Using TOPO maps?

[TScottO]

I'm looking to educate myself more in the use of TOPO maps. Do any of you employ this aid to your whitetail hunting? I joined an unfamiliar lease this year and need need to gain as much advantage as I can, for my time is for scouting is fairly limited due to the distance I must travel. Would someone point me into the right direction on gathering information on the use of TOPO maps and stand placement based on the information I will gain from these? Any guidance is welcomed and well thought of. If you all would like to pitch in some tidbids you all use to gain advantage while handgun hunting, please feel free.

Thanks,
Scott

[TopGun]

I use Topo's quite frequently--but morre importantly, use your topo to find the saddles and draws.  Go to the area, with your map, and scout for the trails, bedding and feeding areas--but especially areas that look like escape routes. I used them in Colorado to predict wallows, etc to great success. Nothing substitutes for scouting!  :shock: Now, along with my topo's, I use www.mytopo.com and purchase aerial photo's of the area. This is a wild experience to see the photo and map side-by-side. The photo helps me navigate a little better without the GPS. If you can get into an area with known landmarks on the map, you can decipher the area pretty well and you can get a good idea of the deer's routes etc. before you get there. The pre-season scouting will determine it, if you know and understand habits and what they do when the shooting starts. You won't find that on a map! The books go out the window!  :shock: Good luck-get books on habits, and good maps, and have some real fun!

[Big]

As a former naval flight officer (I flew A-6s before the Navy retired them), the topo, or topographic chart, is one of my favorite things on this planet.

The topo is a model, a representation of the terrain of a given area.  It is a flat piece of paper that represents often very-not-flat land.  The most important symbols on the chart are the contour lines: lines that represent lines of equal elevation on the ground.  These lines run across (not up and down) slopes, so that when you see lines close together, the land represented is steep; when the lines are farther apart, the land is closer to flat.  It would be easier to explain in person.

If you don't already have one, get a topo of your lease from topozone.com (type in the nearest town, then adjust from there).  Get an aerial photo of your lease from mapquest.com, and compare the photo to the topo (they'll probably be diferent scales, so adjust for that, too).  You may be able to see the hills on the photo, and understand what the topo is telling you based on that.  Either that, or take the topo, go to your lease, figure out where you are on the topo (based on a road intersection, powerline, stream, or similar landmark) and start walking around (a compass will help), correlating the land with what you see on the topo.

If topozone.com doesn't work for you, or you want a higher-quality chart than what your printer will produce, the U.S. Geologic Survey sells topos for around $5 each.  You can order them from the USGS if you know the name of the "quad" where your lease is.  A better bet would be to look in the yellow pages for a surveyor, survey supply company, or engineering supply store in your lease's area; they often carry topos, or know who does.

You may want to look for a good book on map and compass reading.   I learned map and compass/orienteering in the Boy Scouts long before I flew off carriers.

As far as where deer will be based on terrain, just about any book on deer hunting has its thoughts on that.  Where I live, in Maryland, the way to find deer with a map is this:
(1) Tack a map of Maryalnd to the wall,
(2) Throw a dart at it; try to hit dry land.
(3) Wherever the dart hits, deer are there.

Good luck.

[Big]

And I agree with Top Gun (we posted at the same time), ya gots ta scout!  I use topos mostly to navigate around, and while they give clues as to where the hot spots might be (as TopGun described), you have to go and look to be sure.

Be aware that topos and photos are often out of date or otherwise inaccurate, especially when depicting trails!  Be careful, and don't get lost.

I downloaded mapquest photos for free - don't know how they compare to mytopo.

[Mikey]

TScott0:  I used topos for years.  As a former groundpounder in SE Asia and other parts of the world, they proved invaluable.  The suggestion to internet with aerial photos and topo maps is a great one - those of us who used topos during the Vietnam war wish we had that capability then.

But as the others say, there is no subsitute for scouting out your own hunting areas - it is an absolute necessity.  And, since we're enjoying the age of modern marvels, don't fergit to brang yor cellphone to call fer help ifin ya'll gits lost.  Mikey here.

[volshooter]

I won't step foot on the property unless I've studied the topo first. These guys have said it all. I use USGS maps avaliable from TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) and from a respectable local map store(slightly higer at the map store but works in a pinch) Yes, get the map, it will tell you many things, but you have to scout too. I spend about 20% on topo. Around here it is easy to predict at what elevation the white oaks mature got a late frost or which ones mature first. (all of this is based on elevation and topo's tell it)
Rick

[Curtis]

I don't know how useful this will be to you, but it sure is neat.  It's aerial photos and topo maps.  Not all photos are very recent.  Most aerial photos are from '93 to '99.  You can zoom in reasonably close.  Here's the link.

http://terraserver.microsoft.com/

Curtis