Avoiding Ground Shrinkage
Ground shrinkage, the phenomenon where a hunter misjudges the size of a buck’s rack and thinks it is much larger than it actually is, only to discover it is smaller than they thought once they get over to the downed animal, seems to be a more common occurrence than many hunters would like to admit. Many hunters experience this when lining up their scope for a shot or view an animal through binoculars, which doesn’t provide the proper perspective of the rack’s true size when viewed though glass. It is also common for hunters seeing a rack only as the deer is walking away to think it is much larger. A buck’s rack almost always looks bigger as it is walking away. Despite the negative connotation, shrinkage is not necessarily a bad thing and shouldn’t be a reason to cheapen the experience of the hunter or the hunt.
While this occurrence happens to many hunters in the field and no one wants it to occur to them, there are ways to better judge bucks on the hoof.
To learn more on this common phenomenon, read Mike Hanback’s article “3 Thoughts on Ground Shrinkage” on Realtree.com
