GoHunt Insider worth it?

[JStol5]

I already have GoHunt’s lower membership tier for discounts on gear, and it comes with their mapping. I prefer OnX.

With regards to draw odds, deadlines, stats, and general education about being a more strategic hunter, do you feel like Insider is worth it? I want to be more aggressive/strategic about applying for hunts and navigating the western states’ different intricacies, felt like it may be worth it to pony up for it.

Would love to hear thoughts. Thanks

 

[slimC]

If you have the money to pay for something that is free then yea by all means go for it.

 

[snowymtnwolf]

If you want to know about a bunch of units, bunch of species, and 2 or more states —> YES


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Flyjunky]

For me it comes down to time. Running my own business, kids, etc doesn’t leave as much time as I used to have when I scoured the game depts info. Most all the info I need is quicker to find and sort through with GoHunt.

 

[Mojave]

In most states the state agency has a better system. It is handy for somethings. I renewed this year, but this is probably my last year.

 

[taskswap]

I pay for it and am considering dropping it. It's one of those "glad I had it, don't need it any more" type of things. Three reasons:

1. The odds don't change that drastically year to year so unless you're planning to roam around a lot, it's not exactly a repeated necessity.
2. IMO the "advice" writeups on the various GMUs is very repetitive. I can only imagine how hard it must be to write "yep, there's mountains" in new ways for every zone, but it gets dull reading "hunters who get away from roads will be more successful" over and over.
3. The filters work but only in certain ways. Some things are very easy to do, like seeing what you might be eligible for. That's important for the first use. But for later years I want to do things like decide, as I build points, when to use those points or hold out for zones I might qualify for in a year or two. The filters are clumsy to use to answer questions like that, and now that I'm into a "groove" hunting a familiar 0-pt zone every year while building points for semi-premium hunts from time to time, that's really what I want to answer.

If you roam around a lot or are researching new areas/states it's definitely valuable.

 

[ElkArcher918]

Since I hunt multiple Western states GoHunt is worth it to me. Although I'm well versed in researching each State's draw odds, harvest reports, bull:cow ratios etc., I like the time-saving efficiency and convenience of having that available on a single platform like GH. I still prefer the mapping features of onX over GH, though.

 

[Eldoradotim]

I think if you’re interested in hunting more than your home state than yes it’s worth it.

I agree I prefer OnX, and sometimes Gaia, and sometimes GoHunt Maps (although that was just an unexpected bonus when they added that).

How much do we all spend on hunting? Just look at the gear recommendations on this forum, or the classifieds (haha). The $150 for GoHunt is well worth it to me if I’m going to be applying/hunting in multiple states. In a few short years I’ve already been on hunts/adventures that I never would have if it hadn’t been for GoHunt. Could I have done that w/o GoHunt? Sure, but would I have? No.

 

[Mojave]

Some thoughts for, and some thoughts against. I think I have been a member for about 5 or 6 years. This is my last year.

For:

1. They give away a ton of stuff. Everyone has the same odds. I have never ever won anything. So don't use that as a reason to join. But if I ever one something like a pair of Swarovski EL's or a new Browning rifle, that could change the tide of my support. But again, I have won zero!

2. You give them $150, and they give you $100 back to use in the store if you renew during Christmas season. It used to be $50 back. That is quite a deal. I am one of those gear whores that only buy things on sale. So for me it is a pretty good deal.

3. Their maps are ok, ONX is better. The USGS maps are pretty good (free). To me this is a bonus.

4. Where it really meets the road for me is the amount of data that they compile. Not all of it is golden, but it helps to save a lot of time.

5. They are leaps and bounds ahead of all the other companies doing the same thing.

6. They are a good source for outdoor related news. But to me this is a BS problem. Because that isn't why I am paying them.

7. Their hard goods store is pretty decent, but they are not greatly discounted. I thought that was the point of doing that. They were going to be like Costco for outdoor goods. Do it as a club. So you pay the Costco membership fee $150, but you don't get the deal. This might be a minimum advertised price problem. But if they put their store behind the paywall they could probably allieviate this issue.

8. The gear shop customer service, and membership customer service is really good. Specifically Cody and the chick that does memberships. I even got an email from her on the weekend.

Against:

1. The unit information is always the same old crap. Someone else said above that writing unit reviews for all the units in the US is probably a daunting and boring task.

2. They should do it for more states, there are draw hunts and public land hunting in flyover country and even back east.

3. A lot of their data is directly from the Game and Fish websites. Same crap that they accused Eastmans Journal of doing.

4. They are regularly wrong, on their predictions. If you think it will take 5 points to draw based on their data, know that it will probably take 2-3 more points. They do not do a good job of explaining this. If you look under the unit reviews sections you'll see this is a common problem.

5. While I don't think they calculate data in a bubble, it is important to remember that it is an educated guess. It should never be taken as 100% accurate.

6. They don't have all the data. There will always be hunt codes they don't put up data on. The military hunts in New Mexico, the Mobility Impaired Hunts, some youth hunts. I get that they claim they probably don't have the resources to do that.

7. If they have the resources to make youtube videos, blogs, vlogs, and they even have some chick that regurgitates outdoor news as book reports, and calls it writing. So they could easily deliver a better product.

8. The bro-hunt mentality on go hunts inner working and the fact that they hire all these clueless 20 year olds to do customer service on the gohunt internal software systems is lame. It used to be much worse, or maybe I have not called that much in a long time. As much as I appreciate the customer service from the store and membership services, I despise dealing with them on hunt information. They have always claimed you could call and ask for information about the specific units. When I have done this, it has always been like talking to the plumbing department about my eyeglass needs. Not sure why they even off this.

 

[JStol5]

Some thoughts for, and some thoughts against. I think I have been a member for about 5 or 6 years. This is my last year.

For:

1. They give away a ton of stuff. Everyone has the same odds. I have never ever won anything. So don't use that as a reason to join. But if I ever one something like a pair of Swarovski EL's or a new Browning rifle, that could change the tide of my support. But again, I have won zero!

2. You give them $150, and they give you $100 back to use in the store if you renew during Christmas season. It used to be $50 back. That is quite a deal. I am one of those gear whores that only buy things on sale. So for me it is a pretty good deal.

3. Their maps are ok, ONX is better. The USGS maps are pretty good (free). To me this is a bonus.

4. Where it really meets the road for me is the amount of data that they compile. Not all of it is golden, but it helps to save a lot of time.

5. They are leaps and bounds ahead of all the other companies doing the same thing.

6. They are a good source for outdoor related news. But to me this is a BS problem. Because that isn't why I am paying them.

7. Their hard goods store is pretty decent, but they are not greatly discounted. I thought that was the point of doing that. They were going to be like Costco for outdoor goods. Do it as a club. So you pay the Costco membership fee $150, but you don't get the deal. This might be a minimum advertised price problem. But if they put their store behind the paywall they could probably allieviate this issue.

8. The gear shop customer service, and membership customer service is really good. Specifically Cody and the chick that does memberships. I even got an email from her on the weekend.

Against:

1. The unit information is always the same old crap. Someone else said above that writing unit reviews for all the units in the US is probably a daunting and boring task.

2. They should do it for more states, there are draw hunts and public land hunting in flyover country and even back east.

3. A lot of their data is directly from the Game and Fish websites. Same crap that they accused Eastmans Journal of doing.

4. They are regularly wrong, on their predictions. If you think it will take 5 points to draw based on their data, know that it will probably take 2-3 more points. They do not do a good job of explaining this. If you look under the unit reviews sections you'll see this is a common problem.

5. While I don't think they calculate data in a bubble, it is important to remember that it is an educated guess. It should never be taken as 100% accurate.

6. They don't have all the data. There will always be hunt codes they don't put up data on. The military hunts in New Mexico, the Mobility Impaired Hunts, some youth hunts. I get that they claim they probably don't have the resources to do that.

7. If they have the resources to make youtube videos, blogs, vlogs, and they even have some chick that regurgitates outdoor news as book reports, and calls it writing. So they could easily deliver a better product.

8. The bro-hunt mentality on go hunts inner working and the fact that they hire all these clueless 20 year olds to do customer service on the gohunt internal software systems is lame. It used to be much worse, or maybe I have not called that much in a long time. As much as I appreciate the customer service from the store and membership services, I despise dealing with them on hunt information. They have always claimed you could call and ask for information about the specific units. When I have done this, it has always been like talking to the plumbing department about my eyeglass needs. Not sure why they even off this.

This is super helpful. I'm looking to upgrade for more information and ease of applying for different states and cutting a lot of the time and work out.

 

[taskswap]

By the way, it's worth mentioning that you don't have to get all your "stuff" from one source. It seems obvious to say it but I think it's not always obvious how good some other options can be, especially those not designed for "hunting".

As far as odds and stats go, nothing beats a good filtering tool. But for mapping, I honestly think ALL the "hunt" services fall short. I use caltopo.com for all my hunt and backpacking/scouting planning. It's a service that originally catered to professional outdoors folks like wilderness firefighters, among others, and they have layers and tools the hunt planners just never thought to include. It's really handy being able to cross-compare the USFS and other maps and even overlay them because almost every time I'm out somewhere I find a trail that's totally in the wrong place on nearly all the maps, or even just not there anymore.

They also have layers the other tools don't, like cell coverage, sun exposure, slope-angle shading, etc. And while a few hunt tools are starting to introduce features like "viewshed" analysis, at least IMO CalTopo's are still much more sophisticated. I love being able to plan an off-trail hike and see a terrain analysis with an easy editor to help add a few "ideal glassing spots" or avoid a particularly nasty ravine.

When it comes to the hunting/hiking itself, I use Locus Pro. (AFAIK this is Android only but there are a few competitors on iOS.) This is a fantastic mapping app that gave me offline-topo for all 50 states for much less than a single year of OnX. I can also download other layers if I want to although I use topo the most. YMMV. What I like about it is the stats, especially when I'm exploring a new area. No matter how fit you are, pushing through dense weeds takes time especially if you're trying to be quiet. It's nice to see what actual pace I'm able to maintain in spots I planned out earlier so I know if I need to adjust my plans the next day or two. And unlike OnX and the others, which insist on "owning" your data (exporting is possible but manual, and a pain to do) Locus can automatically dump everything - my tracks, photos, markers, etc. - into Dropbox for me, so I have a history of everywhere I've been.

And finally Google Earth. If you really want to study an area and its terrain, this is still hard to beat if you're doing it on a computer.

I'm not saying any of these is a complete replacement for OnX or GoHunt (or let's not forget BaseMap, Gaia, or any of the others). I just thought it was worth sharing because I know there are some folks looking for other options, and they're definitely out there.

 

[Mojave]

This is super helpful. I'm looking to upgrade for more information and ease of applying for different states and cutting a lot of the time and work out.

In 2016 I was new to this, but grew up hunting in the West as we moved around a lot. So I had some very good ideas, but did not know anything specific.

GoHunt helped me a lot on my journey, and helped me figure out what I needed to know and where to look. There are a ton of videos from a variety of sources on youtube. The volume is kind of mind bogling. Randy Newberg's how to series are as good as anything else, but there are a ton of little guys producing similar content.

If I was Arizona centric there is a guy that does very GoHunt oriented overviews on every elk unit in Arizona. All of this is on youtube.

You have to figure out what works for you.

 

[camelcluch]

Right now it’s not. I can’t get past the sign in page. Stupid wheel of death just spins and laughs in my face.

 

[JjamesIII]

I pay for it and am considering dropping it. It's one of those "glad I had it, don't need it any more" type of things. Three reasons:

1. The odds don't change that drastically year to year so unless you're planning to roam around a lot, it's not exactly a repeated necessity.
2. IMO the "advice" writeups on the various GMUs is very repetitive. I can only imagine how hard it must be to write "yep, there's mountains" in new ways for every zone, but it gets dull reading "hunters who get away from roads will be more successful" over and over.
3. The filters work but only in certain ways. Some things are very easy to do, like seeing what you might be eligible for. That's important for the first use. But for later years I want to do things like decide, as I build points, when to use those points or hold out for zones I might qualify for in a year or two. The filters are clumsy to use to answer questions like that, and now that I'm into a "groove" hunting a familiar 0-pt zone every year while building points for semi-premium hunts from time to time, that's really what I want to answer.

If you roam around a lot or are researching new areas/states it's definitely valuable.

That’s my experience as well, I’m probably going to dip back into the insider premium program every three years, or so. The tight ups on the various units aren’t going to change, and generally seem pretty generic. For total newbs, it holds value.

 

[MallardSX2]

The giveaways are a joke. They give away a couple donated things a month for 25,000 members.

Cheap asses….

 

[TheBootBowhunting]

I got rid of it. In you have OnX elite, you can use toprut and huntin fool for free. I get the basic draw stats, harvest %, etc from one of those 2. I dont feel like im missing out on anything with gohunt with huntin fool or tuprut besides some filtering that Ive learned how to do on my own through state sites. The mapping isnt as good as either of the others I use, OnX or Basemap so I dont see that as having value. The giveaways dont move the needle one way or the other.

The draw odds, are not really odds. They are just what happened in the previous years draw, and dont take point creep or tag reductions, etc into account. I dont even think their "draw odds" are at all predictive, or a guess. I think its simply concrete data %s from the prior year draw.

I just couldnt justify keeping it after using HF and Toprut as part of OnX elite. If I didnt have those 2, I might still have gohunt.

 

[InkedElkSlayer]

Some thoughts for, and some thoughts against. I think I have been a member for about 5 or 6 years. This is my last year.

For:

1. They give away a ton of stuff. Everyone has the same odds. I have never ever won anything. So don't use that as a reason to join. But if I ever one something like a pair of Swarovski EL's or a new Browning rifle, that could change the tide of my support. But again, I have won zero!

2. You give them $150, and they give you $100 back to use in the store if you renew during Christmas season. It used to be $50 back. That is quite a deal. I am one of those gear whores that only buy things on sale. So for me it is a pretty good deal.

3. Their maps are ok, ONX is better. The USGS maps are pretty good (free). To me this is a bonus.

4. Where it really meets the road for me is the amount of data that they compile. Not all of it is golden, but it helps to save a lot of time.

5. They are leaps and bounds ahead of all the other companies doing the same thing.

6. They are a good source for outdoor related news. But to me this is a BS problem. Because that isn't why I am paying them.

7. Their hard goods store is pretty decent, but they are not greatly discounted. I thought that was the point of doing that. They were going to be like Costco for outdoor goods. Do it as a club. So you pay the Costco membership fee $150, but you don't get the deal. This might be a minimum advertised price problem. But if they put their store behind the paywall they could probably allieviate this issue.

8. The gear shop customer service, and membership customer service is really good. Specifically Cody and the chick that does memberships. I even got an email from her on the weekend.

Against:

1. The unit information is always the same old crap. Someone else said above that writing unit reviews for all the units in the US is probably a daunting and boring task.

2. They should do it for more states, there are draw hunts and public land hunting in flyover country and even back east.

3. A lot of their data is directly from the Game and Fish websites. Same crap that they accused Eastmans Journal of doing.

4. They are regularly wrong, on their predictions. If you think it will take 5 points to draw based on their data, know that it will probably take 2-3 more points. They do not do a good job of explaining this. If you look under the unit reviews sections you'll see this is a common problem.

5. While I don't think they calculate data in a bubble, it is important to remember that it is an educated guess. It should never be taken as 100% accurate.

6. They don't have all the data. There will always be hunt codes they don't put up data on. The military hunts in New Mexico, the Mobility Impaired Hunts, some youth hunts. I get that they claim they probably don't have the resources to do that.

7. If they have the resources to make youtube videos, blogs, vlogs, and they even have some chick that regurgitates outdoor news as book reports, and calls it writing. So they could easily deliver a better product.

8. The bro-hunt mentality on go hunts inner working and the fact that they hire all these clueless 20 year olds to do customer service on the gohunt internal software systems is lame. It used to be much worse, or maybe I have not called that much in a long time. As much as I appreciate the customer service from the store and membership services, I despise dealing with them on hunt information. They have always claimed you could call and ask for information about the specific units. When I have done this, it has always been like talking to the plumbing department about my eyeglass needs. Not sure why they even off this.

Great post and explanations.

OP- I did 1 year. Actually split it with a friend… yeah I know. For the cost of Go Hunt, you could most likely put yourself in for an additional state. If you have kids, you could put them in for several states for the membership cost. I personally don’t think it’s worth it.
Garbage in, garbage out. Take my home state of Montana. I don’t believe MTFWP even knows how many nonresident elk/deer licenses they sell. How does Go Hunt know? Let’s say for arguments sake they actually know how many licenses were sold in 2022... It is a FACT that MTFWP doesn’t know +/- 10,000 how many elk are killed in a year and they have absolutely NO idea how many hunter days it took to kill them. Without mandatory hunter survey data, their “data” is absolute shit. They’ve used the same contractor random phone calling algorithm for decades. They have no idea of harvest statistics. None. Montana is most likely the worst state for harvest related data. Draw statistics on Go Hunt for MT may be okay, but the unit info, descriptions and harvest data is shit.
How about Nevada? Harvest data, etc. from NDOW is the best. Polar opposite as Montucky. But how does Go Hunt calculate the draw odds of 5 choices? What if I don’t follow the YouTube heroes recommendation? What if I apply for the unit with the best odds in my first choice and not my fifth? All they can really show is who actually drew AFTER the drawing, then run their statistics inversely. It’s impossible to predict the odds of 5 choices in order of increasing probability, by bonus points, and come up with a probability of drawing. They can only show the statistics of who drew after the fact.
Basically these guys have figured out a way to make a living talking about hunting. And guys like us are funding them. Put your kids in for the states with awesome youth opportunities with your $150.

 

[JStol5]

Great post and explanations.

OP- I did 1 year. Actually split it with a friend… yeah I know. For the cost of Go Hunt, you could most likely put yourself in for an additional state. If you have kids, you could put them in for several states for the membership cost. I personally don’t think it’s worth it.
Garbage in, garbage out. Take my home state of Montana. I don’t believe MTFWP even knows how many nonresident elk/deer licenses they sell. How does Go Hunt know? Let’s say for arguments sake they actually know how many licenses were sold in 2022... It is a FACT that MTFWP doesn’t know +/- 10,000 how many elk are killed in a year and they have absolutely NO idea how many hunter days it took to kill them. Without mandatory hunter survey data, their “data” is absolute shit. They’ve used the same contractor random phone calling algorithm for decades. They have no idea of harvest statistics. None. Montana is most likely the worst state for harvest related data. Draw statistics on Go Hunt for MT may be okay, but the unit info, descriptions and harvest data is shit.
How about Nevada? Harvest data, etc. from NDOW is the best. Polar opposite as Montucky. But how does Go Hunt calculate the draw odds of 5 choices? What if I don’t follow the YouTube heroes recommendation? What if I apply for the unit with the best odds in my first choice and not my fifth? All they can really show is who actually drew AFTER the drawing, then run their statistics inversely. It’s impossible to predict the odds of 5 choices in order of increasing probability, by bonus points, and come up with a probability of drawing. They can only show the statistics of who drew after the fact.
Basically these guys have figured out a way to make a living talking about hunting. And guys like us are funding them. Put your kids in for the states with awesome youth opportunities with your $150.

I don’t have kids (at least none that I know of)

 

[azdiyhunts]

Anyone having trouble with the gohunt maps in the last couple of days?
Can't get anything to work....hunt units, private land, etc. Takes forever to load.

 

[taskswap]

Anyone having trouble with the gohunt maps in the last couple of days?
Can't get anything to work....hunt units, private land, etc. Takes forever to load.

Yes, they're having issues. Looks like a developer there made a mistake, it happens. I'm sure they'll sort it out in the next day or two.