Mapping Systems & Software

In gearing up for some upcoming hunts this fall I decided to check out the sheep and goat maps provided by HuntData.  They provide a service where they collect data (Big Game Hunting Harvest Reports) from Colorado Parks and Wildlife and bring those points into a map of the specified area you’re hunting.  They also provide maps with winter/summer/calving concentrations for both elk and deer.

Parks and Wildlife does provide much of the information included in the HuntData map for free, and as a dyed in the wool DIY guy it pained me not to go through the process of transcribing the points for myself.  But there were a couple reasons I decided to look for help from the folks at HuntData:

1.  Not all the points from Parks and Wildlife are defined with a single coordinate system and are mixed bag between lat./long., township/range and UTM’s.

2.  I couldn’t find a listed datum for any of the systems, for instance NAD27 or WGS 84.  I’m probably over thinking things as I doubt it would make any significant difference, especially for my purposes (understanding general herd locations) but it still bothers me.

Those reasons coupled with struggling through a summer in which I can’t seem to catch up, I swallowed my pride and purchased a map from Hunt Data.

The map I received was as promised, my hunt area with all the kill site information.  It also includes private, Forest Service and BLM lands, all-in-all a pretty handy map.  However, what really impressed me was the associated data file I was given which overlaid their map on Google Earth and is also downloadable to a iPhone, Droid or Garmin device.   Overall I was very impressed and found this service a great value for my hunt.

 

Here’s a quick little clip I pulled together, it’s pretty shaky but you’ll get the idea.

 

The second system I recently stumbled upon is an app for my smart phone, BackCountry Navigator Pro.  This app turns my smart phone into a backcounty GPS unit.  I still love my old Garmin Rhino, but one of the primary challenges for my upcoming sheep hunt is the unit is a checker board of public and private land.  I was considering upgrading to the Garmin Oregon but the units are not cheap and I lose my two-way radio capabilities.  I also considered adding a chip from http://www.huntinggpsmaps.com/, but for my purposes the phone app seems like a pretty good solution.  It also works without a cell signal which is slick.  I purchased the app and an add-on (Colorado Maps) all for about $20, not too bad!

 

Screen shot of Backcountry Navigator Samsung S4.
Screen shot of Backcountry Navigator Samsung S4.

 

Another great resources is the FREE maps available from USGS!

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  1. Drew
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    That is slick!!

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