Learning

Hosting a hunting-based outdoor skillsevent in yourcommunity

Mary Kay Salwey, Ph.D.WisconsinDepartment of Natural Resources2004

to Hunt

Learning to Hunt

48

Come to Your Senses

6Station

Credits

Project DirectorMary Kay Salwey, Ph.D.Wisconsin DNRBureau of Wildlife ManagementBox 7921Madison, WI 53707-7921

Editorial AssistanceNancy WilliamsCarrie L. Armus

ArtworkEric DeBoerMary Kay SalweyDynamic GraphicsCindie Brunner

PhotosRobert QueenMary Kay SalweyMike Roach

Design ConceptBlue Raven Graphics

Electronic LayoutMary Kay Salwey, Wisconsin DNR

Published by Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

Copyright 2004 by Wisconsin Department of Natural ResourcesMadison, Wisconsin.

All original illustrations copyrighted.

This book is educational in nature and not-for-profit. It is intended toinspire organizations to pass the tradition of hunting down to youngergenerations. However, all rights are reserved, including the right toreproduce this book or any part thereof in any form except briefquotations for reviews, without the written permission of the publisher.

49

6Station

Come to Your Senses

Hosting an Outdoor Skills Clinic in Your Community

Sharpening your sensesfor the hunt

Come toYour Senses Participants

learn to sharpentheir senses

before they setafoot in the field

to hunt. Theyalso learn howanimal senses

come into playduring the hunt.

Learning to Hunt

50

Come to Your Senses

6Station

Equipment

This station has five relatedactivities. Each of the followingactivities has its own list ofequipment.

Station Setup

Each of the following fiveactivities has its own directions forstation setup and activityprocedures.

Objectives

Participants shall:

state how both human andanimal senses play a key role inhunting.

demonstrate how to walkquietly while hunting.

describe the value ofcamouflage to both animalsand hunters.

describe the value of blazeorange to hunters.

describe how scent can bedetected by animals and whyhunting into the wind isimportant.

describe the effect of parallaxon a hunter’s ability to zero inon an object at a distance.

51

6Station

Come to Your Senses

Hosting an Outdoor Skills Clinic in Your Community

Powers ofObservationEquipment

18" x 24" cardboard5" x 7" poster boardSeveral strips of poster board

to fit on smaller card4" x 6" piece of felt1 small piece of sponge or

foam rubber1 bottle of quick-drying glue1 thick-nibbed marking pen1 bottle of essential oil of

cinnamon, wintergreen,clove or peppermint

1 ball of string or twine1 pair of scissors1 clipboard, paper and pencil

per participant1 large tray with a dark cloth

that covers the entire trayAssortment of a dozen natural

items such as leaf, stone,feather, twig, acorn

Station Setup

Make a large cardboard sign,about 18" by 24". Using a thickmarking pen, write in large letters“Please Observe.” Draw adownward-pointing arrow belowthe words. Punch holes withscissors through both uppercorners, and thread string throughto form a loop for hanging. Punch

ActivityA

two holes near center of botton,about 6 inches apart.

Glue the 4" by 6" piece of felt tothe front of the 5" by 7" piece ofposter board. Turn this posterboard over and glue severalsmaller strips of poster board tothe back. Glue a tiny piece ofsponge or foam rubber in thecenter of the back of this sign. Onthe felt side, glue a small strip ofpaper bearing the printed phrase,“Ah, Awareness!” Punch two holeswith scissors through both uppercorners and thread string throughto form a loop for hanging.

Learning to Hunt

52

Come to Your Senses

6Station

Before your group arrives,saturate the sponge with theessential oil. Be careful not to letthe oil strike through to wet thefelt. The visual cue may give thetrick away.

Hang or mount the large sign in anobvious place so your group willsee it when they first arrive. Hangthe smaller sign below the largesign, so it is approximately nosehigh for the average participant inyour group.

Place the dozen natural items onthe tray. Cover with the darkcloth.

Procedure

As you greet your group, havethem walk past the large sign andsit down on the lawn or in theroom. Give them plenty of time toread the sign and observe thesmall sign, but do not give themspecific instructions to do so.When everyone is seated, handeach person a clipboard, paper andpencil. Ask them to describe theobject of observation. Do notallow anyone to go back for asecond look.

Note anyone who seemscompletely lost. There may bepeople who failed to notice eithersign on the way in. Ask if anyonefailed to notice the objects in thedoor area.

Gather a variety of natural objectsfor participants to describe.

After a few minutes, collect thedescriptions, or ask volunteers toread some of them aloud. Allowothers to add to the descriptionsor to dispute the content.

After the visual content has beendiscussed, ask questions to bringout what may have been missed bynot using more senses. Did thesign make any noise? When theyanswer “No,” ask how many ofthem wrote down that the signwas silent. How did the sign feel?Ask who felt the material. Did thesign have an odor? Females tendto notice odors more so thanmales.

Explain that humans are visualanimals, and pay relatively littleattention to how objects sound,feel or smell. Yet, to be the bestwe can be at hunting, we need tobe aware of all the features of theworld around us.

53

6Station

Come to Your Senses

Hosting an Outdoor Skills Clinic in Your Community

Next, bring out the covered trayyou prepared with a dozen naturalobjects. Tell the participants youare going to test their abilities toobserve and recall details. Askthem to gather around you in acircle. Place the covered tray inthe middle of the circle and on thecount of three, remove the cloth.Allow them about ten seconds toobserve the items, then cover thetray again.

Ask participants to write down asmany of the twelve objects theycan remember, and to describethem in as much detail as possible.Allow participants to do this forfive or ten minutes. Ask everyoneto raise their hand. Next, askthose who remembered seven ormore items to keep their hands inthe air. Eight or more? Nine?Ten? Eleven? All twelve? Askthose who recalled all twelve itemsto read the items and thedescriptions as you hold eachobject up for the group to see.How accurate was their recall?

Tray of natural objectscovered with a cloth

Learning to Hunt

54

Come to Your Senses

6Station

Equipment

1 blindfold1 chair or stump

Station Setup

Before participants arrive, find aplace in the woods or a field tohold this activity. Make certainthere is no poison ivy. Find anappropriate stump for sitting, orplace a chair in the middle of theacitivity area.

Procedure

Explain to your participants thatwhile not all forms of huntingrequire an excellent sense ofhearing, many do. Pheasant andgrouse hunting, for example, donot require as much quiet andconcentration as deer or turkeyhunting. In this activity, you willfind that both the hunter and thehunted learn to become betterlisteners.

For the first round of this game,select one person to be a turkeyhunter, hunting from a groundstand. Blindfold the hunter andseat that player on a chair orstump. The remaining participantsplay the role of turkeys, andshould form a large circle aroundthe hunter.

At your command, the turkeysbegin sneaking toward the turkeyhunter. When the hunter hears aturkey, have the hunter point atthat turkey. The player whom thehunter points to must now sitdown and be still for the rest ofthe round. Ask the hunter topoint only when absolutely certaina turkey is heard. If the hunterstarts “flash pointing” at imaginarysounds, the activity will not beworthwhile. You may also controlthis urge to “flash point” bylimiting the hunter to only sixopportunities to point out aturkey.

ActivityB

TheSounds ofSilence

55

6Station

Come to Your Senses

Hosting an Outdoor Skills Clinic in Your Community

The other players portrayingturkeys keep proceeding towardthe hunter as quietly as possible,until they are either pointed out orthey reach the center. Instruct theturkeys NOT to touch the hunter.The blindfolded person is verytense and is concentrating onlistening to the turkeys in thedistance. The blindfolded personcould be unpleasantly startled if touched. Also remind the turkeys

to resist rushing quickly towardthe hunter. Their objective is topractice walking quietly.

After the first round, selectsomeone else to be a deer hunterand repeat the process, with theother players assuming the role ofdeer. Participants will beginimproving. Weather permitting,

Learning to Hunt

56

Come to Your Senses

6Station

after a few rounds, ask the deer toremove their shoes. They willnotice a remarkable improvementwithout shoes.

Discuss how the deer and turkeyswere most successful approachingthe hunter. They should point outthat they were most successfulwhen they were:

placing their feet in areaswhere there were no twigs,dry leaves or pea gravel

stepping on bare ground whenpossible

moving during backgroundnoise created by the wind,airplanes, traffic, rain, etc.

standing downwind of thehunter, since noises tend toblow away

Discuss how the hunters tuned intheir ears to the sounds aroundthem.

57

6Station

Come to Your Senses

Hosting an Outdoor Skills Clinic in Your Community

Equipment

1 camouflage hat1 camouflage coat1 blaze orange hat1 blaze orange coat

For the variations:Camouflage paintCamouflage head net, glovesDifferent colors of camouflage clothing4" x 6" index cardsPaper and pencil for each participantThick-nibbed marking penFlip chart or chalkboard with chalk

Station Setup

Select a wooded area, especially athicket or another place with lotsof vegetation.

BackgroundInformation

For hunters, the basic purpose ofcamouflage clothing is to break uptheir silhouette or outline. Gameanimals seem less disturbed and

ActivityC

Color MeSafe!

more likely to get close to a hunterwhen the hunter is wearingcamouflage. If hunters want to beas completely camouflaged aspossible, they should considercovering up their hands and face insome fashion. The eyes andeyelids are important, as well.Observing a fully camouflagedhunter who does not havecamouflaged eyes reveals flashesof light with each blink. At closerange, this is enough to spookgame. Camouflage also helpsanimals hide them from theirpredators, including humanpredators called hunters.

Procedure

Designate one participant as aDeer. Have the Deer stand in onespot and look down, covering botheyes with one hand. The Deershould raise one or more fingersof the other hand overhead. Theremaining participants assume therole of hunters. During this firstround, the hunters will be dressedin their own clothing. Give themone minute to hide in the woods.The hunters cannot completelyhide from the Deer. They must beable to see how many fingers the

Learning to Hunt

58

Come to Your Senses

6Station

allowing hunters to keep an eye oneach other, have two volunteerscome forward. Place a camouflagecoat and hat on one volunteer anda blaze orange coat and hat on theother. Have the rest of the groupline up along the edge of a woodsor cornfield. Ask the twovolunteers to stand about threefeet apart and to walk slowly intothe woods or field. Ask the rest ofthe group to yell, “Stop!” whenthey can no longer see the personin camouflage. Have the blazeorange volunteer continue to walkforward until the group yells,“Stop!” as well.Compare the distances at whichthe two types of clothing can beseen, and explain why Wisconsin

Deer is holding up. After thehunters are hidden, the Deer muststand in that one spot and locateas many hunters as possible. TheDeer can squat or lean, but cannotmove from the stand position.When the Deer sees a hunter, askthe Deer to point out the hunterand describe what the hunter iswearing (for example, “I see thehunter dressed in a blue shirt, withglasses and black pants.”) Hunterswho are spotted move to thesidelines.

After two minutes or when theDeer cannot see any more hunters,have the Deer again cover botheyes and raise one or more fingersoverhead again. The hunters whoare still hidden are given 30seconds to find another hidingspot fifteen paces closer to theDeer. The Deer now opens botheyes and tries to spot the hiddenhunters. The Deer must still stay inone spot while leaning or bendingto see better.

Repeat the process until only oneor two hunters remain hidden. Asthey move closer, they will beeasier to find, so two or threerounds are all that is necessary.

Ask the participants what madethe hunters hard to see. Theyshould mention clothing color, useof cover, distance from the Deer,size and use of sight barriers.

Now, to demonstrate theeffectiveness of blaze orange in

59

6Station

Come to Your Senses

Hosting an Outdoor Skills Clinic in Your Community

law requires gun deer hunters todress in blaze orange. Ask thegroup what they think happenedto the number of hunting accidentswhen the blaze orange law wasenacted. Ask them why grouseand pheasant hunters should wearblaze orange hats and vests, butwhy turkey, duck and bow deerhunters should dress in fullcamouflage. Ask them to predict,based on the types of firearmsused and the typical dress that isworn, which sport is potentiallythe most dangerous.

Variation:

Have several volunteers from thegroup put on various types ofcamouflage clothing (brown leaf,green leaf, tree bark, tiger stripe,snow camouflage, etc.). Havesome put on camouflage gloves,head nets and camouflage paint.Have others leave their hands andfaces uncamouflaged.

Give each volunteer an index cardwith a large number written on it.Ask the rest of the group to turntheir backs while the volunteers goand find a hiding place within adesignated area. The volunteersmust be able to see the rest of thegroup. That is, no volunteershould completely hide behind atree, rock or log. They must bewithin view of the group.Send the remainder of the group,the hunters, to find as many hidersas they can within a limited time

(15 to 30 minutes in a large area,less in a small one). Huntersshould carry pencil and paper, andmove through the area quietly andalone, trying to find the hiddenindividuals. When a hunter spots ahider, he or she should indicatethis by pointing to his or her owneye with a forefinger. The huntershould take care not to reveal theposition to anyone else. The foundperson should quietly flash theassigned number to the hunter,who writes it down.

After the time has expired, calleveryone back to your location.On a flipchart or chalkboard,record which hunters found whichnumbers. Analyze which hiderswere found most often, how theywere found, and how thecamouflage helped.

Learning to Hunt

60

Come to Your Senses

6Station

BackgroundInformation

An animal’s job is survival. Deer,rabbits, foxes and even domesticdogs use their noses to gatherinformation about what’s going onaround them. Animals are veryaware of new smells or changes inthe strength of existing smells.

Mammals use their sense of smellto tell them things like:

what foods are available andwhere they’re located

when a human or othernatural predator is upwindfrom them

what other individuals, male orfemale, are traveling in theirterritory

when adult females are at areceptive stage for mating

Since game mammals, such asdeer, rely so heavily on their senseof smell, it’s extremely importantthat hunters have a basicunderstanding of smells and howdeer are likely to react to them.

It Doesn’tMakeScents!

ActivityD

Equipment

1 bottle of cologne, air freshener, bottled animal scent, or an ammonia soaked rag10 pieces of blaze orange flagging per person

Station Setup

Find an open field where there issome brush as well as plenty ofopen space for participants to walkaround. No other preparation isneeded.

61

6Station

Come to Your Senses

Hosting an Outdoor Skills Clinic in Your Community

One good whiff of a person, andmost mammals - especially deer -bound away. Even in areaswhere wildlife and humans coexist,the scent of a human in a placewhere it normally isn’t will cause aflight response in the animal. Justas wind carries the odor of smoke,air currents carry human scentdownwind. When stalking a deeror sitting in a tree stand, any deerdownwind from you will likely pickup your scent and flee.

Smells have a life. Once deposited,they weaken as time passes. Deercan often evaluate the smell anddetermine when it was deposited,and then act accordingly - eitherintercepting or avoiding the animal- if that animal sticks with apattern. Hunters, however, candisrupt the expected pattern. Byknowing how to use huntingscents, a hunter can improve theodds of encountering the animalsought.

Several different types of scentsare available for deer hunting.They include:

Natural Scents

These scents are produced by thesame type of animal the hunter ispursuing. They include urinescent, gland scent or a scent fromsome other part of the animal. Adeer smelling this type of scentinterprets it as the presence ofanother deer.

Sex Scents

The most popular deer-huntingscent is the “doe in heat” urinescent. These scents are actuallycollected from captive does in heat,bottled and sold to deer hunters.During rut, a buck will be sexuallyattracted to these scents.

Territorial or Challenge Scents

The scent used in these cases isusually the urine, tarsal glandmusk or other excretions of a buckduring rut. When a buck in rutwants to find and breed with adoe, he often goes to scrapes(places where bucks have scrapedaway the ground under a hangingbranch) hoping to find the scent ofa doe in heat. If, instead, he findsthe scent of another buck, hebecomes agitated.

Hunger or Food Scents

A deer spends a great deal of timesearching for and eating food.The right food scent can be veryeffective. Some food scents aremore attractive than others. Agood scent to try is one thatmimics the food that is currentlyon the deer’s natural menu. Mostfood scents are made from naturalplant derivatives.

Learning to Hunt

62

Come to Your Senses

6Station

brush, they leave behind scentfrom their clothes and hands.Hunters should try not to touchweeds or brush with their barehands. The less they touch thesurrounding vegetation with theirclothes, the better. Rubber bootsdeodorized with non-scented soapminimize human scent on theground better than any otherfootwear. Walking through ashallow stream with rubber bootshelps wash off foreign odors.Hunters should tuck their pantsinto their boots. After a hunt andafter drying off wet boots, huntersshould store their boots in cleanair, or in an airtight container suchas a plastic bag, to keep themclean and odor free.

Curiosity Scents

Some smells are not from a deeror a food item, but fromsomething totally different whichreally appeals to deer. Curiosityscents can vary greatly in theirimpact on deer. The best way ofdetermining that impact is throughfield testing.

Cover Scents

These scents, from plant extractsor from the urine of other animalspecies, help mask human scent.These scents don’t have highattraction qualities, but they hidehuman odor by putting anotherstrong scent in the air. A coverscent is usually strong but notoffensive to the deer or otheranimal being sought.Sometimes cover scentsproduce a fear response inthe animal being sought.Some of the betterscents for deerhunters include redfox urine, raccoonurine, and variousplant derivatives.

When hunters walkinto the woods tohunt deer, they mayleave a trail of scentfrom their boots,which werecontaminated with varioussmells from their car or camp. Asthey brush against weeds and

63

6Station

Come to Your Senses

Hosting an Outdoor Skills Clinic in Your Community

Procedure

Hand each participant ten pieces ofblaze orange flagging. Takeparticipants to a woodlot and havethem stand in a circle about 50yards away from the center. Havethem close their eyes and turntheir backs away from the center.Open a bottle of animal scent, pullout an ammonia-soaked rag, orspray some cologne or airfreshener straight up into the air.

Have participants turn backtoward the center and open theireyes. They should not see thesource of the scent. Ask them tobegin walking slowly in a largecircle, spiraling towards the center.If they sense (don’t say “smell”)anything unusual, have them raisetheir hands and hang a piece offlagging onto the vegetation intheir general vicinity. Participantsshould continue walking in a circletoward the center, hanging theirflagging as they sense somethingunusual. If possible, conduct thisactivity under different windconditions.

Learning to Hunt

64

Come to Your Senses

6Station

Equipment

1 ruler or flat strip of wood per two participants1 target with a large piece of white paper per two participants1 roll of masking tape1 very light pencil per two participants1 cardboard box, about the size of a copier paper box.1 utility knife1 rifle1 4X big game scope1 1" .22 scope

Station Setup

This activity should be conductedat a shooting range. Tape thepiece of blank paper to a target.Cut a notch in the cardboard boxto hold the rifle absolutely still.

BackgroundInformation

Parallax is the tendency of anobject to seem to change positionswhen viewed from differentlocations or angles. In shooting, itaccounts for the differences insights. Most telescopic sights areset to be parallax free over acertain range of operatingdistances; and a few, primarilytarget and varmint scopes, aredesigned to be focused or parallaxcompensated for the distance overwhich the shot is being made.This can be demonstrated inseveral ways.

Procedure

Ask everyone to stand facing thetargets down range. Have themlook at a target with both eyesopen, and stretch out an arm topoint at the target. Then havethem close their left eye. Is theirfinger still pointing at the target?Have them open both eyes andcontinue pointing their finger atthe target. Now close their righteye. Is their finger still pointing atthe target? Did the target move?

ActivityE

A Trick ofthe Eye

65

6Station

Come to Your Senses

Hosting an Outdoor Skills Clinic in Your Community

Did their finger move? Whathappened? What would havehappened if the target had been adeer and they went to shoot thedeer with one eye closed versusanother eye?

Now have each participant look atthe target with both eyes open.Have them hold their armsoutstretched with palms open andfacing away from them. Theyshould cross their hands so thattheir fingers overlap and theirthumbs overlap each other. Thisshould form an open trainglebetween their thumbs andforefingers. Ask them to keepboth eyes on the target and thenslowly bring back their hands totheir face.

Most participants will find thattheir hands naturally come back totheir right eye. This means theyare right-eye dominant. Mostpeople are right-eyedominant. Thismeans that

when both eyes are open, theirright eye dominates their vision.Hunters should look through arifle sight with their dominant eye.Most people who are right-handedare also right-eye dominant.

When shooting a rifle or ashotgun, a right-eye dominanthunter should place the rightcheek on the stock and sight downthe barrel with the right eye. Aleft-eye dominant hunter shouldplace the left cheek on the stock.No matter which eye is dominant,hunters should shoot shotgunswith both eyes open.

Some hunters also keep both eyesopen while shooting rifles,especially those rifles with opensights. Some hunters are cross-eye dominant, which means theymay be right-handed, but their lefteye is dominant. Young cross-eyedominant hunters should beencouraged to shoot with thesame hand as their dominant eye.

It is much easier for them toadapt this way, than to force

the weaker eye to becomedominant.

Now, with participantsworking in trios, askone of the partners tosight down the flatside of a ruler andlook at the center ofa blank piece ofpaper taped ontothe target. Ask thatone of their

Learning to Hunt

66

Come to Your Senses

6Station

partners stand by the unmarkedtarget and make a very light pencilmark on the paper where the“shooting” partner says the stick ispointing. Mark the paper with asmall dot and place the shooter’sinitials there.

Next, have the third partner standat the end of the ruler on the sideof the dominant eye of theshooter. This will force theshooter to look from a slight anglethrough the eye that is notdominant. Now have them telltheir partner where they arepointing at the center of the paper.This new point should be off bothhorizontally and possibly verticallyfrom their first point. Discusshow the apparently straight line tothe center of the target led to twodifferent points.

Alternatively, have one personsight down to the center of theblank piece of paper several times,each time siting from a slightlydifferent position.Again, there shouldbe a horizontal andvertical scatteringof points. Askparticipants how thiswould affect their shootingsuccess.

Place a rifle (action open andempty) in the notch cut of thecardboard box, and aim it at a

blank piece of paper 50 yardsaway. Tape the box in place tokeep the rifle absolutely stable.Have a member of the group sightin the following six ways: right-eyed, left-eyed, head back tomaximum eye relief, head forwardto minimum eye relief, cheek tothe stock and cheek off the stock.

Mark the six sight-in spots withfine pencil dots. Using a lowpower (4X) big game scope at itsminimum focal length should givean effective illustration. Try thesame exercise with the target at100 yards. Compare thedifference in the two results. Trythe same process with a 1" .22scope of the same power or ascope with variable parallaxcorrection. Was there anydifference?

67

6Station

Come to Your Senses

Hosting an Outdoor Skills Clinic in Your Community

References4-H Shooting Sports Hunting Curriculum, edited by Ronald Howard,

Jr. and James E. Knight. (curriculum guide).