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What mapping software,Apps, and tools do you use!?

I have Gaia and onX. And when I renew this fall, I will renew Gaia. It is not as intuitive as onX, but better quality IMO. And more functionality.

Last season I ran both while scouting and hunting. After one evening hunt coming out of a swamp, onX refused to display my location, my tracks or where I was. Gaia worked perfect. Onx’s fix, uninstall and reinstall the app. That did work the next day at home, but a fat lot of good that would have done for me in the swamp that night.
 
I like this one: https://mappingsupport.com

I prefer to use UTM with a physical map+compass and that free software will print out a topo map with the UTM grid on it.

If going canoeing, I spray the print out with Thompson's WaterSeal spray.

Alukban ....finally someone who can read coordinates from a map. Im selftaught in UTM and can be within 1 meter of anywhere theres a UTM map on the planet. Lay down a plotter trail in the light avoiding the cliff and the swamp and quicksand and put one tack on the exact tree im hunting. Come in in the dark navigating by compass and gps plotter trail... get within 20 meters turn on flashlight..... bingo theres my tree


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I use a combination of Huntstand, the MN DNR recreation compass and the county GIS system. I really like how simple Huntstand is to use and all the free options including property info. I use the DNR page to locate state parcels I want to check out and use the GIS to get more in depth info on private land. Huntstand has active mapping which is nice for mapping out trails and other important points.
Screenshot_20200604-212935.pngScreenshot_20200604-212942.pngScreenshot_20200604-212955.png
 
Another vote for Huntstand I like the active mapping for making trails and the Public/Private land information.
Also use USGS topo maps and Google earth
 
I am in Canada, so use iHunter.

It's onX on steroids a full web-based gis system, no install required.
That sync,s to mobile app

Vanilla Includes:
All federal (crown), huntable county layers, seasons, county regulations, numerous of base layers and overlays etc.
All the standard tracking, waypoint, navigation features.

And you can add your own layers on top of it all, if you find gis data, which I tend to geek out on.
Found bunch of government open map sources with lidar, historical forest fires, ministry logging roads(current and abandoned), some aerial(leafs off) photos in several counties and so on.


For weather:
weather underground on PC only, mobile version does not seem to include the baro graphs.


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Switched from OnX to Spartan Forge this year, and it’s still improving, but I like it so far. The weather data has been pretty exact from what I’ve seen so far.

A few of the areas I have access to are very small unit specific (daily unit sign in/out, etc) so I’ve been using Avenza for that, which allows you to upload a map of your area, then provides exact GPS coordinates.


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I am a bit of a geomatics nerd and am very comfortable with tech. I have tried most of the above apps and some of them are fantastic.

My go to, absolute favorite is Locus Maps. So many different options, you can get lost in the menus for hours. The downsides are that it is complex, and much of the hunting specific data like property lines, wildlife management units (in Canada) and such need to be manually pulled from government websites, processed in qgis and imported, which is a technical adventure in itself.

However of there is some computer science nerd who feels like the other options feel like Fisher Price toys, I would recommend Locus Maps.
 
I use ONX and there is a feature I wish it had. I want to start the season from scratch on scouting so I want to filter (hide) all previous year scouting info because the maps can become very cluttered with waypoints. I still want prior years so if I harvest I can check prior waypoints to see if that could be historical.


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I use ONX and there is a feature I wish it had. I want to start the season from scratch on scouting so I want to filter (hide) all previous year scouting info because the maps can become very cluttered with waypoints. I still want prior years so if I harvest I can check prior waypoints to see if that could be historical.


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One good thing about SpartanForge is you can turn (pins, tracks, measurements etc.) off or on so you can select what you want to see when you want to see it.
 
I use ONX and there is a feature I wish it had. I want to start the season from scratch on scouting so I want to filter (hide) all previous year scouting info because the maps can become very cluttered with waypoints. I still want prior years so if I harvest I can check prior waypoints to see if that could be historical.


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ONX can do what you described if you put everything in folders. Then all you need to do is turn your folders on and off.

I use it all the time to swap between multiple hunting areas.
 
I do put each of my hunting locations in a folder but I have multiple seasons of waypoints in the location. Do you just start a new folder for the new season? Thanks so much for any help!


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ONX can do what you described if you put everything in folders. Then all you need to do is turn your folders on and off.

I use it all the time to swap between multiple hunting areas.
I just found the folders feature this week and wondered exactly this. Haven’t tried it yet, good to hear.
 
I am muddling thru it but if ONX just gave me filter to select by date …going forward I guess each season I just create a new folder but again it would be so much simpler to give us date filter


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I'm a big fan of HuntStand for scouting & hunt details. Really wish there were a way to export the data to a spreadsheet.
I think Gaia GPS is far superior as a GPS app - trails, multiple map layers and map options.

I wish I was a headlight on a north-bound train
 
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