aerial maps

[adrenalin_rush]

tried something new this year. printed off an aerial pic of  property i am hunting and then walked the whole thing looking for signs of deer. if I did find a sign, i put an X on the map. this lets me figure out where the best spot to put a stand would be. anyone else do this?

[outbackshooter]

Yes that is a good thing to do but remember the patterns the deer are in now will change come fall. Use your topo maps to locate pinch points, bottle necks, saddles etc,
                                                     Good Hunting

[Rairdog]

I use google earth religiously.  I can zoom in on some of our treestands.  I have pin points marking all my stands and fishing holes.  Then I have notes connected to the pin points.  I have time of years for different species of fish.  Wind and patterns for stands.  It's like a diary.  Then when I'm ready to go out hunting I can check the weather for wind direction and pick a stand.  When I'm hunting a new area I can locate where I want to try based on wind and bottle necks.  I have pin points all over Indiana for fishing and hunting and Michigan and Wisconsin for fishing.  Salmon, steelhead, perch, walleye, crappie, catfish, ice fishing, deer, turkey, mushrooms its all there. 

[holden222]

Google Earth us a great tool. I use a GPS as well. Its great checking this same spots year after year to see if the deer come back.

[St.Croix]

even better than google eathr is bing maps birds eye view. Much better clarity and resolution

[holden222]

even better than google eathr is bing maps birds eye view. Much better clarity and resolution

Nice looking maps but they don't work worth a darn on my area for some reason. Wonder how they did those? Maybe they did their own fly overs instead of taking every states GIS mapping?

[pyle]

Nice looking maps but they don't work worth a darn on my area for some reason. Wonder how they did those? Maybe they did their own fly overs instead of taking every states GIS mapping?

I work at the Airport in Rochester NY and we get those planes in all the time that take the aireal pics. They are for survey companys that do Pictometry(sp). Then the survey places sell them to Bing and google. Thats why they are 2-3 years old when you look at them. I looked at my house and my fathers old truck was in the driveway that he got rid of 3 years ago. They are hired to usually do 1 county at a time. Thats why some of the pics are newer than others.

As a matter of fact we have 4 of there planes in our hangar right now that are doing Ontario county,then they are off to Texas to do 1 county.

If you live in a very rural area the chances of the pics to be updated yearly are very low. And vice versa for high population and Industrial areas.

Sucks cause most of us hunt the rural areas. Not in the heart of the city's

[holden222]

I work at the Airport in Rochester NY and we get those planes in all the time that take the aireal pics. They are for survey companys that do Pictometry(sp). Then the survey places sell them to Bing and google. Thats why they are 2-3 years old when you look at them. I looked at my house and my fathers old truck was in the driveway that he got rid of 3 years ago. They are hired to usually do 1 county at a time. Thats why some of the pics are newer than others.

As a matter of fact we have 4 of there planes in our hangar right now that are doing Ontario county,then they are off to Texas to do 1 county.

If you live in a very rural area the chances of the pics to be updated yearly are very low. And vice versa for high population and Industrial areas.

Sucks cause most of us hunt the rural areas. Not in the heart of the city's

I know I'm a surveyor haha, it's actually a really cool process and can be pretty damn accurate if you have the right control.

But yeah google claims there images are satellite but I don't know if I believe them. Those birdseye view ones from bing are real nice but they update so slowly in my area that I get a big white screen most of the time.