For many of us, it is extremely hard to get the time to get boots on the ground to scout areas for elk. This is especially true for all of you nonresidents out there. In addition, spending two or three days of our precious days is a waste of precious time. Time you could use to be actually hunting.
E-Scouting May Be Your Answer.
E-Scouting is a way to scout from the comfort of your home well ahead of the start of the hunting season. That way, when the season finally begins you’re prepared to get out and hunt much quicker. With the help of Google Earth’s free technology and a few other e-resources, you can now scout for elk from your computer. Other information could come in handy like harvest reports, fire history, and rainfall statistics. However, for now, we are going to focus on finding likely honey hole by using Google Earth to e-scouting for elk in Wyoming.
Google Earth For Your E-scouting Needs When Hunting Elk In Wyoming
Google Earth is a popular and free program that every hunter should be using. Google Earth allows you to explore any area in Wyoming, or anywhere else, in 3D using satellite imagery. With this program, you can start looking for and identifying the best elk spots. There are many tools that come bundled in the software that will be helpful for locating and marking watering, bedding, and feeding areas used by elk. You will then be able to upload or copy the GPS coordinates for the areas you found on Google Earth to a hand-held GPS unit. If you are not a GPS person, you can print maps.
Marking your locations is fairly simple. To add a mark you need to click “Add Placemark” and move the waypoint to that spot on the map. You will need to change the name of the mark to something that is clear and makes it easy to know what the mark points to. Examples of names are “Water”, “Food”, and “Cover”. Giving the marks numbers after the name is optional but it helps to make the waypoints easier to read.Another helpful hint is to lay out your expected route to an area and save it on Google Earth. You will be able to upload this to your GPS also and it will be really helpful getting to your spot in the dark.
How To Add A Placemark On A Water Hole
Opening a Placemark