Digital Scouting

[mrklean]

Ive started to do some scouting for different areas and started with the internet first, i was wondering who has the most up to date images Google or Bing? Is there a way to tell which one is newer, i was looking at the same area and there are two very different pics there? Where else do you guys do digital scouting at besides these two?

[TooTallTom]

Where are you looking mrklean? Can you give me the county and the latitude and longitude for the four corners of a square covering the area you want to hunt?

PM or email me if you'd prefer to keep it private.

[Bear55]

Google Earth has a feature where you can look back in time and has the years marks, it might be different for you area but I think most or all of MN is from 2009, you can move the slider backwards from there. You may need to update your GE to use this feature, I don't see it on an older version I am on. I also like to check county GIS websites, some of them have newer 2010 photos. If anyone is shooting 2011 photos they usally don't appear until after hunting season.

[pulleye16]

microsoft terraserver I've used in the past.

[Outdoor Authority]

Google earth is the best I have seen, and some other ones that are ok is mapquest. I like google earth the best because of the features and straight forward ease of using it. Dosent take long and your comfortable useing it.

[DHost21]

I like bing the best at least for the area I hunt it has aerial photos of the area and I can see detail a lot better my self. I like google earth for altitudes and things like that it works really well seeing the elevations so I go back and fourth between them and can get a pretty good idea of what the lay of the land is

[carpshooterdeluxe]

Google Earth tells you how old the picture is. Just look in the lower left hand part of the screen; there is text that reads "Imagery Date x/x/xxxx".

[Scoot]

Not sure where you're scouting or for what, but google earth allows you to use the PC version of the TRAX products to see private and public boundaries. For the hunting I do out West for muleys and elk, it's absolutely invaluable.

[Cheetah]

All of the areas I hunt I can go to the county HSOforum to view the GIS maps and find out who owns what plots of land. Helpful for figuring out if I want to even bother asking for permission when I can see if they own into the area I want to hunt or how big their land really is.