Planning to hunt public land in Colorado come October. The digital scouting we are doing right is through the review of various topo maps cross referencing with Google Earth. Most of this unit is public land/wilderness area, though there are a few minor areas of private mixed in.

Those who have used it, how valuable is onX during the scouting phase?
What about while actually hunting?
How well does it work offline?
Worth bringing a cell phone in the backcountry just for onX?

A friend of mine and I drew a public hunt at Devils River SNA earlier this year. He has a paid sub for HuntX. We used it some prior to getting there, but once we were on site we used the toppo maps and online google maps on our phones. I don't think we used it for the three days. It is pretty cool though

If you download the area in google maps on your iphone prior to arrival the gps antenna in the phone works without mobile service.

You could get AT&T service at the SNA once you got on top of the flat tops but there was nothing if you were on the roads and canyons. Pretty amazing actually

I've been using it for two years in New Mexico. I prefer to scout with Google Earth but onX has been invaluable in the field.

I use it a lot on my PC in conjunction with google maps to scout. I think it's very valuable in that regard. Especially if you're hunting near private lands.

I also use it in the field. I like to know exactly where I am. I'm no land nav genius and sometimes (ok, almost every time) I get turned around in dark timber. I'm sure I could get by with map and compass but the tracking function where you can track your path and use that as a guide for future trips is pretty cool. You can also take pics of water, wallows, trails, sign, etc and use them as waypoints on your map.

I've had no problems with offline mode. Download all the maps and layers you want in advance and turn your phone to airplane mode in the field and the gps functions just fine. I've used mine on my iphone for 2 full weeks in Alaska with only a handheld fold out solar panel battery to recharge it each night.

I just renewed my subscription last week and there's currently 30% off for Mother's Day.

Yes, worth it.

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I just renewed my subscription last week and there's currently 30% off for Mother's Day.

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That's exactly the reason why I'm checking it out now. I figure if I'll want to use it while in the field in October, might as well buy the subscription now.

What part of Colorado/what unit? Colorado laws on private property aren't like Texas, if it's not adequately posted you aren't trespassing. If you want to shoot a critter on a piece of land that onx says is public but some family has had posted for 3 generations, then waste a day of your hunt having a standoff with said family and waiting for the conservation officer to show up (lots of videos of this on YouTube) then go for it, i figure life's too short, i don't want to be near the edge of the wilderness anyway

agingcowboy said:

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I use it a lot on my PC in conjunction with google maps to scout. I think it's very valuable in that regard. Especially if you're hunting near private lands.

I also use it in the field. I like to know exactly where I am. I'm no land nav genius and sometimes (ok, almost every time) I get turned around in dark timber. I'm sure I could get by with map and compass but the tracking function where you can track your path and use that as a guide for future trips is pretty cool. You can also take pics of water, wallows, trails, sign, etc and use them as waypoints on your map.

I've had no problems with offline mode. Download all the maps and layers you want in advance and turn your phone to airplane mode in the field and the gps functions just fine. I've used mine on my iphone for 2 full weeks in Alaska with only a handheld fold out solar panel battery to recharge it each night.

I just renewed my subscription last week and there's currently 30% off for Mother's Day.

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same same. except for the alaska.

444. I'm not terribly concerned about the public/private aspect. More interested in the other things it can do.

I use OnX primarily for online scouting on my PC at home. It is valuable for public and private land.
I dont like the OnX GPS phone app.

For a GPS app to use in the field while hunting I much prefer Gaia GPS app. Gaia's interface is like a traditional handheld GPS and it is much more intuitive and easy to use than OnX or the other GPS apps that I've used.

I also always carry a handheld GPS and sometimes only use the handheld device. It just depends on how long I'm out and how far I am from electricity. The deeper I go or the more time I spend outside the more I lean towards the water resistant, AA battery GPS

shaynew1 said:

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agingcowboy said:

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I use it a lot on my PC in conjunction with google maps to scout. I think it's very valuable in that regard. Especially if you're hunting near private lands.

I also use it in the field. I like to know exactly where I am. I'm no land nav genius and sometimes (ok, almost every time) I get turned around in dark timber. I'm sure I could get by with map and compass but the tracking function where you can track your path and use that as a guide for future trips is pretty cool. You can also take pics of water, wallows, trails, sign, etc and use them as waypoints on your map.

I've had no problems with offline mode. Download all the maps and layers you want in advance and turn your phone to airplane mode in the field and the gps functions just fine. I've used mine on my iphone for 2 full weeks in Alaska with only a handheld fold out solar panel battery to recharge it each night.

I just renewed my subscription last week and there's currently 30% off for Mother's Day.

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same same. except for the alaska.

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Same here. I've used it in AZ and CO w/ great success.

ShinerDunk93 said:

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A friend of mine and I drew a public hunt at Devils River SNA earlier this year. He has a paid sub for HuntX. We used it some prior to getting there, but once we were on site we used the toppo maps and online google maps on our phones. I don't think we used it for the three days. It is pretty cool though

If you download the area in google maps on your iphone prior to arrival the gps antenna in the phone works without mobile service.

You could get AT&T service at the SNA once you got on top of the flat tops but there was nothing if you were on the roads and canyons. Pretty amazing actually

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Not to derail, but tell us more about this hunt. Someday I'll get picked for Devils SNA.

This happened to me. Was way back in back country and I came across all these posted signs but info I had was it was public land. Went to the Colorado DNR office and they printed me satellite photo map with boundaries on them. Sure enough someone had posted public land to trying to keep people out. I used it to my advantage and hunted and fished the illegally posted area and didn't see anyone for 5 days I was in there. You gotta know where you are at and what is private vs. public.

It's pretty handy for being able to pull property ownership info even if you don't use it for its original intended purpose. I use it a lot at work when scouting new acquisition targets.

I use it on PC and phone to scout and see landowner names. Have had some success getting permission from the contacts. Its a very neat and in depth app. I use it for public land boundry for upland In KS, SD

I use it all the time. Awesome bit of software. If you check with camofire.com, it is regularly sold for $18. Can't beat that.

I use OnX for public land hunting. Great resource to use as a compass and scouting.

Another cool resource but for private land and whitetail hunting is 'thehuntersight.com.' you have to use chrome or safari internet, old internet explorer doesn't work with it. Basically does everything related to deer hunting.

Worth every penny to me. I use it in the field and on the PC. Surpassed texags as my primary time waster.

This thread got me curious about it as I've never heard of it. I bought a yr subscription and have played with it and it seems bad***.

No clue where and how you are hunting. I would be very concerned about how you got to be on public land especially during hunting season. If you want I can give you some examples..

mneisch said:

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Planning to hunt public land in Colorado come October. The digital scouting we are doing right is through the review of various topo maps cross referencing with Google Earth. Most of this unit is public land/wilderness area, though there are a few minor areas of private mixed in.

Those who have used it, how valuable is onX during the scouting phase?
What about while actually hunting?
How well does it work offline?
Worth bringing a cell phone in the backcountry just for onX?

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I do most all pre-scouting from Google Earth. I then fine tune my plan with markers on onX for in the field use.

Normally when I hunt Colorado I don't use onX. I've always been in places that would take a dangerous level of effort to actually walk out of public land or cross into a unit my tag didn't cover.

That said, onX is absolutely worth it for hunting the checkerboard that is eastern Wyoming (or similar). You can spend just as much time looking down at your phone and borderlines as looking for critters.

onX works well offline.

I always bring my smartphone in the backcountry because the GPS is useful whether or not you are using onX or another mapping program. Also, smartphones make my inReach much more user friendly.

Water Turkey07 said:

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Surpassed texags as my primary time waster.

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Blasphemy