Tracking

[Dailir]

I've been looking into trailcraft, or tracking/stalking, and I came up with one huge general question for you all. It seems that stealth, and being able to follow a creature or a trail is a huge part of being a ranger, but I've barely seen it mentioned on the forums. So, what do you know of tracking/stalking and how would you suggest learning?

[Peter Remling]

There are a good many books on hunting/stalking. I'd recommend you go to your local library and take a quick look before you buy. The Tom Brown books are a good start.

Regarding tracking, check out the animal prints of the animals you're likely to encounter.

Tracking is mostly observation, start in your day to day life. The first thing (and for some people the hardest) is becoming more aware of your surrounding. Count the number of people on line, when buying coffee. Mentaly determine who would be the most difficult adversary and observe his/her weak points. Be casual !

When going to and from your house or business, see who's in the area and if they could pose a possible threat.

When you are in the outdoors, expand your observations to your other senses. Now take into consideration the direction of wind and rain. Do it slowly and build upon your experiences.

Most animals are creatures of habit. Deer have a tendency to take the same trail on alternating days. Most non-migratory animals generally use the same watering holes.

Back to stealth, Andy posted on his old site a set of pictures dealing with how to make yourselves less visible in the wild. Someone here probably has them copied and this would be a good place to repost them.

When looking up some of these subjects, you might check out the posts here of Kerrytracker, one of our members.

[Ringulf]

Exellent suggestions Pete!
You know I learned most of what I know about tracking from a long Boy Scout career.
I went from Bobcat to Life scout and unfortunately quit before becoming an Eagle, but I picked up what I knew from that and applied it to hunting and Birding.
Nature photography is another area that is super training too. With todays small digital cameras or even phones with cameras in them you can take pictures of tracks or other spoor and reference them later on if you can't redily identify them in the feild.
Do that and you will get better and better.
BTW some of the old scouting manuals and the Beard books are great sources too!

[Eledhwen]

The first, and to my mind best way to kick off on your own is to be observant, as Pete said, and when you see an animal, any animal at all, or even people, go over to where they passed and examine the signs left by their passing. This allows you to see how various impressions are left and what form they take, as well as time elapsed; you view them fresh then look at them over time.

Not an option everyone can put into play, but this is how my grandfather started me. You can enlist friends to help with things like blood trails and what have you.

Most of it is, as has been said, simple observation...which doesn't seem to come easily to a lot of folks.

Eledhwen

[theowl]

On the subject of situation awareness, the guys at my work and I play a game where we consider what weapon and escape rout we would use if we instantly had to fight our way out of the store and could only use what was at our closest arms length. (we work at a sword shop, so sometimes the answers are obvious. Other times they're a bit more creative.) and while it does get fairly morbid, it's helped us fine tune our situational awareness to a point where I now notice things that I never would have before. I have yet to try it out in a wilderness setting, but just being aware of what is around you makes tracking and figuring things out a lot easier.

[Eledhwen]

Situational awareness is good..but it is not the same thing as observation, and that latter is key to tracking and reading sign. They overlap a bit, to be sure, but they really are rather different things where tracking is concerned. There is a saying; "If thou hast eyes to see, then see." We spend a lot of time going through life in an oblivious state, which is not really surprising given our culture.

Exercises such as taking walks and noting in a journal everything you see along the way can show you this really quickly. Beyond the usual like trees, flowers, squirrels, etc, practice begins to bring in things like tufts of fur caught in broken twigs, marks where a raptors wings brushed the ground as it took prey, remnants of some animals meal, etc. You can make all kinds of games out of it..and doing it begins to allow the eyes to spot more and more of our furry and feathered companions, not to mention scaled ones as we learn to actually see rather than look.

For what it is worth.

Eledhwen

[Peter Remling]

I just remembered something we used to do as kids that might help.
My father was a gun collector, a competition shooter and had his FFL (Federal Firearms Dealers License) to support his hobby. There was always a lot of firearms around the house so we were taught gun safety and how to shoot at a very early age.

I was four the first time I shot at a range (no it isn't a joke). We moved from a developement when I was 7 to a larger house with woods on three sides and only 2 other houses on the road which was a 1/2 mile from the main road and houses were few and far between on the main road.

While we couldn't shoot real guns in the yard and woods we went through tens of thousands of rounds of bbs and pellets. We all were relatively good shots (credit my father, he always was a good teacher) so we'd look for progressively harder targets to hit. We several times a year would buy balsa wood gliders and I would throw my aircraft and one of my brothers would shot at it. We rarely missed but the trick was to render it unflyable. Once that happened the shooter won the contest. I digress a bit.

While shooting planes and even plastic ship models was fun or favorite contest was shooting at plastic army men. We'd each take 6 army men put them in the grass and step back to the line forty feet away. You then sniped each others men until none were left. The first person to snipe all his opponents men was the winner. Shooting the men wasn't the hard part,spotting 2 " green army men in green grass was the trick.

You might want to try it, You don't have to shoot them just spot them. Start by putting them out yourself, go back 20' and try to eyeball them. Next try it a little farther out. Keep doing it as far out as you can. Once you've mastered that, have someone else put them out without watching them, then try to spot them.

If you like to shoot bb/pellet guns it will improve your skill drastically but just spotting them will work at improving your observation skills.

[R.D.Metcalf]

Knowing your area is critical, tracking is more than just cutting sign, from a warriors perspective you could be tracking yourself into an ambush. Once you know your area and learn where the water, jack pots, vantage points etc. you can trail wide of the sign to either move ahead of your game or push them on into more hostile terrain.

When I ride out looking for cows, I like to establish the direction of travel then stay just below the ridge lines 1) I dont want to scare them down the other side of the mountain and 2) I dont want to ride too low then tire my horse having to climb the damn mountain if they happen to turn up a steep trail. When i glass my cows I'll ride a circle and approach downwind.

In mountainous country establish direction, dont get to high or low, think about whats out there, where is the water, grass, mast, easy trails etc. Move methodically and observe make your approach in a way that works to your advantage.

[Druin]

On Awareness:
All great advice. I was lucky enough to have a bowhunter for a dad, so I started learning young. A mentor is a great thing to have, if you can find one. Like learning a foreign language (which, to wax poetic, you're doing: the "language of the Wilds"), immersion is key. Get out into the woods, the fields, the mountains, and simply be. I recommend sitting in one place for long periods initially, and letting the critters come to you. As has been stated, observe, observe, observe. This will help develop your awareness. Look first with your eyes, at the max field of your view, before turning your head. This minimizes movement and maximizes your ability to detect a critter sooner. When you're on the move hunting, you stop frequently to listen, look, and smell. This not only helps you detect animals, but also mimics the movement of animals and matches the natural rhythm of things. Calm prey animals don't usually just GO. They stop to nibble this bush or that, and listen and look and smell for danger. You should do the same.
On Tracking:
Tracking books are great to give you a general base to work from, but nothing will teach you like experience. The tracks aren't always perfectly formed, and a book can't really tell you the difference between a track made this morning and one made yesterday evening. You have to SEE that stuff. Once again, a mentor is a great thing to have, and will provide you with shortcuts to the knowledge you seek. Learn from their experience as you build up your own experience. Then pass your knowledge on to other worthy pupils in your turn as Mentor.
On the stealth note:
A key to moving quietly is to roll your feet, and do so along the outsides of your feet. Most humans move with the ka-lunk, ka-lunk of heelstrike-toe slap. If you have stiff-soled shoes like hiking boots, it's easier to roll your feet from heel to toe. If you have soft shoes like moccasins, it comes less naturally, but once you get the hang of it, rolling from toe to heel is better. Try not to strike the ground with your foot, but cushion the initial touchdown and then roll the rest of your weight onto it. Train your peripheral vision to help you avoid breaking sticks, etc. When I was little, my dad set me the task of rolling my feet when I walked, all the time. Not just in the woods, but at school, etc. Now it's totally second-nature. I sneak up on people and scare the pants off them really without even meaning to. The surge of pride outweighs the pang of guilt
Practicing Tai Chi is a SUPERB way to train your body how to move when stalking. Sudden or fast movement is the number one thing that draws the eyes of any creature. Tai Chi helps you move s l o w l y and fluidly, without losing your balance. Practice sneaking on pets, coworkers, classmates, etc. See just how close you can get before they are aware of you.
A weird thing that I learned from experience deer hunting: When standing in one place and hoping to remain undetected, stand in FRONT of the bush, rather than behind it. Counter-intuitive, I know. But it works. At least on deer. Your camouflage (ranger greens, browns, and grays) breaks up your outline and causes you to melt into the bush background. Now, with a solid object, like a rock or log, it is better to hide behind it, since the animal can't see you through it, like they can with the bush.
Always avoid skylining yourself. If you cross a ridgeline, do so in cover of bushes or trees, or keep as low as possible and don't linger at the crest.
If you happen to apply camo paint to your face, think of how shadows usually lie on your face, and where the light usually falls, and then make your face paint achieve the opposite. Paint your nose, cheekbones, and forehead dark colors, and the rest light. This makes the parts that normally stick out in the light appear to be in shadow, and the shadowy parts appear to be light. This obscures the telltale shape of a human face. This is especially effective against human quarry, as they will more likely be LOOKING for a human face.
And one last tip for stealth that hardly anyone knows: Sneezing is NOT an unpreventable disaster. You CAN keep yourself from sneezing. VERY easily. When you feel a sneeze coming on, bite your tongue with just enough pressure to make it hurt slightly. The urge to sneeze will immediately evaporate! Completely. Your brain won't let you sneeze with your tongue between your teeth, because it doesn't want you to bite your tongue off due to the violence of your sneeze. It takes some courage at first to leave your tongue there if the sneeze tries to build, but I absolutely guarantee that it works. I use it all the time hunting. As with most stealth skills, I recommend practicing some when you're NOT sneaking about, so that it comes easier and so that you REMEMBER TO THINK OF IT when you ARE sneaking. However, once you have the hang of it, don't keep yourself from EVER sneezing. Some sneezing is good for you.
That's all I've got for now