The Hunt Index

The Hunt Index is the one number on the home screen. It is a rank, 0–100, against other nights like this one — not a percent chance, not odds, not a forecast of how many coyotes you'll see. A night that ranks 78 was better than most nights like it. That's the whole claim.

Reading the number

The index sorts into four tiers, same floors every time:

1. PRIME (85+): As good as nights come — worth every hour of it.
2. STRONG (65+): Worth a full night.
3. SOLID (30+): A normal grind — pick your window.
4. GRIND (below 30): Fewer, better stands.

Each tier has its own color, but the color never stands alone — the word and the number are always printed right beside it, so the read survives even in black and white.

The icon beside it

Every index carries a small icon — filled, half, or outline. That icon is how settled the read is. It carries no label and no explanation on the main screen; tap it if you want the one-line version. Filled means conditions the book knows well; half means partly; outline means it's reaching further from what it knows — still honest, just less settled.

What actually moves the number

Three things feed the read: tonight's temperature measured against its own recent week (on temperature, warm is the side that holds activity down; what a cold night does on its own is still being worked out), moon altitude (up or down — for movement only, not for whether a coyote answers the call), and how deep into the night it is. How recently a piece of ground was hunted is read separately — "hunted today, give it a day" — and sits beside the number rather than inside it.

What it does not do

The Hunt Index never promises a kill, and it never claims to know things it doesn't — no pressure readings, no wind, no moon phase. Even on a low night it still points at a window instead of going quiet. If the inputs for a given night are thin, the index degrades honestly to a neutral read and the icon drops a step, rather than guessing.