North 40 Life Magazine | Page 31

> Let your glass do the walking > When you can, use a good set of optics to cover more ground. The less calories you burn and the less boot leather you wear off, the longer you can stay in the field. Even walking fields, I like to have a good set of binoculars with me. Nobody likes walking 200 yards to find out those “tines” sticking up are really just the tips of a sun bleached pine branch. Grid search Especially helpful when you’re looking for the match to an antler you’ve just picked up, walking a grid allows you to make sure you’re covering as much ground as possible. As an alternative to working a grid, I’ll often walk in bigger and bigger circles starting from the point where I found the first antler. Animals tend to lose both sides within just a couple hundred yards of one another. 07 08