Field notes on moose hunting apps

The best moose hunting apps.

Most hunting apps are maps. A moose hunt is won or lost on the wind. A bull trusts his nose before his eyes or his ears, he circles a call to get downwind of it, and at dusk the air slides downhill to the shore he's headed for. Here's the app built for that, and what to carry beside it.

By Gavan, from moose camp near White River. I make Groundwind, so weigh what I say about it with that in mind. The other apps are described from their own pages and store listings, checked 25 October 2026.

What Groundwind does

• The wind at your head. Forecasts are worked out for 10 m up over open ground. Groundwind takes the 2.5 km HD forecast down to head height over your ground: on the spots it builds, a complete 3D wind model over 1-metre LiDAR terrain in 16 directions, showing how wind speeds up over a bluff, goes slack in its lee, and curls back behind a ridge. Then every stand of timber slows and turns it.
• Your scent cone. Drawn from where you sit on that wind, from the ground or 4 or 6 m up a stand, showing where your scent comes back down to nose height, and widening in the gusts and the lee of a tree line.
• The dusk drainage. When the sun goes off the slope the air cools and slides downhill to the shore and the bog, whatever the forecast says. The thermals and the lake breezes are in the wind, hour by hour.
• The bull. Heard a grunt? Four taps log what it was, the way it came from and how far. Log a second and the map draws his line, and where he's likely to swing round to get your wind, routed over the ground the way a wary bull goes.

• The whole party. Each hunter's position, wind checks, sightings and scent cone on every phone in the party whenever there's signal. Place the sitters before the evening sit, see whose scent drifts over whom, and put the caller 40 to 50 m upwind of the shooter (why).

• On the move. Still-hunting or angling in on a bull, the card reads the wind where you stand and your cone follows you. Drop a cone at the corner ahead to see where you'd blow before you get there.
• Your powder makes it yours. Puff, tap where it went, and the wind within a couple of hundred metres turns to what you felt. Each check also teaches the map how that kind of air behaves at your spot, a lake breeze or cold air draining, for about two weeks. When the last check has faded, it asks for another.
• The bush. Brush thickness at eye level from the LiDAR point cloud, the shooting lanes and how far you'll see. Routes find the easiest way in and the ways that keep your scent off the best ground.
• Whose land it is. Property lines on any spot. In Ontario, BC, the Yukon and Alberta, the lot lines and which land is private; across Canada, the reserves, parks and protected areas, with Québec's ZECs and outfitters' territories; in the US, public and tribal land, with the rest as likely private. Never owners' names.
• When moose move. Moose, deer, grouse and bear scored hour by hour for the week ahead, from the habitat, the last ten days of weather and the rut. After three days over 18 °C moose bed through the heat; it flags the first cool day that breaks it (the research).
• No signal. Save your spot at camp and all of it works offline, with your pins, your track and your log. Out for days, an inReach or a satellite iPhone brings the newest HD forecast back in one 160-character text.

Free in the beta, on iPhone and Android. It goes deep on the spots it builds: open ours, or name yours. For hunting zones and regulations across the province, carry one of the map apps below beside it.

What to carry beside it

• Maps, zones and Crown land: iHunter, one app with a pack for each province from BC to Newfoundland and the Yukon, showing the zone you're in with its seasons, offline; or onX Hunt, with Crown land and private boundaries where available, without owners' names in Canada, $34.99 CAD a year for Canada. The stands you've marked in onX come into Groundwind as pins. (iHunter; onX)
• A paper map on your phone: Avenza Maps, with Québec's hunting zone maps, Sépaq's moose maps and NRCan's topo sheets free in its store. (Avenza)
• Regulations: Ontario has no hunting app until FishHuntON in early 2027. Alberta has AlbertaRELM for your licence, with the regulations on the province's website, and BC's Moose Tracker app carries an older synopsis, so check the current one. In Québec, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador, iHunter carries the zones and seasons. (Ontario; AlbertaRELM; Alberta; BC Moose Tracker; BC)
• Calls: iHUNT Calls Moose plays cow and bull calls with no signal; Moose Magnet and Moose Hunting Calls App sell for a few dollars. (App Store)
• Satellite: a Garmin inReach, or an iPhone 14 or later, which sends Messages by satellite in Canada and the US. (Garmin; Apple)

In the northern US, onX's state maps carry landowner information, and Alaska's free ADF&G app has its regulations and offline maps. (onX; ADF&G)

The apps to carry, by province and state

Your licence and the rules come from the province or state, and each has a map of its zones. Here's the app or site for each. In every row, Groundwind goes beside them for the wind and your scent.

From each government's own pages and the store listings, checked 26 October 2026. Check your own zone's rules before you go.

How other apps show wind

They start from the forecast or the nearest weather station, the wind 10 m up over open ground. That's the right place to start, and it's where Groundwind starts too, before it takes the wind down to your head over your ground.

• onX Hunt's Optimal Wind marks the wind directions that suit a waypoint and colours it green, orange or red each day from the nearest weather station. (onX)
• HuntStand's HuntZone forecasts the wind and your scent hour by hour, up to 72 hours ahead. (App Store)
• HuntWise's WindCast draws wind cones at your stands, built for US hunting. (HuntWise)
• Windy is a free weather app with Canada's HRDPS among its models. (App Store)

Side by side, in Compared with other apps. Whichever you use, check it with powder; in Groundwind that puff also corrects the map around you (how).

Questions

• What's the best moose hunting app? For the hunt itself, Groundwind: the wind at head height, your scent cone, where a called bull will swing for your wind, and the whole party's scent on every phone, with no signal. For hunting zones and regulations across the province, carry iHunter or onX Hunt beside it.
• Is there a moose hunting app that shows thermals? Groundwind. The evening drainage downhill to the shore, the warm air rising upslope by day and the lake breezes are all in its wind, hour by hour.
• Which moose hunting apps work with no signal? Groundwind, iHunter, onX Hunt and Avenza Maps all keep working once your area or maps are saved at camp. Groundwind also brings the newest forecast by satellite text.