Better hunter

[Sure Shot Mc Gee]

Trapping was a Fall past time for the privileged .

(Hands on with some tutelage in Tracks & Tracking) Staying clear of the Game Warden was my #1 priority back in those days.
Hunting was a necessity for this under privileged kid having two age'ed parents on a small plot of farm land and a older brother who became Physically Challenge early in his life after a car wreak.

Being handed a well used 30-30 Marlin model 36 and a 1/2 box of shells and a lensic pocket compass at the age of 11.
Killed ducks to deer and everything in-between mid summer to Valentines Day. While I was home my parents never lacked having fresh meat or fish.~~never.

 

[the possum]

Hunting varmints with only a knife taught me a lot about stalking and the virtue of silence.

 

[johnwilliamson062]

I looked at older sources on hunting. Things written before there was so much leaning on technology. I learned that animals follow patterns just like humans. A deer will cross the same path at almost the same time almost every day just like people take the same route home from work almost everyday. Then I learned how to move the animals the direction I wanted. Sure, a deer can jump over a four foot fence or struggle through a pile of brush, but it take an easy path to go around. Find a clearing with 4-5 deer paths on one side, block all but one and most of those deer will then go down the open path.

Three days prepping and scouting for every day hunting. If I don't take the time to scout I don't hunt in the fall anymore.

It isn't hunting. It is ambushing.

 

[Dufus]

I would say the ONE thing that made me a better hunter is my Dad.

He taught me everything he knew and then I learned a little more on my own thru observations.

He came from the era that if you shoot it, you eat it.

The 3 most important things he taught me is tracking, stalking, and processing.

He turns 88 this coming August, so he doesn't get out hunting any longer, but he still grows a garden and mows the place.

 

[Gunplummer]

johnwilliamson- That is true. I have seen places where a tree went down and a small group of deer will start to loop the trail around it instead of jumping over it. Turkeys are the same way. I hunt with a rifle in the fall and sit and watch their trails. It seems they are more regular than deer.

 

[DPI7800]

For me it was more in the form of inspiration from reading Backcountry Bowhunting by Cameron R. Hanes.

That book changed everything for me.