How are you guys seeing so many deer?...!!!!
- Thread starter ultimatedude
- Start date
wow...thanx for all the replies...guess i am just bummed the rifle season is over...i didnt get to hunt alot of spots i wanted to because a hunting buddy of mine is 79yrs old and he cant make alot of the climbs...he loves to hunt and always has a great time when i take him out to the woods.... i dont want to blow him off so i just go to some easy spots with him so he can enjoy the woods...i hope someone will do the same for me when i reach that age...happy hunting....i think i am gonna make a peanut butter sandwich now....!!
Lungpopper said:
A) WOW. This is an excellent illustration of how I'm supposed to use my binos. This thread is the reason I signed up for SCH. Thanks so much! This should be on the forum wiki, except I don't think we have one...
B) I can tell that number 3 is a zoom-in of number 2. From that I assume that number 2 is a zoom in of number. If so, wow again. I really have a lot to learn about glassing and patience.
Stick with it ultimatedude, you've got a lot of good advice here. I know the season is over now, but this is the time to get out and look around. If you have good sign in the area's you are hunting try to get out mid week. You may also consider new areas and again now is the time to look for them, not during the season. I'm willing to spend an entire day or two looking for deer in a new area during the off season but when the season rolls around we don't scout at all. D11 is a tough nut to crack the entire zone holds deer but there are pockets that hold large populations making it easier to spot 10+ deer a day. Enjoy that peanut butter sandwich!!
Spotting scopes help a bit too. Sucks a little bit carrying it, but well worth it.
ok i am going to talk black science here for a second.... along what LP says about looking for parts of deer.
Your brain is very good at picking out shapes and colors and letting you know if even at a subconscious level that something is there. Ever have that feeling you are being watched only to look over and find that you are? The same thing works for hunting! Your brain can pick out the little parts of critters sticking out from a bush or in a hole and whamo you see game.
So how do you get your eyes and brain to work together do this little trick? Only one way, HUNT 365 days a year. The only way i have found to keep this skill sharp is spend a LOT of time outside. When i coyote hunt i hunt for everything. When i am working in a area that has deer i am constantly looking. Drive a canyon to work? look for deer. Get out and hike and find every game animal you can find. pretty soon your brain will do it with out you even trying. I think your brain processes more of your peripheral vision that current science says. You will find if you do this enough that your subconscious brain starts yelling at your conscious brain to look left stupid a deer is there and sometimes at amazing distance. The only way i know of to condition your brain for this is through repeated exposure to LOTS of deer. Think a walk in Cuyamaca state park is wast of time? Wrong its the best place to work on this. Lots of deer all over the place and just because you cant kill in the park does not mean you can not practice the skills.
Another part of the trick is to relax and let your amazing eyes do their work. What i mean by that is if you are so intently looking under every rock with your binos you brain goes into a bit of a tunnel vision mode where it blocks out everything but the tiny field of view you are so focused on. There are times that is ok like when you are in a spotting scope or when you know a deer is behind a bush and you take your time and pick apart every inch. When i start to glass a new area i first let my eyes scan the whole area. Relax and let all the info flood in. Let your brain pick out the detail with out focusing hard on any one spot. Remember you are wired to pick out shapes and color, it can be as small as a one square inch patch of fur that gives up the location of a whole animal . Once i have scanned with my bare eyes i start to glass. I cover a whole area semi quick. using the same trick of letting the animal jump out at me. When that fails i will start the grid and search more focused under every tree or bush. better than 75% of the time i pick up the animals with my bare eye or the quick look in the binos.
So RELAX and Calm your thoughts and you will see more deer.
Your brain is very good at picking out shapes and colors and letting you know if even at a subconscious level that something is there. Ever have that feeling you are being watched only to look over and find that you are? The same thing works for hunting! Your brain can pick out the little parts of critters sticking out from a bush or in a hole and whamo you see game.
So how do you get your eyes and brain to work together do this little trick? Only one way, HUNT 365 days a year. The only way i have found to keep this skill sharp is spend a LOT of time outside. When i coyote hunt i hunt for everything. When i am working in a area that has deer i am constantly looking. Drive a canyon to work? look for deer. Get out and hike and find every game animal you can find. pretty soon your brain will do it with out you even trying. I think your brain processes more of your peripheral vision that current science says. You will find if you do this enough that your subconscious brain starts yelling at your conscious brain to look left stupid a deer is there and sometimes at amazing distance. The only way i know of to condition your brain for this is through repeated exposure to LOTS of deer. Think a walk in Cuyamaca state park is wast of time? Wrong its the best place to work on this. Lots of deer all over the place and just because you cant kill in the park does not mean you can not practice the skills.
Another part of the trick is to relax and let your amazing eyes do their work. What i mean by that is if you are so intently looking under every rock with your binos you brain goes into a bit of a tunnel vision mode where it blocks out everything but the tiny field of view you are so focused on. There are times that is ok like when you are in a spotting scope or when you know a deer is behind a bush and you take your time and pick apart every inch. When i start to glass a new area i first let my eyes scan the whole area. Relax and let all the info flood in. Let your brain pick out the detail with out focusing hard on any one spot. Remember you are wired to pick out shapes and color, it can be as small as a one square inch patch of fur that gives up the location of a whole animal . Once i have scanned with my bare eyes i start to glass. I cover a whole area semi quick. using the same trick of letting the animal jump out at me. When that fails i will start the grid and search more focused under every tree or bush. better than 75% of the time i pick up the animals with my bare eye or the quick look in the binos.
So RELAX and Calm your thoughts and you will see more deer.
Snake Charmer
Happiness is a warm gut pile
Aeon- Great description, The more time you spend looking the better you get at picking out the shapes and colors that betray an animal. I am lucky to live in a place where I can overlook a pretty good piece of wild land every day and it has helped me tremendously in my ability to spot game.
Goo stuff guys. I have a further question. How long do you guys scan a certain ridge, valley, etc., before moving on? In other words, how long before you are confident there are no deer in that area? Shoild I be bino'ing one area for 10 minutes, half hour, hour? Do you cover less area, but really dig into it, or quick looks, and cover more ground?
Aeon, thanks for that post. Has some of the greatest info a hunter can use in the field. I tend to get the tunnel vision problem you spoke of. I've never found a deer bedded down only up and moving around. I will use your info to help me in my future hunts.
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The wealth of knowledge displayed in these comments is mind-blowing. It is so very generous of you gentlemen to share your insights in these posts. I'm going to re-read this thread again before every hike till it becomes second nature, and practice, practice, practice!
8)
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...expect bizarre spelling errors
8)
Sent from my iPhone
...expect bizarre spelling errors
You know you can be scanning a hill for hours and not see nothing. then magically a deer appears. I swear there has been times I knew deer where there. but I could not spot them. because they are so well camouflaged. like said before it depends on the terrain, how brushy, trees, cover, or is it open country.
Find an area that you feel is good Muley habitat. Scout it and make sure the sign is there. Then find the highest point that will give you a good view of a wide area and start glassing. It might take a week of glassing an area different times of day before you might see deer if the experience is not there and in some cases even if it is. I would say the best for me is in the morning .Once you learn the routes and the activity of the deer in your area the game is on. You will start to pick em out like $100 bills!!! There can be a wash that has no deer activity and 2 washes over might be a deer freeway for whatever reason. Glass all year long because it keeps you on your game and you can really get the deer activity locked in your area and for me it feels good to watch the deer even if it is not season. In the off season I glass high up on the nasty ridges and occasionally will catch a glimpse of some stud buck walking a ridge. The does in my area usually stay low and can usually find them all year long. So once the season comes along it's like you studied all year long for the test and your confidence should be there. You never want to scout during the season all your gonna do is leave your scent every where and put the deer into night mode.once the rut kicks in those bucks will start to come down from those hell holes and Cali ridges!!! It is possible and it is a challenge to get em high in those ridges too! It can really put you to the test though and I wouldn't recommend it to any one new to hunting. Go get em fellas!!!
Awesome info guys! This being my second season hunting California an anywhere in the west for that matter I am not very accustomed to looking for deer through binos. But yesterday seemed to be my break out day. This season I got myself a good pair of binos, ( Leupold Northforks) which I think was the ticket. I glassed up 12 separated deer yesterday. First one was a set if ears going over a ridge at daybreak so it was silhouetted. But I found a doe where I only saw her head in a bush. A couple standing. At one point I found a group of four does after watching them for a 5-10 minutes I saw an antler time with them behind a bush. I found that a bi pod really helps me steady the binos. Like Aeon said don't get tunnel vision I found a few deer as I was looking around in my binos FOV.
Besides the information about the book on Mulies (thanks again for that, mine should get here on Monday) I wanted to also thank all of the other members who have posted the extremely helpful information within this thread (as well as other threads/posts on the SCH Forum). ;D
Being a hunter who has been hunting for 3+ years now and didn't come from a hunting or gun owning family, I had to learn most of what I know on my own through trial and error, or finding the information and hunting locations through studying maps (a few helpful guys pointed me in good directions as well). There have been a few kind individuals who have somewhat taken me under their wing recently and have also encouraged me to branch out into hunting larger game. I've hunted quail, dove, rabbits and pig the past two years, and for the first time this year I've tried hunting waterfowl. This is also my first year to try hunting a Southern California Mulie.
I'm going to practice all the good advice given here and use it so that hopefully this season I can post a photo of me with my very first buck, or deer for that matter... ever! ;D It will be a very proud day for me when I accomplish that and I can guarantee have I will have a huge smile on my face.
Not because I killed the deer (well, not just because of that), but because all of the hard work, knee and foot pain, sweat and time spent will have lead up to that point in time. Until I do accomplish that, thank you, thank you , thank you all of the members who help out guys (and gals) that are somewhat deer hunting "rookies", just like me.
Thank you... ;D
Being a hunter who has been hunting for 3+ years now and didn't come from a hunting or gun owning family, I had to learn most of what I know on my own through trial and error, or finding the information and hunting locations through studying maps (a few helpful guys pointed me in good directions as well). There have been a few kind individuals who have somewhat taken me under their wing recently and have also encouraged me to branch out into hunting larger game. I've hunted quail, dove, rabbits and pig the past two years, and for the first time this year I've tried hunting waterfowl. This is also my first year to try hunting a Southern California Mulie.
I'm going to practice all the good advice given here and use it so that hopefully this season I can post a photo of me with my very first buck, or deer for that matter... ever! ;D It will be a very proud day for me when I accomplish that and I can guarantee have I will have a huge smile on my face.
Not because I killed the deer (well, not just because of that), but because all of the hard work, knee and foot pain, sweat and time spent will have lead up to that point in time. Until I do accomplish that, thank you, thank you , thank you all of the members who help out guys (and gals) that are somewhat deer hunting "rookies", just like me.Thank you... ;D
AirRifleHunter said:Besides the information about the book on Mulies (thanks again for that, mine should get here on Monday) I wanted to also thank all of the other members who have posted the extremely helpful information within this thread (as well as other threads/posts on the SCH Forum). ;D
Being a hunter who has been hunting for 3+ years now and didn't come from a hunting or gun owning family, I had to learn most of what I know on my own through trial and error, or finding the information and hunting locations through studying maps (a few helpful guys pointed me in good directions as well). There have been a few kind individuals who have somewhat taken me under their wing recently and have also encouraged me to branch out into hunting larger game. I've hunted quail, dove, rabbits and pig the past two years, and for the first time this year I've tried hunting waterfowl. This is also my first year to try hunting a Southern California Mulie.
I'm going to practice all the good advice given here and use it so that hopefully this season I can post a photo of me with my very first buck, or deer for that matter... ever! ;D It will be a very proud day for me when I accomplish that and I can guarantee have I will have a huge smile on my face.
Thank you... ;D
I hit the like button.
My book came in today!
What a great read with some very excellent advice and helpful information from what I've read so far. While I've been doing allot "right" while spotting and stalking, I've now learned a few things I've been doing wrong and I will correct those mistakes. Hopefully by putting into practice this added knowledge I just might get a shot at a buck.
One thing is for sure, I know I'll read it thoroughly quite a few times.
What a great read with some very excellent advice and helpful information from what I've read so far. While I've been doing allot "right" while spotting and stalking, I've now learned a few things I've been doing wrong and I will correct those mistakes. Hopefully by putting into practice this added knowledge I just might get a shot at a buck.
One thing is for sure, I know I'll read it thoroughly quite a few times.