What was one of the best things I did to gain hunting skills?

 Q: What was one of the best things I did to gain hunting skills?

A: It had nothing to do with what model bow I shot or what model gun I shot!

Ok let me break it down.

A long long time ago, or shall we just say, "back in the day". I really got into shooting stuff but with a camera. That stuff happened to be animals of all shapes and sizes, as I really didn't know what I wanted to shoot in photography at the time but wildlife stuff seemed (like I guess it is to many) to me to be very alluring. So basically it was soon apparent that in order to get anywhere near close enough to what I wanted to shoot, I needed to learn several things. One was simply about the behaviour of what it was I was trying to photograph and once I had understood this the next phase was to practice stalking skills because I cold not afford as a student some ginormous telephoto lens* to keep my distance.

 

The Exceptions To The Rule

Stalking skills does not mean crashing through the undergrowth like a bulldozer on steroids. You may be laughing saying, well no one hunts like this but you may be surprised. I was such a person who thought this until  one such bow hunt where we were after wild goats and there were 4 of us who split up to begin with for the greater part of the day  and then all met up again at the end of the day to continue hunting but as sort of 2 groups. I was with "Uncle Kevin". 

He wasn't my uncle actually but we sort of called him that behind his back as a sort of affectionate joke. He was indeed the uncle of one of my mates who was on this particular bow hunt. Now Uncle Kevin at the range was a crack shot. I mean the shots he could pull off, especially at distance up or down hill were nothing short of remarkable. Don't ask me what bow he shot I can't remember but of course it was a compound and I seemed to remember he had it wound up to 70lbs because one day at the range I asked if I could have a shoot. Well that was a laugh as I couldn't even draw it back LOL! 

Ok, so here I was with Uncle Kevin and Uncle Kevin literally broke all the rules for hunting; I mean he was walking  and breaking sticks all the time, smoking constantly (ok the wind was always in our favour) and too much talking for my liking too! But I was assured by his nephew that he was indeed a very successful bow hunter. So this day late in the afternoon, him and I came to the edge of a large tree lined depression which reeked of "goat sign", as we neared the top I saw a prize winning billy with horns I thought at first were part of the tree branches LOL. A difficult shot from above with many medium sized pine trees between me and the quarry. It had to be a high shoulder shot into the lungs, preferably the heart; distance maybe 15 meters. As I manoeuvred into position and about to draw, I hear from behind me: "Look out Franky" I turned slightly and it is Uncle Kevin, bow drawn and in the next instant that goat was shot (from a slightly different angle of course)- avoiding every tree; and going down. The cigarette smoke still swirling before my eyes as he had no doubt let out a breath before firing. What to say, that was (god rest his soul) Uncle Kevin!

Ok, seriously, the skills I had learnt creeping around trying to film animals was a huge help in getting close to animals to hunt them. I guess one doesn't have to go the photography route in-order to become successful at hunting. Because the other thing we used to practice was simply creeping up upon animals (no bow) to see how close we could come to them ie within a fair shooting range, if not get right on top of them as a bit of a joke and startle them. Yeah it might sound childish but you really hone your stalking skills like this, trust me.

ANATOMY & PHYSIOLOGY

The other key thing one must learn and totally understand is the anatomy of the game you are hunting. No understanding of the anatomy (and don't want to learn), then you had better give up now before you even pick up a bow or a gun. 

A quick note from the author:

I guess what inspired me to write this article is the sheer number of people posting videos to the shorts feed etc of their supposedly "hunting trips". Many such videos of course get tens of thousands of views if not millions of views; I've noticed people are publishing anything even clearly poorly shot animals with many comments, pro- suggesting that the animal doesn't even know it has been shot (ok this can sort of happen bow hunting but it is extremely momentarily- not for minutes etc.) with a bullet, this is BS. In my experience rifle hunting in Australia (large kangaroos, for the pet meat trade) you shoot them properly, they drop on the spot, not wander off many many meters away, not continue to graze etc. AND certainly you DO NOT shoot them (Bow or gun) multiple times! if you need a guide other than for simply showing you where the game is at, then you are not skilled enough to be hunting IMHO. Let's not give those "ammunition" who would bring about the demise of this activity/sport because of stupidity.

(* Nowadays I'd still have to mortgage the house to buy one of those lenses-ok not quite, I exaggerate a little bit!) .