Hunting is all about tracking, finding and targeting your most favorite animals. No hunter likes wounded games that usually happens with those not realizing, how important is to track animals. For a perfect hunt, you should first understand the value of animals tracking and then avail yourself of accurate shot if you will successfully find the one to target.
A fine, accurate, durable and lightweight rifle will be of no use if you do not know where exactly the habitat of your target is. Animal of your choice won’t come to you. It can never be likea deer calling you‘Hey man! I’m here, come and shoot me down’. Animals chasing is an essential part of any hunting venture.
To make your hunting experience superior and more pleasurable, you must develop your tracking skills. Prior to moving toward how to find animals you should know some other imperative things about hunting. And, above all you must be a licensed hunter.
For your ease, we have distilled down some imperious ideas and ways of searching and tracking animals while hunting.
What You Need-to-Know Before Tracking Animals?
There are certain things a hunter should be acquainted with and comprehend prior to tracking animals while hunting. If you do not recognize these factors to find animals, you may not be able to start your hunt even. These will surely assist hunters to find animals of their choice and go ahead greatly with their hunting endeavors.
1. Where to Look For Animals:
The first and the foremost thing is to identify where you will find your desired animals. For instance,Bob Marshall Wilderness situated in the western Montana, United States is home for many large to medium sized mammals including elk, black bear, mountain goat and cougar. Seasonal Elk hunting is very much common therein.
2. You Must Recognize Their Behaviors:
Just like human beings, animals do possess certain behaviors. For example, American black bears are territorial in nature, tend to be non-gregarious and usually hibernate in months of October and November. For their territorial marking, they scratch the barks with claws or rub their bodies against trees. By knowing the behaviors of animals, you can easily find them.Wild animals often make easily detectable sounds like growling, squeaking, roaring etc.
3. You Must Be Familiar With Hunting Spots:
Another important thing to take into account is the hunting spots familiarity. You will not get all animals at one place or in flocks.Therefore, you have to pick up all details about different hunting sites in your country.
For example, the higher Montana backcountry owns huge population of varying animals including grizzlybears and wolves.
Bob Marshall Wilderness in one of the few hunting spots in United States where you can rifle hunt Elk even in the course of rut or bugle. In Canada, Bulkley and Telkwa valleys with quite low-elevationsare home to somegreat mule deer making it a good hunting spot.
4. You Should Know About Hunting Seasons:
Not all the seasons are made for hunting. Generally, hunters all packed with hunting gears come out of their comfortable lifestyle during the fall and spring season. But these may vary from state to state, from country to country and also for the hunting permit holders.
For the case of point, bear season for rifle huntersusually starts in August (western Washington) or inSeptember (eastern Washington). These hunting seasons may prolongfor a month or more.Canadian black bear hunts take place in the fall and spring. Also, you may not be permissibleto hunt Canadian Lynx in any time of the year except from mid-November to February mid.
Factors to Be Considered For Finding & Tracking Animals:
In hunting, you not only try taking animal’s life but your life is equally athigh risk. You cannot afford missing anything from hunting equipment to accessories and expertise. Skills do play key role in perfect hunting but you cannot deny the significance of knowledge about every aspect of hunting and animals to be hunted.
However, besides all these aspects of hunting and attributes of wildlife animals, you must also learn how to find animals for hunting.
1. Signs Speak:
So, you are all ready and reached the hunting spot with rifle in your hands or at your shoulders. Now, what next? You have to look for trails of your desired animal. Different signs that animals leave behind on pathways are actually the real source to find them.
- Footprints and Pattern Associated:
If area is muddy, you can trackanimal’s footprints leading to its den. Foot patternsactually aid in identifying animals as each one has unique features in this regard. For example, hoofed animals usually are the diagonal walker and have cloven hooves on their feet.
- Disturbed NaturalSettings and Areas:
It would be hard finding footprints in mountainous terrain. In this case, you can try to find its poop, or disturbed area and its pattern including broken branches, clawing on barks etc. For instance, felines nibble the grass contrasting to deer who normally rip the grass out of ground. Sometimes crunched leaves also help and take you to the animal’s most recent location.
- Sounds and Voices Around:
You can also focus on voices in the surroundings to get an idea if animal is hiding somewhere nearby you or running anywhere else. Footsteps noises of animals become more dominant in winters as compared to other seasons. Growling and screaming of animals will also help youfinding their whereabouts.
Be observant while hunting because each sign, every mark and all expressions are important to find your hunting specie.
2. Follow the Undeniable Tracks:
Are you missing something? What possible thing that could be? My friend! You should learn how to track animals. It is all fine if you know what is the right time and season for hunting? What is the habitat of different animals? What is the hibernation period of particular animals? And, numerous importance things alike.
Without appropriate tracking know-how, you may put yourself in danger. The entire scenario might be reversed and you fall prey of your own targeted animal. Once you find a good sign of an animal, now you have to track it properly and with full focus. Below listed tips will definitely support you in tracking animals while hunting:
- Early morningis the best timing to start your tracking venture. But, in winters you can go for tracking and hunting in late afternoon.
- In scorching heat of summers, early evening is the best suitable time for tracking animals.
- Keep tracking stick along with you as it will help you checking the animal traces inshaggy areas.
- If you know how to think like an animal, it will surely make your job easier. Most of the animals are habitual of using the same path every day.
- Sense of touch is another great way of tracking animalsmoving through meadow or forest. If you are sharp sighted, you can far better figure out what is the possible way an animal has moved forward.
- You can explorealong the ground using your hands until you find something important and more helpful to track animals.
- Take GPS or map along with you so that you will remain on the right path and do not forget your way back to camp site.
- You can also use hunting mobile apps for finding theshooting spots, tracking the wildlife and then backtrack homewhen you are done with your hunting endeavor.
Once all set for hunting from your firearms to ammunition, outfits,tent and first aid etc, the real game begins. Take all appropriate measures for safe hunting and do not forget thattaking onwild animals is not a fun but a serious willing.If you know how to look for and track animals, you can have a memorable hunting experience.
Be Prepared By All Means!
