Me too. I plan out my scouting with the topo maps, use the gps in the field in conjunction with the them to mark waypoints of what would be good stand or blind locations, deer sightings, etc. I always have a compass with me as well, you never know you might lose the gps, take a fall and break it or who knows mugged in the woods although I don't think anyone would be foolish enough to try and mug an armed hunter.

Reminds me of the days of sending boots to the radio shack for sound powered phone batteries or to the HT shop for an HT punch, DC Central for bulkhead remover. Telling the boots to report a CGU11 or B1RD to the bridge. Oh those were the days.

Check out the book "Mapping Trophy Bucks" by Brad Herndon. You will learn alot about topo maps from that.

A gps does as well. I got free topo's at gpsdepot.com. I save my tracks and make my own map using satillite images with my tracks superimposed.
The land masses around here aren't really so big that a map would be of any use. You can hear traffic enough to orient yourself to that.

A gps can help you with details in an area, where the tracks are, where stands are, ect. Here is an example of what I print out for our use. They are helpful in communicating your position to other hunters.



You can't tell but there are waypoints on the map of differant things.

My gps is basically a topo map with real time position and path superimposed. Sometimes it's harder to pan out, that's why we also print maps of some areas.

Yep. That's why we print something. If you go to gps visualizer.com you can see images of your AO. We looked at ours today and noticed where there were wetlands a few hundred yards from a firebreak. I marked it with a referance point, when we go back we will go there and scout. We might have missed it otherwise.


I see gps's and m&c as working together, not mutually exclusive. I actually always have a small compass with my gps, to check the electronic compass.

Gps'r's have a few quirks, which you can be aware of in preparation, but if you don't practice with it and learn the features and functions, it's just a rock with batteries. I have known folks like that, it's not really the gps's fault you don't know how to use it.

I use them and aerial maps of the area I entend to hunt to figure out what areas are going to be the most inaccessible. More than likely these are are gonna be the places that the big guys will be. These are the places to hunt.

Ya repeat alot of what i said. But they still do not show you the changes of elevation, hidden terrain features, etc. If you live where the ground is other than a pancake, you will discover quickly how valuable a topo is. There is a tremendous amount of land of huge size that is well outside of traffic earshot. A gps does allow tailoring of maps and information, but it does not, nor are they designed to replace the topo map. Every year our county search and rescue squad spends many days looking for hunters who never learned to use a compass, thinking a gps was a shortcut to basic skills...until the batteries died.

I would if I knew how to read them!! LOL

Spudrow from MO