Hunts are basically the NMs and HNM's for this game. Basically like they said first come first served. The difference is that these don't have special rare drops that require "ownership" of the monster during the kill to have a chance of obtaining them. I've killed A rank hunt targets solo in various areas just because they were in the way when I was doing something else like lvling other jobs. I'd have probably killed an S rank in ARR or HW areas solo if I came across one.

I pretty much only kill them when it's convenient. I'm not one of these people trying to claim every single one to get that mount reward which I suspect is the whole cause of "early pull" complaints to begin with.