Finding your animal after the shot when not in the open.

**BEX** · 22-04-2020, 18:37

Where i hunt finding the animal is planned before you take the shot, and after the shot you sit down and start memorizing the area. If poosible you send someone in , guiding them to the spot. if i am alone I use an offline GPS app on my phone.
The area I hunt in is very difficult.

I have taken shots at 100m that take me 1 hour to cover on foot. That is if i find the animal imediately.

The Animal often end up deep in dense bush and you can walk past it at 2m and not see it. Smell or marks on the ground is usualy the way I finaly locate it.

I have been Using the app Backcountry Navigator for 6 years now, and it helps a lot .
It works offline , doesnt drain the battery like google apps does and allows you to mark positions and track your movements.

But it does not always work, on this one it took 2 of us 3 hrs to find the animal, we passed withing 5m of it several times , the red track is only me, my hunting partner was not tracking his movements.

Then you also have to get it out, that is a whole other story , often involving a lot af sawing and chopping to make an opening through the bushes.

**SoldierMan** · 22-04-2020, 18:40

Now that's what I call 'dedicated' hunting :)

**treeman** · 22-04-2020, 19:20

Gees, you beat me hands down in bad terrain that is an impressive challenge you have. Our Addo bush is not that high, as has less thin stems, but more singular bigger old trees (short 200 year old trees as thick a coke tin mostly and usually spiked. You have thin stuff you push through, we generally have to go around every stem.
I know your bush, we hunt bush pig in that bush, or at least retrieve them in that bush, nothing more sense heightening than fetching a pig in that stuff.
If I leave my house, turn right and head up along east side of bay towards Grahamstown, East London it’s all Addo bush within 30 km of PE.
If I turn left along the coast or inland towards J/Bay, Mosselbay, Plett I am in our coastal and I think Bechuland coastal shrub and fyn bos. All very aromatic plants that are thin and tough containing much of the trees plants in your pictures (wish I could name them all).

We in PE are so centrally blessed, we have coastal scrub, fynbos, coastal forest and coastal plains - with the Knysna Sub tropical forest pockets starting an hour out of PE and in the middle of the two we have the Klein Karroo.
I do not care what the maps show, but I will guarantee you that if you drive south up west side of coast about 200 km turn across north overland to east coast, to end at Port Alfred (a triangle PE to Knysna across interior to Port Alfred back to PE) you will go through (forget the blanket zoning on maps) at least 15 distinct sub areas that any Jaapie will be able to get a "aaah this is so different". While sitting here now I have already upped that to about 30 differing zones. Just Addo has at least 7 sub zones that I can describe.

**treeman** · 22-04-2020, 19:26

Bex, could you please share this app you use.
Again!, gees boet! Thats the real thing. My son would go mal seeing your playground, he is challenge mad at the moment, his latest is: " Dad, can I shoot a snake, a frog and a bird" - "WTF?" , " no Dad I want to eat them like the jungle people"
Wants to climb every cliff mountain and tree, I am truly fearful.

Please share that app.

**driepootx** · 22-04-2020, 20:57

Originally Posted by treeman

Bex, could you please share this app you use.
Again!, gees boet! Thats the real thing. My son would go mal seeing your playground, he is challenge mad at the moment, his latest is: " Dad, can I shoot a snake, a frog and a bird" - "WTF?" , " no Dad I want to eat them like the jungle people"
Wants to climb every cliff mountain and tree, I am truly fearful.

Please share that app.

Just search in Google Play Store. There are a few variations.

**treeman** · 22-04-2020, 21:25

Originally Posted by driepootx

Just search in Google Play Store. There are a few variations.

Thats why I asked, saves me testing all the nice sounding ones to find the one that Bex know's works.
Ya know Oom Drie,you supposed to be one of the older Ballies around these parts?, yet you always chirping heavy latest techno stuff, apps and Quick Load and " just enter the OBT" all the techno junkie millennium kids kinda stuff kinda stuff!
Kinda makes me feel a bit inadequate.

**Springer** · 22-04-2020, 21:30

Originally Posted by treeman

Bex, could you please share this app you use.
Again!, gees boet! Thats the real thing. My son would go mal seeing your playground, he is challenge mad at the moment, his latest is: " Dad, can I shoot a snake, a frog and a bird" - "WTF?" , " no Dad I want to eat them like the jungle people"
Wants to climb every cliff mountain and tree, I am truly fearful.

Please share that app.

He mentions it in his post...

**treeman** · 22-04-2020, 21:34

Hang on - I see the words Back Country Navigator

is it perhaps a clue?
Hang on while I Sherlock a bit.

Found it,I am really not so into these App's etc, my son has already caught up with me and perhaps overtaken me. Having my phone or tablet grabbed with the words" can I? Let me do it" is becoming more everyday.

Could some please explain the use of this to find a animal, I am sure there are others that also do not know.
I know how to mark where I am and get back there, but how do you use it to mark a fallen animal?

**BEX** · 23-04-2020, 06:53

Treeman
The App is https://www.backcountrynavigator.com/ but just search it on Playstore.
I used the free version for a year while testing out a bunch of other apps and this one wins hands down. I paid for the pro version because I like it so much, but the free version did everything I needed from it. They keep updating it. I also use it to navigate when overseas as I can download the roadmaps to it and use it without using data.

On how to use it , i suggest first just play with it in your garden. It can do so much that it will be hard to explain if you have not at least marked some positions in you garden of various sttuff , selected one of the satelite image databases to view your area with etc. Just play with it , the app gives you hints and small tutorials for each menu , read those. Once you understand the menu you can mark the Hints as "I Understand" so they dont show again.

My rangefinder died during a Hunt near Addo last year and i just switched over to using the app to rangefind with , once you get it it is easy enough and testing it against a pall's rangefinder I seldom differ more than 5m. it also gives elevation so you can work out how much you are shooting up and get your horisontal distance etc.

The farm is only about 80 km from Addo in the Gamtoos valley just ont he other side of Hanekam, so not far from you and the vegetation is basically the same as Addo bush just much more dense, and on really steep slopes.

**johanvb** · 23-04-2020, 07:15

Always mark my spot with my GPS 60CSX, have the distance that was given with the range finder, and only then proceed, have payed school fees on this subject.