I know not everyone has a laser rangefinder, remembers to bring their laser rangefinder and certainly not everyone has one that they can use at night, however most people do bring along their smart phones when they hunt. Recently, I have been shown a couple of apps that will work with your smart phone (assuming you have signal).
For the iPhone, the free version is Compass Commander Lite. For Android phones, the free version is Measure Map Lite. For some reason, CCL does not have the same features on Android as it does on iPhone. I don't know if MML does for the iPhone as it does for the Android.
Basically, both will show you your location and allow you to select another point in the distance, such as to a landmark or to your kill, and then tell you how far away that it is.
Both have some other features, but the distance ranging is what I was interested. I don't have an iPhone, but the guy that I know that uses CCL really likes it. I have been using MML for a couple of weeks. I will not say that it is immediately intuitive to learn to use, but I had the basic features figured out in just a few minutes time. The only really bothersome aspect of MML that I have found so far is that when you first start it, your location tends to wander a bit for maybe 30 seconds until it gets a good lock on your specific location. A second problem I have noted which will not apply to the field is that it does not work as well indoors.
Both apps work well enough to provide reasonable range estimation to within a few yards if you rely on GPS and are more accurate if you simply plot the points between which you want to know the distance.
For the iPhone, the free version is Compass Commander Lite. For Android phones, the free version is Measure Map Lite. For some reason, CCL does not have the same features on Android as it does on iPhone. I don't know if MML does for the iPhone as it does for the Android.
Basically, both will show you your location and allow you to select another point in the distance, such as to a landmark or to your kill, and then tell you how far away that it is.
Both have some other features, but the distance ranging is what I was interested. I don't have an iPhone, but the guy that I know that uses CCL really likes it. I have been using MML for a couple of weeks. I will not say that it is immediately intuitive to learn to use, but I had the basic features figured out in just a few minutes time. The only really bothersome aspect of MML that I have found so far is that when you first start it, your location tends to wander a bit for maybe 30 seconds until it gets a good lock on your specific location. A second problem I have noted which will not apply to the field is that it does not work as well indoors.
Both apps work well enough to provide reasonable range estimation to within a few yards if you rely on GPS and are more accurate if you simply plot the points between which you want to know the distance.
