Filed under: iPhone, App Store, iPod touch
Hunting down 10 iPhone apps for the outdoorsman
At least here in Colorado, the big game hunting season is mostly over for another year, except for a few late-season licenses. While many hunters may be nursing deer camp hangovers, maintaining their firearms, or telling yarns about the ones that got away, those who own an iPhone or iPod touch can still be blasting away at Bambi. There are a huge number of hunting-related apps in the App Store, ranging from various deer and duck hunting simulations to duck and deer calls. Let's take a look at a ten-pack of apps:
Go out and blast at virtual deer, elk, caribou, grizzly bears, and black bears with 3D Hunting Trophy Whitetail [US$0.99, iTunes Link]. Four weapon types (Lever-Action Rifle, Bolt-Action Rifle, Scoped Bolt-Action Rifle, or Bow & Arrow) are available for your shooting enjoyment, and you get to use calls and scents to attract your prey.
If you aren't the best outdoorsman/woman in the group, it's easy to get lost and not be able to find your favorite hunting spot. Equipped with an iPhone 3G or 3GS and the "Where's my tree stand?" app [US$0.99, iTunes Link], you'll no longer need to embarrass or possibly harm yourself. Using GPS (not the cell tower triangulation possible with earlier models of iPhone), you mark your initial position at your camp or tree stand, then use the app later to get back to your base.
So taking potshots at deer and elk isn't exciting enough for you? How about using a grenade launcher to go after grizzly bears? If that hits your main nerve,3D Hunting Grizzly! Assault [US$0.99, iTunes Link] might be right up your alley. Not meant for PETA or Greenpeace members, this game also lets you shoot birds from trees and cut down trees with your chainsaw or rocket fire.
Have you ever spent a few hours at the local bar tossing down beers and shots, and playing Big Buck Hunter Pro? It's now available in an iPhone / iPod touch version [US$2.99, iTunes Link]. When the hunting becomes a little intense, you can switch over to Frog Flippin', Duck Hunt, or Gopher Garden for some fun relief from the pressure.
Hunters "score" their deer or elk trophies by points based on the antlers or "rack" of the male of the species. ShRACK [US$0.99, iTunes Link] gives you a little field fun by letting you calculate the unofficial score for your deer or elk. Your data entry is punctuated with the bleat of doe deers and the grunting of bucks, so it may be hard to keep a straight face while entering measurements.
When you're in the field, it's nice to have an inkling of when wildlife will be active and on the move. TimeToHunt Pro [US$1.99, iTunes Link] is designed to take your current location and factor in other considerations such as the phase and location of the moon to determine wildlife activity.
When a winged target makes more sense to you than a hoofed one, consider one of the fowl hunting apps in the App Store. To start with, you could try Duck Hunting [US$0.99, iTunes Link]. You need to shoot as many ducks as possible in 45 seconds to gain 250 or more points and pass to the next level, making sure you don't accidentally plug a couple of doves and lose points in the process.
Those turkeys gobbling around might be easy prey with the free Turkey Hunt [iTunes Link]. Despite the tens of thousands of low ratings, it's free, so it's definitely worth your effort to download. You can always delete it later if it turns out to be a turkey.
I have to wonder about the next couple of apps -- they're used to send out calls to attract prey. Knowing how weak and low the iPhone speaker is, you're definitely going to need to bring along a battery-powered speaker to blast out the calls -- the iPhone isn't going to have much range on its own. The first app is Duck Hunting Calls [US$1.99, iTunes Link], which provides seven different calls ranging from a "Lonesome Hen" to a "Pleading Call."
The next, and final of our ten hunting apps is Quik Hunting Calls [US$1.99, iTunes Link]. It plays more than 35 different hunting calls and animal sounds, including deer, turkey, ducks, geese, elk, moose, bobcast, raccoons, foxes, and wolves. Once again, it will be very helpful to attach your iPhone or iPod touch to an external speaker if you expect to attract any animals further than 10 feet away.
While I never hunt for any game more elusive than the TV remote, it looks like real outdoorsmen and women have a cornucopia of hunting-related apps to choose from. Be sure to leave us your comments on your favorite hunting or fishing related apps.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mike said 6:31PM on 11-01-2009
I was searching for some sportsman / hiking apps the other day. I wanted to be able to have maps of public hunting areas to make sure I don't stray into non-hunting areas.
I found TopoPointUSA is referenced a lot, but I haven't yet decided to spend $10 on that. Gaia GPS was less, and while its UI sucks, it seems to have good maps, and the public hunting area I was looking for is well marked.
Both have offline maps, which is a given if you plan on using something out in the wilderness.
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Mike said 6:36PM on 11-01-2009
I forgot to mention, this article was really useful. Thanks.
Steven Sande said 6:44PM on 11-01-2009
Thanks for the tip, Mike!
That sounds like a perfect app for those of us who need to get topo maps on occasion. I'll be checking it out soon.
TUAWSteve
bill said 11:01AM on 11-03-2009
thanks for the article showing apps for the 'other demographic' of Apple user. In addition there are great rifle companion apps if you just search under "ballistics" in the app store.
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Steven Sande said 6:45PM on 11-01-2009
And another good tip! I'll have to see what's out there; I'm always looking for anything I can use as an excuse to buy more apps.
Cheers,
TUAWSteve
TheBigKlosowski said 6:37PM on 11-01-2009
Great to see some app reviews outside the normal "techie" stuff. Good to know that you guys all get outside sometimes!
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Mike said 6:50PM on 11-01-2009
I just noticed, Where's My Tree Stand uses the built-in maps.... That will really suck unless you're hunting those urban whitetails....
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e:leaf said 6:56PM on 11-01-2009
iSnipe is a very good ballistics app. Easy and reasonably accurate.
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roblathan said 7:46PM on 11-01-2009
I noticed that most of these apps are not free. I have lots of apps on my iphone but have only paid for NeuroMobile and a few others. I think we will see a trend of more developers charging for their products. We will even see the prices of paid apps increase. Otherwise there may not be an incentive for developers to continue to develop such cool apps.
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Munk Rock said 9:33PM on 11-01-2009
I would like to advise users of a great outdoors tool, for specifically fishing, i use this app and would like to see many others use it as it is now only beneficial to the users, its also beneficial to the community. Angler Social is the name of the app and it is the best fishing tool for the iphone. www.AnglerSocial.com and the link is on the right. Check it out and spread the word.
jerry
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Juan said 9:12PM on 11-03-2009
I can't buy all of them so wich one is the best?
i don't use to do it as a sport, but i want just for fun a game for that, i remember one game (java) that i use to play before my iPhone, and i'd like to play something similar (or better).
thanks!!
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DRUN said 8:29AM on 11-02-2009
Great article. As far as most state laws go the last set of apps---electric calls are illegal---to use. Unless you are hunting non-game animals or predators (coyotes) I would only use these as reference for teaching yourself the basics of making the sounds with legal methods. TUAW editors might want to edit this article...making note that potential hunters might want to check their state's rules before using such an application.
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michae1 said 10:37AM on 11-02-2009
I can't believe this article doesn't mention DeerHunter. In my experience this app blows away (pun intended) 3D Hunting. I'm not even a hunter, but the graphics and gamestyle have made DeerHunter one of my top three iPhone games. I haven't played 3D Hunting since I got it.
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starq said 11:29AM on 11-02-2009
I wish someone develop PETA HUNTER.
You stalk them in their organic vegetable gardens and have the option of a kill or capture. Captured PETA members can be forced into slavery and given various jobs such as, butchering cattle, making fur coats and cleaning cabin latrines.
In game level paks unlock Greenpeace terroiats that attempt to influence the games outcome by any means neccasary but are quickly dispatched with agressive firepower.
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Hank said 8:54PM on 11-09-2009
From what I can tell, the #1 hunting app in the sports category is the Speak the Language by Primos. You don't talk about it here. My friend uses it to annoy his wife and entertain his two girls -- it has something like 20 interactive hunting calls on it. You shake the shaker calls, blow the blow calls, scratch the slate calls, etc. It's a pretty cool use of the iphone (or itouch I guess) - you can't do it on any other phone out there.
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