There are no free lunches, but there are free hunting apps. The nation’s number-one hunting app, HuntStand, offers a free version for hunters and land managers alike. You have access to high resolution satellite imagery, detailed weather forecasts, and the ability to customize maps with map icons. In addition, you can even mark trail cameras with the capability to tag photos, along with adding climatic data to those images. With HuntStand you can receive a free hunting app that will advance your outdoor efforts, but is it time to get a HuntStand upgrade?
Let me explain. Like all free lunches, you typically see something else on the menu enticing you to consider an entrée upgrade. For HuntStand, the free version only sparks more interest to a pair of powerful upgrades: To HuntStand Pro ($29.99/year), and the even more-powerful new HuntStand Pro Whitetail ($69.99/year).
HuntStand upgrades offer plenty of unique features you won't find anywhere else, at a fraction of the cost of premium tiers found in other hunting apps.
If the free lunch serves you right, stick with it. However, if your taste for even more of a good thing spurs your interest, consider Pro or the even more-whitetail-focused Pro Whitetail. Both represent sound investments in your hunting future. Here are five ways you will benefit from upgrading.
More Mapping Power
Yes, HuntStand is all about maps created from both satellite imagery and the power of overlays. Those helpful overlays highlight everything from topographical information to tree cover. Sixteen map overlays give you the ability to decipher, find and mark any hunting discovery you could imagine. One of the most-interesting overlays is the HuntStand 3D Mapping (see screen image above). It includes a view of your Hunt Area illustrated by the terrain you can expect to tackle. 3D mapping, like the additional overlays offered in the upgrades, helps you truly “see” your hunting property without being on site, for optimal hunt planning.
Upgrade to Pro Whitetail: Get The Whitetail Activity Forecast & More!
A mapping bonus you receive with the new Pro Whitetail upgrade is Monthly Satellite imagery. Many systems use satellite imagery that might be updated every two years, or even longer. HuntStand Pro Whitetail offers images that are updated monthly. This is critical to understanding the day-to-day changes occurring on the landscape. This layer is provided at a lower resolution, but with ample clarity to see agricultural changes, timber management, wildfire damage and snow cover.
Also with Pro Whitetail, you get Whitetail Habitat maps that show the quality of whitetail habitat in areas you might be interested in hunting. Pro Whitetail also gives you access to a valuable Crop History layer (see image above) that offers valuable info on local food sources. In addition, there’s a new, finely detailed National Aerial Imagery layer to help you drill down even further into properties to find isolated funnels and stand sites.
With HuntStand upgrades you can create valuable offline maps that are nothing less than game-changers. When you don't have service, these maps will keep you hunting and navigating—safely—in the most-remote backcountry.
Finally, you will not have cellular coverage everywhere. HuntStand upgrades provide a built-in platform to download offline maps right to your phone. Offline maps are a game-changer. These maps will keep you going even when tech fails you in the outback. Simply download your map with service, and the map stays with you throughout your adventure. A great feature to consider an upgrade.
A Better Property Atlas
Nobody needs to tell you and me that it is becoming more difficult to acquire hunting property. Hunting leases, private wildlife management and unfriendly proprietors of wildlife habitat have you looking harder than ever for a place to hunt. An upgrade to HuntStand Pro or Pro Whitetail can help. When you make the leap, you automatically receive access to nationwide Property data and advanced property search. It’s like owning an up-to-date Plat Book for every county in every state. Huge!
First, detailed property boundaries are shown for the U.S. and much of Canada. That serves those of you jumping borders for Canada’s wealth of hunting opportunity. In the U.S. you receive even more-detailed mapping information. This includes the owner’s name displayed right on your map. Tap the screen and the contact details flash in front of you, aiding in your search to track down a landowner. This feature helps you when trying to find the true owner—not a property manager. And you can quickly find all properties the landowner might own. Use it to acquire access, negotiate a lease, or even purchase a property.
For the public-land hunter, the upgrades illustrate public-land boundaries, ownership and allowable uses. Not all public lands offer hunting access and some areas—such as large camping properties—may allow it. HuntStand Pro and Pro Whitetail provide those details to keep you on the hunt, and in a legal manner. More good reasons to jump into an upgrade.
Manage Your Scouting, Hunting
Trail cameras can be a blessing and a curse. The curse arises from management and trying to keep your images organized to boost your hunting success. HuntStand upgrades provide an accentuated platform to aid you in making your trail camera images a more resourceful tool in your hunting playbook.
The added trail camera image features in the HuntStand upgrades provide management of images to help boost your hunting success.
HuntStand upgrades offer you 40 GB storage space for your images. As images and HuntStand come together, weather and solunar information sync together to give you a broader perspective on when to hunt an area. And like magic, HuntStand AI scans images and recognizes repeat locations and even identifies the species in the image—although a Bigfoot may slip by. In addition, that same AI creates a heat map that highlights the trail camera activity at each location to literally reveal a hotspot. A little help from HuntStand upgrades goes a long way in the management of your trail camera army.
The handy Stand Reservation feature in HuntStand upgrades allows you and your friends to effectively manage stand and blind use on your hunting property.
HuntStand upgrades also aid you and your hunting partners in stand management. You say you hunt a property with friends and family? Have a multi-person hunting lease, or operate a hunting club? HuntStand upgrades give you stand management capabilities, so everyone has a place to hunt. This feature lets you
reserve a stand for a specific slot. You will never again arrive at a stand to find Uncle Fred already napping. You can view upcoming calendar reservations to see who is hunting where, and what slots are open. Search specifically for dates and times with the system, to see who is hunting currently. And obviously, you can reserve a time when you are free. Management saves time and increases success. HuntStand upgrades are there to help.
Handheld Weather Channel
Having game roaming your hunt area is imperative to success. However, understanding how weather affects game and your hunting strategy lets you become an amateur meteorologist. HuntStand upgrades exceed the weather you receive on the free version. You’ll get an array of weather overlays capable of allowing you to co-anchor any weather broadcast.
When a weather event rolls into your hunt area the radar overlay (see screen image above) gives you a look at the current situation. So you can plan to dodge a rainstorm, or get out the sunscreen later. Precipitation and snow accumulation features illustrate what to expect for accumulating moisture. That gives you clues on whether to stow raingear, or even consider postponing a hunt due to a major winter weather event. The temperature overlay illuminates the temperature now and in the future.
HuntStand upgrades provide numerous weather layers to help you read the forecast. Kayser ducked under cover and donned raingear after reviewing extreme weather radar info on HuntStand Pro.
HuntStand weather overlays even exceed expectations by showing current wildfires. In addition, you’ll learn fire outlooks in a hunt area, and a drought monitor. Combine all these overlays with the innovative HuntZone feature that shows windspeed and scent dispersion for a very specific locale. And it comes in
Upgrade to Pro Whitetail: Get The Rut Map & More!
an easily read graphic. LandZone provides a similar graphic to show you wind, and how it could affect your waterfowl hunt or decoy setup. Both are free, but when you add in the HuntStand upgrade overlays, you own the weather.
More Exclusive Features
The ground-breaking Whitetail Activity Forecast and Whitetail Rut Map found in the HuntStand Pro Whitetail upgrade offer dedicated whitetailers detailed info for their specific Hunt Areas. This scientific site-specific info has never before been available.
Over the years HuntStand has become known for its innovative features, and now there are more that you can’t find anywhere else. As a dedicated whitetail hunter I’ve been especially impressed with the new Whitetail Activity Forecast and Whitetail Rut Map, two new features in the HuntStand Pro Whitetail upgrade. What makes these unique tools especially helpful is that they offer site-specific information.
They let you know what is going on right now not only in your specific state, but in your specific county. It can get even more specific than that, right down to your specific Hunt Area. That’s incredibly useful info to help you pick the best times to be afield, and it’s all backed by the latest scientific research. Ground-breaking stuff.
Using his HuntStand upgrade, Kayser was able to use numerous features to plan the perfect ambush on this Midwest buck. Are you ready to experience the power of a HuntStand upgrade?
HuntStand and its two upgrades, HuntStand Pro and HuntStand Pro Whitetail, offer you a world of information to help you succeed in the already trying sport of hunting. Consider an upgrade if you want a bigger world of benefit. My take? Both are feature-packed, economical choices that offer an incredible bang for your hard-earned bucks. And that’s especially helpful in today’s inflationary landscape.
