT by onXmaps?
Any other providers?

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[mauidiver]

Following this myself. Thanks

 

[MuleyFever]

I have downloaded maps from GPSFileDepot and the maps show land ownership. They dont list the landowner by name but there is shading for National Forest/BLM.

 

[NMbackcountry]

I use onXmaps. Mine seem to have even the smallest roads on them and the land owner lines are super accurate. The features are nice, and I've even had ranchers try to push me off of tracks of land near their private property while trying to claim it as their own. I was able to turn them away with the threat of reporting them for harassing hunters and kept hunting with confidence. The cost is a little high but it's definitely worth it.

 

[COlineman78]

I use Backcountry Navigator for android and love it! You could use it in combination with google earth on the computer and use KML/KMZ/GPZ to transfer data between the two. BN is free to try, $12 for pro and $10/state for land boundaries or free if you use the kmz on this site with both earth and BN, which seems to be fairly accurate, but not quite as good as the purchased add on. They also have GMU boundaries for some states ($12 for CO). The software has a bit of a learning curve, but it is the most feature ritch of all those that I've tried. Lot's of different base layers too: topo, USFS, imagry with topo, and many more.

Another common one that has both iOS and Android support is GaiaGPS, but it's a fairly expensive subscription fee for the pro features ($40/year).

 

[wapitibob]

I'm scouting on my laptop every day of the year. If you "need" sat imagery on your gps you can get the garmin sd card that has ownership and sat on a per state basis. You can also hack the bios on the gps and use topofusion/mapc2mapc to create tiled jpegs then convert to jnx so the garmin will read them from the birdseye folder. Lots of work for sat imagery that you may not actually use in the field.
I use the std onX sd card in my gps (rarely use sat imagery on it now). And on my laptop I use basecamp with the Plat4GPS download version installed, and am also heavily using GE Pro with earthpoint topo, onX plat4GE, forest visitor maps, and any other geo referenced overlays that I may want to look at. I primarily use GE Pro but do use the basecamp so I am familiar with the same onX map that will be on my gps when in the field.

 

[Orion81]

Elkoholic30
I can only speak to the onXmaps. I also only use Garmin Basecamp for trip planning. In my opinion, onXmaps are integrated really well to be used within Basecamp and is intuitive. I keep the Xmap chip loaded in the GPS and have the Garmin TOPO 24K maps loaded to the memory in the GPS. When you plug the GPS into the computer, the onXmaps automatically show up in Basecamp. It is really easy to swap to view each of these maps in Basecamp by toggling the desired map by selecting the "Maps" tab. I plan my route in TOPO 24K send it to my device. When you toggle the map to view the onXmap, the routes/waypoints created in TOPO 24K are overlaid on the Huntmap.

Hope this helps

 

[MuleyFever]

Can someone explain how to lay property boundaries in CO over Google Earth? Or how to get the CO Hunting Atlas info into Earth?

 

[COlineman78]

Can someone explain how to lay property boundaries in CO over Google Earth? Or how to get the CO Hunting Atlas info into Earth?

The atlas can't be imported into earth, however you can import KML and KMZ files in. There are KMZ files for the land boundaries in every state, or for CO specific overlays including GMU. Use File>Open in GEarth to open the KML/Z files and they will be added to "Temporary Places" which I believe you can move to a more permanent location. CPW also provides species maps in KMZ format. I forget how, but you can also set it up to load the KMZ from a URL instead of downloading it first so that any changes will get refreshed automatically.

 

[MuleyFever]

Thanks!

Is there a way to change the opacity of the overlays?

 

[COlineman78]

You can change the style of the overlay, which depending on the overlay could have different repercussions and if you loaded via file>open would work better than if you had done it via add>network link as it would probably be reset with every refresh. So right click the overlay and going to properties, then under style force inheritance and then you can change fill opacity. If this doesn't look how you want you can delete the overlay and reopen it and try changing the style at the lower levels of the overlay for finer tuning.

 

[bowieknife50]

Short thread hijack here: does anyone know of a free web-based program that will calculate viewsheds?

 

[COlineman78]

Short thread hijack here: does anyone know of a free web-based program that will calculate viewsheds?

http://www.heywhatsthat.com/