Best Hunting Times

Review by eFreeware

If you plan hunting trips around when animals move rather than when you happen to be free, Best Hunting Times is built for that habit. It takes a location and a date and lays out the solunar periods, sun and moon times, and a rating for the day, so you can decide which morning or evening is worth the drive before you commit to it.

K Solution's app is a paid download at $2.99, with no ads and no in-app purchases, and it has been on Google Play since December 2011. The install base sits at over 10,000, and the average rating is 2.4 from 123 ratings. A long-running app with a modest score suggests a tool some people keep and others find frustrating, and nothing tells you which camp you would land in.

What the app offers is a planning layer rather than a substitute for scouting. You give it a place and a date, and it returns feeding and activity windows, moon data, sun data, weather and wind. The developer calls it a planning tool for outdoor activities, which is the right way to read it: it informs a decision you were already going to make.

Solunar periods and day ratings

The core of the app is the solunar output: major and minor feeding and activity periods, a rating for the day, and an activity index that feeds into that rating. If you already plan around dawn and dusk, these periods give you narrower windows to aim at, including the secondary stretches that fall outside the obvious ones.

The day rating and activity index are the parts I'd expect to use most. Instead of reading a table of times and interpreting it yourself, you get a single number that ranks one day against another, which is useful when you're choosing between two weekends and can only take one. The calculations are real time and based on approved solunar theory, and that framework is what the whole app rests on.

Moon rise, set and transit times sit alongside moon phase data, with sunrise, sunset and sun transit in the same view. Together these explain why a given day scores the way it does, and they're the details I'd want on hand when deciding how early to leave. Nothing here is exotic; it's the standard set of inputs a solunar planner needs, presented as one picture.

Checking dates ahead and reading the week

There are two views: a daily one and a weekly one. The daily view gives you the detail for whichever day you settle on.

Date selection lets you look at solunar data in advance for any date at any location, which matters more than it sounds. You can check a date weeks out, before you book time off or ask someone to come along, and you can compare the same date across two different spots if you're deciding between properties or public land.

You set your spot by GPS, by hand, or by tapping a map. That spread is practical: GPS when you're on site, manual entry when you're planning from the kitchen table for somewhere you know well, and the map when you only have a rough idea of where you're going. Current solunar information can also sit on your home screen, so a glance tells you whether today is worth bothering with.

Weather, wind and the US-only limit

Weather condition and forecast are folded into the same views, which saves bouncing between this app and a general weather service. Wind condition and forecast are included too, along with a wind animation. Wind is often the deciding factor on whether a spot is workable, so having it next to the activity windows is a sensible pairing.

The catch is geographic. Wind condition, the wind forecast and the wind animation are listed for the US, so hunters elsewhere get the solunar, sun and moon material but not that part of the picture. It's the one clear regional limit, and it's worth checking against where you actually hunt before you pay.

For US users the combination is fairly complete: a date, a place, the activity periods, and the conditions you'll meet when you get there. I'd treat the forecast as a planning input rather than a guarantee, since weather services vary in how far ahead they're useful, but as a single screen for a trip decision it covers the ground.

Setting it up and what you need

Setup is about as light as it gets for this sort of tool. You choose a location one of three ways, pick a date, and the app produces the solunar, sun and moon output. There are no ads to work around, which keeps the whole thing to a single paid download.

The widget is the other piece worth knowing about. You can add Best Hunting Times to your home screen, and current solunar information can appear there as well. For anyone who checks conditions most mornings, that removes a step: the answer is visible before you've opened anything.

The most recent update addressed the map SDK and a fragment crash. I wouldn't read too much into two lines of release notes, but it does indicate the app is still being worked on rather than left as it was.

Where this fits in a hunting routine

This is a tool for people who plan rather than improvise. If your season involves picking dates in advance, comparing a couple of stands or properties, or deciding whether a marginal morning justifies the alarm, the day rating and weekly view are doing real work for you. It also suits anyone who already follows solunar theory and wants the periods, moon and sun data in one place instead of three.

It's less compelling if you hunt on short notice and mostly want a forecast. The solunar layer is the point of the app, and the weather and wind material supports it rather than standing alone. Hunters outside the US should also note that the wind features are listed for the US only.

The 2.4 average from 123 ratings is the number I'd keep in mind. It's a paid app, so a low score carries more weight than it would on a free one, and it suggests the experience doesn't land for everyone.

A planner for hunters who work from a calendar

Best Hunting Times is worth the $2.99 if you plan hunts around activity windows and want the solunar periods, day rating, moon and sun times, weather and wind in one place for any date and location. The weekly view and date selection make it a genuine forward-planning tool rather than a same-day glance, and the home screen widget and current solunar display suit a morning check.

It fits hunters in the US best, since the wind features are listed for that region, and it suits people who already think in terms of feeding periods. If you're looking for a general weather app with a hunting theme, the solunar core is what you'd be paying for and the rest is support.

The single payment keeps the experience simple, which I appreciate in a category that often leans on subscriptions. Try it if you plan by the calendar and want the data in one screen; the price is small enough that a season's use is a fair test.

What's new in version 3.6

1. Updated map sdk. 2. Fixed fragment crash.