Observation Techniques?

[Mortblanc]

There is also a difference between looking for someone ambling down the road or across the fields and someone that knows what they are doing making a stealth approach while using the principles referenced by Charles Harris against you.

You must know those principles not only for your own use but to realize that they are being used against you.

One of my men once shot a sapper in the wire outside our compound. The man had stripped naked and coated his body with oil, then rolled in sand to match the ground. He had already crawled across 150 meters of bare ground in broad daylight and was 15 meters into our wire. The man that shot him was not even sure what he was shooting at, other than that it moved and it was not supposed to be there.

You have to realize that sometimes what you are looking for might not look exactly as you would expect or where you would expect it to be.

The needed gear does not have to be complex but EVERYONE should have a good pair of binoculars just for general use. I also own a 20-60x spotting scope and even that old astronomical telescope your kid stuffed into the attic can be pressed into good use. And remember that you are not always using them to see what is 1/2 mile down the lane. You might need to study the reason what the leaves on the bush 50 meters out the back door look funny this morning.

Strangely enough, your local toy store has some very sophisticated night vision gear aimed at the younger set for night time play on warm summer evenings. For 50 pounds you can buy a unit that is good out to 100m and operates on AA batteries. It makes "hide and go seek" in the dark a new experience. Not military quality but good enough to let you know a bad guy is out there in the dark.