Find Private & Public Hunting Land Near You – 5 Tips for 2019

From our state selector to Web Map, from Waypoints to Hunt Central, we work daily to give you options to find the best public (or private) land for your hunting season.

Here at onX, we pride ourselves in offering a multi-platform mapping system with up-to-date data and land ownership map tools. Whether you prefer to scout at home on your desktop or the mobile convenience of maps on your cell phone, we offer many approaches for finding the perfect private or public hunting land.

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Screenshots of the onX Hunt App showing parts of Montana with public / private land boundaries.

1. Hunt App

Hands-down the most comprehensive tool for discovering good hunting lands, the Hunt App is the landmark of the onX world.

The majority of hunters choose our Elite Membership, allowing access to all fifty state-specific maps with all layers, property boundaries, points of interest, custom waypoints, and more. For traveling hunters or those who pursue game in multiple states, this is the best option.

Elite Membership in the Hunt App gets you access to:

– Landowner names and boundaries
– Satellite imagery with topo lines
– The ability to save offline maps
– Mobile and computer syncing
– GPS, waypoints, tracks and markups
– Color-coded public lands
– State-specific map layers
– Roads and trails
– Hunting areas
– Landowner, place or coordinate search options
– The ability to mark and measure areas

Cost: Basic use of the Hunt App is free to anyone with a valid account and includes our proprietary basemap plus basic GPS functionality. To unlock private and public land boundaries, property ownership info, topo maps, and more, you’ll need a membership: $29.99/year for Premium (one state), $44.99/year for Premium with two states, or $99.99/year for Elite (all 50 states). onX Hunt subscribers also get unlimited use of our Web Map. New users can take advantage of a free 7-day trial.

Screenshot of e-scouting in Montana with the onX Hunt Web Map.

2. E-Scout With Web Map

Scouting good hunting land is much easier on a big screen using Web Map—the web version of the onX Hunt app. Web Map, which works on all modern browsers, allows you to view the fine details and see the big picture. Data saved on web, such as waypoints, line distances, and more, syncs seamlessly across all devices that are logged into the same account.

Cost: Basic use of Web Map is free to anyone with a valid account. Similar to onX Hunt, you’ll need a membership to unlock many of the features ($29.99/year for Premium, $44.99/year for Premium with two states, or $99.99/year for Elite). New users can take advantage of a free 7-day trial here.

3. Hone In On A Specific State

Do you have a particular state in mind? We offer two tools for users looking to find private and/or public hunting lands in a specific state. Those products are “Select-a-State” and “Hunt Central.”

Select-a-State

Users with a particular state in mind should start with Select-a-State. With our Select-a-State tool, you can select the state in which you want to view private and public hunting land maps. These state maps help you increase success as you layer state forests, wildlife management areas, private property, and more over aerial, topographic, and hybrid basemaps—a combination that creates the most accurate maps on both mobile devices and computers. Want to find the best hunting land in a particular state? This is the answer.

Cost: Use of our Select-a-State tool is free. To unlock public & private land boundaries and other great features you will need an onX membership. Memberships start at $29.99 annually for Premium (one state), $44.99/year for Premium with two states, and $99.99 annually for Elite (all states). New users can take advantage of a free 7-day trial.

Screenshot of Hunt Central, a new online tool from onX Hunt.

Hunt Central

Hunters in the planning phase will appreciate our newest product, Hunt Central. With all 50 states now live, Hunt Central allows users to select their state to learn everything they need to know in preparation for a hunt and find relevant hunting information on:

– Hunting seasons
– Species to hunt
– Regulations
– Licenses
– Records information
– Hunting district information
– Weather by hunting district
– The onX Hunt App and Web Maps
– Private land to public land ratios by unit

Learn which animals you can hunt, the dates they are in or out of season, where to buy a hunting license, and much more. When combined with the Hunt App, you can access state hunting maps on your desktop or mobile device, even when you’re offline by saving offline maps. Hunt Central (beta) provides everything you need to plan your hunting trips for the 2019 season and beyond.

Cost: Use of Hunt Central is free to all users.

Screenshot image of the Game Management Unit Hub from onX Hunt.

4. Hone In On A Specific Hunting Zone or Unit

For those looking for private and public hunting land information within a particular game management unit (GMU), you’ll want to check out our GMU Hub. Our GMU Hub offers a comprehensive list of U.S. hunting zones, units, districts, and areas. Simply find the GMU you’re looking for and get started (hint: search the GMU Hub by hitting control F & enter the hunting zone you’re looking for).

Cost: Use of GMU Hub is free to all users.

Screenshot examples of saved and shared Waypoints on the onX Hunt App.

5. Share/Receive Waypoints

Friends (good friends) are a tried and true method for discovering worthwhile private and public hunting lands. Do some e-scouting with Web Map, then chat with your friends about hunting lands you found interesting. Maybe you can sweet talk those buddies into sharing a waypoint or two… maybe where they hung that tree stand a couple of years back, where that one lonely pine is with a game camera, or that one particular wallow that just looks downright inviting.

Cost: Use of Waypoints is free to all users.

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How onX Staff Use Our Tools

onX Project Coordinator Zach Sandau uses the app several ways throughout the hunting season. He recently shared a short example of how public land data helped him fill a tag in recent weeks:

“Our public and private boundaries allow me to hunt new areas without wasting time worrying about if I can or can’t hunt an area and how to access the public ground. My personal hunting time is very precious, and I cannot afford to waste any of it worrying about where to hunt. I commonly cover new areas looking for small pieces of public ground that look promising.

This year after my elk hunt, I was able to hunt a small section of state land with my cousin that we found by using the onX App and our public land data. This particular piece was surrounded by private land and is commonly overlooked due to lack of signage and small amount of acreage.

After finding a good access point from a county road, we were able to sneak in, guided only by the light from our headlamps. We found a group of antelope on the adjacent private property and were able to navigate the private boundaries confidently and get set up on what appeared to be a well-used trail. Two hours later, we decoyed my buck into archery range on public ground.

This is one of many hunts where I found I could hunt new and often overlooked areas because I can confidently access and navigate public/private boundaries.”

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Jess McGlothlin

Before taking the role of onX Communications Writer, Jess McGlothlin worked as a freelance photographer and writer in the outdoor and fly-fishing industries. While on assignment in the past few years she’s learned how to throw spears at coconuts in French Polynesia, dodge saltwater crocodiles in Cuba, stand-up paddleboard down Peruvian Amazon tributaries and eat all manner of unidentifiable food.