GPS For Hunters

GPS navigation can be the difference between successful hunting and wandering aimlessly around in the woods. Mark the location of your deer blind, or find your way back to that great duck-hunting spot.

GPS as a planning and analysis tool
Use your GPS with topographical maps to make your scouting time more efficient. If you look on a map and notice possible deer funnel areas where ridges come together or a creek or river abuts a bluff you can mark the latitude and longitude as a waypoint and so you can find the spot quickly.

You may have a difficult time remembering all the places where you find buck scrapes, feeds, and beds. Build a database with a GPS receiver by making a waypoint for each, and naming them with a code you can understand (i.e. "S" for scrapes, "R" for rubs, "T" for tracks or "S" for sightings, etc). When you get home, record this information in a hunter's log or a computer program. As you study the data you'll begin to notice patterns that will tell you where and when you need to be for a successful hunt. For example, when you hunt for deer you can use your GPS receiver to mark the spot where you discover deer have fed. You can return to those same sites when you hunt next year and you'll probably find the deer feeding in about the same locations.

Safety
GPS is useful too because it allows you to safely and easily navigate your way back even if you get caught in bad weather and visibility is compromised.

Easily navigate back to base camp if you get separated from the rest of the group.

If you get in serious trouble, you can use a GPS unit to communicate your exact position to rescue teams.

Knowing where you are
Hunters often become so preoccupied with the pursuit of game that they forget to pay attention to where they are going and when the game is finally down, they realize they don’t have a clue as to where they are. This is when a GPS becomes useful.

Use GPS and your two way radio to communicate your location for an impromptu rendezvous with fellow hunters.

In the dark, it is easy to get turned around by mistake. You may not want to use a flashlight because you want to be as inconspicuous to game as possible. But traveling to and from a stand is no problem with a backlit GPS.

Sometimes hunters down a large animal and have to hurry back to camp to get some help and then have trouble finding his trophy again, especially in the dark. Marking the location of the downed animal on your GPS before heading back to camp makes it easy to relocate.