Mustangs Rule
Well-known member
- Joined
- Feb 4, 2021
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Workshops and seminars for hunters.
Been reading about lots of such education opportunities for hunters. Most seem pretty familiar, even repetitive. I thought I would offer some different ideas.
Below are several online education opportunities for hunters in the Midwest, that teach them about critical big game food plants.
Having such information can really increase hunter success.
During the 28 years that I lived in and hunted desert mountains, knowing not just timing of when the four mast crops; acorns, pinyon nuts, mesquite seed pods and mountain mahogany seeds fell, but also knowing their cycles of sweetness really allowed me to predict their eating patterns.
More the same with understanding even daily patterns of sugar/nutrient content of grasses and forbs based on daily available sunlight/photosynthesis.
Also some plants can photosynthesize below freezing with natural antifreeze inside making them magnets for big game animals in the winter. Know them !!!
Understanding the topography of the land, can play a great role in hunter success. For example, one mountaintop was cratered and was like a bowl and the rain/snow melt did not run off but was retained, so food plants were super watered and in great abundance, as were game animals.
Natural slides get stripped bare and are ideal for recolonization by thimble berry, which for several weeks in the fall these slides are just loaded with berries and game animals which given their sweet diet, are sweet tasting themselves.
‘
This is the kind of plant knowledge that native hunters had acquired over the ages.
Doing a flip from studying botany to predator patterns, learning where, when, and how they hunt, can greatly increase hunter success.
All year when doing my Field Natural History outings, I paid attention to predator kills sites often finding them by the abundance of crows, jays, magpies, ravens, buzzards, condors and classic birds of prey scavenging on carcasses.
I had studied kill site evaluation, to know what predator did what first. Then it became possible to retrace their attack patterns and use them myself. Often it was clear that lions used certain “kill” trees over and over, (so I used them too, instead of picking my own) also they had attack corridors, based on ideal food plants, so I learned from them, all to the increase of my success as a hunter.
Another factor is how predators do not always follow big game animals, but often, based on plant food sources and weather, they predict where big game animals will come and are there waiting for them.
They do this with ancient knowledge, and it is so rewarding to learn from Bears, Mt Lions, and Wolf packs who have old solo males scouting for the pack, doing their RECON work.
I spent two weeks exploring a remote dark canyon occupied by one huge bull elk and one also huge black male timber wolf. They were scouts. And when the elk herd showed up and then more wolves showed up, these old gentlemen were guides for their clan.
Pulling all these experiences together really adds a sense of reward and connection to hunting that takes it to a totally upgraded level. You just do not need the gadgets and gimmicks which have become more and more flashy to disguise the triviality of the service they actually render.
Going deep into the bush bringing an openness to learning fills my tags.
So grateful I am to the two native hunters I went afield with for years. One was a Native American, the other a Native Mexican. Also big thanks to my botany professor who was a great wildlife photographer. Looking at his photos, I once asked him how he got so close to wild animals.
He smiled and said he waited for them to come to him,,,,deep wild plant knowledge!!!
outdoor.wildlifeillinois.org
Been reading about lots of such education opportunities for hunters. Most seem pretty familiar, even repetitive. I thought I would offer some different ideas.
Below are several online education opportunities for hunters in the Midwest, that teach them about critical big game food plants.
Having such information can really increase hunter success.
During the 28 years that I lived in and hunted desert mountains, knowing not just timing of when the four mast crops; acorns, pinyon nuts, mesquite seed pods and mountain mahogany seeds fell, but also knowing their cycles of sweetness really allowed me to predict their eating patterns.
More the same with understanding even daily patterns of sugar/nutrient content of grasses and forbs based on daily available sunlight/photosynthesis.
Also some plants can photosynthesize below freezing with natural antifreeze inside making them magnets for big game animals in the winter. Know them !!!
Understanding the topography of the land, can play a great role in hunter success. For example, one mountaintop was cratered and was like a bowl and the rain/snow melt did not run off but was retained, so food plants were super watered and in great abundance, as were game animals.
Natural slides get stripped bare and are ideal for recolonization by thimble berry, which for several weeks in the fall these slides are just loaded with berries and game animals which given their sweet diet, are sweet tasting themselves.
‘
This is the kind of plant knowledge that native hunters had acquired over the ages.
Doing a flip from studying botany to predator patterns, learning where, when, and how they hunt, can greatly increase hunter success.
All year when doing my Field Natural History outings, I paid attention to predator kills sites often finding them by the abundance of crows, jays, magpies, ravens, buzzards, condors and classic birds of prey scavenging on carcasses.
I had studied kill site evaluation, to know what predator did what first. Then it became possible to retrace their attack patterns and use them myself. Often it was clear that lions used certain “kill” trees over and over, (so I used them too, instead of picking my own) also they had attack corridors, based on ideal food plants, so I learned from them, all to the increase of my success as a hunter.
Another factor is how predators do not always follow big game animals, but often, based on plant food sources and weather, they predict where big game animals will come and are there waiting for them.
They do this with ancient knowledge, and it is so rewarding to learn from Bears, Mt Lions, and Wolf packs who have old solo males scouting for the pack, doing their RECON work.
I spent two weeks exploring a remote dark canyon occupied by one huge bull elk and one also huge black male timber wolf. They were scouts. And when the elk herd showed up and then more wolves showed up, these old gentlemen were guides for their clan.
Pulling all these experiences together really adds a sense of reward and connection to hunting that takes it to a totally upgraded level. You just do not need the gadgets and gimmicks which have become more and more flashy to disguise the triviality of the service they actually render.
Going deep into the bush bringing an openness to learning fills my tags.
So grateful I am to the two native hunters I went afield with for years. One was a Native American, the other a Native Mexican. Also big thanks to my botany professor who was a great wildlife photographer. Looking at his photos, I once asked him how he got so close to wild animals.
He smiled and said he waited for them to come to him,,,,deep wild plant knowledge!!!
Plant Identification: A Skillset for Hunters?
<p>With a basic understanding of plant identification and animal feeding behavior, hunters are better able to predict wildlife movements across the landscape. </p>
outdoor.wildlifeillinois.org
