I understand that we use all of our senses (with maybe the exception of taste)in our hunting experiences but was curious to see if any of us really paid attention to which sense we used the most this season.

In particular as we age certain of our senses become less acute and our dependency on others takes place. Has anyone else experienced a decline in his/her sight, hearing, smell, etc. and found that they hunt a little bit differently to compensate? And if so what has become your most dependable/primary sense in getting close to game?

+1 on that Old Buck.....forgot that one!!

Unfortunately I was hit w a double whammy. A tumor crushed my hearing flat and that made me deaf in one ear. It also made me slightly less able to hear well. I def can’t triangulate where sound comes from even if I do hear it. Same taken it screwed up my ocular nerve and my dominant eye doesn’t make tears. It’s sometimes got a film like looking through wax paper. Seeing is also tough. The way I’ve changed is to use my brain even more determining where to look. That n determination. Every deer I shoot now is a little bigger accomplishment but someone somewhere wishes they could even get out so I’ll take it. Wish I could answer your post better but it’s not senses that are helping me

The senses of smell and taste are directly related because they both use the same types of receptors, so I suspect we mostly use all of them when afield. I imagine over the millennia we have lost the conscious use of those so-called 6th sense but we may still be able to be influenced by them. That's the sense that can raise the short hairs on the back of your neck when alone in the woods. ;)

When I am very close to an animal, I can often smell it. Esp. elk, but also deer, and esp. if in the rut. If that's the case, it probably can't smell me. When that happens, all my other senses really kick in. Sight and then hearing being the most important, in that order. I snuck up on a bedded buck this year, and I could smell him...right after that I spotted him laying down in his bed.

Yep many times when hunting elk you smell the bull long before you see him.

That is what my son says when tracking a whitetail.He says he can smell the deer when we get close to it.I surely can not.

Turning 60 in 11 months and all my senses are declining, especially my sight, but will say while on stand I seem to usually hear deer coming before I see them... Hear the sound and my eyes focus in that direction looking for movement... I've also been able to smell rutting bucks upwind before seeing them too and some I didn't actually see, but now all senses are diminishing and consider it just the natural aging process and deal with it...

Pushing 70 and my hearing has declined quite a bit from listening to too many after burners and gunfire over the years. I tend to rely more heavily on sight. It's probably a good thing though.

I was always twitchy about wondering what it was I could hear behind me that I couldn't see. Now, I just wait till I see it. I tried wearing my hearing aids to the woods and that drove me crazy.

I use to say I could hear a mouse fart at 100 yd's. now he'd have to be sitting on my shoulder and even then I might have to depend on my nose to know he did it. 8>)

vision ya got to see to hunt ya can't kill what ya can't see

Sense of feeling hasn't been mentioned but it's important to be able to feel the wind and subtle changes in the direction especially when still hunting. With constant ringing in my ears even a quiet snowy day deep in the woods sounds like a roar but I still frequently hear them before seeing although I believe sight is still the dominant sense used.

Vision is about the only viable sense I still have. Hearing is just about gone and sense of smell is waning as well.

mainly sight for me

Been almost deaf since a kid

can smell deer if been in an area long or if close but not acute enough to use as a hunting advantage

I normally hear deer coming before I can see them. Same thing with black bears when we went to Alberta, I heard everyone of them before I saw them. Deer hunting during the rut I can normally smell a buck if he is close enough.

Good one Ron, I'm not so sure I could even smell it.

All my senses are dwindling fast, sight, hearing, smell, taste. My Common sense is very strong as I believe if you have that to start with you don't lose it, you have to have some intelligence to have common sense and as mentioned there is none any more.

I have ESPN.

Is very good for SEC Saturdays. Not so much for hunting.

X2 WHAT OLDBUCK SAID THAT IS FUNNY!!!!!!!

I have to paint the back of the front sight on my flintlock white in order to see it. Even then, I can't tell how much daylight there is on either side and it's still blurry.

I can't hear worth beans. I can hear the TV, but I can not tell what they're saying over half the time. Squirrels walk by me now in the woods in complete silence. That used to be all I ever heard. Now, all I hear is crickets, katydids, and hissing, like an air hose leaking inside of my head.

The old timers used to tell me what the first thing was to go, but they didn't serve on a rifle and pistol range either. :)

foxbo, I had to move my rear sight on my flintlock so I could see it, you know the mid range sight when you get older

Ron, what did you do, move the sight further up the barrel? I've been killing deer with my flinters since 79, but it's getting difficult and I have to keep my shots within fifty yards, or closer, depending on the light.

I was thinking I'd have to go with an inline and scope, but really don't want to.

foxbo, my dad is 70 and has always been an exceptional shot with a flint lock. About 10 years ago he was having trouble with seeing the sights and replaced them with sights that are fiber optic I think he spent about $50 back then but it was well worth it for him. They also make a glow paint that you could dot your front and rear sights with.

Thanks Jim for the tip. I may take a look at those fiber optic deals. Can't put too much modern crap on a flintlock as it would look out of place. I play Daniel Boone still at 64. :)

Hearing. That's probably why I love late season. Embrace the crunch.

Been partially deaf since day one. At seventy my sight is fuzzy without glasses. Will be needing cataract surgery. I can sense things in the woods and especially on the lake fishing. A weird electricity. Strange..

"Ron, what did you do, move the sight further up the barrel? I've been killing deer with my flinters since 79, but it's getting difficult and I have to keep my shots within fifty yards, or closer, depending on the light. I was thinking I'd have to go with an inline and scope, but really don't want to."

I use a smoothbore a lot with no rear sight, also put a little fluorescent paint on that front sight.

Here's a verse from a poem I wrote

"We shoot smoth bores now cant see the rear sights

but the front sight is still fairly clear

We load them smoothies with a big round ball

an still manage to kill us some deer"

The sense I use the most is vision, and 90% of that is detecting movement, regardless of how subtle it may be, and/or shapes and lines that may be a tad out of place. Hearing as a hunting sense left me a LONG time ago!

The other sense I use a lot is the "sense" to KEEP STILL!

Smooth bore? Are you shooting a patched round ball, or bullets?

Back in Tx at the blackpowder range, there was a guy who shot a smooth bore and molded his own bullets from a mold he developed. He called them flying trash cans. We could break clay birds hanging on a board at 50 yards. It also had a rear sight.

I can see the sights with glasses, but can't see the target. So, I try and focus on the front sight as best I can. I used to be a crack shot, but that was when I could see the dang sights.

Ron, I moved it closer because my near vision is good and my further away vision is alright it's that blasted intermediate. Even though I can't see the front as well, by moving the rear sight further back that gives me a more accurate or a finer adjustment because of the further distance from the two sights. I wish I could move the front further back, but that would really mess things up. I painted my front bead also. I had the sight further away than normal when I built it because my vision was totally different then.

I would throw a spear before I went with an inline, sorry I have a great hatred for those things.

I have always like you, shot flinters, we call them 90 degree shot guns, because of the blast out the touch hole..Ha!Ha! My barrel is rifled 1 in 66", I am building a new one, just gave away my old one to a new to the sport youngster. It was pretty worn, it was actually getting to be a smoothbore. Ha!Ha!

Ron we may have to go to laser sights...LOL!

I hunt by sight alone. Glad I have good glasses. With two hearing aids, I still can't hear a deer. Swore I could smell a buck this fall. South wind was blowing from the south out of a field with brush head high. Squirrels can walk within 8 feet and I can't hear them.

I think most peoples senses are clouded by mental impressions that have nothing to do with the actual sense. One example, when my son was home for Thanksgiving a girl hoity toid with filthy rich parents, made a big issue about farmers smelling the place up, when she she saw my sons high insulated rubber boots. She could hardly stand the smell, she exclaimed. My son showers everyday and is an auditor CPA for a fortune 100 company. She made the assumption that he was a hog farmer because of the boots. While out pheasant hunting, my son was about 100 yards from me, he motioned and pointed at his nose and then up ahead and tended a what's it sign. I sniffed and could smell something as well. A coyote crossed the field up wind of us. When we met up, he said, "At first I thought it was a fox, but then wasn't sure." Last Saturday I was out with a gun and i could swear that i smelled a deer and something else, maybe Aqua vela aftershave. Another hunter came up the hill and came up to talk to me, he smelled like he took a bath in deer urine and then shaved.

I went through turning the rear sight around backwards on muzzle loaders, to get it farther from my eye. When that no longer worked,I went to a peep rear sight. Don't have to focus on it just look through it.Still do fair with hand guns because the sights are far enough away but a reflex sight is in my future. Anyone use one of the antique looking brass scopes? I can't imagine keeping it clean with a black powder gun. Any way,for me, the answer is still sight is the most important for hunting.>>>----> Ken

I have experienced a decline in sight, hearing, and smell. Lack of smell is an annoyance, but does not affect my hunting at all.

Loss of hearing (or a decline in hearing) is a real concern, but all I can do right now is try to protect the hearing I have. Obviously, hearing aids will help in the (near) future.

Vision is the most important “Sense” for an archer. If you can’t see clearly, you can’t hit what you want to hit.

I would say the sense of wonder is the most important sense. It heightens all the other senses.

....and curiosity!

You do know there are more than 5 senses don't you? Our sense of balance is probably our most used sense.zzit might also be our sense self awareness. How we know where our body parts, like our hands are without looking for them. There are many avenues to go down when discussingbsenses.

My eye sight keeps changing, some days I can see perfect without my glasses and some days I have to wear them, I have worn them since I was 14 now at 72 my optometrist says my eyes are 20/25 my right dominant eye being normal, I still don't believe they are what he says.

I just took a sight and taped it on my muzzle loader and slid it forward and back to see what was the best then cut my slot and installed it, the front sight is still a problem.

I could still hit what I aimed at withing 50 yards, my new rifle has a match grade barrel and a high speed lock plus my little knowledge of long rifles I hope this one will do great when I get it built.

My senses of sight and hearing are the ones I use the most. I usually hear before I see them.

Jawge

you guys with rear sight issues

try a ghost ring -work amaizingly well even in low light

I'm always trying to hear them before I see them, but having said that my eyesight is better than my hearing, and unless I'm sleeping I'd have to say I use my eyesight the most.

Hearing. Leaves are my friends.

While hunting I use hearing the most. Most important? I would say sight. In my prime I was shooting a 77# performance bow and was effective at a range I will not even post to avoid negative comments. The sense that made that long range accuracy possible was 20/10 vision. I could pic a hair on a deer to hit past 55 yards. Now, with age it has degraded to barely 20/20, and 20 yards is about as far as I can pic a hair in good light. Thus 20 yards is really my max effective range. With a 20 yard max effective range I really only need about a 40# bow (although still using up 60#). I probably need to look into a hearing aid, and maybe someday laser eye surgery!

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