Thread: advice on Handheld GPS

Hey does anyone have any good suggestions on hand held gps. What does everyone do about plotting hunting areas so they know they are inside etc?

I use WAMS website to suss boundaries of public blocks and put grid refs into garmin 62s

Thanks mate i'll check it out

Most smart phones have a built in GPS. Download the app from "NZ Maps" and you can track yourself on the standard topo map. Point to bear in mind though is that your phone as in telephone may have no coverage but the GPS will still work unless you drop into a shitty gully...

Originally Posted by Turehu

Most smart phones have a built in GPS. Download the app from "NZ Maps" and you can track yourself on the standard topo map. Point to bear in mind though is that your phone as in telephone may have no coverage but the GPS will still work unless you drop into a shitty gully...

Hey bud, Yeah i had my samsung galaxy with me but it was struggling with all the tree cover. I figure If I spend a bit of money and get something with a better GPS antenna it might be more accurate and help if hunting next to boundaries. WIll check out that app though. Cheers

I got a 62s from the gps guy in chch with maps and doc boundary's already loaded on it

Originally Posted by veitnamcam

I got a 62s from the gps guy in chch with maps and doc boundary's already loaded on it

That is pretty awesome. Would be really handy I reckon. Have you seen those ones with 5watt radios in them also. They look awesome. You can also track a mate if he has the same unit.

Originally Posted by rs200nz

That is pretty awesome. Would be really handy I reckon. Have you seen those ones with 5watt radios in them also. They look awesome. You can also track a mate if he has the same unit.

The Rhinos? Good if hunting with a mate I guess, pretty huge tho and battery life is apparently not good, mates got some and sold them pretty much straight away.

This guy

mapping handheld - KiwiGPS


If like me you are a tech tard I am sure he could load the boundary's for you.

sweet good price actually. Cheers mate will check it out. Just found the links on Doc site.

bought my pre loaded sd card on trade me rrom mr purple all boundaries are marked on the maps . cheers jefftrevor

Originally Posted by jefftrevor

bought my pre loaded sd card on trade me rrom mr purple all boundaries are marked on the maps . cheers jefftrevor

I switched to Mr Purples sd card a short while ago, but haven't ventured out to make full use of it since. Good to know it already has DOC boundaries, as that saves a bit of guess work

Originally Posted by Pengy

I switched to Mr Purples sd card a short while ago, but haven't ventured out to make full use of it since. Good to know it already has DOC boundaries, as that saves a bit of guess work

Let me know what you reckon, might make the switch too

Originally Posted by Gibo

Let me know what you reckon, might make the switch too

He will probably bring it on the road trip so we don't get lost between the shearing shed and the shitter.

Originally Posted by Pengy

Good to know it already has DOC boundaries, as that saves a bit of guess work

I've been looking at maps a lot today - mostly WAMS and DOC stuff. Came across the GIS data that DOC uses to produce the pretty (useless IMO) hunting permit maps like this one.

Download these two files,

DOC Public Conservation Areas
DOC Recreational Hunting Permit Areas

Open them up in Google Earth and you will find that they are NOT the same. There are bits of DOC Public Conservation Areas that your DOC Hunting Permit does NOT entitle you to hunt in. The "DOC Boundaries" GPS maps are built from the first file, so unless you check the overlap with the second file (hunting areas) in Google Earth, you may be hunting where you're not meant to - and none of us want to be that guy, right?

The "Hunting Areas" GIS data also has the following description/disclaimer:

Department of Conservation - Recreation Hunting Permit Areas. This dataset is the Department of Conservation's record of those parts of Public Conservation Land where recreational hunting may take place. If hunting within these areas you MUST obtain a hunting permit first; either online at http://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/hunting/ or from your local DOC office. These data are based upon land parcels (cadastre) but are not suitable for accurate boundary definition.

That's DOC's legal advisors doing their arse-covering, but if that data is "not suitable" for making sure you're where you're meant to be and not where you're NOT meant to be, then I don't know what is.

I will endeavour to make a Garmin GPS map from the "DOC Recreational Hunting Permit Areas" and some data from WAMS. That way we can be more sure of what areas are:
a) Publicly accessible (via WAMS); and
b) Able to be legally hunted on (via DOC Hunting Areas).

Thoughts?