Game Planner Map Review

[Indian Summer]

Well... Ed has only been a sponsor for 5 days but I am already to give you my 2 cents on his Game Planner Maps program. Maybe you've already ready the welcome post but I figured I'd take a minute and put one down here.

First of all I'm no computer genius. By no means computer illiterate but more of a Fred Flintstone than a George Jetson. So if something is really nice..... but I have to read instructions or practice for a week to be comfortable with it then forget it. I'll stick to my old dog tricks. I'll admit that I was a little skeptical at first because lately there have been lots of new mapping companies and products for sale. But as with any Wapiti Talk sponsor I owed it to him to have a look and give it a fair chance.

In less than 15 minutes I was cruising right along. In 20 minutes I had a big smile on my face and told the wife I had just made an incredible discovery. There aren't really that many controls to learn how to use. Click the box to add a map layer and then click on the half moons to make that layer lighter or darker. Boom done.

Then start experimenting with different fade levels on the individual layers and see how they effect each other. The detail and clarity of the aerial view layer is really awesome even zoomed in close. You can pull up Imagery Topo which I use to put blue lines on my aerial so I can clearly see where all the water is. That helps you more easily envision the high and low areas..... the ridgetops and the bottoms.

Last but not least you can add the contour lines over all of that and fade them in and out to where you like them. So now you can see the real life views and be able to spot the subtle benches, bottlenecks and other geographic features that you just can't see when you're looking at a bunch of trees with some openings.

To me the Game Planner Maps over rides everything else. I can't believe I'm saying this but I actually deleted my links to Google Earth and CalTopo. Game Planner has everything you need and is fully interactive. Did I mention it's all free? Yeah. Everything you need to effectively view your hunting areas is free. If you want to go a step further you can subscribe to the premium versions where you can see all kinds of stats and analytics on your maps, customize and download, and print them etc. You can also buy those maps on the nice waterproof material printed on both sides if you want.

There's more there than I can remember to mention but the bottom line is it has it all and is easy to use. The best programs I've ever seen. Click on his banner and give it a look yourself. Whether your area is old or if you are learning a new spot this scouting tool is sure to help you put all the pieces of the puzzle together.

Can you tell I'm excited? it isn't very often I buy or even try new things anymore. As you young whippersnappers say... It's the bomb! I gotta go now. I was on Game Planner a few minutes ago on the Live Sat Viewer layer watching a herd of elk moving to their beds and I want to see where they ended up. Just kidding.... only the government does that kind of stuff!

Here's a link to the page where you can read all about the features and also register to try it out. Let me know what you think. http://www.gameplannermaps.com/index.ph ... r-features

[Indian Summer]

For a quick experiment try this.

Pick a state and the area of your choice. Somewhere a little hilly so you can see some contour lines. Then open the base maps folder. Click the box to select Imagery. Then click on the dark moon on the right. Keep clicking until it is all the way dark. Now click on the box to select USGS Topo. Then click the dark moon on the right until that layer takes over the map. Now click on the light moon on the right to fade that out. Then unclick the USGS Topo box and click on the box for the Contours layer. Now fade that layer in and out using the moons.

Those couple things should be enough to give you an idea of what you can do with the program.