Paper maps for back up

[Blackdirt Cowboy]

I’m heading up to Colorado for an elk hunt the first week of November. I’ve got OnX on my phone and will download all the maps I need for offline use. I also will have the OnX chip in my GPS for redundancy. I have a baseplate orienteering compass and would like to buy a waterproof paper map as a back up to my electronic devices. Based on the research I’ve done, my Topo seems to be the most recommended paper map. I can buy a map of the GMU I’ll be hunting from them, but it’s scale is 1:100,000. The custom maps allow you to zoom in to 1,24:000, but only covers a small potion of the unit. What should I do? Is the 1:100,000 scale map sufficient to navigate if it comes down to that, or should I get 3 or 4 of the zoomed in map to cover the areas I plan to hunt. Really need some advice as this is my first experience with paper maps and compasses.

 

[Desk Jockey]

1:100000 should be fine as a back up. I use them as a primary quite often.

 

[Farmerlentz]

I like the 1:50000. It's what my military friends taught me to navigate off

 

[elkstabber]

Mytopo is great. It's a tricky position because you want the entire unit but you think you know where you want to hunt. But, if you get there and it's full of people then you want to have other maps of the rest of the unit.

Personally, I like a paper map to study beforehand. This way I can circle places that I want to check. Also, I can keep notes of what worked and what didn't after the hunt.

We've all heard about OnX losing your data, so having a hardcopy is important.

My solution is to print the entire overall unit on a 11x17" and then go into greater detail with 10-20 11x17" sheets. Write a number on each of the detailed sheets. Then on the overall unit map you show where each of the rest of the more detailed maps are. Not sure if I explained it well. This is almost exactly what the DeLorme Gazetteer map books do.

You can save the sheets all to pdf and then most office supply stores can print 11x17" for you. This is way cheaper than mytopo, but takes a lot more work and won't be waterproof.

 

[Blackdirt Cowboy]

I’ve looked at the gazetteer books too. Is this a better option than the mytopo?

 

[elkstabber]

I’ve looked at the gazetteer books too. Is this a better option than the mytopo?

The gazetteer maps books are for the whole state. They won't help you much for a single hunting unit becqause it will be about the same size as one page in the gazetteer.

What I do is make up my own books of 10-20 pages using caltopo.com (free). Then get them printed at an office place for less than $10 usually.

 

[Backyard]

I’ve looked at the gazetteer books too. Is this a better option than the mytopo?

No.
Unless all you plan to do is road hunt.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[justinspicher]

Give me a shout when you get down here and I’ll give you some maps to use.

 

[LaHunter]

I’m heading up to Colorado for an elk hunt the first week of November. I’ve got OnX on my phone and will download all the maps I need for offline use. I also will have the OnX chip in my GPS for redundancy. I have a baseplate orienteering compass and would like to buy a waterproof paper map as a back up to my electronic devices. Based on the research I’ve done, my Topo seems to be the most recommended paper map. I can buy a map of the GMU I’ll be hunting from them, but it’s scale is 1:100,000. The custom maps allow you to zoom in to 1,24:000, but only covers a small potion of the unit. What should I do? Is the 1:100,000 scale map sufficient to navigate if it comes down to that, or should I get 3 or 4 of the zoomed in map to cover the areas I plan to hunt. Really need some advice as this is my first experience with paper maps and compasses.

I've been using mytopo for the past 6-7 years. I've always ordered a customized map (or several maps) of the areas that I will be hunting. I prefer a 1:35,000 as a max scale for actual use and navigation, a smaller scale is better obviously. I find the 'unit map' is more of just of overview, but I don't find them very useful while navigating on foot. They are useful at seeing the roads and trails through the unit, which is good info. Until you learn your area(s) better, it may be better to order enough maps to cover all possible areas, that's just a 'cost of doing business'. I have a stack of maps now, some get used repeatedly and some have never been used.

 

[*zap*]

I have found that a wrist strap compass is very handy when navigating in unfamiliar areas of woods. Get topo maps that you can read easily, that may mean getting one and looking it over to decide if that scale works for you or not.

 

[Blackdirt Cowboy]

I went ahead and ordered the map of the whole unit scaled at 1:100,000 from mytopo. After all, it is a back up to the back up. If it gets here and I don’t like it, I’ll order more maps zoomed in. Thanks for all the ideas and info.

 

[*zap*]

I went ahead and ordered the map of the whole unit scaled at 1:100,000 from mytopo. After all, it is a back up to the back up. If it gets here and I don’t like it, I’ll order more maps zoomed in. Thanks for all the ideas and info.

having the map in hand and evaluating its usefulness is the best option imo.

 

[Bandit06]

For backup maps I like the National Geographic maps if they have one that covers the area I need. Most of them are in the 1:50,000 range. They don’t have the entire unit on one map but I keep a couple in the truck and use the one for the area I’m hunting at the time.

 

[Dave0317]

I definitely like a paper back up map. My buddy didn’t bring any at all. He had his phone and a Garmin GPS, and said he was not confident enough with a paper map and compass for it to be any good to him if it was all he had left anyway. I’d recommend at least be fairly familiar with map and compass navigation.

I printed about 4 sheets of 8.5x11 from Caltopo. 1:24,000. If you need much more area coverage than that, you sure are hunting a large area. Or are you just trying to print the whole GMU just to be safe?

I would not want a 1:100,000 to be my primary navigation tool for sure. So in an emergency, tired, hungry, cold, maybe even injured, why would I want a map that I consider less than ideal? I’d go 1:50,000 or 1:24,000 for sure. Another good idea is to have a emergency azimuth planned. Identify a road or river or whatever that pretty much parallels your whole hunting area. Then you know if you have a long highway south, you can basically shoot a 180 degree azimuth from anywhere, and eventually hit the road.