Bowhunter's 6th Sense.....

[Terry Green]

OK...we all know that animals certianly seem to have a 6th sense...but what about bowhunters?

Have you ever experienced it?

Like when something blatantly taps you on the shoulder an makes you look left and the animal is there?....or stops you from taking another step for no apparant reason and the animal appears?...or makes you really sneak over the next ridgeline when you really didn't over the last 3 and you got a shot?...or when you knew without a shadow of a doubt that something was in that bottom this time and there was?

[Mudfeather]

Hey Terry, Mainly I experience that feeling when I'm doing something wrong and my WIFE is watching!!!!  

[C. Lacey]

That's called "Common sense" oh Muddy-one-knobe.  Always pays for you fellas to listen to that 'feeling'.  haha

Terry's talking about the 'wee folk' that like to come hunting with us....or am I the only crazy one they follow around and play mischief on?

Cher  :cool:

[Littlefeather]

    You know it!!!

[C. Lacey]

Darn, you've reminded me...better start uping the practice time.
There's not much to worry about in our bush - least nothing that's going to go eating you just for fun.
Was stiring Ed one time about people using tree-stands (some down here use ground blinds but most just still-stalk from what I hear).  Anyway, said I'd LOVE to go stalk up on a Bear some time and asked why I didn't hear of many actually STALKING them..
His reply?
Told me about the big Kodiak Bear he had some fun with one time - apparently it was more 'interested' in Ed than Ed was in him.
Also said that it didn't matter if you were in a tree or on the ground - a bear will put the chill in you every time.
...and tells me I've got MUCH MORE PRACTICING to do before he lets me loose in your neck of the woods.

So, for all my joshing lads, I'll willingly toe the line and do as you say should I be so lucky to come hunting with you.  Reckon my legs look just fine and I've no desire to have lil holes poked in them...or me.

So, you lads be sure to listen to the wee folk when they're talking to you.

hunt hard.

Cher  :cool:

[Mark Baker]

Several times I've reacted barely in time to repel a great-horned owl swooping in on me in the pre-dawn darkness.   Just had a "feeling", cause I could'nt see or hear the dang thing.  If you've never had happen, then your missing out on one truly adrenalin charged experience, let me tell ya.

[buckracks7]

It's hard for me to tell cause I'm constantly looking around.

John, you make me feel sane. Thanks.

[AZStickman]

Absolutely.....Usually take me about a day or two out in the woods to shake off the trappings of day to day living in town and get into the rythm of the woods and start going on instinct.... Those lil hunches are rarely wrong if ya learn to listen to em.... Terry

[the Ferret]

This ties in nicely to an article I wrote one time called "Animal Magnetism". I'll have to dig it out and scan it for you, but the basic premise is animals are attracted TO us so that we can kill them, otherwise our ancestors would have starved a million years ago.

Mark Bakers example is perfect, as is Lance's and Tom's. Of all the places in the whole wide world these animals/birds could have walked or flown why do they end up in/under the EXACT tree that we are in?

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm

[JC]

I mainly see it while deer hunting on a stand: I'll be looking in a particular direction and for some unknown reason my gaze will linger there....a deer just appears right where I was looking. Very cool feeling. Happens sometimes when hog hunting too...sometimes you're lookin through the brush and all of a sudden there's a hog. It's happened enough times that I know it's not coincidence.

Then of course there's the times when you say "that's jes those damn squirrels playin behind me again" and it turns out to be a 8pt.

[Bill Carlsen]

It's amazing how much time we spend in the woods just observing. When you think about it, especially if you live in a state like NH, you only spend a few minutes of each season killing anything. All the rest of the time you are observing and experiencing the outdoors. The next moment is always an unknown, even as you are drawing your bow who knows what will happen next? The more time we spend in the woods and the more observant we really are the more in tune we get with wild things...hopefully we get more wild and our instincts sharpen. These mysterious happenings used to be a source of questions for me and I really pondered things like "sixth sense" and such. I never really came to any conclusions except that the more time you spend in the wild the more these things happen. Now I don't question them or think much about why these things occured. Instead I am grateful for having had the experience because it makes me feel more connected and part of what is happening around me. It makes me more of a participant than a simple observer.

[John Scifres]

I know that I have had several "gift deer" that God just gave to me.  They simply appeared and said shoot me.  Or something real close the that.  Last year I had a squirrel rat out a buck that was coming in.  Guess that was one of those wee folk, eh?

[kyle]

AZ stickman I think you hit it pretty close.  Most of US, and by that I mean those of us I mean true hunters, not just deer "shooters" out there, have it but it gets repressed in today's modern world.  I think you've got to relax and allow it to come back to the front to take advantage of it.  Everyone probably has it to some degree and I think that we all need to listen to that "inner voice" more.

Kyle

[ZIP-R]

Yeah I've experienced it. That sick feeling that you get that says you better look now because you just got busted in the ole tree stand. Or the feeling I had this year the mornin I killed a doe. I could have predicted it that very morning. I just knew I was going to connect. Az stickman I know the feeling, I need a couple of days in the woods to get the "feel" also.

Brian

[ZIP-R]

Yeah I've experienced it. That sick feeling that you get that says you better look now because you just got busted in the ole tree stand. Or the feeling I had this year the mornin I killed a doe. I could have predicted it that very morning. I just knew I was going to connect. Az stickman I know the feeling, I need a couple of days in the woods to get the "feel" also.

Brian

[ZIP-R]

OOPS!

[RayMO]

I am positive the deer have this ability. I am to the point were I try to keep mind thinking on something else when there is a deer close by or at least stay as calm as possible. Gene Wensel talks about this a little in his book "Come November".

I can not say that I have ever experienced it myself. I got busted twice this year from right behind my tree and I was Clueless. So I am not sure there is any hope for me.

[buckracks7]

I agree with that RayMo. I avoid looking directly at their eyes. I'm convinced they can sense the eye contact. I also listen for noises too quiet to have been made by a squirrel.

[Steertalker]

Down here in Texas we got these things call "buzz worms" that have real pretty diamonds on their backs.  Anyway, I always get this tingley feeling all over me just before I step on one when I'm blood trailing a deer on a hot Texas october evening.  Is that what y'all are talking about?

[String Cutter]

I have a nak for picking very good hunting spots. Always see one or two in bow range. Just got to figure out how to hit 'em????