The Hunting Beast

My name is Fins, and I am a cyber-scouting junky. I blame The Beast for this. Since turkey season ended, I've done nothing but browse maps and Google Earth for public land spots to scout. I'll never have time to look at all the spots I've marked, but if in get drawn for a quota hunt, I'm already one step ahead.


Anyone else "suffer" from this affliction?

OnXmaps replaced my fb about 3 months ago. Cyber scouting anytime and anywhere

I was on a 3 hour flight yesterday and had used the "flight tracker" to watch where we were. Got the bright idea to use it to cyber scout, and was totally disappointed when I realized the zoom wasn't quite good enough.

I'm a cyber addict has well. Was looking on onx last night. I've got some public cyber scouted 3 hours from me that just looks awesome. Tons of swamp and marshes with islands and transitions. It's 4 miles between roads. Not many areas that are more than a mile between roads in the lower peninsula of Michigan.I need to get there and put boots on the ground. I've missed some things before cyber scouting that you don't see the first time.

I use HuntStand, CalTopo, myTopo, and GE. From the computer, I'll get on HuntStand and switch the basemap to topo and start dropping pins. Then I'll go back and look at them on the satellite, and if I don't like what I see on the sat image, I'll remove the pin. They have to match, though.


I also use layering on CalTopo and myTopo to do the same thing, but I can't export my pins to HuntStand that way.

Certified cyber-scouting junkie here. I have been scouting using aerials and topos well before the internet using paper printed maps. These days it sure is so much easier just bringing them up on a computer or better yet a smartphone while in the field. Anybody that doesn't take advantage of it is missing a whole new world of hunting.

Absolutely, Dewey. My dad taught me to read a topo map at a young age while prepping for a quota hunt he was drawn for. He still has those maps rolled up in the same tubes. I'm sure they have the same pencil marks on them from 20 years ago where he made his notes. I asked him for those maps one time, he said he'd put it in his will. Until then, I had to do my own work.

I taught my wife to identify a saddle and what points look like. She sees them now before I have time to point them out to her. I love it!

Everyday on my lunch break, google maps, hillmap, onxmaps...

And even land I've already looked at several times, I'll still find something new about that catches my interest. Definitely obsessed...

I look at google earth and onyx alot.

For farmland google earth is incredible.


I find more beds using onyx topo then google earth.Honestly i like google earth but it usually does not help me find beds that much in hill country.

So many areas that look great on google earth have either 4 wheeler trails through them or are logged since the last picture drive there to scout and are like GRRRR Disappointed. Woods are so different on foot.

Ive had spots on google earth i thought would be incredible bedding go scout it has nothing. Kinda sitting there thinking How on earth is this not a great spot

Oh yeah, it's definitely an addiction that I've developed over the past few years. Even when we go on vacation I can't help but check out the areas around where we are staying. My wife just shakes her head haha

tbunao wrote:OnXmaps replaced my fb about 3 months ago. Cyber scouting anytime and anywhere

Onxmaps the way to go

I'm on a computer all day at work. Then I spend lunch and evenings cyber-scouting. None of the guys I know that hunt cyber-scout??? I've quadrupled my effective hunting foot print in the last year. After finding the Beast. I'm stoked about the 30+ new spots I have for this season!!!

My OnXMaps is plastered with waypoints and outlined areas. I usually outline potential bed areas and then cross reference it with google earth because the resolution is way clearer. Sometimes I'll dig into Huntstand topo because it will show those subtle changes in elevation that most topos won't. The more cyber scouting I'm doing the less junk I'm aimlessly walking through in the woods. Needless to say you're not alone!

I'm more of a post-junkie, after years of cyber scouting until my eyes would bleed I have slowed down recently. I do still love a good cyber scout thought, tons of fun to hit the computer before and especially after a good scout.

The fruits of today's labors!



That trail shows up 2 seasons in a row on GE timeline. The season before, the State mowed a lane through it so the deer went around the lane.


Then you follow it SE and pick it up again.




Topo shows an easy slope, but a good change in elevation for this river bottom.






I love this stuff!!!!!