Thread: Dry, noisy forest floor

Originally Posted by MB

Went for a goat hunt yesterday. Put in the hard yards, but no luck. The forest floor was very dry and noisy to walk through. Spooked two goats on separate occasions. Both went off like rockets. They certainly weren't going to stand around waiting to be shot in the head with a subsonic round! How to hunt in these conditions? Go after heavy rainfall? Sit in a likely spot and wait for something to appear?

Most of my trips happen to be in summer and this use to frustrate me.
Now I just go slow, like incredibly slow, some of the guys on here said if you think your going slow go even slower. Lots of stopping and sitting and listening., helps if you know your area well and know a good spot to sit and glass for some time. I’m quiet lazy and have a lot of patience so this works well for me.

Originally Posted by bunji

Yep what @Bill999 said, also old school Gym Boots (the ankle covering canvas kind, think they are back in fashion now )are good also due to both having very flexible soles ,l have carried Dive Boots as my stream crossing /camp/stalking boot for years & use them a lot when stalking in on Sika in the thick stuff as the flexible soles allow you to feel your way around snappy twigs etc & you find yourself unconsciously moving stuff away with the boot .

When you are getting up close on anything a often over looked stalk buster is metallic/foreign scaping noises from hollowed out Syn stocks ,uncovered suppressors etc .

Gym boots were the flavour of the day for myself and other like minded dudes,great for pussy footing. You could actually sorta feel if a dry stick was about to snap,hard to explain really but yeah they are the bees knees for doin the first gear low ratio thing for sure.
I still have a pick or two from the Gym boot error somewhere ,last pair were red I think lol.
Never tried the dive boots but did float around in shearers moccasins at times chasing the grey ghosts.

Originally Posted by Cordite

Consider Carlos Hathcock, USMC sniper aka "white feather" and how he snook up on a NVA general, only inching forward when the wind moved the grass around him, 3 days to get in range, 3 days to sneak out. But your work probably does not allow for 3-day goat stalking.

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/vie...awledback.html

I listened to his book on YouTube during the last lockdown, awesome story

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6EUznV6NDV8

Update. Deliberately went out in the rain and changed my approach according to the advice given here. Basically went slow, watched my footing and had a look around every couple of steps. What a difference! Got in to the middle of a small mob of goats. One animal was almost close enough to touch. Shot it in the back of the head. Job done! Goat can be easy to hunt, but these animals get hit pretty hard on surrounding private land so are quite skittish. Trip report to follow when I get a chance.

Originally Posted by doinit

Gym boots were the flavour of the day for myself and other like minded dudes,great for pussy footing. You could actually sorta feel if a dry stick was about to snap,hard to explain really but yeah they are the bees knees for doin the first gear low ratio thing for sure.
I still have a pick or two from the Gym boot error somewhere ,last pair were red I think lol.
Never tried the dive boots but did float around in shearers moccasins at times chasing the grey ghosts.

do you remember the canvas sided,rubber soled "jungle boots" we could get from milserp shops for a while???