any advice on how to scout WIHI remotely using technology?

wnb5th

wnb5th

New member
My two sons and I are making an upland road trip this season... and it's our 1st time. We are not looking for anyone's honey holes or secret intel! But what advice would you give someone who was trying to do some scouting remotely, in advance of a trip?

- What apps or sites are best? OnX? Google Earth?

- When studying using those applications - What should we be looking for? Is it possible using satellite imagery to tell how the field is currently planted or consists of?

- Are there other apps or sites that apply strictly to Kansas that we need to utilize

Thank you for your help!

We are avid bowhunters and fly fisherman in the mountains of NC (what is left of them after Helene) but the Upland game is new to us and we really are excited to hunt with our dog.
 
OnX works pretty well for Kansas. Not sure you'd be able to tell what kind of habitat it has though. Boots on the ground is about the best way and miles in the truck. In all seriousness though, if I were driving from NC I wouldn't be going to KS.
 
Thanks akp. I keep reading the same thing about Kansas being low in numbers these days. I'm sorry to hear that! We may have to rethink

We picked KS because it looks like about the closest place to us and we'll be battling some time constraints with the boys still being in school. Might be worth just sucking it up and trying to head a bit further north.

Really when it comes to species (pheasants vs quail, etc...), I can't say that we really care! But I do want to try to get the boys on birds... since they are showing interest in hunting with their old man I want to stoke that fire!
 
As for apps, I use them all. I do way too much internet scouting from my desk with two monitors. I'll keep OnX, KDWP, and Google earth all open, and often I have the paper maps also at hand. All these apps seem to have different base images, and google earth pro has imagery going back for years. As far as I know Google Earth Pro is the only one that shows the date of the image.

I think I've read something or seen ads from OnX claiming that they have a "layer" about what's planted, but I wouldn't trust it. It's normally pretty easy to distinguish crop land, pasture land, hay ground, and CRP, especially with multiple images available from these apps. Looking at several years of images, you can sometimes tell if something is farmed continuous wheat, continuous row crop, or something else. I look for pieces with multiple crop fields surrounding. That way you increase your odds of least one of those fields being a good food source this year.

Be aware of counties where emergency haying/grazing is allowed. Unfortunately that's quite a few of them. It's pretty disappointing when you roll up on a field that looked great from all the imagery available and it's been mowed to the height of your lawn. Sometimes the imagery will show you that the field has been hayed in the past, but that won't tell you much about this year unless it's a very recent photo.

In the field I use OnX and the paper maps. I'm not even sure if Google Earth Pro or KDWP offer phone-based apps. Those are only for advance scouting.

Finally, I'd give serious consideration to akp's comments about considering another state.
 
Thank you, Matto. That was very thorough and thoughtful. Looks like I won't be very useful at work today as I also have 2 monitors and they are about to be decidated to OnX, KDWP, and Google earth, lol.

yeah, KS is not set in stone, so we may end up doing a pivot... Just want to try to keep it as close to South Carolina as possible while still having the best chance for success. At the end of the day, spending some extra hours in the truck isn't a deal breaker to get to good habitat.
 
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