About Us

Smart Hunter started as a personal project of two brothers, Nathan and Matt Hanks, in late 2020. Both being avid hunters, the interest arose while looking through game camera photos at the Hanks' ranch in East Texas.

Nathan had been experimenting with AI software and proposed creating an model that would learn the different types of game and sort the photos based on the game classification. Matt had experimented in creating a spreadsheet years earlier to help track and trend game based on game camera photos. The short coming of the spreadsheet was the data entry.

However, with Nathan's proposed model, the data entry would become simple. The possibilities were endless on the data that could be gathered from the photos. Each photo provided date and time, so combining that with the known data for that location such as weather and moon phase, started to show amazing results. The two worked diligently to get the software ready for the 2021 hunting season to determine whether the predictive nature of the model worked. Amazingly it provided eye opening data and was highly accurate regarding the game on the ranch.

It was at this time the brothers decided they have something that needs to be shared with the rest of the hunting community. The idea is a tool that would allow hunters (whether on a lease, public lands, or their own property) to be more efficient with their time in the field. By knowing more predictive patterns of game, a hunter can practice more conservation as now they have confidence to pass on less mature game while waiting on the mature trophy as their time is now being spent wisely. Don't hunt harder, hunt smarter.