If the 1.4 million acres of Pennsylvania state game lands have been a mystery for you, it's time to join the 21st century.
With fewer and fewer private lands being made available to hunters and trappers, the Pennsylvania Game Commission has teamed up with Gogal Publishing owner Michael Gogal of Warrington, Bucks County to provide the latest and greatest of outdoorsmen and outdoorswomen with a new mobile phone application.
The "app" sells for $9.99 and is currently available for iPhone and iPad products, with a second version expected to be available soon for the Android platform.
"The app offers turn-by-turn directions to all of the parking lots for all of the game lands within the state," said Gogal, who is also the publisher of the highly popular Ultimate Fishing Maps GPS Fishing Guide Pennsylvania for Garmin units.
The state game lands app is the official game lands map for the Pennsylvania Game Commission and can be found on the App store under "PA State Game Lands."
"Using a smartphone or tablet's built-in navigation features, this new app provides turn-by-turn directions to parking lots, shooting ranges and check stations and includes details on 2012-13 seasons and regulations for the destinations you select," said Carl G. Roe, the PGC executive director.
The mobile app demystifies the often unfamiliar terrain of state game lands for the first-time and frequent visitor.
"So far, so good," Gogal said of the app. "I'm already working on updates. This is going to be a revolutionary process. There is so much more information that can go into it based on how I initially designed it. The basic design is on the market now, and it's nice."
Like the Ultimate Fishing Maps software, the app can tell you the closest state game lands to your present location, as well as turn-by-turn direction to all the parking lots. Once there, it can tell you the seasons and bag limits for that particular area, whether or not it is part of a second Wildlife Management Unit, and if it is, advise of the borders.
It also tells you which goose hunting and duck hunting zone you're in, whether you're in an extended bear season area, what the antlerless or antlered deer season is in that area, and a variety of other useful information that sometimes confounds hunters and trappers when going through the Pennsylvania Hunting & Trapping Digest.
"It's primarily designed as a navigation tool, just like the fishing app," Gogal said. "It tells you the hours of hunting, as well as the offset for the area you're in; if you're in the elk hunting area, which one you're in, as well as elk check stations and bear check stations.
Pennsylvania's hunting seasons are defined by several geographical borders, and game seasons, like antlerless deer and turkey, start earlier and last longer in certain areas. The app will give you the proper game availability for wherever you are, particularly in split-season deer hunting areas.
The menu also allows you to search for SGLs by number and WMU, as well as distance order. You can also enter a city name to find which of the SGLs are closest to that location.
One of the coolest features is the "Report Your Harvest" area, where you can access the game commission's online reporting system for your harvest, or automatically dial the automated phone line to report it.
You can also find the shooting ranges on the state game lands, the closest parking areas to them, and the regulations as to whether or not rifles, pistols or shotguns are allowed, and the distances for the targets.
An added bonus is that the main PGC headquarters and all the regional offices are listed so that you can find the offices closest to you.
Currently, you drop a pin on your location in the app, and then use your device's main map function to figure out your best route on the ground back to your vehicle.
"Also, by using the internal map function, each destination can be viewed on a roadmap, with satellite imagery or in a hybrid view allowing you to identify the key features of the local area," Roe said.
"There's a bunch of stuff in there, and a bunch of stuff coming," said Gogal, who hopes to have an update to the app sometime this month . "This is going to continually evolve and improve."
610-820-6782
