From: GF
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Date: 17-Mar-18 |
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The thread on deer tracking observations got me thinking about how lucky I am...
I like teaching; I like explaining, and I love figuring out the solutions to problems that just won’t go away. Why does that make me feel Lucky? Well, mostly because I spent the first 9 years of my more-or-less adult life doing my damnedest to please a woman who didn’t much care for that. Used to call me Analogy Man (and without a trace of affection!), whereas my best friends wives just called her That Woman because she was such a treat. But I’m lucky because I’ve had the past 21 years to share with a woman whose favorite thing to hear me say is (think Adam from Mythbusters) “well, THERE’S your problem!”
So... Fair Warning: if you don’t care for my explanations or analogies any more than TW ever did, this thread is not for you. Feel free to hit the back button at any time. If you just want to complain about me, I’m pretty sure I can get you TW’s number and you can kvetch about me to your heart’s content and have an engaged audience...
But if you’re wondering where this is headed... stay with me!
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From: Rick Barbee
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Date: 17-Mar-18 |
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I love reading "explanations" from folks who know how to "type them out".
It really helps with my "lack" of "reading comprehension" skills.
:-)
Rick
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From: GF
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Date: 17-Mar-18 |
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OK, so here goes:
Tracking a deer is like a jigsaw puzzle with pieces scattered along the trail - pretty much like so:
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From: GF
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Date: 17-Mar-18 |
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Rick - I don’t think you can possibly read as slowly as I have to type!
So here’s my point - at first blush, most people have no idea what they’re looking at and don’t even know where to begin. Most beginning hunters just look for the red and go from there.
But in most cases, you’d have to be pretty good to sort this one out from the red bits alone. I’m pretty sure that there are a couple of guys here who could do it, but not many. Most of us would need more info just to get pretty close.
So humor me - describe the picture that got turned into this puzzle....
(No need to post a guess - better to leave the rest of the guys wondering..)
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From: GF
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Date: 17-Mar-18 |
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I’m going to classify this post in the thread as BANTER: no useful information will be given out in any post flagged as such, so those disinterested in the asides can skip it.
Shawn - I’ve already invited you to use the back button if you don’t think I can offer you anything worth knowing... so do you want TW’s number now, or should I schedule an appointment so you two will have plenty of time to talk??
This is about getting better at puzzles; Blood Trail 101. Intended audience is beginners and maybe I’ll even give some bowhunter ed instructors a few ideas about how to talk to this stuff when teaching a class.
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From: 4nolz@work
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Date: 17-Mar-18 |
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Well obviously 1 less than you
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From: Wild Bill
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Date: 17-Mar-18 |
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Private message sent.
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From: GF
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Date: 17-Mar-18 |
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In fairness, Mike, we should let Shawn explain the picture first.
My brother, the crazy-smart Artiste always provides a lengthy artist’s statement to explain his work when he puts up an installation: every element of each piece is there for a reason.
Maybe I should just let Shawn write the statement on this one?
I actually have to mount up to take the boys to watch the state championship hockey game, so I guess I’m going to have to treat this like an iffy shot and give it ‘til this evening before I can take it up again.
So not to keep everybody in suspense, but them’s the breaks on this one!
Feel free to swap (constructive) ideas on what I’m getting after here, but I’m going to have to apologize for not having planned this out around my day very well.
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From: olddogrib
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Date: 17-Mar-18 |
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From the blood spatter it looks like you took an "opportunity" shot on a dove hunt with a load of low-base #8's...there's your problem! But it does appear lighter pink so if we're to believe it's a lung hit and the "spatter" is coming from the exhale...then the one drop due left leads me to believe your deer made it off the puzzleboard and went due west...you should find it piled up at exactly 77-1/2 yards!
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From: lv2bohunt
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Date: 17-Mar-18 |
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I can’t imagine any reason at all why it would matter how many deer a guy has tracked if he is offering free information. If you listen to what he says and find it elementary or worse useless then move on. On the other hand most people have something useful to add in most cases. I regularly hear people in this forum say things that are a bit off and some downright incorrect. I have made that judgement only after I listened to them and never based on a claimed “number “ of anything or the accolades they have bestowed on themselves.
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From: Bender
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Date: 17-Mar-18 |
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Actually I think I "get" it. LOOK at the picture. In its WHOLE entirety. It's full of puzzle pieces, but what ELSE is there?
I see the beginning of a story, and then other elements that will lead to different conclusions dependent upon which direction the story heads off into.
Right in the middle is a bottle cap. Kick back and wait a bit. Have a beer or whatever. That is the beginning of the story.
On the left is a blacked out Rubik's cube. That makes NO sense at all and is obviously hopeless.
To the lower right is a tiny little Luke Skywalker figure. You're using the "Force" so you're kinda sorta headed in the right direction.
But wait! To the upper right is a candy cane! I would bet that that is the direction to go if you want the treat at the end of the trail.
The lesson? Wait and look at EVERYTHING before taking even one step.
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From: lv2bohunt
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Date: 17-Mar-18 |
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My apologies to the OP for veering off topic slightly
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From: Chas
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Date: 17-Mar-18 |
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GF- I like it, kind of like a outdoor "Rorschach" test. Hermann would be proud. I'm sure I'll learn something new from this thread and if I don't it's my own fault..
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From: 4nolz@work
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Date: 17-Mar-18 |
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I figure he's been married 30 years so yeah he's old enough to have tracked a few
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From: olddogrib
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Date: 17-Mar-18 |
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Mike's right..and as usual has made an astute observation. However, I've been married 42 years(to the same woman). That should put me right up there with Ghandi in wisdom...actually she's my soulmate, I could not ask for more..deaf, dumb and over-sexed and owns a liquor store!
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From: Lost arrow
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Date: 17-Mar-18 |
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Let's say the top of the puzzle is North. It's pretty obvious the deer is headed in a Northeast direction.
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From: hawkeye in PA
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Date: 17-Mar-18 |
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North has to be upper right corner, 'cause of the candy cane. That puzzle is like autumn leaves on the ground with my color depth perception problem;)
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From: olboy
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Date: 17-Mar-18 |
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What do the edges have to do with it???? Hmm......
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From: Phil
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Date: 17-Mar-18 |
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I see the bottle top, the candy and the rubic cube ... that's about as much as my eye sight lets me see.
I'm fascinated by this thread ... always willing to listen and learn new stuff
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From: GF
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Date: 17-Mar-18 |
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Damn! Now the pressure is really on!!!
LOL... But my sincere thanks to those of you who are willing to indulge me a bit, and play along!
Fun to see how many of you tumbled to the seemingly extraneous information… But it seems to me that there is always plenty of it around out in the woods, no? I did add those things on purpose, though… The candycane is a Christmas ornament, because the puzzle was a present from my wife and the boys because they know that I love working these things out. There are actually four pieces of Lego in there, along with the Rubiks cube (another puzzle) and the “bottlecap”, which is actually a little piece of hockey-related paraphernalia. So all of that tells you that this picture was composed by a dad with a couple of boys like to play hockey and we do puzzles together. Probably extraneous, but Sometimes getting your head into the same frame of mind as the critter you’re after can come in handy…
So… Back to the overall composition. If this were a blood trail, we’d all be looking at the red stuff. But there’s a whole lot more information there… Many of the pieces of which are still flipped image side down, so that you can’t make much sense of him. So one thought here is that just because you don’t recognize it doesn’t mean that it’s not Sign.
I wonder how many people picked up on the black rubber eraser?
If there is one scene greater than not being willing to dig through things on a fine scale and determine what is capped sign and what isn’t, it has got to be our bad habit of erasing the good sign it’s right there in front of us. And we usually don’t have any idea that we’ve even done it…
Another thing I did on purpose was to sprinkle a few of the puzzle pieces off of the board and onto the table and the floor, because usually we get fixated looking at what we expect is Sipgn in the places where we expect to find it, and we ignore the things on the periphery that may show us a lot. For example above and below the board you can see parts of the box in which this puzzle came. One of them has a whole bunch of extra pieces in it, and sometimes if you ignore those things off to the side, you can miss an awful lot of information. The corner of the box that sticking out of the top actually has part of the picture from the front of the box on it. So if you poke around the edges, sometimes you will see something that gives you a really good view of the bigger picture all at once.
So now that I’ve explained that much, I think I’m going to give you guys a minute to think about it… LOL. Let me see if I can upload a higher resolution image for you to ponder…
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From: GF
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Date: 17-Mar-18 |
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Let's see if I got this any bigger for you guys... Hope I have the orientation right...
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From: GF
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Date: 17-Mar-18 |
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Well, THAT doesn’t seem to have helped any… Let me try a few more
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From: GF
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Date: 17-Mar-18 |
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Gettin’ down on the hands and knees here...
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From: GF
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Date: 17-Mar-18 |
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Well… THAT may be giving away a little too much…
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From: Wild Bill
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Date: 17-Mar-18 |
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I got the deer.
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From: Greyfox
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Date: 17-Mar-18 |
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Life is like a blood trail, you hope to put all the pieces together like a puzzle. Hoping they fit but sometimes not. Depends on perspective. When you come down Route 66, drop by McAlester. Good luck
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From: Wild Bill
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Date: 17-Mar-18 |
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The license plate cinched it for me.
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From: GF
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Date: 17-Mar-18 |
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You’re pretty close there,Bill...
Even if you WERE off by a factor of 10!!!
I am truly IMPRESSED!!!
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From: Wild Bill
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Date: 18-Mar-18 |
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GF,
As you know my first impression was wrong. It was not a lighthouse on a rocky shore, but magnifying the first image in paint just produced a lot of pixels that were too unfocused.
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From: olddogrib
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Date: 18-Mar-18 |
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Apparently the connected red pieces indicate "dribbles" as opposed to droplets or spatters...possible direction of travel indicators? State WRC hunter safety courses can be enlightening doing these type of trails in the outdoors. I think most of us struggle with the deer that doubles back on its trail because the blood sign usually increases if it hasn't stopped entirely. We see that, get excited and pick up the pace following it straight to the dead end. If the ground/ leaves/underbrush yield no additional clues that's the point where you're easily convinced the bleeding stopped, the deer sprouted wings and will recover just fine. The average hunter will refuse to admit he missed the side trail and have the patience to retrace his steps and find it.
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From: GF
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Date: 18-Mar-18 |
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The thing is to not get too literal.... this isn’t one of Pat’s blood trails...
The thing is....
Only the board, the table and the rug are the “woods” here; all of the pieces of the puzzle are parts of the picture - and some are more important than others to be sure - but we tend to focus on the red because it’s easy to pick out. And we tend to ignore all of the pieces that are mostly black & white or which haven’t even been turned right side up yet.
We tend to miss (entirely) the pieces that aren’t where we expect to find them, even though those can sometimes provide enough info to allow you to piece the whole thing together.
And sometimes what appears to be extraneous information can still teach you something worth knowing, even if it doesn’t help you find that particular deer on that particular day. Just watch out for those danged erasers!
So it’s important to slow down, look closely, and not jump to conclusions so you don’t end up looking for lighthouses in the desert.
Sometimes just following the blood DOES tell you enough; if there’s enough of it on the ground and it’s easy to pick up, then it probably doesn’t matter too much exactly where it’s coming from. On the other hand, sometimes it’s good to know exactly what kind of blood you’re looking at; to be honest, I figured at least some of the guys here would see the strip of chrome between the red & white paint and a couple of the bezels around the headlamps and would be able to provide a model year on that Corvette, but the resolution wasn’t there in the first few pics.
Anyway.... take from that what you will; if you didn’t learn anything, maybe at least it’ll give you another way to explain something to someone who’s just starting out...
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From: olddogrib
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Date: 18-Mar-18 |
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I've got this...it's a Minnesota deer. Frisky posed with the carcass but all the evidence points to classic Corvette roadkill..and they're much easier to find and load from the road shoulder too!
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From: GF
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Date: 18-Mar-18 |
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Hmmmmm ....
Lot more ‘vettes in the desert than Up Nort’!! You might just be mistaken on that one!!
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From: stykman
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Date: 19-Mar-18 |
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You're a Rangers fan? That is beyond the pale and as such, I'm done.
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From: GF
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Date: 19-Mar-18 |
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Actually, not at all! But they have a local organization that put on a hockey clinic that I sign my boys up for just to get them some extra ice time, and that was some of the paraphernalia that they sent…
They always have some great players, but I can never root for an NYC team, because they always have so much payroll that they really have no excuse for ever losing....
But that could turn into quite a rant, so I’d better let it go!
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From: YH2268
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Date: 19-Mar-18 |
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Must still be very cold and lots of snow on the ground where you are.
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