I may be taking creative liberty with my wording. I’m more so into technique and efficacy when it comes to scouting and target acquisition. Two of the largest challenges I’ve encountered are:
1) Sight to sound coordination. This means when I hear something on the woods, identifying the source of the sound using the two senses in conjunction.
2) Transitioning from a target acquired with the naked eye to binoculars, a rifle scope, or a spotting scope. This is self explanatory.
To improve on number two I try to use landmarks, but if I’m using a higher magnification optic and targets appear close range 20-40 yards, then my field of view is tight. Right now I’m sitting in my yard watching squirrels trying to prepare for the season opener. I’m practicing with a spotting scope with minute magnification of 14x.
Number one has been troubling me for a time. I don’t know if squirrels can throw their voices or what, but when they start barking I have a helluva time locating them. It’s especially tough while leaves are on the trees. More often than not I’m using sound to locate most prey during daytime hunts. I can tell when a squirrel is eating, moving, climbing, digging often by sound, but rings the source I’d the sound can be a challenge. To surround the challenge I’ve given musítele drills. As of late “stay on em” is a drill that I have found useful. The gist of it is to locate an animal with the naked eye and keep your eye on it no mater where it goes. The challenge is to wait them out once they stop moving. They may be behind a branch, leaves, or may have jumped to another branch out of view where movement can’t be easily detected. Don’t second guess yourself once you’re on them. That leaf isn’t always a leaf. Animals don specific colors and patterns for a reason. I find this really fun and challenging to do with birds flying and hopping around the forest canopy. I pick one out and stay with it for a specific amount of time (maybe 2-5 minutes). I don’t care if mosquitos are biting (well I do, but you get the point), flies are buzzing, or if it is one bird among my a flock. I stay on it. What I have noticed is that I can pick animals out better with the naked eye while they’re sitting or standing still. Now transitioning from the makes eye to glass is still a challenge here.
What challenges and solutions have you encountered or worked out when it comes to glassing?
1) Sight to sound coordination. This means when I hear something on the woods, identifying the source of the sound using the two senses in conjunction.
2) Transitioning from a target acquired with the naked eye to binoculars, a rifle scope, or a spotting scope. This is self explanatory.
To improve on number two I try to use landmarks, but if I’m using a higher magnification optic and targets appear close range 20-40 yards, then my field of view is tight. Right now I’m sitting in my yard watching squirrels trying to prepare for the season opener. I’m practicing with a spotting scope with minute magnification of 14x.
Number one has been troubling me for a time. I don’t know if squirrels can throw their voices or what, but when they start barking I have a helluva time locating them. It’s especially tough while leaves are on the trees. More often than not I’m using sound to locate most prey during daytime hunts. I can tell when a squirrel is eating, moving, climbing, digging often by sound, but rings the source I’d the sound can be a challenge. To surround the challenge I’ve given musítele drills. As of late “stay on em” is a drill that I have found useful. The gist of it is to locate an animal with the naked eye and keep your eye on it no mater where it goes. The challenge is to wait them out once they stop moving. They may be behind a branch, leaves, or may have jumped to another branch out of view where movement can’t be easily detected. Don’t second guess yourself once you’re on them. That leaf isn’t always a leaf. Animals don specific colors and patterns for a reason. I find this really fun and challenging to do with birds flying and hopping around the forest canopy. I pick one out and stay with it for a specific amount of time (maybe 2-5 minutes). I don’t care if mosquitos are biting (well I do, but you get the point), flies are buzzing, or if it is one bird among my a flock. I stay on it. What I have noticed is that I can pick animals out better with the naked eye while they’re sitting or standing still. Now transitioning from the makes eye to glass is still a challenge here.
What challenges and solutions have you encountered or worked out when it comes to glassing?
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