How to Use the onX Hunt App for Nebraska Hunting

If you hunt Nebraska and you are not using a mapping app like onX Hunt, you are operating with one hand tied behind your back. In a state with over 250 WMAs, hundreds of OFWP parcels, national forests, grasslands, and a patchwork of private land, knowing exactly where you can and cannot hunt is the difference between a productive day and a trespassing citation. Here is how to get the most out of onX for Nebraska hunting.

Finding Public Land Boundaries

Nebraska's public hunting land is scattered across the state in hundreds of individual parcels, and the boundaries are not always obvious on the ground. A WMA might border a private ranch with no fence or sign marking the transition. That is where onX earns its keep.

onX shows public land boundaries in color-coded overlays. State WMAs appear in one color, national forests in another, OFWP parcels in another. You can see at a glance exactly where public land begins and ends, even when you are standing in the middle of it.

This is especially valuable in the Sandhills, where WMAs and private ranches blend together across miles of rolling grassland with no roads or fences to mark boundaries. A quick check of your onX app confirms you are on the right side of the line.

WMA Locations and Details

Nebraska Game and Parks manages WMAs across the state, and onX lists them all with boundary lines. You can search for WMAs by name or browse them on the map. Many WMA pins include acreage, access points, and habitat descriptions.

Pro tip: Use the satellite imagery layer on onX to evaluate WMA habitat before you visit. You can see timber structure, CRP grass, crop field edges, water sources, and access roads from your couch. A 20-minute session studying aerial imagery of a WMA you have never visited tells you more than driving through it for the first time.

Identifying Property Lines

Knowing who owns the land around you matters in Nebraska. If you are hunting a public WMA and deer are moving onto adjacent private ground, onX shows you the landowner name and address for that parcel. This information is invaluable for knocking on doors and requesting permission.

The property line overlay also prevents accidental trespass. When you are tracking a blood trail on a wounded deer and approaching the edge of public land, a quick check of onX tells you if the next hillside is still public or if you need to make a phone call before crossing the fence.

Offline Maps for Remote Areas

Large portions of Nebraska — particularly the Sandhills, Pine Ridge, and the western Panhandle — have limited or zero cell service. If you are hunting McKelvie National Forest or the Valentine NWR and relying on cell data for your map, you will have a blank screen when you need it most.

Download offline maps before you leave home. onX allows you to save map tiles for offline use, so your GPS position, property boundaries, and public land overlays all function without cell service. Download a generous area — not just the WMA you plan to hunt, but the surrounding counties as well, in case your plans change in the field.

Planning Hunts with Layers

onX offers multiple map layers that help with hunt planning.

Topo maps show elevation contours, ridgelines, saddles, and creek drainages — all critical terrain features for deer stand placement. Find the saddles and inside corners on the topo layer, then switch to satellite to see the actual cover and ground conditions.

Historical weather data and wind forecasts integrated into some mapping apps help you plan stand selection based on predicted wind direction. Match your stand to the wind before you leave the truck.

Waypoints and tracks let you mark stand locations, trail camera sites, scrape lines, and game trails. Over time, building a database of waypoints on your hunting properties creates a detailed digital map of how deer use the land.

The OFWP Layer

Nebraska's Open Fields and Waters Program enrolls private land for public hunting access, and these parcels are displayed on onX. OFWP land is often overlooked by hunters who stick to the well-known WMAs, which means it can receive significantly less pressure.

Filter the map to show only OFWP parcels and look for properties near your hunting area. Many OFWP parcels are working farms and ranches with excellent habitat — CRP fields, timbered creek bottoms, and grain stubble — that see very few hunters. This is where onX pays for itself many times over.

Technology does not replace woodsmanship, but it multiplies your efficiency. Use the tools available, study the maps, and go into the field with a plan.