How to lose a stubborn doe??

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FrostyD
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Re: How to lose a stubborn doe??

Post by FrostyD »

Heres what I do. I'm not sure if the game is designed like this but it works for me. Once you start tracking the animal you hit and cant find anymore sign, go back to the last spot you found sign. (Theres a kicker You have to get out pretty far and check the whole cone on your hunter mate and take some time. Seems like after 2 or3 mins when I come back to the same spot more sign shows up automatically. I shot an elk and took me while to find him. I found a blood splatter and stayed in the "cone" of my hunter's mate and I would some times take me 5mins to find the next sign but the only way the new sign would show up was if i track back to the previous sigh I found.I know it sounds odd but I think its just in-game thing. By tracking is quite leveled up either
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MudBug
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Re: How to lose a stubborn doe??

Post by MudBug »

Just exactly how are you hunting? I saw you mention something about going to a certain location and setting up a blind. If there are no animals there to begin with, you have to wait and hope that location is on their list of places to meander through. (not a fun prospect) Well that will only work if there happen to be animals in the area and you run the risk of spooking them with the GB setup.

I bought the GB and have the TS and frankly I'm not using them anymore. I used each for about a week and then the novelty wore off. I still carry them, just not in the mood to deploy them 98% of the time. The way the larger animals tend to follow on the heels of the smaller ones, they usually get spooked before you can get them close enough. Happened quite a bit to me with the GB, but I'm a bow junkie so the little ones get close before I can get a shot on the big 'uns.

Went back to a mobile approach. Either finding a track and following it or getting cues from the HM. I assess the situation, call back, make sure my cover scent is good, and put out some attractant scent. Then I flank off to the side and watch the smaller ones parade by until the big ones are in bow range.

See my sig below: The MD, BT, and Elk were all killed in the last 3 days. The Elk score will be updated to a 335 that I killed a few hours ago on Settlers Creek. Also got a 329 Elk (2nd one this weekend) not 1/2 mile from the Causeway Lodge on Whiteheart about an hour ago.

My suggestion would be that you might need to change your strategy. I simply cannot believe that you are cursed with bad luck and/or your account is somehow screwed up that it is not allowing you to kill anything over 120.
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pirahna590
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Re: How to lose a stubborn doe??

Post by pirahna590 »

Mudbug: Well, at first I hunted like I hunt IRL ... FIRST thing I do when I enter the map is figure out the direction of the wind and walk into the wind so as to not spook any game animals by my scent, I'll walk maybe 50 - 100 meters out the camp by the road but will step off the road maybe 20m an begin my stalk ( figuring walking upright can spook animals ) slowly moving into the wind, in free look mode I'll pan left to right in full axis keeping an eye on the ground for signs but also using my rangefinder to pan to the horizon an wood-lines looking for game animals that might be ahead ( dont wanna spook em by walking in plain sight ) stopping occasionally to check out to the horizon. I'll also use the terrain to move ... in that I'll rarely ever just move over a hill but rather use the hills backside to mask my movement. I will, of course, use elevated positions to get better views an look out farther of course, to do this I'll stalk up the back side of a hill, using a clump of trees or shrubs at the top of a hill to mask my silhouette once getting to the top and will look around from with in the shrubs or along side trees ... first looking with my eyes then with the rangefinder ( prefer rangefinder over binocs ).

I'll of course keep my ears open as well ... ANY calls I hear I will check with my huntermate as I keep that in hands at all times ( unless using rangefinder ) while stalking. If I find tracks, I'll follow them of course ... and I dont normally have any problems following tracks but I have come to the conclusion that these game animals CAN pull a Houdini and disappear in thin air lol. At first I thought it mighta been my tracking skills ingame .... but when your following a herd of what i believed to be 4 - 5 elk an all of a sudden ALL tracks disappear and regardless of how well I would grid search out from last known position I couldnt locate next track of any of them .... Houdini himself would be proud lol. I always go back to the last known track an would widen my grid pattern, outside the huntermates cone .... sometimes I find they made a hard right/left, sometimes they do a back track ( sneaky lil buggers ) but most times when Ive lost a trail its because theres no further trail markers to be found.

On the times i do hear a male call back ( even though my tracking skills arent lvl 5 for blacktail or whitetail, the males make a distinct different calls then the females so I know when Im on a male ) I'll pick a location where I have terrain to my back ( preferably as close as possible ) or get to a hill top thats between me an them ( rarely ever moving more then 25m, an dependant on how close/far the male is according to the huntermate ), going prone almost to the top but before my silhouette is exposed, finding a rock or tree roots, even a flat non grassy area to set up on with just my head an firearm above the hill. I prefer to set up on steep inclines with my body on the back side of the hill away from approaching male, at this point I will make a grunt call, use my scent pray an give it 3 - 5 min ( in game ) before calling out again. Typically I'll wait till the male calls out wondering where I am after my first call, I'll give it a min or so then another grunt to let em KNOW where I am. Using the huntermate I'll check his position as he returns my calls .... using my scope ( the 3-9x40 ) to pan the general area in 3x mode till I locate the animal, once I do I'll zoom in, carefully counting antlers, the dimensions of said antlers an out of curiosity I'll glance over at the weight of the buck but Im more concerned with the size an shape of the antlers.

When the buck comes to view, i know that its often the small ones that will appear first, an Im aware they dont exactly travel " in-line " like a train so I'll pan the woods around the buck ( say 30m to either side, sometimes more ) with my scope in 3x and 6x looking for ANY signs of movement. I'll normally make initial spotting around 300 feet in dense woods, much father out if they are in open fields of course an as long as he's moving in my direction I wont call out unless he stops an looks like he might have lost interest. I'll do a short burp grunt which usually gets em interested again ... I try an wait as long as I can in hopes a bigger buck is trailing behind him ... sometimes I do see another behind em ... at which point Im panning between the bucks, zooming in 6x - 9x on my spoce, comparing the racks, looking for longer tines, tines that come as close together as possible but still being a wide rack ... and Im confident that Im able to choose the better of 2- 3 racks based not only my experience as a hunter, but also as per the guide given here on this forum regarding rack sizes per this games antler system ( still find it hard to believe the 10 pointers should have a better score then 12+ pointers but thats a whole nother heated topic going on in another post by you guys lol .. but ok " look for symmetrical 10 pointers with long tines ".

Im a stalker hunter in real life, not big on sitting in a stand or blind, though I do own the ground blind and the tree stand in game ... I guess thats because I was a scout sniper IRL in the us army. I know how to sneak up on a spot an sit an wait lol but when I go through alll that and just see spikes ( not really a spike but in comparison to whats out there, they are spikes lol ) its frustrating beyond belief. The reason I was moving to the particular field I was going too ... according to the map there was dark deep woods on 3 sides ... I had the perfect opp to get into the field moving into the wind from start of game till I had gotten where I had picked in the field .... a HUGE field .... maybe 500 feet accross but 3x longer then deeper ... coming in from the long end of the field, wind in face, I crawled using the low of the terrain to mask my movement till I was in position, set up my ground blind an called out. I know it kinda goes against reasoning, setting up somewhere I didnt KNOW there were animals but everything else I was doing right wasnt panning out so well for me so I figured with those dark woods on that map, there had to be SOMETHING in there ... if I could get into the center of the field undetected ( an if I can sneak up on a human being an stick a knife in his neck, theres NO reason I cant sneak up on a game animal in a game lol ) that i would be in a good position with plenty of woods on 3 sides within the 780 feet draw distance of the game for game animals and call in SOMETHING.

I figured once I was in the blind Ide sit there all day and call out, use sprays ect till something came in. Maybe nothing would come in ... a possibility sure ...but I figured as this IS a game, an game animals random spawn randomly on the map .... that rather then trying to go to the game animals, bring em in to me. Its a game, random spawns ... eventually the game should recognise Im not moving, an IF game animals arent drawn out past 780 feet EVENTUALLY they would spawn where I was an giving the size of that field ...... :D They would basically HAVE to spawn just about in plain sight :D:D. I kept using my rangefinder, panning the wood-line an the field in 360 degrees ... but sadly .... a phone call from a brother broke down on the side of the road caused me to end my hunt an I wasnt able to determine if my theory was right or wrong lol. Hey, it was a last ditch effort and rather extreme Im sure ... but in theory ... if the draw rate isnt beyond 780 feet .... NOTHING ws gonna pop up in that field with out me seeing it an it was MINE :). I gotta try it again ... cant today as it will take forever to crawl the field ... IDK ... ya say change my strategy ... Ive done that already as well ... went from just being a stalker to walkin the rd lookin for signs to cover more terrain .... to even spot hunting an picking a prime location an callin them in to me ... what else is there lololol.

Like I said, I COULD find em before ... I know theres bad spawns an good spawns ... but its been a LONG time since I seen anything decent :(. I know Im not gonna get trophy animals every hunt, or even every couple of hunts an thats fine ... When in game, I move as I would move in real life in the woods ... but now its gotten to the point where Im moving as if Im back over seas an Im hunting as if my life depended on it .... I just cant see someone in this game hunting any harder then that lol. When peeps say Im doing something wrong, that bothers me giving my experience in real life brought me over seas an back home an I have many confirmed kills ... it was my job to be stealthy, know how to move stealthy ... granted people dont have the senses game animals do, but in my hunting woods here IRL Im able to find bag an tag the game
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Magnum1973
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Re: How to lose a stubborn doe??

Post by Magnum1973 »

IMO quit using the rangefinder for spotting. I did used it in the beginning but found it easier to spot and identify the animals with the binos. I only use the rangefinder for the stupid distance missions.
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Indecorous
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Re: How to lose a stubborn doe??

Post by Indecorous »

Good Lord!! No wonder pirahna isn't killing anything!!! Sheeeesh!!

Image
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pirahna590
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Re: How to lose a stubborn doe??

Post by pirahna590 »

Magnum1973 wrote:IMO quit using the rangefinder for spotting. I did used it in the beginning but found it easier to spot and identify the animals with the binos. I only use the rangefinder for the stupid distance missions.
Dually noted, will give it a try
Indecorous wrote:Good Lord!! No wonder pirahna isn't killing anything!!! Sheeeesh!!

Image
?? Wonders why ya got my name in the saved format of this pic on your pc lol ... Im hardly sleeping " on the job " ... if anything I went from just walkin the game as a game to putting in far too much effort for it to be considered a game anymore ... figured maybe since most consider this a simulation that perhaps I wasnt putting in enough effort to find the animals. so I stepped it up a notch, an another an another till eventually Im nothing more then a ghost moving between blades of grass.

I started out just walkin the roads, figuring this would be another cabelas hunting type game where game animals would stupidly just walk infront of you, quickly learning this wasnt the case I didnt just go to this extreme you see here in this post .. I felt its a game, how SERIOUS could they want me to take this? After a while, determination an frustration got me to the point you see here an now. I changed it up quite a bit, an noticed the more stealthy I got, the more extreme I got, I started to see more again .... notice my comment about going 10 days with out seeing one buck .... I just want to get back to seeing decent bucks again lol
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Indecorous
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Re: How to lose a stubborn doe??

Post by Indecorous »

:lol:
I saw this thread, went and found pic. Of course I attached your name to it. You were the inspiration for it. lmao

I'm just pokin' fun at ya. But, you have now scared me from subscribing. I don't want to drop money for a membership and not see any animals. Way to go man!!
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Orion
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Re: How to lose a stubborn doe??

Post by Orion »

I personally use the range finder instead of the the binocs. I like it and it can help you not scan an area where there is no chance of seeing an animal like 800ft away.
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pirahna590
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Re: How to lose a stubborn doe??

Post by pirahna590 »

Indecorous wrote::lol:
I saw this thread, went and found pic. Of course I attached your name to it. You were the inspiration for it. lmao

I'm just pokin' fun at ya. But, you have now scared me from subscribing. I don't want to drop money for a membership and not see any animals. Way to go man!!
i DONT mean to scare anyone away from going paid membership, how-ever IF there WAS a glitch when I went paid it IS something I would like looked into to prevent others from experiencing what Im going through :). I DO LOVE THIS GAME .... otherwise I wouldnt have went paid, an quite honestly I wouldnt keep coming back day in an out to try an find a decent buck and I wouldnt be promoting this game to others either. Personally, I THINK there was a glitch as I had went paid at the same time they changed their system a few weeks back ... I dont think its system wide from that point on an anyone who goes paid will be suffering from the same problems I am.

Case in point is there are others saying they have gone paid recently, an able to find decent game animals. Heck, Im in game right now ... trying yet again to find the decent bucks lol. There are benefits of going paid ... the new hunting lands being but just one of them .... being able to hunt other game besides muleys is yet another an this I am able to do ... hunt all the animals offered and all the reserves they have to offer.

I know you were just pokin fun at me, an thats koo ... but you gotta admit, giving the level of determination Im putting into these hunts, and the amount of time have gone by since I was able to bag a decent buck ... it just dont add up :(. I should be able to bag a buck above 120, yet despite my best efforts, Im not able to locate them ... an yes I was able too much easier before they changed their system ... I dont think its personally towards me no ... I just think going paid when they changed their system ( not exactly sure WHAT they changed, just recall hearing some changes were made ) was a mistake on my part. Hey, its a computer system, an glitches DO happen, if it was system wide with anyone going paid after that system change, we would have MANY others on here saying what Im saying ... I just think I made a bad call going paid at a bad time. If you wanna go paid by all means to so :) .... go bag yourself a big buck an lemme know how you did ... this will tell me either I just have a glitch or really bad luck right now ... but dont not go paid just because Im having problems ... it is a good game and as u can see here, many people willing to offer advice an assistance ... Ide feel bad if u wanted to go paid but didnt because of my own glitch/bad luck which ever it may be ... go for it ... if you suffer the same fate as me then we will know an the devs will have to look at the possibility of a glitch in the system ... but like I siad, others have gone paid recently an say they are still able to find decent - good sized game. I just think my account mighta been glitched for choosing a bad time to go paid is all ........ either that or I just stumbled into the worse luck of my life LMFAO.

< back to the field ... believe me Im trying to find that good buck to break this cycle Im in.
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pirahna590
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Re: How to lose a stubborn doe??

Post by pirahna590 »

Orion wrote:I personally use the range finder instead of the the binocs. I like it and it can help you not scan an area where there is no chance of seeing an animal like 800ft away.
THATS exactly why I prefer using the rangefinder as well orion ... I figure if they arent out past 800 feet, an I cant see em in the rangefinder ... move on :).

I must have like 8 does all aroundme right now in game .... both whitetails an black tails ... IM HOPING theres some bucks behind them ... we'll see
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