Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game BaseMap or onX?

Razz, I have both Gaia and onX. Gaia is better except for the fact it doesn't have ownership boundaries. Ownership boundaries is a must, but I won't be getting rid of Gaia.

Have been looking at GAIA and it looks interesting.

Have you found the private boundaries and ownership to be accurate?

Looks like ct’ answered my question while I was typing.

I don't know about Gaia, but OnX has a disclaimer for private boundaries. They get their info from county and state maps. Some counties don't have accurate records online showing the latest owners or accurate boundaries. OnX is only as good as the info available and in some areas, that's not great.

Property boundaries is a big plus Bama!!

OnX has been real accurate and up to date on ownership in NM.

Except for Catron county.

I've pondered this one too so no offense taken.

CT and others. Gaia does have private land boundaries in the premium package ($40 yr). I have nott seen it to differ when I compared with Onx while in the field.

Potential OnX problem but easy fix:

When I first got OnX this summer, I opened the desktop map and had a problem. The map wouldn't go to satellite and the topo was incomplete. Not everything showed. I messed with it for quite a while and finally called OnX support. They immediately knew the problem. They had me to to the layers, then Hunt, and then to Forest Visitors Map. It was turned on. They told me to to turn it off. The layer wasn't working right and hosed the whole map. Once it was turned off, all was well. I don't know if this is a problem for all states but it is for Idaho.
I don't see that layer on my phone, only on desktop.

Cool. I'll have to check that out. I've had it loaded for years. Boundaries were not available when I first got it and haven't followed back up.

Does Gaia have hunting specific program boundaries such as block management/walk in areas?

Does it have the Desktop feature that allows you do all the scouting and marking waypoints on the desktop and sync it with the phone app? I'm actually doing this right now.

Both of these are a must for me also.

Thanks for the info.

Looks like Gaia is worth a try, thanks for the info.

The local wardens I’ve spoke with are accepting boundaries/tracks per OnX vs posted signs/fences in most cases. Will have to ask about Gaia.

One thing I've noticed with OnX is that the tracks don't always exactly follow the trails I've hiked. They can be as much as 10 yds off from what I can see using the satellite photos. Normally 10 yds is no big deal. If I can't find my way within 10 yds I'd better stay home. However, if I had to use an inaccurate waypoint to mark a dead elk in heavy cover it might be a different story.

Using my Garmin Montana with a HuntX chip for geocaching, I've found it accurate within 3'. I haven't yet used my phone and the Garmin side by side to check for the the phone's GPS accuracy.

This is a guess, but that may just be differences in the mapping data...not necessarily an error on OnX's part.
The satellite photos may have been mapped using NAD 83 and the OnX maps may have been developed using WGS 84, or vice versa. Likewise your GPS/phone settings may be set to one or the other, where the map or overhead photos you're looking at was developed using different data.

It likely doesn't matter much as you mentioned, but I have had this issue finding small cadastral survey markers that have been overgrown with brush.

10yards is well within the margin of error of most handheld GPS units as well. But, if it's consistently offset it might very well be a difference in datums.

True as well. Individual, mass sold units are not as accurate they are often touted to be. Throw cloud cover and other atmospherics or terrain into the mix, and a 10 yard margin of error is pretty common I'd think.

I've used very sensitive and high dollar equipment at work that is supposed to be sub-meter accurate, and had "inaccuracy" due to the datum issues.

pointer- don't get me started, I don't have it in me anymore.

Very interesting thread.

Have been using onX for three years now, on a Garmin GPS since I still don't own a smartphone (though just "upgraded" to a 4g flip-phone, since my 10-year-old TracFone would expire on January 1).

Like onX a lot, since it fits into my semi-geezerhood style of hunting, finding pockets of public land that aren't too damn far up in the mountains--and which almost all other hunters avoid, for whatever reason. The yearly $30 update also shows Montana Block Management areas, which are becoming more numerous. In fact got all our big game on BM this year. The only anomalies we've noticed are where private property fencelines are often a few hundred yards where they're supposed to be--which have so far been due to optimistic landowners.

But am interested in gaia, and would like to hear more about it.

It was clear and sunny this afternoon. I took a 3 mile hike along a canal bank. I turned on OnX before I left just to see how my tracks compared coming and going. Going, it followed the canal bank road very well. Coming back, following the same path, for a few hundred yards it showed me in the canal about 10 yds away.

What device was that on?

My Motorola phone. I don't know if it's the gps in the phone or what. It's not serious but it's not quite right, either.