onX Map System

[Jackalope]

Prior to heading to Arizona for elk I knew I needed a GPS system, in my research I found out that most western guys have ditched the old handheld GPS and gone with onX on their phone. I went ahead and got the multistate package so that I can use it here in Ohio and in Arizona. All I have to say is HOLY HELL! Talk about a powerful source of information and tools right in your hand. Heres a quick list of the features that I've found pretty cool so far.

Offline Map download called "off-grid" (No signal needed to use, put your phone in airplane mode and the GPS still works)
Colored waypoint pins with different symbols
Layers. Satelite, topo, hybrid, US Forrest Service, etc, Switch between them with a tap of a button
Forrest fire layer shows current and historic fires. Hunting old burns is supposedly great due to the feed abundance of new growth.
Timeber cut areas to show you areas that have been logged
Wind direction pointer right on the map.
Public / Private land property lines are super accurate
Property owner information for each parcel

And the list could go on.

I'll make a couple of posts in this thread showing screenshots of some of these features.

 

[Chass]

It's truly a game changer with all the layers they have. I have a chip for my handheld GPS unit as well for no service areas. I've spent many hours looking at mapping of all sorts of areas. Or while traveling, so easy to pull it up find out how big a parcel is that you like and who owns it so you can knock on the right house.
Flipside is, since it's so damn easy to find nice ground or certain features you're looking for some areas are seeing more intrusion. Quite a lot of the old school public western ground stompers hate it. They spent a lot of time stomping to find those places everyone can see from their phone now.

 

[Jackalope]

Since you can use the system on both desktop and mobile and they are in sync I find it easy to e-scout on the bigger desktop screen. Since we'll be hunting in Arizona and water is king I decided to mark all the areas that could hold water. Be them game and fish impoundments, springs or creeks. Looking at the USFS map, satellite, and topo helps. Elk bed during the day and usually head directly to water when they get up in the evening. I think this will be super helpful if I locate a group of bedded elk that I can't get in on. A quick look will show me the closest water and I can plan an ambush for the evening. Or if I get on a group of elk that is moving and I suspect they're heading to water, I can quickly look to see where they might be going and try to get around in front of them.


The brown marker on the left is camp.

The blue marker with a bottle is fish and game impoundments.

The blue marker with what looks to be a marsh is where two creeks or drainages come together as you can often find a pool there.

The yellow markers are places that I think would be a good area to hunt based on my onservations.

The black marker with what looks like a sign is a tip I found on a forum. I can create a marker and copy the post to it so that I can reread what it said.

 

[triple_duece]

Just make sure you bring an external charger. I’ve use my phone a lot and sometimes find my phone crashing as the battery is draining for no reason. I’ve used onX before and it’s a great addition to the new technology, but we should never rely one one source for navigation. I personally like my gps as it gets me close to 9’ from where I’ve been. OnX puts me in the middle of my yard when I’m in the house. If your happen to be walking a narrow trail being 200’ off not gonna help much. A compass is essential always. I find the more I use my electronic device the less I notice the compass heading or departure....this is not good. Yes we can figure out the direction during the day, but navigating at night is a game changer.

In all, I’d use all 3. What could it hurt?

 

[Jackalope]

To give you an idea of size. The above image is all the water in a 17,153 acre area.

All told i have about 71,000 acres marked.

 

[jagermeister]

Imagine that... An IT guy being late to the party on this one.

I use this app pretty much daily, for hunting and for work related stuff. It's priceless. I can't remember the episode number, but Steve Rinella had the founder of onX on his podcast and it was really good. A textbook start up from nothing type of story. Very cool.

I use the off grid feature a LOT when I'm hunting southern ohio. I mark all of my stand sites and access routes. What's nice too is you can share the waypoints and routes with friends through the app.

 

[Isaacorps]

Even if you have signal, put your phone in airplane mode and use the off grid feature. You will have SIGNIFICANTLY longer battery life. It’s a great tool, but I always still carry my handheld gps as a backup

 

[Jackalope]

Even if you have signal, put your phone in airplane mode and use the off grid feature. You will have SIGNIFICANTLY longer battery life. It’s a great tool, but I always still carry my handheld gps as a backup

Good tip. That was my plan also. I have a power pack that I can get around 3 full charges off of also. Like triple_Deuce said though I still have my national forest map and compass in the bag though.

 

[brock ratcliff]

It’s handy as heck. I use it all the time. I bought in to the app when I started bird hunting a few years back. I was constantly asking farmers who owned each piece. When I started using the app it made my life much easier. Mason and I may go to Colorado at the end of the month and my buddy out there has sent me the location of the trailhead and his camp via onX so that we know exactly where to go if we make it. It’s handy as heck.

 

[Hunter II]

The property lines are only as as good as the county auditors and they are a snapshot. I had to call the Monroe auditors office to have my dads lines corrected and they had them updated in a few days. That was 4 months ago and the onx map is still wrong.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[cspot]

Yep. It is great tool to have and use it for hunting and for work. Especially nice in WNF where the public and private is checkboarded and hard to tell property lines.

 

[Clay Showalter]

Great tool for me since there are no online maps of Métis county property lines

 

[bowhunter1023]

I use it every day. I'm nosey, so I have it on when I go on my drives.

 

[Jackalope]

For western hunting the current and historic wildfire layer is awesome. As hunters we all know that burns produce fantastic habitat for animals. The layer allow you to see the boundary and year of the burn. Clicking on it will give you the name and ID so that you can look it up. A burn that was hot and in the trees may take 4-5 years before good vegitation regrows, whereas a fast fire that only burned the ground vegitation may explode the next year.

 

[Jackalope]

In Ohio where we don't have wildfires to create habitat they have a timber cut layer that show the location and information for cuts.

 

[Jackalope]

For you guys that have never used it, here is what the property owner information looks like. It also gives you the tax address in case the owner doesn't live in the property.

 

[triple_duece]

What you gonna do about phone numbers to call? Most people don’t live on rural land. There is another site to get phone numbers, can’t remember it. Something like white list maybe?

 

[bigten05]

I use it all the time but have noticed it's not updated enough. I know it would be hard to keep up but I've seen stuff still marked wrong landowner wise for a year now.

 

[Jackalope]

What you gonna do about phone numbers to call? Most people don’t live on rural land. There is another site to get phone numbers, can’t remember it. Something like white list maybe?

Modt people don't have published landline numbers anymore. Not sure about Ohio but phone numbers are not part of the property record. They do list the tax mailing address though, which is the address the tax bill is sent to. So if the landowner lives elsewhere odds are that's the address where they live.

If that doesn't work you can also search their name and get a list of all the other properties they own. Clicking on the will show you the property. Find the one with the nice house on it and try that one.

 

[triple_duece]

I use it all the time but have noticed it's not updated enough. I know it would be hard to keep up but I've seen stuff still marked wrong landowner wise for a year now.

Correct and I can get ten landowner names free from HuntStand a month. Same shit as onX.

As for relying on it for navigation I suggest walking outside and see where it’s saying your standing. Your phone is only tracking 3 satellites . A gps will track up to 18. Tell me one that you want to use to track back. If your on flat ground, that’s not a problem but traveling on edges of steep hills or heavy Forrest it makes all the difference in the world.