Cyber scouting/map organization while hunting on the road

[Dewey]

In the old days when I went on an out of state hunt I always brought along a stack of marked up paper topo and aerial maps. Since were now in the electronic age I was thinking I could better organize stuff to make it easier by eliminating stacks of maps.

Curious what some of you do as far as cyber scouting on the road? I thought a laptop or something like a larger screen tablet like an iPad would be nice for doing this. Recent hunts had me using my smartphone but cyber scouting on a small screen is not very enjoyable.

Do you save files with maps of hunting areas on your device for easy retrieval? Reason I ask is many times I have stayed in areas that had little to no cell service and WIFI was nonexistent so online scouting would be impossible.

Looking for some tips by learning how you do this.

[Horizontal Hunter]

Subscribed. I am also looking forward to what others do.

Bob

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[DEERSLAYER]

I save lots and lots of screen shots and notes of any property I'm interested in along with any plot maps I can get on my laptop. I have an app that allows me to download maps for offline use with the phones GPS. I usually use it to mark way points and geo tag photo's for later use while in the field. When I get back from scouting I can connect my phone to my laptop and copy pics or screen shots for a bigger view.

I cover things pretty well, but sometimes there is a property I don't have that looks better than I expected. When that happens I go to the nearest town to connect to free wifi from a business or the local public library. I will screen shot the most recent forecasts while I'm there. Both daily and hourly. Some places the forcast changes a lot, but some places like where I hunted Iowa seem to be pretty accurate with only minor changes here and there.

[checkerfred]

I save lots and lots of screen shots and notes of any property I'm interested in along with any plot maps I can get on my laptop. I have an app that allows me to download maps for offline use with the phones GPS. I usually use it to mark way points and geo tag photo's for later use while in the field. When I get back from scouting I can connect my phone to my laptop and copy pics or screen shots for a bigger view.

I cover things pretty well, but sometimes there is a property I don't have that looks better than I expected. When that happens I go to the nearest town to connect to free wifi from a business or the local public library. I will screen shot the most recent forecasts while I'm there. Both daily and hourly. Some places the forcast changes a lot, but some places like where I hunted Iowa seem to be pretty accurate with only minor changes here and there.

I'd love to hear more about geotagging the photos for later. I know some apps let you use a photo for a waypoint but I'd like to know how to import that over to Garmin Basecamp and know a particular waypoint corresponds to a certain photo. Would love to see a thread on this!

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[DEERSLAYER]

Check out this one and be sure to watch the youtube video KLEMZ has in the first post.

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=19266&hilit=photos

I think I will bump this thread up too. It's good stuff.

[Josh_S]

I save lots and lots of screen shots and notes of any property I'm interested in along with any plot maps I can get on my laptop. I have an app that allows me to download maps for offline use with the phones GPS. I usually use it to mark way points and geo tag photo's for later use while in the field. When I get back from scouting I can connect my phone to my laptop and copy pics or screen shots for a bigger view.

I cover things pretty well, but sometimes there is a property I don't have that looks better than I expected. When that happens I go to the nearest town to connect to free wifi from a business or the local public library. I will screen shot the most recent forecasts while I'm there. Both daily and hourly. Some places the forcast changes a lot, but some places like where I hunted Iowa seem to be pretty accurate with only minor changes here and there.

Pretty much what I was gonna say. On an out of state hunt last year I saved google earth screen shots to a word document on my laptop. On the screen shots I also included a physical address of the roads with hunting access to use on my driving gps to find places. I started at the north end of the public boundary at twelve o'clock and made a clockwise series of screen shots until I covered the entire piece. You have the ability to zoom in on the saved documents, but they can get a bit blurry. I relied on my hand held gps for topo features.

For those of you unfamiliar with this computer function, hit the "print screen" key on your keyboard. This copies the image. Next right click "paste" on your mouse, and the image shows up on the word document. Paste as many screen shots as you need to the word document and save it.

On a side note, my friends and I just booked a cabin for an out of state hunt. A cabin with wifi was not a necessity, but was a deciding factor. Internet connection is convenient for other things too...Like finding a nearby deer processor or grocery store, and keeping tabs on weather.

[cedarsavage]

I'm new to destination hunts so take this with a grain of salt. I have a bunch of screenshots on my phone of my Michigan destination and my Wisconsin spot. I also have a bunch of maps printed that correspond with my screenshots and labeled accordingly. On the paper maps I have parking areas and suspected beds marked so I can plan my access. I'm kinda old fashioned and like a map I can hold in my hands, but I can zoom in on my phone if need be. Maybe after this season I'll have a better way.

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[Dewey]

Any other ideas from our tech guys that have a lot of experience with this?

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[Kraftd]

I keep pins and info right in google earth so I can basically access it from anywhere. I also use the GPS Kit app for my phone when in the field scouting or hunting. It allows you to make tracks and save photos as way point along them then simply email the track as a .kmz file that can be loaded directly into google earth. I'm sure there are plenty of other apps as well, but this one works for me. I just organize the info in GE and can look from there.

I am lucky enough to have ArcGIS on my laptop for work and make larger more robust maps with local topos as well, but usually find myself relying on GE despite theoretically better tools at my disposal.

[Dewey]

Bump

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[mainebowhunter]

Depending on what state you go to, you can download a .kmz file of ALL public ground to your smartphone from the DNR website. Typically the state will have all the boundaries marked and tagged. This way, when you are driving around, finding boundaries, taking a look at the property, you can know where you are at in relation to the property boundaries. That is, provided you have cellphone service. I remember a few years back, when I started hunting KS. I spent a good part of the summer marking properties with pins and polygons in google earth. I think I mapped most Walkin Access properties with in 30miles + of where we were staying. I would then take screenshots and put them on my laptop.

We would then drive to the property, my buddy would hold the book with the properties in it. We would find a corner, as I turned, he would turn the book so we could continue to find the boundaries of the properties. If we found something we liked, he would write it down on the WIHA book for next season.

[PK_]

I just use google maps. I create a map for a certain destination, mark waypoints and I can access it right on my phone. Haven't been lucky enough to hunt somewhere that I don't have service.

[Brad]

Screenshots for me too, and then in a lot of cases I will take pictures of them with my phone so I have a smaller version to easily carry in the field with me.

[Buckhunter]

Screenshots and plugging my phone into my laptop.

[Dewey]

I'm looking to purchase something with a bigger screen than my phone for cyber scouting and hunt planning while on the road.

What is a better option a laptop or tablet?

I prefer Apple so looking at Macbooks and iPads

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