Hunting Tips:
Ability and Weapons – Your Two Greatest Allies

We’re talking today about your two most important allies in hunting -- your abilities and your weapons. You need to know how your weapon performs at certain distances … whether it’s a bow or a rifle.

You might think it doesn’t matter much about the different grains of bullets that you shoot. Shots can be fired and animals missed if you don’t pay attention to this important piece of the hunting puzzle. So let’s go over a little bit of that …

In order to get the same performance out of a weapon, you have to shoot the same ammo, the same brand, the same grain. I just can’t tell you how important it is, especially at a great distance, how much difference it makes in the weapon’s ability to perform at its optimal level.

Bow hunting is the same thing. Bow hunters seem to be a little bit more particular on everything being the same. We’re always taught to have the same anchor point, grip the bow the same, hold it the same, look through it the same, and everything on the bow needs to stay the same. And I can’t tell you how many times the peep site might have slipped just a little bit. One little change will cause that arrow to fly a lot differently. And everybody shoots the same arrows. It’s very important to shoot the same brand, the same broad head, the same grain. I just can’t tell you how important that is in order to harvest the animal. It’s all about taking the animal quickly and cleanly. Nobody wants to put a poor shot on an animal. If we practice a certain way, we hunt the same way.

You see articles about this in different magazines. It may be the same topics but it’s worded just a little bit differently to try to get the point across of how important it is.

Next you need to know your abilities. A person really needs to stay within his abilities. If you have never tried a 300 yard shot and you’ve been successful at 200, don’t go past those abilities unless you’ve practiced at that distance. You owe it to the animal to take him as quickly and cleanly as possible. A bow hunter especially, will practice at 20, 30, 40 yards and a person needs to know what his abilities are and don’t go outside of those. It does not do anyone any good. I can’t tell you how frustrated I’ve seen people that have tried to stretch their abilities out, put a poor hit on an animal, and then they track it as far as they possibly can and then they lose the animal.

So know your abilities and your weapons. If you do, you’ll have a much greater chance of harvesting the animal you want.

Hunting Tips:
The Art of Camouflage

One of the biggest mistakes that I have found that new hunters make is the art of camouflage. And it’s more than just going to some of the larger clothing or hunting stores and buying camouflage. Camouflage goes way past a shirt and a pair of pants.

I’ve gotten to the point where it’s almost comical because you’ll have a guy camouflage everything but their hands and their face. Their hands and their face are what move the most. If you’re sitting down in the tree stand, you look like an owl looking around. That white, shiny face is moving all around. Their hands are scratching their nose. They might rub their ear. But that hand is moving as well. And they just don’t even realize it.

I videoed something else just the other day. I had a gentleman in that I was guiding on an oryx hunt. He was camouflaged, no face mask, no hands, but I was able to teach him how to use the cover to work his way into position without being detected. As he’s laying there his sleeves move up and he’s got this beautiful silver shiny watch right there just shining like a diamond.

He couldn’t figure out why the animals ran away. And I told him, “Brother, you look like a beacon to them. When you’re in their world, you’ve got to do things a little bit different.”

A simple ring can do it … even sunglasses. So many guys that especially are in the outdoors quite often always put their sunglasses on top of their hat when they don’t have them on. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen people put their sunglasses on top of their hat without even realizing it and there again, glare.

Glare and shiny objects are very important things. You can have the shirt and the pants on but that doesn’t make you invisible.

Last and most important, be still. If you don’t have a face mask or gloves, you can be still. If you really think about it, movement is what gets our attention nine times out of ten. Rarely will a person be able to scan the area and pick out the tip of an ear, or a horn or a tail or a leg, just any body part of the animal, without that animal moving first. Movement is what catches our eye and that’s exactly what catches the eye of the animal. So if a person is still then they’ll be able to get away with not having as much camouflage on than if he was moving.

So camouflage the best you can. But if you don’t have mask and gloves, by all means don’t wear jewelry or sunglasses, and be as still as you possibly can. You’ll be surprised how much more you’ll see if you obey the camouflage rule.