Is the go hunt insider worth the price?

I was just looking at the insider service form go hunt and thought this might be the place to ask if people thought the service was worthwhile?

I'm leaning towards getting the insider, but I'm new to planning out of state hunts so maybe it's a good choice for me. Right now I have a planned mule deer hunt in eastern Montana in November of 2017 with 3 other hunting buddies. I'm already trying to plan ahead for 2018 with this group and we would all like to chase elk together. I figured the go hunt insider might be a good tool for planning trips like ours in advance.

I called them once with a question and could tell the guy I spoke to was quite knowledgeable. I'm also a fan of the publically available articles and videos. I'm not a subscriber because I have young kids and won't be planning a hunt for a few years. If I was going out west every year, especially if I was going to multiple states/units/species I think it would be well worth the cost.

It's good to hear that the people working there seem very knowledgable.

I know how tough balancing hunting and fishing with a young family can be. My kids are 6 and 2. I have had 2 serious hunts since 2010, one in 2011 and one last November.

Yes and No. If you enjoy researching hunting info on your own, then its not worth the money. You can find all that info yourself. but it will take a lot longer. If you don't enjoy researching but love to hunt public land in the western states than it is worth it.

They are running a 30 day free trial now if you wanted to try it out to see how it works

dcopas78 said:

They are running a 30 day free trial now if you wanted to try it out to see how it works

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Free trial at this link - http://www.gohunt.com/hunttalk

If you hunt/apply in other states, I think you will be hard pressed to find more information for that price. And, the only service with accurate draw odds for states with funky systems like NV, NM, UT and for next year, AZ.

I really like the gohunt system. Easy to navigate. Would take forever to research all of that info yourself.

I have enjoyed the service. For the $1000's of dollars we all spend a year on equipment, tags, fuel, and lodging... the service is $150 annual and Worth it. Also it's just simply fun to research units and states I'm not even planning on going to.

If I only hunted in state I would consider not subscribing, but as a flatlander who has to travel to units I've never stepped foot in there is no better way to research for a quality unit.

I've had it for 2 years and I think overall it is worth it just for the statistics on the units. It breaks down the info pretty quick. I'd love to see them get into secondary/cow drawings as well. It doesn't seem like it'd be too big of a lift and useful to layer other options to your hunting plans

Their writing and articles on the otherhand leave much to be desired.

I bought in this year once I got in a pinch around late may and needed to scrape up another tag. It saved me a ton of work to find the unit that fit my needs and I drew it shortly there after. I find myself referring to it fairly often even now that the tags have fallen into place when I'm curious about leftovers or other units. I'm the type of person who had imported data in excel sheets by state and species before using it and it saves time, especially since I had applications in 6 states this year.

Generally speaking their user interface is very good, which is not common with hunting related products. My only question is if they stopped doing deals, give aways, sending out hats and stickers what would the product actually cost? I'm guessing it could be $75 very quickly.

I think it comes down to how much time you have and how much you enjoy doing your own research. For me the research is as much fun as the hunt. But if you only want to spend a few hours a year planning your fall out it seems like a great tool. The one person I talked to from gohunt was super nice and helpful.

I use HuntinFool and GoHunt. Did not see the value in Eastman's as I no longer archery hunt so saw no reason in having to subscribe to both Eastman's magazines just to get their info for all the Western states. Eastman's also had a string of inaccurate and missing info the year NM added the new sheep hunts.

HuntinFool is very useful for me as I draw a tag or two (5 this year) out of state and will do no scouting prior to arriving for the hunt, usually hunt on my own and usually have never hunted that unit previously. I can request a list of prior hunters who also had this tag in the past. Sometimes there are no prior hunters or the phone numbers are no longer correct, etc, though usually I get to talk to a couple of recent hunters. Since the tag is usually not one you can draw every year, the hunters tend to share some very good info on not just where they saw animals but where to camp, get gasoline near the unit, if have cell coverage, etc. HuntinFool was also useful as I first started applying around the west since had a nice recap of how the draw worked in a state, suggestions on better units, odds to draw, etc.

GoHunt offers some operational information for each unit. Things like rainfall, mix of public and private land, etc. They are evolving their strategy guide for applying to each state and is getting better each year. They have excellent odds stats. A multi-choice application where more than your first choice can actually draw a decent tag if you application is drawn is very difficult to analyze so most people and resources merely look at how many people applied for a tag as the 1st Choice and how many people drew the tag (with any choice, not just as their 1st Choice). Actual odds can diverge dramatically from the tags vs 1st Choice approach. I have zero doubt my NV applications were in better position to get a tag this year since GoHunt provided a way to predict odds for my 2nd and 3rd choices, etc. I drew a nice pronghorn tag in NV this year without many points and was not my 1st Choice.

I have never tried Hunter's Trailhead. Have heard good things.

I signed up for the 30 day free trial and I think I'll end up paying for the insider service. I like how I can see draw odds and harvest success rates as well as the weather info. I'm pretty impressed so far.

I'm hoping to use it as way to plan out of state adventures at least a year ahead of time.

After being an insider for an year, it is 100% worth it. Not even a question! If you are a DYI hunter, and you aren't using GoHunt, you are missing out on a ton of research.

jryoung said:

I'd love to see them get into secondary/cow drawings as well.

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I believe cow (female) Draw info just went live this week.

If you apply in more than one state Insider is a no brainer. The distillation of data saves a ton of effort.

I still do a lot of my ‘own’ research via state/public information, but GoHunt is well worth the price as a comprehensive starting point. Especially, as Fin notes, in the mathematically complex states.

I think it is well worth the money not only for the Insider features such as draw odds and strategy articles but, also for the points you earn when you spend money in the gear shop. Last year, I wanted to make two big purchases, a Garmin InReach and a Leupold rangefinder. I was able to purchase the InReach and use the points I earned for purchasing it towards my rangefinder which I bought a few months later and used the points from that purchase towards a Go Hunt hat. All in all, I saved over $60 on the three items. In addition, the customer service is excellent. The InReach was out of stock when I logged on to order it. I sent them a message and Trail Kreitzer responded within minutes with a date they would be back in stock and gave me some tips on using it. As has been stated before, given all the money we spend, the cost of the Insider membership is minimal compared to the benefit.

It depends... I do most of my initial research through other platforms like state websites, onxmaps, and hunters trailhead, then use gohunt to help narrow down to some final choices. Their platform is one of the more expensive for research, but leaves a bit to be desired with the mapping, filtering, and draw odds capability in my opinion. I was thinking about dropping it this year, but since it automatically renews I'm in for another season. I have tried and dropped Eastmans and HuntinFool.

Jwill said:

It depends... I do most of my initial research through other platforms like state websites, onxmaps, and hunters trailhead, then use gohunt to help narrow down to some final choices. Their platform is one of the more expensive for research, but leaves a bit to be desired with the mapping, filtering, and draw odds capability in my opinion. I was thinking about dropping it this year, but since it automatically renews I'm in for another season. I have tried and dropped Eastmans and HuntinFool.

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I have used the service and I agree with Jwill. BLUF, it is great for certain things like quick overviews of units, but leaves a lot to be desired or improved upon. I've found the draw odds to be quite different than the State's posted draw odds. Maybe they are more accurate or maybe they aren't. I don't know. I also don't like their mapping system at all. It would be nice if they had the public land overlays built in. For instance I wouldn't have to use both the Wyoming state site and gohunt to look at the maps. I wasn't real impressed when checking out their new female (cow, doe, etc) draw odds. The particular WY unit I am interested in has Type-4, Type-6 and Type-9 tags, but it has three lines with different draw odds when you look at it for that unit and it doesn't specify for which type of tag. It lists the dates for the seasons under the unit for each line, but now I have to check on the WY site to make sure what date corresponds with what Type of tag. For $150 I shouldn't have to leave their site to reference any other site, especially for such simple things.

I am new to western hunting and find it invaluable. There are so many permutations of tags, access, historical draw odds, etc, that having it all in one place with good filters is a huge help as I plan my first western hunt. Definitely worth the $$ (plus I got $50 credit via the "RANDY" coupon).

I'd say the $150 is very reasonable, and they could probably charge more. Their maps aren't great, but I believe they have some changes coming in that department. Their filtering and draw odds are very easy to navigate, and the draw trends are a nice tool as well. If I was just going to hunt one state a year, I probably wouldn't have GoHunt, but with multiple states it is an easy way to develop a starting point. It also offers some nice tid bits about the area ie. gas station locations, general road conditions.