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sep0667

sep0667

Land of the Whitetail
This summer I'm really trying to find a good place to hunt. I'm sick of the public lands near me and the little 15 or so acre places that I can hunt that are in a sea of other hunters(I live to close to Des Moines), mature buck sightings are virtually nonexistent with every little 20 acre pieace having at least one hunter, not too many bucks make it past 2.5 or 3.5.

I've been using google maps and then using the satellite to find properties that look good and pinpointing pinchpoints and such on them. I've noted several properties that look good to me, now I just need to find the landowner. Is there any other site or way to find the landowner than the Beacon website? The Beacon site is really a pain to move around and try to locate stuff, or maybe I'm just being lazy:eek:.

Any help is much appreciated.
 
Hands down, I for sure have an "EASIER" way, not sure it's the best BUT it works SUPER FAST, easy and accurate for me. Buy the county you want to hunt- plat book: http://www.farmandhomepublishers.com/ or [email protected] and she'll mail you one (Joyce) around $25. Ok, then go to: http://ortho.gis.iastate.edu/client...653689&layer=naip_2009&pwidth=600&pheight=450
Make the map bigger in size before you save/print. When you zoom down to a general area- remove the overlays so you can save it as a .jpg file. Zoom in to a level where you can easily see the roads and area of about 5 square miles. PRINT it out after you save it as a .jpg in a file (print in Microsoft picture manager and it will take up the whole page which is good). Take your plat book and draw the lines from the plat book over your aerial photo. You'll know EXACTLY who owns what and who owns the timber.
It sounds a little complicated BUT I can do this whole process in 10-15 minutes and I will FOR SURE have an accurate aerial showing me 10-20 land-owners I want to pursue and knock on their doors. 1 hour's work and I bet you can have 50 land owners lined up to knock on their door. See what I mean? I've done it all, know exactly what you're dealing with, I used to knock on 10 doors a weekend 5 or 6 weekends a year. I got lots of no's but got LOTS of good places to hunt. Good luck!
 
The best way is really to use an up to date plat book. You can buy them for like $20 bucks at the county courthouse. Once you get that first yes, it paid for itself.

Outside of that, there are large public tracts within a half hour or so of Des Moines that if you are willing to walk, you will find good deer.
 
Don't know what the difficulty is...Beacon is awesome as long as you get accustomed to the site. It has current addresses and everything right on the website. Just target a couple areas and write down addresses of 10 or 15 landowners and go knocking on doors. It's how I find spots and have access to over 4,000 acres...
 
I use beacon to find who owns the property. Atleast in Dubuque Co you can click on the map and it will pull up the owner and their address.
 
Thanks Sligh! This is more what I'm talking about. Guys, I'm sorry, but I have wasted too much time with Beacon, I understand it works but I'm looking for something a little easier to navigate around a bigger area, or maybe I just don't get it.

Sligh1 said:
Hands down, I for sure have an "EASIER" way, not sure it's the best BUT it works SUPER FAST, easy and accurate for me. Buy the county you want to hunt- plat book: http://www.farmandhomepublishers.com/ or [email protected] and she'll mail you one (Joyce) around $25. Ok, then go to: http://ortho.gis.iastate.edu/client...653689&layer=naip_2009&pwidth=600&pheight=450
Make the map bigger in size before you save/print. When you zoom down to a general area- remove the overlays so you can save it as a .jpg file. Zoom in to a level where you can easily see the roads and area of about 5 square miles. PRINT it out after you save it as a .jpg in a file (print in Microsoft picture manager and it will take up the whole page which is good). Take your plat book and draw the lines from the plat book over your aerial photo. You'll know EXACTLY who owns what and who owns the timber.
It sounds a little complicated BUT I can do this whole process in 10-15 minutes and I will FOR SURE have an accurate aerial showing me 10-20 land-owners I want to pursue and knock on their doors. 1 hour's work and I bet you can have 50 land owners lined up to knock on their door. See what I mean? I've done it all, know exactly what you're dealing with, I used to knock on 10 doors a weekend 5 or 6 weekends a year. I got lots of no's but got LOTS of good places to hunt. Good luck!
Click to expand...
 
I use a plat book..because generally I dont have a computer with me in the field, or if I do, no internet...so its just handier with the plat book for me..but thats my opinion
 
I love the plat books here in Kansas, same setup you have, I think the same gal and son does ours too. It is a little discouraging though when I look at the books from years ago, I had LOTS of ground highlighted in those books; now, not so much.
 
treerat said:
You can also try this site.

http://beacon.schneidercorp.com/Default.aspx

Once you find the parcel you are interested in, choosed the magnifying glass in the upper left corner (identify). Click on the parcel number and it will bring up the owner name and other info.
Click to expand...

I've heard of the site before, but never used it until I saw the link just now.
2 of the 3 counties I hunt aren't on there....am I missing something or do they just have certain counties on their site?
 
IowaDave said:
I've heard of the site before, but never used it until I saw the link just now.
2 of the 3 counties I hunt aren't on there....am I missing something or do they just have certain counties on their site?
Click to expand...

Only certain counties. I have used Beacon and I just don't care for it OR I'm just too stupid and easily frustrated. Printing out the aerials and matching up with plat is so much easier AND it tells me who owns the good land/timber. Before, with ONLY a plat, I'd knock on a door of a guy with "500 acres" and come to find out it's almost all field and the good timber in the back is owned by someone else. Having the plat matched with the aerials saves SO MUCH TIME!
 
FYI...If by chance you're looking for Franklin County...I think you'll have to pay. The site wanted me to create a user account. I looked into it further and it said you have to send in payment to become a user.

That being said. I then tried Appanoose County next and it went right to the map. It looks like a few counties may charge you??
 
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