HUNTING BIG GAME
What I try to do, after moving into the area I want to hunt, is come to a complete stop: Mentally and physically. Clear my mind. Relax my body. Try to become one with where I am at the moment. For example:
1) Close your eyes.
2) Use your ears to really hear what is going on around you. Try to identify at least one sound and the direction it is coming from before opening your eyes.
3) Use your nose, it is, honest, possible to smell game before you hear or see it. Try to identify at least one smell and the direction it is coming from before opening your eyes.
4) Then, use your eyes to really see what is moving or out of place. Focus. Look in one direction until you finally see something you did not previously see.
5) Don't expect to see a whole animal.
6) Look for sunlight reflected off a horn. An ear moving. Lines: Vertical or horizontal, angled or curved, which, when followed, identify part or, if you are really lucky, all of an animal.
7) Color or texture discrepancies. If you are looking, for example, at vegetation, are the colors and textures consistent or are there discrepancies that might be part of an animal.
8) Pay attention to the wind (it carries your scent), temperature (as it goes up and down it creates air currents that do, in steeper areas, carry your scent accordingly) (cold air tends to move down hill and warmer air tends to move uphill), sun (it's easier, if possible, depending on the wind and air currents, to see game with the sun at your back than in your face, especially if you are doing a lot of glassing with your binoculars), weather changes (which often influence big game feeding patterns) and, finally the terrain that you are hunting (some areas are primarily feeding or watering areas, others are bedding areas or travel routes, etc and etc.)
9) And, almost forgot this one, keep yourself informed: Talk, on a regular basis, to game management people, ranchers, farmers, timber cruisers, small plane pilots, rural mail carriers, taxidermists, etc and etc. Any or all can be good sources of information that may help you plan your hunt.
OK, getting back to basics now: Once I feel in tune with my environment, and not before, I move like a glacier. Spending way, by far, more than most can even imagine, time looking than moving.
I use binoculars. Zeiss: 10 X 40 full size, 10 X 25 compacts or 10 X 20 compacts depending on the situation. I've also used Leitz 10 X 40 full size. The key is to find and use a binocular that allows you to look through it for extended periods of time without giving you a headache. Brightness and clarity vary. Mostly in accordance with price. It is hard to cut corners, and costs, when grinding a lens. I'm not hung up on manufacturer, go with what works for you. If you wind up with "glassing headaches" your binoculars may be out of columniation and require repair or, maybe, you need to try another manufacturer in an attempt to find a lens more suited to your eyes. Some folks like individual focusing eyepieces. Personally, I like a center focus eyepiece system. I've owned both. I always found the center focus systems faster, for me, to adjust. Again, go with what works best for you.
I also try to wear, subject to weather conditions, soft exterior clothing. I find that it helps me move, especially through brush, quieter than hard finished exterior clothing. I also like a hat. Usually one of my Stetson's. The older and softer, so long as it holds it's shape, the better. Again, I'm not hung up on manufacturer. I just like a hat with an "all around" brim so as to shade my head, keep water and snow off my neck and, on occasion, serve as my rifle rest. Many is the time I've put my hat on a bush and used it as a rifle rest.
Footwear is very personal and also subject to not only weather conditions but terrain. I have several different types of White boots, custom made here in Spokane, as well as Russell, Redwing Irish Setter, and Eddie Bauer boots. As I get older, I find myself, more and more, where I can, wearing ankle high sneakers. Why? They are lighter than my other boots, as the years go by, the more important that seems. Give me some support, not a lot, but, some. And, quite simply, I can't write it any better, I seem to be able to "feel" my way along more quietly with the sneakers than any of my other boots. They don't work so well when it's wet, cold or steep but, realistically, that's why I own more than one pair of outdoor footwear.
Think of it this way: Moving is easy. Taking the time necessary to really see, hear, smell and, for want of a better word, "feel" the environment you are in is, for some reason, difficult, for most folks. Personally, I think that is why most hunters do not kill much big game. They do not take the time necessary to acclimate to the environment that they are hunting in. To put it bluntly, we, as hunters, are going into a big game animals "home" to try to kill it. If the situation were reversed, how hard would it be for you to discover a bull elk that was trying to hunt you in your living room?
I suspect dumb luck accounts for many if not most big game kills. I'm not knocking anybody. All I'm trying to do is describe how I go about hunting. Does my style always work? Of course not. Have I benefited from dumb luck? You bet, and glad to have it. You can't ever discount luck. Good or bad.
What I'm trying to say is that I've figured out some hunting stuff that not only works for me but I enjoy doing. So far, as of today, I've killed 47 big game animals that come from 9 different species (coues deer, whitetail deer, mule deer, antelope, elk, moose, black bear, mountain lion and rocky mountain billy goat). I don't see hunting as a competition. I mention numbers, and, in some of my hunting stories, Boone and Crockett scores, or weight, for one, and only one reason, so readers will have some insight into my style of hunting and the big game that I take with it. I'm not trying to sell anyone on anything. What works for me may not work for you. We all have to go with what we are comfortable doing when it come to hunting.
Also, I'm sure that some of you reading this have killed far more big game animals from a great many more species than I have and used far different methods to do so. Point being, there is more than one effective way to hunt. Many is the time I've been frustrated when trying to hunt in a particular direction and been stymied by wind, air currents or terrain. Things don't always work out for me. That's why they call it hunting instead of killing.
This commentary is about hunting big game. Some of us enjoy the hunting more than we do the killing.
Killing big game is a whole other subject.
Over in the Hunting Stories part of this web site I'm posting a series of commentaries and stories that I hope some of you will enjoy reading.
None of us knows it all. That's why, as I see it, sharing our experiences here can be both entertaining and helpful.
CJ
Tweet
HUNTING BIG GAME
Topic Options
