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<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Monsterbuck1</div><div class="ubbcode-body">A great way to get aerial photos is to go to mapquest.com, type in the nearest town to where your hunting spot is and then when the map of that town comes up, in the upper right hand corner of the map there will be an "aerial" button. Click on this button and it shows the aerial view of the map. Then zoom in as close as you need to follow the roads to your hunting spot. You can just click & drag your mouse around the map and the aerial feature will follow it around. It works awesome !

MB1 </div></div>

MB1...thanks! I had never used the aerial function on MapQuest before...works really slick! /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif
 
Oh shoot....it didn't link the arial... Anyways, go 2 miles north of RV..then west 3 miles and check out the woods..or go stright north of RV 4 miles....am i supposed to be able to read anything based on those images, if so..I am anidiot.
 
I like to use terraserver. Type in the city or address and it will bring up the option of either aerial or topo. Only problem is that most of the maps are from 1994. Sometimes its really neat though to see how the farmers have changed the land. "Bulldozers--todays farmers utility tractor"
 
I see you live in the middle of know where but there is a church a funeral home and a school near by, thats about it though.
 
HardCore, I agree with you. My buddy and I walked a new piece of property in Van Buren County after circling the areas we thought were going to be good. He picked out a spot and circled it and ended up shooting a buck there on camera the first day we went in. I immediately had more respect for topos than what I already had.

If you can eliminate places deer will walk, that obviously gives you a better chance before even stepping in the woods. Drop offs into valleys or steep banks work great at your back and I love it when ridges meet on top of a "hog's back" or flat. I love sitting on a ridge with a ravine behind me which FORCES a deer to go around it. And if you play the wind right...

I know this is stupid, but I always ask myself, "if I were a buck, where would be the easiest place to travel within cover?"

Topos help eliminate areas on a farm, which eventually gives you a better chance mathmatically to kill a big one.

Great post Ghost
 
Great post Kent.I also use topo and aerial photos all the time.But there again good old fashioned legwork it what it takes to see the terrain for what it is. I also like to see the surrounding property to see how everything is laid out.I always thought it would be great if the maps told you where the undisturbed deer hung out.lol
 
I do 70% of my scouting on-line. I will print out the topo and air photo and laminate it with one on each side. Then i will 3 ring binder it by state. Then when I go hunting I have all the information I need to look for new spots and or places to check out.

What is really rewarding and I have done this 3 times is to find a spot sittin on my computer or in the hotel room at night. Go hunt that spot for first time (never scouting it) hang a set and smoke a nice buck. My elk this year also fell victim to this method.
 
More and more I "believe" the map. Deer are lazy and will follow terrain religiously if you understand where they are going and why, and if the feature is secure. Time and again when I have doubted the map, something happens to prove it right.. Likewise when I find something the map didn't tell me, I go back to the map and see it was there I just missed it. Lastly when I find something I did not know about how deer use terrain, I go back to the map and look for similar terrain feature to validate what I think have learned.. Pretty much the map doesn't lie if you know how to read it and understand why deer are moving.
 
I have learned from both directions. Whenever I use to walk a new area, I would always immediately get on-line when I got home to correlate the trails and sign that I saw with the topo features. I think this helped me learn how to read topos early on. Now I use the tools in the opposite direction looking at the topos first and confirming things on foot.
 
I read the book "Mapping Trophy Bucks" by Brad Herndon. It is a really good book if you want to learn about topo's and aerial maps and using terrain features to your advantage.

Alot of counties in Iowa and many other states have some kind of geographic info site. Here is one. There are quite a few Iowa counties, some Indiana a few Illinois and Missouri counties. You can find out all kinds of info on aerial photos to property lines and who owns it. I have spent quite a few hours using this one.

Also i noticed on the Iowa Geographic Map Server, that one of the choices on the left is a 1930's aerial photo. Not sure if the whole state has photos this way but it sure is interesting to see what your hunting property looked like 78 years ago. I was suprised to find out that where i hunt had less timber back in the 30's than it does now. Looking at your hometown to see how much it has grown is interesting too.
 
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