They know when you're not after them...

[Brown Dog]

Went out for a plink this afternoon…

-walking out to set up a target; spiker roe buck and maiden roe doe let me blatantly walk with dog, rifle and camera to within 150m:

- following this; the Brown Dog remained unimpressed throughout.
I’d title this one “Boss, are we done yet?”:

[Didn’t shoot too well either! Only managed 1.06MOA on the 366yd tgt in the background and 1.03 on another at 381yds -at least it didn’t rain!]

[Longreach]

Brown Dog,

I'm certain that animals can sense whether or not you're in hunt mode or not. Happened to me whilst I was glassing fallow deer at 90m. The deer were unaware of my presence but I felt a nudge on my shoulder from my hunting partner. When I lowered my binocular, I found a fox staring at us from about 15 feet away! Of course, any attempt to move, even moderately, would've given the game away. He trotted on past us when we made eye contact!

Crows are another finely tuned birdie. They not only seem to know if you're hunting but also whether your magazine is loaded or not!! I kid you not. They're strictly a longish shot proposition but the explosion on contact with a .22 centrefire bullet is rather satisfying! [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Whitewolf393]

True enough on animals being able to sense whether or not you're in hunting mode. As with stalking, you can't advertise your intent to kill them :]

I've had similar experiences with turkey and fox while deer hunting...I saw everything but the deer!