The hunt
I've hunted a lot of things and most of what I've hunted has died; I miss my target sometimes (rarely) and sometimes my quarry evades me which is exactly how it should be because there's no challenge if it's easy. I like needing the right skills, training and practice and the effort it takes to hunt and, because I like being as self-reliant as I can be, I like knowing how to provide for myself and those around me through hunting, trapping, snaring, fishing and so on.
I've learned a lot over the years and thought I'd share some, in no particular order of importance or value, that have made a difference to my success rate, the enjoyment or ongoing satisfaction that I conducted the hunt as ethically and humanely as possible. These may differ in different circumstances and dependent on what's being hunted but they generally apply.
- Only take equipment which value-adds the hunt, allows one to hunt for longer, safer, smarter and with a greater chance of success.
- Never step on anything that can be stepped over or avoided; stepping on things makes noise and noise is a hunter's enemy. Aligning with this is learning how to stalk with stealth and to walk quietly all the time.
- Stalk and approach from downwind.
- I always hunt wearing camouflage but the best camouflage is sitting down and staying still - and being silent. It also pays to understand how the game sees the world through their eyes as that may affect how one dresses. However, being quiet and still is most important - not doing so is most likely how your target will know you're there.
- Mask your appearance and shape (that's what camouflage is all about), hide your scent, sound and movement.
- Look for movement not the shape or colour of the thing you're hunting as it's easier to spot movement - a moving branch in an otherwise still environment is a dead giveaway that something is moving there...unless it's windy of course.
- Bad weather isn't a good reason to quit the hunt, it works to a hunters advantage - Just be prepared for it as not being prepared makes for a miserable and probably unproductive hunting trip.
- Know where your target will be and hunt there rather than where you think or guess it might be. This takes practice and study, time and experience. Your target may not think like you (especially if it's an animal) so think like it, learn how the target is likely to think, act and where it may go at different times of the day or night; it's patterns.
- Think the shot through and be sure of it, follow the methods (you should have learned and practiced them tirelessly) to make the shot count. A bullet can't be taken back so make sure it goes to the right place; the ramifications of a misplaced shot could be catastrophic and regret lasts forever.
That's it, a few little things I've learned and apply when I hunt. These are basic but, of course, the skills and effort that sit behind them are not; it takes a lot of time and effort to build the right skills to do anything and hunting is no different; the fact that something dies means a person should work to build their skills to the highest level.
Design and create your ideal life, tomorrow isn't promised - galenkp
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STOPImproving yourself in life with better or new skills is very good for all areas. It takes time and effort, but it leads to doing things much better. When I was a teacher, I demanded of myself to keep learning new and different things to be better for my students, just to give one example.
I hope you are having a good Sunday.
I'm not sure of the relevance of your comment to be honest; you know, it's ok not to comment if you don't really know what to say about the post content,or understand it.
I had a good Sunday indeed, cheers.
All right. You're welcome.
These tips I hope I will never need! Though I don't think of myself in any way soft,I can't even bring myself to uproot two courgettes that have self-seeded in an awkward place. I suppose at least with hunting, the animal has some chance and a skilled kill is quick. Conventional farming on the other hand....
It's just another skill I guess, something I'm good at and I have been doing for a long time. From a self-reliance perspective and if something ever went totally pear-shaped I think it'd be a handy thing to know. I mean, meat doesn't come from plastic trays at Tesco, or even Dunne's. I like growing too, and I'm pretty good at that too.
What kind of animals do you hunt?
Pigs, deer, kangaroos...other things.
We're all assuming 'other things' is people.
Seems a reasonable assumption I suppose.
This made me laugh :)
It can be used in a variety of different ways :)
Yeah, I'm happy someone picked up on this little line. 😏
I am starting to feel like I am being hunted!
2 weeks ago I got stung by a brown mud wasp. Hurt like hell. And just an hour ago this Sunday I got hit by a brown Scorpion that was in my towel as I got out of the shower.
FUCKIN' AYE.!!
There times a charm they say, so I wonder what's going to bite you next?
Kelly and I have discussed this many times.
With all the outdoor activity and land/tree/yard maintenance I do why have I not been hit by a Pine Rattler or Water Moccasin yet..?
Cat Snake..? (now that is just creepy/nightmares incoming)
That's creepy!
I like cats, but not snakes...not even cat snakes.
Where I live you are able to wear camo only during bow season. When firearm season starts, you have to wear blaze orange. Also, there is a line that cuts through the middle of the lower peninsula in Michigan and below that line you can only use shotguns to hunt with. Which is kind of funny because the new slugs that they sell for shotguns can often travel as far as a rifle bullet according to my buddy, but who knows. Despite things in the US being pretty spread out, we still are a pretty populated area I guess.
Yeah, I know about the non-camouflage thing there which is odd but sensible in certain aspects. Here, we don't have any of that, people wear what they want, whenever they want, and can use anything for hunting within reason although handguns for hunting are not permitted for hunting purposes.
Interesting. Do a lot of people who live in the cities hunt over there? Like here it's a mass exodus during the season where a lot of city folk go out into the woods. Probably to the annoyance of the country folk! Although they likely enjoy the revenue at the bars!
do you hunt with only that rifle or use something else aswell? like elbow much be very hard to do hunting
do you eat what you catch?
i have read you hunt kangaroos, i tought they were protected
I have multiple firearms and use the one most appropriate for the job at hand, but yes, that's one of my hunting rifles.
As for what I shoot, sometimes I take it and sometimes it decays and gets picked over by other animals where it dropped.
Kangaroos are protected, I have a government issued license for culling though, so am allowed to shoot them.
I don't hunt.
But my younger daughter visited range for the first time yestarday...😉 She's 12 years old. Beretta 71 was quite easy, but she used the AR-15 with support and I was so suprised 😉
She knows how to use HAM radio and how to shoot and operate guns safety now. 😉
One day at the range hardly makes someone proficient at shooting (or knowing about) firearms but it was a good experience for her as a very brief introduction to firearms. Maybe she'll go again.
Lol love the line, I've hunted a lot of things and most of what I've hunted has died.
Hope you haven't tried dead ones, or else they may turn unread.
Yeah, sometimes a thing may live to see another day, I'm ok with it.
It's no fun if it's not challenging or comes easy. I like how detailed and easy to understand the details given are. Hunting needs true focus and to be able to strike fast
Focus is important yes, and a lot of skill; being a good hunter is not something that happens by accident.
Couldn't agree more. It takes dedication and consistent practice to be good.
My life is far removed from hunting, but reading your posts is still very interesting because they are the words of an expert enjoying something he loves. Only true enthusiasts have such good advice.
Remaining still and silent seems to work for many other things in life; it is a way to spot idiots and wait for the right moment to react 🤣
Yeah, I think there's room in a person's life to look and and understand things that may not necessarily be a strong interest. Being inquisitive seems like a good way to get the most out of life.
As for the idiots, there's so many of them, one doesn't need to look to hard to see them.
Me gustan los colores de la fotografia, los colores verde claro, verde oscuro, blanco, gris, negro, color piel, naranja, marron oscuro, marron claro.
I do not speak this language.
A likely story.
Youngest wants to go bow hunting and because he's a gung ho teenager it is extremely difficult to convince him that he needs way more recent practice with the actual bow (he thinks the handful of archery classes he did half his lifetime ago and the VR games is enough). Think whenever they get around to going up to the farm J is going to make him be able to shoot cans reliably before they anything.
Bow hunting is still legal in WA (on private land) but is now illegal in SA, as of Dec 2024. So, if your lad wants to go the best time would be now and before they ban it there, which I assume they will eventually. However, I'd hardly want an inexperienced bow hunter shooting arrows at animals...bow hunting is not just about drawing and releasing bows. To be done humanely it takes some understanding. If it goes wrong, (depending what sort of kid he is) he'll never get that image out of his head.
He's grown up watching and helping kill the chickens and fish (when our aquaponics was running) so he's okay with causing other animals to die and understands it has to be done as quickly and painlessly as possible. He also just very firmly believes that he's the only one that accurately estimates his skill levels in anything (he's very happy to tell me and his siblings that we're grossly overestimating ours especially if we're telling him things that he doesn't want to hear) til he gets a reality check (which obviously in this case I want done centuries before anything animate is getting shot at).
He'll be good to go then by the sounds of it, I'm interested to hear about how it goes. Is he practicing stalking? Getting close enough to take a shot is the largest part of bow hunting.
J has been desperately trying to get him to practise stalking (the challenge was get close enough to something to take a relatively closeup photo, so ideally using his GoPro as that can't zoom easily) but he doesn't want to and just wants to get into the thick of it due to aforementioned problem of grossly overestimating his abilities but thinking his assessments are accurate so that's another ongoing battle (but at least the ongoing battles with him are much fewer than they were when he was younger).
Hmm, well there's no need to wish him good luck with now hunting then because he'll never get close enough to make a shot.
LoL yep. I don't know if it's his brand of adhd/autism or him in general but he just can't be told some things. We only really put our foot down hard on certain things and where it's relatively safe to do so we just let him learn the hard way.
Well, at least he'll get a nice walk around the wilderness, that's always fun.
I always wondered, aren't there products to do that for you? Besides misplacing in the wind and all that. Is there a way to cover the human scent? Neutralize it? It's definitely not Axe...
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