Big Game Logic: Scouting Tool & More
Technology is finding it’s way into just about everything these days and hunting isn’t any different. Wisconsin deer hunter Jeff Schmitz jumped on the trail camera bandwagon a long time ago. But sharing and cataloging his trail camera photos with his hunting partners was difficult. So Jeff put together a program that made putting trail camera photos and deer sightings in an organized format to help them scout more efficiently. This also put him and his friends in the best stands possible based on weather & moon patterns.
It worked so well that Jeff and his friends thought many other hunters would be interested in it. At this point, Big Game Logic was born. Jeff, his brother Aaron, and his friend Dan Overland all have a part in the company. The goal is to help their fellow hunters hunt more effectively through their tracking tool. But it’s not just for scouting. Schmitz says there is also a camaraderie factor as well. “It’s a social network that you can share your experiences in hunting with fellow camp members. I want to emphasize that it’s private. It’s just for you and whoever you invite into your camp. There is a public feature but that is completely up to you if you want to share it with strangers. You create your deer camp and invite your friends that you hunt with.”
Big Game Logic uses trail cam photos, hunter input, satellite maps, moon data, and weather reports to compile information on property hotspots. “You outline your land that you hunt on. You place your tree stands, trail cameras, your food plot areas, and now we’ve got a feature on there for scrapes and rubs. The nice thing is you can take your trail cam photos and deer observations… and it automatically grabs the weather data, the moon phase, and other key indicators and sorts it into a database. Later on if you’re deciding between two places to hunt you can use your past experiences to figure out which one you want to hunt. But it’s not going to put you onto deer if you don’t spend time in the woods.”
Schmitz says Big Game Logic has changed the way he hunts. More importantly it has made hunting more enjoyable for everyone in his camp. “It is fun to track. Who doesn’t like looking at past experiences and trying to learn from them? When you share your photos it automatically notifies everyone in camp that you imported your SD card.”
Big Game Logic isn’t the only site on the internet with a deer tracking system. But Schmitz says his site is the most complete. “We bring everything together with tracking deer movement & using weather indicators. We use heat map technology to show the hotspot areas. We’re going to incorporate an algorithm onto the map so it’s not just based on past observations but based on key spots such as food plots, wind direction, and things like if there is a rut line. And then there is the social aspect.”
One of the questions Schmitz always gets is “how confidential is the information?”. He stresses that no one will see any of your information unless you want them to. “This is completely private. I know people do have concerns… They don’t want a neighbor or someone knowing their stand location or trail camera location. But if you mark it private or closed, there is no way anybody can get in there.”
Big Game Logic is available to all deer hunters and best of all it is free. Schmitz says the software works anywhere. He has members and deer camps as far away as Europe. At some point Big Game Logic will be available for hunters of other species as well.
To listen to the entire conversation with Big Game Logic’s Jeff Schmitz, press play at the top of the screen.