Training Your Eyes to Hunt

It’s so obvious that it’s easy to overlook. But one of your most important resources when hunting, are your eyes. The faster you can spot your game, the better your odds are of killing it. In order to hunt effectively, you must learn how to use your eyes in the field.

However, learning how to utilize your eyesight in a hunting setting is completely different than any of your normal day-to-day activities. It takes a totally different set of skills. So how do you train your eyes to be more effective hunting tools?

Put Down the Binos.

Yep, I said it. Forget your favorite pair of binoculars. The biggest mistake I believe hunters make when trying to locate animals is going right to the glass. Instead, scan the area without them first.

By using the vision that the Good Lord gave you, you are training your eyes to work. Essentially, you are training your eyes to be stronger. The more you look over the countryside and focus on objects at greater distances, the stronger your eyes become. In time, you will be able to pick out animals that you never would have seen before. There's no doubt that it takes time. But there are some great exercises you can do to improve your eyes’ field strength.

Here are a few things I do in the off-season to keep my eyes sharp.

1. Practice on Eye Charts

Anytime I'm around eye charts or signs hanging on a wall I try to read them at the greatest distance possible. It's like weight training for your eyes. The more you work them, the stronger they get.

2. Practice While Driving

One of the best ways to train your eyes is while riding down the road in the passenger seat, early morning or right before dark. Try to scour the fields or hillsides, even when moving at highway speeds. You will train your eyes to pick up and decipher things more quickly. Your eyes will relay that information back to your brain, forcing you to make a split second decision on what you saw. The more you do this, the more accurate you will become. This comes into play in many hunting situations, as an animal jumps up and you have maybe a few seconds to determine what it is, is it big enough, and if the shot is safe.

3. Practice With Sports

Playing any sport that requires you to focus on a moving object will improve your eyesight. Don't play any sports yourself? That's fine. Playing catch in the backyard with your kids will work just as well. If you're throwing a baseball, pick up the rotation of the ball and concentrate on the seams. The same goes with a football. The idea again is training your eyes to work faster.

Of course we don’t all have 20/20 vision and you may not be able to change that. But these drills have helped me and can help you utilize the vision you have.

You Can Have Your Binos Back.

Now, back to the part of the story where I told you to forget the binos…

That was only a half-truth. After you have spotted animals, use the optics to hone in on the finer details. Oftentimes, the naked eye won’t turn up all the critters. So by all means, pick it apart with the binoculars to see if there's any thing that you missed.

The message here is to work on improving the abilities of your natural eyesight, and not simply relying on your optics alone.