Hunting is a really tricky habit that requires great observation skills and a lot of tricks. Make yourself look like one of the pros by following these important tricks for hunting.
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Preparation Tricks
The importance of preparation is commonly underrated by many hunters, thinking that their hunting skills are all they need to track, lure, and kill successfully. However, the important tricks for hunting should start before you leave for the outdoors. These tricks should give you a huge head start.
1. Bathe using scent-free soap and shampoo.
Deer, antelopes, and wild boars have very strong noses. They can smell humans from 30 to 50 meters away at normal airflow. You might as well sing out loud if you are going to make yourself a walking perfume bottle.
2. Seal your clothes in a plastic container filled with leaves, twigs, and dirt.
This will help you conceal your scent, such as human perspiration and any contamination your clothes might have gotten (e.g. laundry soap). It will also be easier for your hunting clothes to pick up natural scents while tracking.
3. Bring a relevant hunting scent to the season.
Many hunters, mostly are beginners, overrate the use of doe estrous. They mistakenly believe that a mating scent attracts bucks all year round. However, doe estrous and similar hunting scents no longer work at the end of the mating season, usually starting October. Bucks are more territorial than sexual at such time, so using buck scent to pose an imminent threat is more likely to lure them out.
Tracking Tricks
Tracking is the longest part of hunting. In fact, most hunters end up with no success in tracking a quarry. Animals are very keen of their surroundings, making them harder to stalk and kill. However, the following important tricks for hunting can help you become a better tracker.
1. Move extra slowly.
Slow in hunting means sporadic movements. Stand or sit still for more than five minutes if necessary to void any sense of threat that the animals feel. Timing your movements is also important, such as when the wind blows, causing the leaves and grass to rustle.
2. Stop every time you make a noise.
Many novice hunters close in as soon as the animal they track senses something wrong. They think that it is already useless to stay hidden. However, alerted deer and antelopes usually stay still to observe after sensing something wrong in their surroundings. They will go back to feeding or resting if they do not smell intruders. Your best chance of staying undetected is to stay where you are and wait for the animal’s suspicion to die down.
3. Prance like a deer.
It sounds absurd, but it is surprisingly deceiving. Deer and antelopes are familiar of the steps other animals make. They will not suspect humans around if they cannot hear unfamiliar steps.
4. Quick-step your way through bushes.
Instead of clearing the path slowly, it will be more deceiving to quick-step your way through as doing so can imitate the sounds of smaller animals, such as squirrels and marmots. Be sure to tiptoe as much as possible to reduce the sound of your footfall.
5. Pick a landmark from the skyline.
When stalking and preparing for bait, ground landmarks are easy to see only when they are at your line of sight. However, you can get lost and confused when you have to change your position. The best landmarks are always the ones from the skyline, such as a large tree, rock formation, or fence line.
Driving and Shooting Tricks
Driving and shooting are the hardest parts of hunting. These important tricks for hunting should make the tasks easier.
1. Position standers from end to end.
A group of novice hunters normally put standers alongside and in front of the driving area to ensure confinement. Common instinct will tell you to move to the direction where the quarry also moves. However, animals are really tricky creatures — deer in particular. They will sneak back to the opposite direction upon seeing the hunters moving to only one direction.
You can keep your quarry confused if you maintain standers on all directions.
2. Spread your scent to create a sense of danger.
When you suspect an animal to be frequenting a spot, walk to the direction of the wind and make a circle around that area to disperse your scent, touching bushes, twigs, and dirt along the way. Your scent will fade slowly in an hour, just enough to make an animal think that a threat had been there but is already gone. This is your time to stalk and kill.
3. Clear out all possible shooting lanes from a tree stand.
Determine beforehand all the possible locations and directions that animals might appear from your tree stand. Clear out the covers when necessary and move in some bushes to keep you hidden. Also make a plan on how to move around your tree stand without making big, conspicuous movements and touching bushes around.
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