mainebowhunter wrote:JoeRE wrote:Great topic Magic.
It took you very little time to decipher what the buck in your example was doing through reading sign - but don't forget how much time it took to learn how to read that sign....years, DECADES, of time looking at sign.
That's what so many newer hunters get hung up on. They search frantically for a shortcut, unable to accept that a hunter has to be a novice for probably 10 or 20 years before you start to feel in control of your destiny out there and are not so intimidated to get outside your comfort zone. I have a news flash for you: for the first decade maybe a lot longer sure you might get lucky a few times but overall you are gonna suck at hunting!!!
Technology does offer some shortcuts to success no doubt about it, but a lot can be lost by shortening the journey at the same time. Depends how you define success too.
Then there are the sleazy snake oil salesmen that prey on hunters, just slowing their attempts to gain any real hunting skills.
Woodsmanship is not quite dead yet but its probably gonna die in the next generation of modern hunters...buried under great piles of "gear"
I love using trail cameras now but I am very glad that the first 10 years as a hunter they didn't exist - then when they did they were too expensive for me to afford for quite a few years. They are a great tool to supplement scouting but absolutely do not replace it.
Here in the bigger timber, I think it takes 10-15 years just to build up ones knowledge of the ground they are hunting, knowing how the deer move in and out of the pieces, how the deer use the pieces during what times of the year. If your not a rifle tracker, you have to make up the difference off season to learn the same amount of ground. Lots and lots of boot leather thats for sure.
Its totally understandable why tracking / still hunting is such a huge part of the way hunting is done around here.
Spot on.
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