It has been a LONGGGG time since posting

Dave M

Dave M

Well-known member
All ,


It has been sometime since my last post as i pulled away from waterfowling while i built a business and deal with everyday life . Recently i purchased a new lab pup in hopes "Addy" would give the push to get off my butt and get back into chasing waterfowl . Recently i have been out scouting some old haunts to find alot of areas i used to hunt have fallen to the developers that love to build million dollar homes on the RI shore line . While out scouting today it came to me that i will need to be super careful in these spots and i need to be prepared for the event i get stopped by one of our DEM officers . I am in the market for a range finder and was wondering what you all recommend , i am not looking the break bank but at the same time i need accurate readings if the need arises that i need to prove that the area i am in is with in regs . It is going to be a struggle and it seems like this should not be needed but with our little state becoming more and more crowded with hunters and homes i rather be safe than sorry . Thank you all in advance !!!
 
In those situations I use Google Maps Satellite View. It shows your exact location and you can measure distances. You can do this ahead of time or while out there. A rangefinder will also work, and likely any rangefinder will be fine.
 
For some of the more developed chunks of Maine coastline I hunt, I've used the "measure" tool in Google Earth. Maine requires 100 yards from a house for legal hunting. I measure off 350' from each side of the buildings. One you do this, you can save the measurement, and move on to the other houses near where you want to hunt. Once I've covered an area, I take a screen shot of it and either print the map or send a screen shot of it to my phone. There's probably a way to save that as a layer you can import into a GPS device or a GPS phone app, but I have not checked into that.

I figure 350' gives enough cushion for measurement error, and to be even safer I avoid any areas that are close to the line. I just "lost" a favorite spot at the edge of a big low tide mud flat and the mouth of a nice salt marsh creek that had an ancient old rock blind that generations of hunters have spruced up with driftwood and other flotsam each summer. Whatever improvements get made get wiped out by each month's spring tide as the spot in the intertidal. A second blind was behind a couple of boulders up the shore a bit.

Three new houses made the rock blind illegal. The intertidal blind is about 650' from the nearest house, but with those three new houses, there is now a lot of dog walking and other traffic down along the shore, and it's one of those "legal but I choose not to hunt there" spots.
 
As already suggested, I use an app, OnX that allows me to set up "exclusion" zones that allow me to motor in, in the dark and not get a surprise when the sun comes up! I did buy a Vortex range finder that works well, but getting a reading on a rocking boat can be a challenge. In VA, in the area that I hunt I must stay 400 yards away from a licensed blind.



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