I have a confession:  I’m a data geek.  It is what I do at work, and it is just part of my nature.  Of course, it can have its advantages as well; by compiling data from my deer hunts, and having a means to study them, we can then make very educated decisions as to where to hunt that day.  Jeff, from lowcountryhunting.com, wrote about some deer data he has accumulated in a guest post on this blog.  And any of you who read this blog last year know that I kept a hunt log.  It just goes to show that a few of us hunters are interested in keeping data of our hunts, and using that data as an advantage.

I had been looking for some sort of software that would track this data, and allow me to analyze it in some form.  I know there are a few pieces of software out there that do this, but the price was a little steep, and with the newborn on the way, I just didn’t want to part with that kind of cash.

My cousin Matthew and I were talking the other night about this topic, and he pointed me in a great direction.  After doing numerous Google searches he found a product call Deer Days.

Deer Days is a software package that does all of the things I want to do:  It allows you to input hunting data, analyze that data, and even has a Trend Analyzer that allows you to see certain trends in your data, and allow you to use them to your advantage.  With this Trend Analyzer you can look at the data that is available to you for today’s hunt, i.e., wind, barometer, weather, temperature, and use that data to best decide where to hunt for the day’s conditions.

I know this all seems a little anal, but if you read stories from a lot of successful hunters, plenty of them keep some sort of notebook about their previous hunts and use that information to best decide where to hunt next.  It only makes sense, and I can totally understand the benefit of being able to analyze this data.

I just started using this software, so I don’t want to say one way or another on how well it works, but I definitely think-from what I’ve seen so far-that it has some great potential to benefit all the hunters out there.  Plus, the basic package of the software is free.  Then, if you want to use of the other features, you only have to pay $20 to use the software to its full potential.

For now, I’m going to use the free software until I get a decent amount of information into the database.  Then, I am going to invest in the other features, and see just how well this software does work.  I think it has great potential, and I’m excited to get started in gathering all the data.

Because gathering data, means you have to be hunting.  What could be better than that?

An interesting piece of software, and I promise to keep everyone informed on how well it works out for me.  The potential is there, so I will keep everyone informed.

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