DIY Hunting Maps - New Sponsor
General Topic
Hello all, I wanted to introduce myself as a new Bowsite Sponsor. My name is Jordan Ongstad and I am the sole proprietor of DIY Hunting Maps. If you haven't heard of me before. I make hunting maps, gps chips, digital maps and now premium stats for Colorado and a few maps and chips for Wyoming. I'll also be joining the discussion as traditional back country hunter. I'm excited to be apart the forum!
Jordan,
Welcome aboard! Look forward to checking out your products!
Mark
I've been using Jordan's GPS chip, maps, and now the premium website for a couple years and can attest that they are all great tools. The maps and chip are especially valuable because they show all the closed and decommissioned roads that aren't shown on topo or USFS maps.
That road information is how I figure out different ways to access my new area, from scouting to hunting. Great products. Welcome to the Bowsite!
Jordan, just checked out your video, very nice! I'm sending you a PM. Thanks!
ElkNut1
Welcome-
In a nutshell how you summarize your GPS/desktop products benefits in comparison to onXmaps and similar competitors?
Thx Bill
Bill, My company is about Public Land hunting. This means I take the time to get the most complete public lands data available. As Lou mentioned above, one of the results of this extra effort is closed and decommissioned roads. Another is trail designations (i.e. pack saddle, atv, etc). OnXMaps does a great job with their products, we just take a different approach and don't really focus on putting private land owner names on our chips and really focus on getting the most accurate data related to accessing public lands. I also have some added features like shaded relief, paper maps that look identical to what's on your GPS, searchable points of interest, things like that (I attached some screenshots). The last big difference is the price. I have 3 options local, regional and statewide chips that allow you to potentially get all of the area you need for as low as $34.95. I hope this answers your questions!
Bighurt, Our paper maps are for the compass guy. They're unit specific and printed at a 1:70,000 map scale with 50 topo lines and all the data a hunter needs to start exploring! Although we currently only have paper maps for Wyoming and Colorado.
Jordan, the chip of yours that I have does have landowner names when I click on the property. Are you not including that feature anymore?
Lou, my chips have about a third of the landowners name in the state. If I can get private names easily and at a reasonable cost. I go ahead and include it on the chips. There are some counties that want upwards of 10 grand to get access to that data, and others are free, some don't have any data available at all. So although there are private land owner names throughout the state, there will be some counties that just say "Unknown Private".
Jordan, just sent you a PM.
I'll place my order. Thank you...PS any Bowsite coupon? hint hint
Let's do bowsite20 for 20% off? How's that sound? Just add it in step 2 of 3 on check-out.
You need more of Wyoming.
WapitiBob, Wyoming is about to get a face lift this spring. We'll have maps and GPS chips for the entire state shortly, just bear with me!
I wanted to thank everyone for the warm welcome and many visits to check out my website! Jordan
That's good news on Wyoming. I am interested.
DIY great site. I'll check back in the future to see if the area in Wyoming I wanted has been added.
Thx for the coupon. Order placed
Ordered my Colorado chip this morning looks great will post pics of the big bull the maps will help me harvest this fall (pray)
Jordan, you're welcome! Can't wait to check out my new map! (grin) I'm sure it will be very helpful! Thank You!
ElkNut1
Welcome, Jordan! I'll be ordering when I draw my tag.
Any thoughts of expanding to Montana in the near future?
website said Montana would be december of 2016
What are "decommissioned" roads?
Do your maps have public easements through private land onto public land?
I know the Umpqua National Forest in Oregon still has not finalized their Travel Management Plan on what roads will be closed or open. Will you be updating that when they release the new plan?
I hope you get one Booner! ElkNut1 Lemme know what you think. So to answer some questions.
Montana will be coming sooner than later. It's just me, and expanding states is very time consuming, but Wyoming revamp will be starting in the next week with Montana quickly to follow. I'm hoping to have Stats, Paper Maps and GPS chips for at least Western Montana well before hunting season!
midwest, decommissioned roads are national forest service roads that have been put out of service. They'll almost always be blocked off by a natural burn, and sometimes they'll even 'backslash" them to help hide the road scar. These are the roads they want to turn back into forest. They'll usually be no more than a game trail size in some places. Closed roads on the other hand are usually still roads, just no motorized traffic is allowed.
Gray Ghost, So when it comes to national forest, I follow MVUM maps from the forest service. I show all roads, it's just if there isn't a public easement, it will turn into "Closed" symbology at the national forest boarder. Out on the BLM lands, I once again show all roads, but things may not be as clear. I try to find all BLM (easement roads) and county roads and label them as such. These roads would generally have public easements, but always follow private land owner signs. It's never worth the hassle, whether they're right or wrong. The appropriate steps are always to get the local government involved to talk to the owner and have the signs removed if they are in fact wrong.
I've done went and done it. I planned to do another elk hunt in Colorado in 2017. I know where I'll be hunting. I just don't know which chip to buy. Is there any chance you have a legend on how you broke the state into areas you reference on the chips?
God Bless
WV Mountaineer, if you go to the link and click on a chip, it will list all the units with a basic coverage map you can click to view. But PM Sent, to help make sure you get it right!
Just received my map from Jordan, very nice, I'm very happy with it & it should serve me well! Thanks Jordan!
ElkNut1
Hi Jordan,
Tried an order with your coupon code "bowsite20" and it says it has expired. Are going to be running any discounts in the future?
Also, I currently don't have a Garmin brand GPS but if I am reading the info currectly I can download Garmin software to read map info on my laptop?
Thanks, Mark
Mark,
I messed up when I set the expiration date! It's back up and working again. But yes, Garmin has a free software called BaseCamp that you could use to read the data on the chip.
Jordan
Just ordered a chip for my Wyoming hunt this year, Hopefully it will help me out with some access points.
Jordan,
Thanks for the quick response, order has been placed.
Mark
I just ordered my chip. Looking forward to being able to put it to use. Thanks Jordan for the personal help.
BTW, I plugged your site over on the Leatherwall. There are some guys over there Inguiring about hunts, maps, where to hunt, etc.... Go over and start you a thread. You'll sell some over there too. God Bless
Thanks for the coupon code!
Sasquatch, that's what all my products are made for, helping you find some more access to your Public Lands!
I'll be sure to go over to Leatherwall, as a trad guy myself, you think I would have started there! Thanks for the tip WV Mountaineer!
Received my chip, installed in my Garmin, very happy with the different layers. 2 thumbs up!
I don't think they allow GPS or chips on the LW, do they? Paper maps should be ok if they are printed on birch bark or parchment.
Probably not Lou. But, amongest all the bowmanics over there, there are some real hunters too.
I got my chip today. I ordered it on Friday. That's fast service. Thanks Jordan. God Bless
Happy to help WV Mountaineer!
Jordan, You mentioned that Wyoming was about to get a face lift. I am interested in purchasing the GPS hunt guide for Elk units 13 & 15. Will you be making a chip that covers more of the South-East units this spring? I can get them in the paper hunting guide and I will, but I am also interested in a GPS hunting guide for those Elk units. Thanks!
Shaft, Yes I will have a Wyoming South-East chip that will cover all of the Medicine Bow. I don't have an exact timeline for the release of the Chips, but it should be well before the middle of summer!
Jordan
Awesome, can't wait to check it out. I'll be looking for it. Thanks!
Just received my order last week. Very pleased.
I appreciate the positive feedback Aaron!
Jordan, I have already purchased the paper hunting guide, and they are great maps. You mentioned that you thought the South - East chip for Wyoming would be available before the middle of summer. I'm still not seeing it on your website. Are you close to having it ready to purchase? Just checking!
Bought me a map from them yesterday. I'm excited to get it
I'm scouting an area now that I didn't know how to reasonably access without bashing through a ton of deadfall. But Jordan's map showed an over-grown closed logging road that isn't shown on the topos or USFS maps, that makes getting in and out of the basin a breeze.
