How do I become better at spotting deer/elk?

Question

I am okay at spotting animals in the wilderness, but not the best. I have good vision, but I just want to get better at spotting animals. How do I get better at spotting animals besides practicing more?

Answer 1

This may sound screwy, but soften your vision. The Lakota Indians (perhaps "primitive" peoples are the best source to look for survival skills) speak about softening the vision, being able to take in the entire view in one blink. We "civilized" Westerners have become adept at staring very focusedly at one spot, the 3% of our visual field that we actually see, opposed to all the rest, which is peripheral. Learn to soften your gaze and "take in" the periphery.

Talk to pilots about Constant Scanning, so to speak. A pilot never gets fixated on one guage or one spot outside the plane. His eyes are constantly scanning everywhere around him, inside and out, without effort. You'd be surprised how often and how easily we fixate on one thing, and forget the rest.

Once you've been out in the wilderness for several days (or weeks, depending how city-bound you are), you'll notice your eyes will begin seeing differently than In the City. Your perspective will become more wholistic, you may even begin to "feel" what's happening around you. Open your senses to this, learn to trust your intuition!

If you do manage to slip into this "true hunter's" trance-like awareness, be careful when you get back in your car to head home, as surviving in traffic is a completely different world than walking and listening quietly.

Be aware that you aren't there to tame nature, but rather you are returning to the outdoors as a guest. To truly humble yourself to this point, try hunting in Alaska -- such a place forces one to forego the philosophy of Humans Were Put on Earth to Tame the Wild and Subdue Nature. We're just visitors here, not masters of the universe. Humility will lead to awe, and awe will lead to experience of the Divine -- however you view that.

Answer 2

just set still,listen,if you have to move do so very slowly no quick jerks.proper camo. I think of it like this if a squirrel is one of the most playful ceatures in the mountains not noticng alot aournd it but running around looking for nuts or what have you. So if spots you then most likely the deer 50 yards out already knew you were there and now it is going another way. I have had squirrel's climb up the same tree i was in up and around the back of the tree never knowing i was there.Then shortly there after guess what? yep you guest it here came 3 deer down to the feeding area. All im saying is the less you are noticed by the wild the better off you are. Because they will help each other know when something is not right with the area. but if your stalking you should not be able to cover no more than 1 mile a day if you do then you are moving to fast.

Answer 3

definite, although, evolution would not "understand" or care who's smarter, swifter etc and those traits won't additionally be those that make a individual 'greater suitable' in terms of evolutionary exchange. in the evolutionary technique, there's no objective or objective to which the approach is going. Its purely that a mutation happens that delivers an animal a distinction from its friends. that fluctuate would or won't prepare to be of a few earnings, counting on the ambience and different factors. sometimes the adjustments does become helpful and that distinctive animal survives by way of its distinction, and passes on its genes to its offspring. while this occurs adequate, at last all of the offspring have the hot trait (the exchange) and those that have not got it do no longer stay to tell the story besides. So the comprehensive technique isn't being pushed to 3 end, that is in uncomplicated terms happening. in a single difficulty the comparable distinction ought to have became out to no longer be helpful and in yet another that is efficient. So, it may prove that human beings who're smarter or swifter become extinct collectively as somebody with another genetic characteristic (a gene that makes them greater prolific as an occasion) become the dominant ones.

Answer 4

Practice is the main thing. The inexperienced often at least subconsciously have a mental picture of the whole animal, and that's what they're looking for. With experience, you begin to look for an ear, or a rump, just a piece of an animal, something that isn't part of the background. If you aren't looking for it, you're less likely to see it, so the hard part is getting over the idea of seeing the whole critter.

Answer 5

If you are on the move go slower, I mean a lot slower! Take one step and look 270 degrees around you. Every step you take presents a different view. The less movement on your part also helps to keep the animals from spotting you. Always have the wind in your face so the animals cannot smell you.
If you are sitting, listen intently! You may not be able to see them because of their natural camouflage. Listen and then look. Watch for slight movements. It isn't easy. If it were everyone would be hunting.
Good luck.
Also go to where they are going for food and water. Watch for paths and footprints.

Answer 6

I primarily watch for movement in the woods around me and try to discerne what is causing the movement most of the large game I have taken has been spotted by an ear flicker or slight movment of some type

Answer 7

A way to quickly spot game is to look for the horizontal lines of their back. yes it helps to look more than you move.

Answer 8

Do like they do Move, Stop, Look, Listen> REPEAT very slowly.*