Stalking your game.
One element of hunting that some people pay little attention to is when they move in on an unsuspecting animal.
Starting off by getting out of a vehicle and slamming the door, not a good start!
Noise can travel a fair distance, especially if the wind is not in your favour to start with.
Moving slowly and constantly keeping check on you target, watching its movements for any sign of it becoming uneasy are simple thing to keep in mind.
Keeping to cover and slowly moving, watching the undergrowth as not to make to much noise.
Try not to skyline yourself, surprising how you stick out, keep to the side of a hill and contour around.
Using trees and shrubs, avoiding being out in the open and out of the sun, these are all factors to consider.
Using some cover and wearing camo clothing these goats had no idea they were being photographed.
Make sure you have no shiny objects on you that the sun can hit and reflect off.
Rifle stocks are one of the worst things for reflections from sunlight, high gloss wooden stocks look great but in practical terms they are the worst culprits fro this.
Even some shinny synthetics reflect badly and also gloss scopes do the same.
I use camo clothing, breaking up the outline and helping you to blend into your surrounds goes a long way.
I’ve had goats stare me down, I’ve frozen, sometimes for a few minutes, sometimes longer, watching them in hope they continue on feeding and not feel threatened.
Apart from their sense of smell in giving away your position, movement and a shinny reflection from the sun hitting an object is what catches their eye.
Slow and steady, keeping any sudden movement to a minimum and you’ll be surprised at how close you can get!
Slow and a steady approach allowed the author to stalk in close on this mob.
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Category: Articles, Phil Johns, Regular Columns
That is a really really good point about rifle stocks Phil. I had never thought about that one before. I might paint mine over in home made cammo. Sad in a way as the factory finish on the laminated stock is gorgeous but I don’t really want to talk aesthetics with goats do I?
@ Stephen,
you don’t need to paint over your nice shiney stock !! Most gunshops sell cammo gun tape which you can then tape over your barrel and any woodwork which might reflect light………likewise your scope may well need taping?
Another ‘cammo alternative’ is plain old scrim (we used to cut up old sugarbags for this)but you can buy this from Aussie Disposals in roll form. Back in my Army days we’d just cut up lengths of scrim and wrap them around the rifle and secure them with rubber bands. Leaving bits dangling and fraying the edges also helped the effect. You don’t cover the action as you need this to ‘work’, however, the barrel, butt and forend can well do with some cammo to break up the outline of the rifle….(hard edges ain’t ‘natcheral’ in nature………..
A further point people often ‘miss’ is camouflaging the hands.You can be wearing the best cammo clothes out, but if you haven’t cammo-ed your hands, they’ll stand out like a neon sign at night!! Don’t believe me? Get a mate wearing his cammo gear to stand in the shade of a tree 100m away, and then wave his hands………..
Likewise wearing some cammo facepaint (or even mud and wood ash instead)or a face veil will also help !
Any ‘advantage’ you can get……..take it !!
regards
Harry.