Have you often wondered what makes some hunters more successful than others? Is it location? Is it pure effort, or an accumulation of knowledge overtime? Some say that people just have the predatory instincts, and others say that it is just attention to detail. Whatever the case may be, here are 5 scientific ways to become a better hunter today, without much effort, wisdom, or time.
#5 Hunt Hungry– Not in the proverbial way of being hungry, as in determination, but rather in the literal sense. Don’t eat. According to research at Yale medical school a hormone called ghrelin is produced by the stomach lining, when the stomach is empty. Ghrelin then binds to cells in the region of the brain that plays a role in learning, memory, and spatial analysis.
This concept can be best articulated to perceptions while grocery shopping. When walking into a store on an empty stomach, you immediately pinpoint the fresh bread from the bakery or the rotisserie chicken from the deli. Through your memory you use your senses to associate that smell to food, and immediately are able to use spatial awareness to locate and maneuver the store to reach the destination. On a full stomach however, those smells are still there, but they can go virtually unnoticed.
According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the basic needs that every human must fulfill is food, water, and shelter. Psychologically the human body can not focus on other needs, such as love, self esteem, and self actualization, until the basic needs are met. If hunters can associate our prey with food (and we all should) our senses will be better equipped to gather and process signs such as trails, tracks, and rubs along with smells, and sounds. We then have a better capacity to pull this information from our memory, and apply it to analyzing the topography, based on previous experiences.
#4 Balls of your feet – Its a general consensus among scientists that at one point during human history, we evolved from walking on the balls of our feet, to walking in a heel to toe manner. Some argue this evolution took place during the invention of the modern shoe, which promotes contact to the ground with the heel first. Others claim it happened many centuries before, as the human race evolved, in order to utilize energy better, allowing us to walk longer distances. In either case, walking in this manner has proven to be least effective while hunting.
When walking heel to toe, the heel makes contact with the ground, forcing all of our weight and energy of the step to the heel. As we continue with the step, all of that weight and energy is rolled from the heel to the balls of our feet, and on into the toe. Imagine walking in this manner across an oak flat during the fall. Every step you take has your full weight and energy compressing the crunchy leaves, acorns and sticks, beneath you feet.
While walking on the balls of your feet have a distinct disadvantage over distances, it has proven to be an effective tool in suppressing noise as you navigate a stalk, or move in toward your tree stand. Stepping with the ball of your foot first, while keeping the heel off the ground, immediately reduces the surface area that your foot makes contact with the ground. The muscles and ligaments in your shin, knee, and quads, are naturally stretched while in this position, creating a natural shock absorbent, similar to the way it does when you run. Although your weight is still completely impacted on the ground (that’s called gravity), your energy is distributed throughout your legs creating a softer noise when moving across that oak flat.
#3 Two Eyes are Better than One– We have all watched war movies, where snipers lay prone for hours on end, with one eye closed, looking through a scope. Believe it or not, the movies are inaccurate. I know hard to fathom. Military snipers are trained to shoot with both eyes open, and as hunters, we should take lessons from our superiors in marksmanship.
Closing one eye, not only places a lot of strain on your face and eyes, but it creates something called sympathetic reflex, where things we do on one side of the body transfers over to the other side of the body without realizing it. For example, hold both hands out in front of you, and slowly make a fist with your left hand. Without realizing it, the finger tips on your right hand slightly curled. The same goes for when you close one eye, it causes your dominate eye to squint slightly. Focusing on keeping an eye closed, while keeping the other open is an unneeded distraction from the task at hand.
Our brains are more than capable of keeping both eyes open while focusing on the eye that is giving the necessary information. Our non shooting eye allows our brain to relax, while being able to keep track of movement in our peripheral. You have heard of the saying two heads are better than one; as are two eyes.
#2 Understand Barometric Pressure– Barometric pressure, is a simple concept to understand. It is simply the weight of air pressure that is pressing down on the earth. Air has mass, and we often don’t feel it because we are accustomed to it. Never the less, it changes, and animals are in tuned to its ever changing weight. The terms high pressure and low pressure systems are synonymous with changes in weather patterns, and since animals don’t regularly get the local news, they rely on their innate ability to sense them. These changes in pressure, often dictate an animal’s daily routine of bedding, feeding, and moving.
Typically, when a low pressure system rolls into your area, it is accompanied by weather such as rain or snow. As the low pressure system inches closer to your door step, the barometric pressure will decline. As the thunderstorm leaves your area, often it is pushed out by a high pressure system, that increases the barometric pressure. When the pressure is rising and falling is when animals are most active. Likely you have never met a deer that enjoys standing in the middle of a soy bean field during a down pouring rain, therefore they try and eat before the weather hits, and again after.
However, the barometer doesn’t change only with weather storms, it often changes throughout the day, due to sun rising or setting, cloud cover, wind speed and direction. Without learning all the intricate aspects of how and why the air mass changes, and learning to read barometers, and calculate their fluctuation, I simply use the website weatherunderground. It gives you daily and weekly predictions of air pressure movements in your area. Using their seven day graph, it is easy to see the more slight changes in pressure, allowing you to plan and maximize the time you spend afield.
#1 Gut instinct– In 2011 a study published by the Psychological Science, showed the importance of listening to your gut decisions. They dealt a card game without providing any rules, and instructed those test studies to play only with their instincts. According to the study those who were self aware of the increase in their heart beat, were ultimately able to acquire strategies, and some even won the game without any preconceived set of rules. They formulated a conclusion that body and brain work in tandem to unconsciously make decisions. The increase in heart rate, the dilation of eyes, and the feeling of excitement when making a decision were all concluded as perceived gut instincts.
Shabnam Mousavi an assistant professor at John Hopkins University purposes that too much information can become a burden in decision making, and often less effective than making hunch decisions. As hunters, if you are to consider all the information that is being thrown at us on a daily basis, from trail camera pictures, to weather, wind, perceived bedding, feeding, travel corridors, hunting pressure, and access and exit routes, its a wonder we can ever sort it all out and make effective decisions.
Sometimes it just pays to forget all the rules and trust your gut.