For those of you who hunt in populated areas, Google Earth is a great tool to use to comply with local ordinances and to hunt safely.
I found a dandy tee-shaped, very huntable, powerline right of way very near home but surrounded by housing. New hampshire has a 300 foot from clustered habitation hunting restriction and my town allows only bow, shotgun, and muzzleloader for deer hunting. Using Google earth and its measuring tool, I was able to determine the nearest structure was 560 feet away from where I wanted to place my stand and 180 degrees away from my intended line of fire. In front, the nearest dwelling is 400 yards away, 300 yards of which is through dense mixed forrest. Including the fact that I will be shooting my muzzleloader down from a hight of 18 feet, I think I can say I'm both legal and safe. Also, although detail is lacking when you zoom down close, I was able to makeout 5 or 6 points I could measure to give me some ranging landmarks. I guess this is all obvious and simple but though I'd pass it on anyway. Go to www.earth.google.com if interested.
Good luck this season.

That's a good idea, I use it to check out the huge undeveloped areas bordering my property.

Its a great tool no doubt, I use images cliped out all the time and over lay them in AutoCad with real world survey data. I don't think it would hold up in court if you had to prove you were with in x amount of feet from a structure though.

Can you legally hunt a right of way?

Yes. Most Public Service of New Hampshire ROW's are huntable. This one is not posted. True. The Google evidence itself might be insufficient, but it gives me a great deal of confidence that an actual survey would prove me right.

Where ya been? Been using GE for years for the reasons you point out. It's also a wonderful tool to use to do virtual scouting. Say you drive by an area that looks promising. Instead of parking, figuring out the best way to poke about, then humping in only to find that there are some houses back in there that might prevent you from being within the law, go home, fire up GE and have a look. If it still looks good, then head in to have a look. You just need to be aware that the maps often have a lag-- in other words, on GE it may show nothing but bush, but when you get out may find a new housing development.

Cheers,

KG

Hi Wallace,

Use the same thing here in Durham. I've found it useful to locate possible game travel routes as well.

Hmm, let's see, a triangle shaped power line row "over in Dover".

Sorry, I couldn't resist!

Lee

The pain is tremendous!!! And with Google Earth, I can run but I can't hide.

You may also take a liking to Microsoft's "version" of G.E. I think that most of the maps online use the same sources for their aerial maps, so I don't think there's much difference in the map quality or age. I also understand that more and more places will be either blurry or will not allow zooming in as part of our "war on terror".

Two things I especially like about MS version is that it loads very quick and that you can do a road name overlay on top of the aerial image.

Here's the link: Microsoft Maps