Using topo and aerial maps

[BUCKANDAQUARTER]

I've been thinking of getting back to the ADK Park or the Lake George Park. I have been viewing tax maps with a topographic overlay to locate possible state land locations. I use aerial photos and with the oaks leaves turning color later and a definite brown to try and find food sources. Also with wind in mind consider parking on the NE side of where I'd want to hunt. Just trying to figure out how to use the terrain and elevation to my advantage, funnels and what not. Any thoughts?

[PostedBoys Gallego]

Ah, this sub forum will be my new home.

Bow or rifle up there? Rifle is hard enough, bow is damn hard. Depending on where you go in the park of course. Ive bow hunted last 3 years on moose river. Big mistake. Still had a great time. Only deer I had an opportunity on in those 3 years was a button buck, but wasn't looking for that up there.

If Bow, you really want to locate funnels but in the public lands up there, at least ones ive been to, its hard to find really good ones. Remember deer populations are low up there with miles and miles of woods for them to travel through.

Probably the reason most successful hunters up there use the rifle and tracking in snow helps. If Rifle, best to still hunt up there.

Look at both google and Bing maps. They show different seasons it seems. Never thought of looking for oaks if the map took the season right. Gonna have to check that out.

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[NFA-ADK]

Terrain and elevation can help with locating some funnels but I find the best bet after doing all that research is to scout it out.  And I agree that bow hunting the ADK is extremely tough to do with all the vegetation still present at that time of the year.  One thing that has helped me over the years is tracking in the snow, it will show what a deer did for that day and if your lucky you can locate some doe and key in on them when the rut hits.  While areal photos are nice, you really need to scout out to find and key in on the food sources...  The other thing that helps me is wet conditions while not that simple to track the foot prints still tell a story...

 

Good luck and treat every outing like its and adventure and you will always enjoy it every time!

[BUCKANDAQUARTER]

Thanks guys. It would definitely be rifle. I have hunted certain big woods before without ever reviewing maps, I just beat feet and scouted hard in the summer months. I am looking at the maps for totally new areas that may hold these funnels, oaks, etc. Just a learning experience for my own gratification. I think once I do get an area located I will try to check it out when there is snow as recommended. It would be interesting to find out the correlations between my map research and the actual results.

[PostedBoys Gallego]

Oaks are hard to find up there. Which wilderness areas do you hunt?

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[BUCKANDAQUARTER]

I've hunted areas of the National Forrest in Vermont. That is where my primary "big woods" experience has come from. I have hunted Hogtown in Lake George quite a few times, and a private property that borders up with the Lake George Park on the Fort Ann side. In Vermont there were a lot more Beech than Oaks, and that was the ticket.

[A Sportsman]

Hey buckandquarter, i make it a point to have detailed USGS topo maps for all the mountains that I hunt.  I also use a gps that I've downloaded the topos onto.  There is no substitute for scouting and simply hunting the crap out of the areas.  But I've become almost compulsive about studying the topos.  Besides funnels there are various mountain features that the deer prefer and the maps can give you all kinds of ideas as to how to access and hunt these areas. 

[BUCKANDAQUARTER]

Hey buckandquarter, i make it a point to have detailed USGS topo maps for all the mountains that I hunt.  I also use a gps that I've downloaded the topos onto.  There is no substitute for scouting and simply hunting the crap out of the areas.  But I've become almost compulsive about studying the topos.  Besides funnels there are various mountain features that the deer prefer and the maps can give you all kinds of ideas as to how to access and hunt these areas.

I have been wanting a GPS for a long time. It would be invaluable for situations such as this. Right now I've just been using county tax maps with the topo overlay to get a general idea of prospective areas. GPS would be needed for my plan to come together. Hopefully Santa will bring me one for Christmas. I am going to get out to one area either next weekend or the weekend after that.

[zoschag08]

You can buy highly detailed Topo maps in any town near where you plan on hunting. On our recent trip we picked up one while there. Having a hard copy with you while out in the woods can be really helpful.

[A Sportsman]

Definitely. I always carry a hard copy map and compass in addition to my gps. I cut the maps so they fit in a pocket or under my hat amd laminate them so they can get wet. Depending on what I am trying to do, I may reach for the map before the gps.

The gps can be a funny tool. In the wrong hands it can give someone a false sense of security and sorta take away their natural mental map. If they don't have much of a mental map, even worse. But in the right hands it can speed up the time it takes to learn big pieces of woods. Another huge benefit is on a drag where The course you take often determines how hard you will have to work. Dragging a deer uphill is hell. The gps with a built in topo map allows you to chart the easiest course. Which is usually still plenty hard.

[DeerStalker22]

The gps can be a funny tool. In the wrong hands it can give someone a false sense of security and sorta take away their natural mental map. If they don't have much of a mental map, even worse.

This is defiantly a true statement.  One of my dads best friends who had hunted at our camp for twenty years started to relying more and more on his gps.  Well after one day in the woods were he just brought the gps out, the gps decided it didn't want to work.  Long story short we found him around 10 at night. 

 

 But as for finding good hunting spots, such as funnels, you can look at aerial photos or maps, but the only way to know for sure is to get out and scout.  The big woods are a tricky place to hunt.  Deer have so much more room to move around in that pin pointing an exact location from a aerial photo is nearly impossible.  If you are going into an area without to much scouting, the best way is to still hunt, just slowly make your way through the woods, study the sign and from their you will be able to find the funnels and other good spots to hunt.  We hunt with a guy who does not do any scouting before the season.  He takes a week and a half off from work to go to camp.  He spends the first 4 or 5 days just still hunting and patterning the deer.  The rest of the week he spends hunting the spots he finds.  He usually shots a nice mature buck every year.       

[dbHunterNY]

compass and map with knowledge how to use them... GPS work well but aren't infallible and completely dependable.  topos are a must.  with big changes in elevation they're needed to find low saddles and interconnecting ridges, not just for movement of the deer but for judging how thermals might be as well.  I like to keep copies of blow ups of different areas I hunt like that if I find sign, bedding areas, etc. I mark them down without messing up the one i'm using for navigation.  if you've got a smart phone or gps use software for those to mark these spots but sometimes they don't work.  also using your smart phone like that will kill a battery if you're in a good spot with lots of info to record.