After a night out at the Bradley Hut, we headed over to Relay Peak on the east side of the lake to check out an area we hadn't been up to yet.
What is Quiver Hunting App?
Quiver Hunting App is a mobile app I built for the whitetail fanatics. It's a weather and tracking tool all combined into one easy to use app. I started this because I wanted to combine my product experience with my passion for hunting and fishing. I know these users extremely well, and I felt there was an opportunity to build a better mobile app for hunters.
Think Strava or Map My Run but for hunting. It's a tool that allows hunters to easily track their time in the woods while also providing real time weather data within the app. This combination of data allows hunters to track their season and better understand deer movement where they hunt.
Above are the home screens of the app where the user can add their various hunting locations and monitor the weather for those given areas.
For those not too familiar with whitetail hunting, it's typically a stationary form of hunting where hunters are perched up in a treestand. A lot of the time is spent patiently sitting trying to intercept deer moving throughout the day - typically from bedding to feeding. Most successful hunters I know are already documenting their hunts by either keeping an actual journal or typing notes on their phone, documenting the type of weather, what they're seeing and when deer are moving. A simple mobile app to track all of this becomes a powerful tool for the hardcore whitetail hunter.
Here are the core screens where a user can start to document their hunt. From the main timeline view, the user can add various activities to keep track of their hunt.
On top of that, weather patterns play a big role in triggering deer activity. The changing conditions, wind direction, barometric pressure and moon phase are all part of the the mystery of deer movement. Combining what users are recording in the app and known weather events, we can start to look at and analyze what types of these events trigger peak deer movement. We publish all our analysis on the Quiver Blog.
Not so far away after all
As a kid growing up in Wisconsin, I distinctly remember watching my Dad and his buddies packing up the motorhome to head west and hunt elk in the mountains. Seeing them take off year after year made me dream of taking that same trip at some point in my life. Over 20 years would pass before I got my first chance to head into the mountains and chase my own elk.
I grew up learning to bow hunt in Wisconsin over small plowed fields and in the timber waiting for whitetails to make their way past my tree stand. With this style of hunting, success is a result of the hard work put into the off-season, managing the land, scouting in the summer and your ability to slip into the woods for the silent ambush. It takes a lot of effort to set yourself up for success, and today this is much more difficult since moving away from Wisconsin, thousands of miles from any fertile whitetail grounds.
Living on the left coast in California makes it hard to participate in the ritual of bowhunting whitetails. When Fall rolls around my thoughts are consumed by how the season is playing out across the Midwest. It’s a tough time of year to be away from all the action in the woods, but I put myself there by living vicariously through text messages with my buddies back home and stories posted across social media.
All of this changed for me after three years of living in CA when I got my first chance to elk hunt. My Dad and I had been tossing around the idea for a few years of putting together this type of hunt, and finally the cards fell into place to make it happen. For this first trip we planned a hunt just outside of Meeker, CO with a family friend during the fourth rifle season. At the time, I had little understanding of how much the experience would impact me as a hunter.
It would be an understatement to say that my first elk hunt completely changed my relationship with hunting. It opened my eyes to a whole new level of the sport. Instead of looking out across small farm plots in Wisconsin, I was now looking at 7,000 acres of mountainous country with endless views.
Whereas before the elements that lead to chances in the whitetail woods were working against me, I now had more control over the eventual success of the hunt. The offseason was focused on getting into elk hunting shape, and my opportunities to encounter animals were a direct result of how well I could read the topography and get into position. This means covering miles of tough country on foot, side hilling for hours and gaining elevation all day to hopefully have that special moment to come across some elk.
It’s so clear to me now why I immediately fell in love with elk hunting. It’s a simple combination of my favorite things to do. I love being in the woods, but even more so, I love being in the woods on big mountains. Going out for a hike is a nice way to get out and see something new, but bushwhacking your way to a ridge to glass the valley on the other side leaves you with the most stunning views. Combine all of this with the pursuit of hunting, and there’s nothing like it. Each turn or crest you reach presents a new decision on how you’re going to hunt that day going forward. It’s an incredible way to get away and see beautiful country.
I now understand why my Dad went back each year to hunt elk. I too was hooked immediately. I’ve spent a lot of time learning about whitetails, and they’ll continue to be a mystery and an amazing animal. However, I quickly made the decision that year in Meeker that this was something I needed to do every year going forward. Being so far away from whitetail hunting is now much easier to cope with knowing that I’m that much closer to the places where elk call home.