Pros and cons of using ON-X to find hard to access Public Ground

[Bigjay73]

OnX won't tell you if a road is public and some public roads go through private land. You need to overlay the country road maps with it.

Yeah, hopefully some day it will, that would be awesome

 

[Western Traveler1]

Pros: it’s really helped me find some gems.

Cons: all these other free loaders can find them too

I love OnX. A few years ago I had a conversion with the local warden about it. He told me that was what they all used and unless it was common knowledge that a boundary was incorrect it was the determining factor for disagreements (there was a corner crossing that was continually argued over) he advised me to steer clear of it as it was a case by case decision and now I knew. We then spent some time verifying a few tiny bites that gave access to public. It was reassuring. I’ve had the opportunity to use it in a bunch of Western States. Yes, roads require extra work...

Con, it killed a couple of little known State land spots that were unknown to most.

 

[Twolftg]

The pros are to many to list. The biggest con for me could partial be me. It's when you see a good point of access that shows a trail but when you get there it has a private looking gate. Or that road starts to look like a driveway and goes right between a house and barn. Maybe it is still legal to go but I just feel off so I walway turn around dissapointed.

 

[AggieHunter]

So far for me using it is all positive as it is vital to know where I stand while hunting. I haven't run into landowners yet, but also haven't accessed through in really small spots near private either. I did come across a small fence with tons of no trespassing signs on it that I knew was national Forrest and later found out that the forest service put them there to discourage target shooting.

 

[Honeybear68]

I’ve enjoyed having it in Wa State. Wish I would have purchased it sooner.

 

[jrabq]

Women shouldn't hunt. They should hunt, fish, shoot, hike...............

But after they make me,a sammich.

 

[VikingsGuy]

1) Be polite, be professional, be firm.
2) Once you present your data, do not engage or argue any further. If the map does not convince the other party of the land ownership nothing you can say is going to.

^^^^^^^^This^^^^^^^^

It's a great tool to keep yourself in the right place, but not a reason to start a heated argument. In these situations both parties are usually armed, so best to lower emotions rather than double down on an argument that has limited positive outcome.

 

[Jmnhunter]

Great tool; the only downfall I've found around here is that we have alot of "tax forfeited" land aka County owned land. And for the most part, they stay in county hands indefinitely, but the county does sell some of these chunks--would be nice to have a "Last updated" date in your states map layers. There are some small chunks of land that could hold some nice deer but I just get a gut feeling nearby landowners would get pissy about it, or worst case scenario, the chunk was sold off and now I'm trespassing!

 

[LuketheDog]

A few landowner/outfitters have successfully bullied the public off accessible public land for years due to boundary location uncertainty. Now GPS/OnX is changing that and some are having a hard time adapting.

A few humble tips I've learned from dealing with these situations might be helpful to others:
1) Be polite, be professional, be firm.
2) Once you present your data, do not engage or argue any further. If the map does not convince the other party of the land ownership nothing you can say is going to.
6) Make sure you're using your OnX Tracker feature full time to prove that you never trespassed. Leave some margin for mapping error to be safe.

Just 3 weeks ago OnX helped me out of a bind. Our neighborhood is all horse properties with riding easements throughout, including a 20' easement that runs roughly 2.5 miles west along the neighboring ranch boundary to the national forest. The new ranch owner has challenged the easement in court and lost, and now he and his ranch manager just harass folks for riding out that way because he doesn't like it. The last time I was out there I could see a truck cruising one of the ranch roads and paralleling my position, and I KNEW he was going to hassle me. Sure enough, he was waiting for me at my truck, told me I was trespassing and threatened to call the sheriff. I was polite, but firm, and told him I wasn't trespassing, but to go ahead and send the deputy to my house and that I would love to show them my GPS track with both topo and satellite overlay proving I was legal the whole time...if he felt like wasting their time. He backed off when I said that and didn't call the law, but promised he would 'next time', then he went and complained to the HOA board with a fabricated story that he caught me trespassing way out on the ranch. So, again, I whipped out my trusty OnX and sent a screenshot of my track to all the board members, for which they were grateful, and they were able to confront him with the evidence. That made my subscription worth it for this year, otherwise it would have been just my word against his...

 

[JTHOMP]

I’ve enjoyed using the product. Unfortunately my parish is not as caught up in the digital age and the private land boundary isn’t shown.

I have one hard to access spot I regularly hunt. That same spot can be found on a forest service map, but the user friendliness of the onX makes it really easy to turn on a few layers and look over various tracks of land at one time that are hard to access. Basically dummy proof to find areas. Which is good and bad I guess. Depends on who all realizes it before or after you.

What I do like about the boundary information is that I feel that it’s more likely for me to stay away from trouble than push the limits of the marker line which often isn’t clearly marked.