Hunting and technology?

[mrduxs]

I'm sitting here waiting to talk to a Spypoint rep to help trouble shot my cell link. It got me to thinking 🤔.

How has technology made you a better, more effective hunter?

This should be a good conversation today

[RUNNING BEAR]

I hunt longer. I’m not as bored.

[Landrover]

It fills in a few blanks but it comes down to releasing that arrow.[emoji95][emoji1018][emoji95]

Sent from my SM-N986U using Tapatalk

[WItoTX]

Technology:

OnX and Google Earth for scouting Colorado/Idaho/Montana. I generally know what I am getting into terrain and groundcover-wise, before I get there.
Rangefinder. Knowing exactly how far your shot is really is a crazy thing to think about just 20 years ago.
Jetboil. Water boiling in just 2 or 3 minutes, and warm coffee shortly after.
LED lights. For inside my camper shell when I am truck camping.

If I really think about it, most of the stuff I have is based on engineering done in the last 10 years or so.

[AntlerCollector]

Spypoint is garbage first off.


I love hunting. I don’t like sitting all day and not seeing deer. I don’t like frozen toes and fingers. Having said that, I have sat in a tree many times in freezing temps and even icy rains.

I will take a blind with plexiglass windows, a little buddy heater, a 1,000 lb stand and fill feeder, and cell cameras all day. I’ve learned to hunt smarter with all the technology that has developed over the years. I know about when the deer will be there and plan my hunts accordingly vs sitting for hours on end with no idea if I will see a deer or not. I also don’t miss the coffee can with a roll of toilet paper and rubbing alcohol in it for a heater.

[GarGuy]

Trail cameras specifically have done more for hunting in East tx than everything else combined. I remember very well sitting a scrape 40 years ago. A fat 6pt shows up and I blast him. Of course that was his scrape so he was the deer I was after. We rigged up an old outdoor camera on a scrape (pre trail cam) and were stunned to see 7 different bucks in 24 hours.

Now hunters can pass young bucks with full understanding that there are larger and mature deer there.

Next was attitude that if I dont kill him, someone else will. Now we get pics year after year of the same bucks and develop a much better understanding of age.

I could go on for pages on this one.

[Ætheling]

It can take the mystery out of it but like GarGuy says it is an effective management tool. Nothing to me though is better than going in blind thrill wise which happens if a camera fails or a buck shows up that was never on camera before.

My primary use for my Spartan is patterning hogs in real time. I can go down to the stand right before dark knowing in 15 minutes a sounder will arrive. That is a pretty cool thing to have. It also allows me to be a great guide to young family members that dont have much patience and I want to get them into the sport.

[Pedernal]

I will go a different route and add this which might not be so obvious: hunting forums such as the great GS have made knowledgeable hunters available to a lot of us not so seasoned hunters. Critical information/knowledge is passed on and the smart but inexperienced can quickly learn a lot. A big thank you goes out to all those great hunters sharing your knowledge.

[Man]

The only thing I use that I didn't use 20 years ago are the cell cams, a cell phone and an LED flashlight instead of incandescent with regards to actually hunting.

The best thing game cams ever did was finally put bigfoot to rest.

[Aggies96]

Cellular game cams for sure. Especially for hog hunting. Instead of having to sit at a feeder for 3-4 hours after dark I can be getting some stuff done, get the text the hogs are out, and have 1 or 2 on the ground in 5 mins. I was using game cams early on with the bright white light flash. Amazing how we've progressed to no glow infrared now.

I agree with Man as well on the lighting improvements with leds - especially with feeder lights (again for hog hunting). Pretty nice to have a light that will shine 1/4 mile without 8 D batteries in your back pack as well.

[tdwinklr]

To me, some technology was needed, other technology is too much.
I used to be a stickler on NO technology (no cell phones, no feeders, no game cams, no ATVs, etc. etc.) and I still carry some of that but now I have a cell phone(in case I'm alone and get hurt somehow), I have one feeder so far(new property to attract wildlife from neighboring areas and possibly hold traveling animals), 2 game cams(again, new property to help with patterning although with a smaller tract I had a decent idea anyway, other than night time). Otherwise, I'll walk in from the road and not ride in on 4-wheelers, trucks or whatnot, which disturbs/alerts everything in the immediate area.
Too much technology is going to remove much of the work/pleasure I get out of setting up, scouting, hunting, stalking, etc. so I'll likely stick with where I'm at.

[Deerguy]

has technology made you a better, more effective hunter?

Two different questions. Technology most definitely has made hunters more 'successful', but, without really knowing how to 'hunt'. Most hunters would be lost without a blind, a device to tell them where they are and where they've been, a camera to tell them what they're looking for, a feeder, and enough corn to feed a third world country. Even scouting these days just means figuring out where to place the feeder so that the sun isn't in your eyes. So, I'd say technology has made hunters more effective, but not necessarily 'better'.

[Casey]

I'm curious what is going on with your cell link.

[U.S.ArmyRetired]

I use trail cameras and feeders. Not the fancy cameras that shoot pics to my phone or computer. I see animals on my cameras that I never see hunting. Also, a deer might walk out that you would never have seen on camera. Maybe he's just passing through and you were in the right place at the right time. I believe cameras are good for people that have large acreage and have lots of deer and the deer are consistent about coming in to a certain spot. But for a guy that has 10-50 acres and surrounded by deer leases and neighbors, those cameras probably ain't doing much except showing you what was there in the past.

I enjoy sitting out there and being surprised by what if anything walks out. Like when I was a kid.

[WRasco]

Technology:

OnX and Google Earth for scouting Colorado/Idaho/Montana. I generally know what I am getting into terrain and groundcover-wise, before I get there.
Rangefinder. Knowing exactly how far your shot is really is a crazy thing to think about just 20 years ago.
Jetboil. Water boiling in just 2 or 3 minutes, and warm coffee shortly after.
LED lights. For inside my camper shell when I am truck camping.

If I really think about it, most of the stuff I have is based on engineering done in the last 10 years or so.

All of the above are a plus for hunting today.
I would add new fabrics for hunting Pants, Shirts & Jackets. I realized I waited to long to buy new after the fist cold day in a tree wearing new camo. Unreal difference.