Our family has abt 250 acres of land spread over 3 properties. I have all the paperwork with the drawn lines, distance, and whatnot, but it's hard to get an accurate idea of my location when you're deep in a hardwood bottom. The land has markers, but they were placed decades ago when the land was almost clear. Looking for something I can use when I'm traipsing about to shlw my location in relation to property lines
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Best app for land property lines, hunting and surveying?
- Thread starter EotS
- Start date
Property lines are typically online from your local government agency. The software typically overlays them on multiple map-base-layers including sat imagery and/or topo maps. Its not overly difficult to get accurate, [practically] usable maps of a hunting area this way.
For [use in lieu of professional] surveying, you cannot really use [consumer-grade] GPS, its not accurate enough. In that case, typically the GPS maps are more of a "be alert" you need to look for physical markers HERE as, you are approaching a boundary witin 3-6 feet, etc.
ETA-[clarifying comments]
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I build fence for a living and I will be honest if you don't have a good idea where the corner pins are it will be very hard in the trees. I use onx for hunting and work but it isn't accurate specially in trees for being dead on. It can get you a close distance like 5 to 15 feet off in any direction unfortunately. We always tell people getting a survey is the easiest and best way to find the true lines
I use OnX hunt and the property lines are generally very very close. There is obviously some error in them, and I wouldn’t use it for betting you aren’t trespassing on someone’s land. The GoHunt maps look like they have some more features than OnX. Basemap integrates nicely with Sig rangefinders, which is quite useful for hunting large areas where you’re spotting and stalking
This and print out the maps, then dig for pins, or use a metal detector to locate them. Most people have no idea where the lines are, but are completely convinced they are absolutely right.
SWmaps for Android
Qgis for the windows PC
You can take your survey and put it in Qgis then upload the file to SWmaps.
Your phone can get you somewhat close depending on the GPS coverage, the best I was getting with my phone in the trees was about 50'.
With the torch it was normally 50mm where your could not see the sky. I have gone to spots over and over again with the same repeatable accuracy.
www.sparkfun.com
The L5 band kicks ass in the trees.
If it's stuff your going to build a fence on or structures near. Licensed surveyor really should do it. We have some areas of the property the surveyor wanted a ton of money to do, it's pretty rough country on that side. We were not building fence, just wanted to know what was ours and put markers out.
Qgis for the windows PC
You can take your survey and put it in Qgis then upload the file to SWmaps.
Your phone can get you somewhat close depending on the GPS coverage, the best I was getting with my phone in the trees was about 50'.
With the torch it was normally 50mm where your could not see the sky. I have gone to spots over and over again with the same repeatable accuracy.
SparkFun RTK Torch - GPS-25662 - SparkFun Electronics
The RTK Torch is your one-stop shop for high-precision geolocation and GIS needs.
www.sparkfun.com
If it's stuff your going to build a fence on or structures near. Licensed surveyor really should do it. We have some areas of the property the surveyor wanted a ton of money to do, it's pretty rough country on that side. We were not building fence, just wanted to know what was ours and put markers out.
Until your deep in the trees and it turns to 50 feet or won't get a lock......
Global Positioning System - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Just to clariy, AFAIK, theres two unique issues:
1. Gov't property line overlays themselves are not "technically" accurate (ie survey grade).
2. Your consumer GPS good enough to follow a survey-grade in a way that is legally accurate, either.
The typcical phone-app is stacking errors from of type 1 & 2.
Whether or not you need to be "legally accurate" vs reasonably close, is up to the use case. But this is why multiple people keep mentioning to locate actual (historical) survey-markers, on the ground.
Almost all .gov info sources make you sign a liability waiver not to rely on digital propert line maps.
1. Gov't property line overlays themselves are not "technically" accurate (ie survey grade).
2. Your consumer GPS good enough to follow a survey-grade in a way that is legally accurate, either.
The typcical phone-app is stacking errors from of type 1 & 2.
Whether or not you need to be "legally accurate" vs reasonably close, is up to the use case. But this is why multiple people keep mentioning to locate actual (historical) survey-markers, on the ground.
Almost all .gov info sources make you sign a liability waiver not to rely on digital propert line maps.
Most surveyors are using RTK GPS these days…..TLDR
Observational error - Wikipedia
Verified legal claims>surveys>land navigation maps
As mentioned above, .gov will provide you with land nav maps with approximations of survey lines. These are maps not legally "accurate". Even the underlying surveys themselves may or may not be accurate, but thats a whole nother rabbit hole...
Just my $0,02.
Not sure this gets around the issues discussed. I'm happy "to be wrong" If my understanding isn't correct or misleading. If you have a technical point, may be better to articulate it more fully.
OnX, Basemap, GAIA, etc.
Limiting factor regarding precision and accuracy is both the data set and the GPS on your device.
Phones/tablets and commercial grade Garmins will typically get you within 15 feet or so of industry grade GPS. The accuracy of the property line data set can also vary by 10-20 feet (general statement).
If you’re looking to get gnats ass, hire a surveyor to mark out your property.
Limiting factor regarding precision and accuracy is both the data set and the GPS on your device.
Phones/tablets and commercial grade Garmins will typically get you within 15 feet or so of industry grade GPS. The accuracy of the property line data set can also vary by 10-20 feet (general statement).
If you’re looking to get gnats ass, hire a surveyor to mark out your property.
Exactly, even my GPS that I use for surveying is dependent on all kinds of things, and accuracy can vary drastically.
When I was in Colorado this last year the game wardens were using Onyx to gauge trespassing. Probably wouldn't hold up in court, but goes to show how confident they were in that app.
Yeah I’ve walked several staked property lines, and they have been dead nuts on. I have seen them off in other places before, but it’s usually quite close
I recently loaded and tried Avenza on to my smartphone. Wasn't bad and since I knew exact boundaries ( fences help 
) it actually seemed fairly accurate to within a few feet.
) it actually seemed fairly accurate to within a few feet.
I buy land for a living and use LandGlide and Land ID for work. OnX for hunting. All three have their pluses and minuses.
I use OnX, but "up da camp" it shows the property lines extended way beyond the survey markers. Of course On X and every other online map shows a road running through the property. I can't say there's NEVER been one, but I know for a fact that there wasn't one in 1937 and isn't one now or any time in between and terrain features make it extremely unlikely there ever was, but the electronic world insists there is.
On X and the sorts are pretty accurate out west with giant tracks of land. Come to the east where I live and use on X to hunt a property around mine and I guarantee you will be trespassing. The property lines where there are lots of small tracks are horribly wrong and sometimes don’t even have the correct owner information. As an example on all the apps my neighbor’s property line goes around my house and it’s actually about 1,000yds away as the crow flies. We laugh about it cause it shows he owns my home.
Onx is the best in my opinion. I've used and, huntmap, and basemap.
This convo got real technical real quick. You'll be plenty happy with any of the consumer grade hunting apps.
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