Tip of the week [NOMINATE]

[HunterBooth]

CHOSEN AS THE TIP OF THE WEEK

TIPS to level your tracking skills

3. Before harvesting your downed animal, backtrack, as much as you feel comfortable in doing so, to "pick the animal's tracks" to get the tracking credit the game affords.

4. When approaching a dead animal, check for a blood spatter at the animal. If you see one, approach from the side with the blood spatter (put it between you and the animal) with the HM activated. Approach very slowly (inch forward, so to speak) until the HM indicates a "hit", click on that and you'll get another track credit. Then step forward again, and confirm your kill. I know it's only one track and it ain't much, but they add up over time.

5. When following a herd, try to identify as many unique animals by their track as you can. If you can identify all animals in a particular herd, and one of them calls later in the hunt, you'll have found the herd - assuming they haven't been spooked and split up.

6. When you've called in an animal or two from what is typically a herd (elk, for instance), watch to see if when the call's attractiveness has ended, they turn and trot back in the direction they came from. If they do, there is a very, VERY high probability that at least ONE of the herd's animals did not respond to your original call. Start your tracking. I've taken many a trophy elk, BT, or mule later in the hunt using this tactic.

7. After spooking a herd of elk, try to find and follow one particular animal from that herd. Eventually, they'll form up again and, if you've enough patience, you'll probably get another chance at the biggun' (if you missed the first time) or simply be able to shoot another from the same herd.

[DeadClopz]

While hunting Ibex in the Mountains, don't walk while looking thru binocs.
You will find out real quick that gravity is not your friend.

[vill]

CHOSEN AS THE TIP OF THE WEEK

This thread is great! Early on in my play I learned a ton by watching a few videos on youtube. Really made the game more enjoyable.

Hopefully I am not repeating this tip.

When bow hunting I use my range finder binos to identify some landmarks (rocks, trees, shade/sun lines, etc.) near me that are within comfortable target range so I will have an idea of how to aim when an animal finally comes in.

[Luziano]

Animals always travel in a perfect straight line.
Once you have found a couple of tracks in a row you can then extrapolate that information so you know the animal location.
They only turn if they hit the reserve borders.

[tbug]

When tracking a wounded bear near a bait barrel, never go AFK. Bears have a tendency to return to the barrel very unhappy and they can't read the AFK symbol on the screen.

[jdogg420]

idk if its been mentioned because i only read half the tips. but if you are into competitions(to buy things without spending rl cash) make sure you activate the ones for every animal on the maps you are hunting, and make sure you are equipped for whatever the comps call for, you never know when you will see the big monster that makes you some cash even if you were hunting a diff animal for a diff comp or just messing around. to increase odds of winning, use any bow as much as possible,(some comps have no choice but to shoot loud weapons but only do it for trophies) practice to get double lung shots for instant kills they are easy compared to heart, you can literally drop animals within a few feet from each other without spooking if done right and it increase your odds of seeing more animals and not spooking everything even if you spook the few near you without a gunshot animals in opposite direction the spooked ran have no clue. if want to get into the advanced comps faster kill everything you see(male and female) that is not a trophy or good comp score with a bow to get your 500 kills faster. you will get used to knowing what is a good trophy even if you just have the weights opened from spotting. and it just gets easier the more u lvl spotting- tracking. if you can afford to spend the $50 for trailrunner then you will have a good start position to get into most of the comps. ok this tip is getting long but two more things. best item in game is the treestand i recommend everyone to get it and seriously if you have callers it makes the game almost too easy hear a call, climb a tree semi close to animal but not close enough for it to spook when activating stand and you can seriously have a heard standing still at the tree below you, though u cant shoot them there its all good if everything has came into scene just stop calling and let them roll out and then take your shot when they are roaming away.
i also like to hunt on ground and be stealth and take close shots best way to be stealth hands down is to use the natural terrain bigger rocks. when you are proned on them it almost cuts your scent from flowing directly on the ground so you can sometimes do the treestand thing and have a heard around your rock, though they can still spook. idk about u guys but i have called prey and moved from it and seen the prey in binos and it turn and walk away cuz i didnt keep calling it in. so im not sure if that was a bug that was fixed having to only do one call in past but it still works but ive seen big game not come in till i called it a few more times.

[jdogg420]

ok so i dont know about you guys but ya i have fail shots and the animal bolts and i have to go into track mode, and yes my longest tracked killed animal was a 2 1/2 hour one shot kill so i know the pain of tracking a shot animal that just wont stop fleeing... some are like this no matter how long you wait because the shot was that bad and i swear some of the animals can see behind them 100 m out even when you are crouched and barely moving. so i tend to if i get calls on other comp animals when im chasing down the injured one i will stop tracking and go for the new kill just incase its that comp winner. now doing this can get really crazy cuz you might have a couple diff trophy animals you are trying to track and you can only ping your map with one red dot. so what i will do is on the last track of the injured because the x can disappear off your radar if you kill multiples without recovering ect. i mark the last track by drawing a x on the map using draw mode. so then if the black x on handheld disappear i can open map and come back semi close to the animal track i was tracking before. doing this i have been able to seriously track injured and keep killing new ones while tracking a lot easier. even when having multiple injured to track yes i do get a little crazy sometimes, and for some reason i like to try to get every animal at least till i can do advanced comps.

[HooCairs]

CHOSEN AS THE TIP OF THE WEEK

For stand hunting, it happens often that when you shoot one animal out of a flock/herd/pack that the others run away. In that case, keep sounding the according caller. The animals often flee but stay within rendering distance. Once they calm down, they will start roaming again, and this can be in any direction. If you keep calling, as soon as they have returned to calm state they will approach your stand again. If you don't call you might lose them as they walk away and leave the rendering range.

I have had turkey flocks many times that have come back to the stand after every flush until I had them all down. Keep calling!

[SgtScott]

A Crossbow tip! If you are carrying your crossbow as a third weapon in your backpack, Prime/****-it before you set off and It will stay primed in your backpack until you need it. This will save you time if you need to swap and use it quickly.

[Alena Rybik]

Tips of the last three weeks are up: http://forum.thehunter.com/viewtopic.ph ... 87#p661987