Thread: What "sense" did you use to get onto your last animal?

Originally Posted by will.i.em

Sound. I stop every now and again to listen. Heard something moving, which I first thought was a bird playing with the leaves on the forest floor. Kept listening to it and I heard it moving more consistently. A young stag walked almost right into me.
Mate of mine had a similar experience. He has better luck hearing deer than seeing them in the bush.

Second deer was sight. Seeing a deer standing in a clearing is quite obvious :p.

Agree, i have started to sit and listen more...mrs and i sat and had lunch in the bush, our breeze pushed up the face and 2 mins later a spiker came down the face....shot while i was sitting with a mouth full of my lunch....

Hamish

Originally Posted by HNTMAD

Agree, i have started to sit and listen more...mrs and i sat and had lunch in the bush, our breeze pushed up the face and 2 mins later a spiker came down the face....shot while i was sitting with a mouth full of my lunch....

Hamish

There is definitely something in that.

I have lost count of the number of deer i've shot while having a cuppa in the bush... I always try to pick an elevated spot with shooting lanes into likely looking county with the wind in my face to brew up. Standing joke among my hunting friends that that is how I shot most of my deer. Conveniently normally between 10-11am too!

First and only deer I've shot so far.

Stalking clearings on the river flats, saw lot of sign followed by horopito that had been given a "damn good thrashing". Slowed down heading into next couple clearings and thought I heard a twig snap (was getting mentally fatigued by that stage) but thought I was imagining things. Just waited a tad longer at the edge of the clearing and a spiker came trotting about 15m right in front of me. I was glad I remembered all the advice I had been given to pull off the shot

Well if you go by social media and Youtube, you hardly need any, going with recent advancements in technology.
Certainly as humans we are slowly evolving away from needing hunting instincts and continuous use of senses as we slowly cater to all things bright and shiny.
Not knocking anything, its just the way it is. The sport is evolving, as are us as hunters.
A bit like driving new cars, we need less human input into actually driving and operating and slowly evolving to just holding onto the wheel.

I guess this is why I'm still almost exclusively a bush hunter. Not because its better than other forms of hunting but for me it more often requires use of all the senses.
Because of this its helps me keep in the hunt so to speak, as I find its totally immersive and requires long periods of concentration and decision making to the ever evolving sign, ground and wind conditions.

Other forms of hunting Ive done and occasionally still do, have taken away some of the required senses and for some reason it feels like it takes me out of the hunt.
To me it feels less like I'm "hunting" and more like exercise followed by a chance of a shot, rather than an exciting and sensory overloaded challenge.
I guess I'm a bit of a weirdo or still stuck in the 90's.
Thankfully we are all unique and each of us have different wants and needs and luckily hunting as a sport caters for all our desires and outcomes each time we get off the couch and lace up our boots.

My last hunt was on a yearling Sika Hind.

Sight - was following a set of fresh scuff marks in the litter fall around the side of a steepish face in the Kaimanawa bush.
Smell - could smell a deer. My sense of smell is only average, so when I can smell a deer then I know I'm either close or an animal has very recently been in the area.
Feeling - put my hand on a horizontal branch with tiny little stinging nettles growing up from it which I didn't see as I was too busy looking forward. The pain distracted me which was a rookie mistake on my part and took me out of the intense concentration I needed. Stepped over a small rise in front of me too quickly still thinking about the pain without slowly going step by step and scanning it all properly as new ground came into view and missed the
Sight - yearling low and down to my right looking back at me through some pepperwoods in a shallow gut.
By the time I had identified what it was and raised the gun to my shoulder it stepped off and got swallowed by the thick scrub.
Was a good hunt nether the less and later on got onto another mob of 4 hinds/yearlings.

For me sight is number 1, then hearing number 2, then spidey number 3, or as I like to think of it as intuition and experience, followed by smell number 4.
Micky D's common sense is also worth acknowledging as well and does play its part sometimes.
Disclaimer-individual results may vary.

My dog's smell gave me a clue to slow down, then I saw a flash of movement in my peripheral vision that led to a billy goat. Hearing a second chewing behind a tree led to a second. Unfortunately, my sense of smell barely functions, probably because of Covid. I wish it were otherwise. Who knows what I've missed?

My kids smelled a Billy on our last hunt and let me know about it. But we had no time to investigate

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Last deer was using binos, about 200m away on South Is tops.
Even in Kaimais bush its always sight now. 90% naked eye and 10% binos even at longer distances like 200m.

I used to hear quite a few first but not so much now. Hearing declines suddenly at a certain age, perhaps later if you use protection or sooner if you stand next to an unsuppressed 270.

My sense of smell has improved quite a bit since stopping all dairy products. But mostly useful to locate a downed animal. I often smell deer but its just where they left a body fluid; no longer nearby.

making loud noise.roaring like a lunatic gets you deer certain times of the year.

Originally Posted by 7mm Rem Mag

#1 SIGHT: I saw deer shit on the ground.

#2 SMELL: I picked it up and gave it a good sniff, mainly because I wanted to look like I knew what I was doing as I had my neighbour with me and he is new to the game.

#3 TASTE: Although I was reluctant I had to show my neighbour I was a serious hunter so gave it a good lick to confirm the freshness of the deer terd.

#4 SIGHT: spotted deer 550 meters away in the distance up the top of a gully on the opposite face.

After climbing all the way up and shooting them I very much doubt #1, #2 & #3 had any relevance to the actual animals shot but not only did it look like I knew what I was doing the neighbour sure was impressed, I only hope he took note of it so he knows how to track deer in the future.

You do know your supposed to carry a few black jelly beans for YOU to lick n eat when demonstrating that....don't you??

and for real effect black currant jam when they are on clover and a bit loose

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

You do know your supposed to carry a few black jelly beans for YOU to lick n eat when demonstrating that....don't you??

Shit so that's what that old guy used when showing me how to track deer, no wonder the mrs went mad when I gave her a kiss when I got home.

Normally a combination of spidey and sound.

I tend to get a feeling that an area is "deery" then I basically stop and check everywhere I can see and ask myself if every single thing I look at is a deer. Keeping in mind that if I'm moving, I'm not really looking.

More often than I'd like I think, that area right up there is bound to have a deer in it, then approach it too fast or do something stupid to spook the deer that is inevitably there