Public walk in areas

[coryusmc]

Does anyone have any advice for public grouse hunting land? doesn't have to be your secret spot, but just want to see some birds

[pureinsanity]

Get off the trail... I walked through a few spots and had the best luck getting off the trail everyone takes....

[Chef]

How far are you willing to drive? If you hump it up to GF Trail or Beltrami areas you'll have a lot of opps.

Anything close to the metro area will be tough going.

[pureinsanity]

Id say anywhere north of aitkin should be pretty good. Weekends you might have competition but if you go during the week you might be ok....

[Harmonica Bear]

Yah I agree, around Aitkin in good. In fact get yourself a good sporstmans atlas, drive North (any highway 169, 47, 65, 35, 61) for 90 minutes. Figure out where you are, open the atlas and start hunting the closest state forest. There will be one within 15/20 minutes of where you are and then just start exploring and hunting.

[Kirsch]

Best option if you have a GPS is check out the www.OutdoorProStore.com here on Fishing Minnesota and buy a MNTRAX or NDTRAX map. You get the public lands, plus roads and trails, lakes and contours and so much more. This way you can see where you are real-time in relation to the public land and boundaries. If you want to hunt some new private land, it also shows you the township, range and section number. Get a county PLAT map and now with this data, you know who owns the land.

[Rick]

The MNTRAX map is awesome. I've been using it for around couple of weeks now and it really helps you get a handle on alot of info placed exactly where you are on the map.

[tybo]

The DNR has a file you can download for Google Earth that shows the locations of:

All WMA's.

Hunting/Walking trails on WMA Lands

The WPA's, State Forests, National Forests etc aren;t on the site yet. I don't know if they will be but these files are free on the DNR site. You can slao link to the DNR site for each WMA which will give you information on size of the WMA, type of habitat, etc.

[Kirsch]

SD Game and Fish has done this for Garmin and Magellan. Lowrance is only a track file, no actual map. It also is only land masses, no roads, lakes trails, etc. It is hard to beat free but anyone who has used NDTRAX, MNTRAX, WYTRAX, or MTTRAX will tell you it isn't in the same league as these types of maps.

tybo, you are also correct on what the DNR provides but this is very limited and still requires lots of user work. It also does not have the roads, trails, lakes, and so much more.

Any of the TRAX maps allows you to simply insert your memory card and go. There is nothing like it for Garmin and Lowrance GPS units.

[tybo]

I'm not sure we are talking about the same thing. What I am talking about is a file that you download for Google Earth.It doesn't not show WPA's or trails but it's also staellite imagery so you can see the terrain you would be hunting.

[Ed Carlson]

No 1 resource will offer all the GPS and overlay info, such as trails and WPA boundary's, like the NDTRAX and MNTRAX will.

Check one out once, it will be quickly evident how functionally enhanced it is for the sportsman.

[Rick]

The MNTRAX map is awesome. I've been using it for around three weeks now and it really helps you get a handle on alot of info placed exactly where you are with you GPS Unit on the map.

[Tom7227]

Go the DNR HSOforum http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/wmas/index.html and if you look about halfway down the page there is a box with a green background. Follow the directions in that box and you'll get all the stuff the DNR has loaded onto your Google Earth application. When you use it there is a list on the left side and you can toggle stuff off and on. It gets pretty messy if you have the whole works on at once, but it is a heck of a tool.

[Kirsch]

Agree the DNR options to Google Earth is a nice option to see some things on the computer. Great option but when you go out in the field or go out scouting you will want the TRAX maps to have what is on the site and a lot more, directly on your GPS seeing it in realtime.

[Kirsch]

Tom7227 and others, just an FYI, that I will be adding another new product to the TRAX series of maps. There will be a PC version named MNTRAX PC for Minnesota as well as for all the other states. It will be a Google Earth add in allowing you to see the MNTRAX elements in Google Earth. Imagine seeing all the public lands in Minnesota including tax forfeit on Google Earth as well as the other TRAX elements including lake contours. It is scheduled to be released by March. Stay tuned for more.