I live up here in Alaska, but I hunt down there in Oregon for turkey, and occaisionally for deer and elk (so I guess I qualify as an " Oregon hunter" ). The first thing I would do if I was your dad or step-dad would be to arrange to get you into a hunter-safety course. Check it out through the Oregon Game Dept. website. Getting through one of these courses will help you decide if this is what you would like to do, and will get you started with safety being utmost in your mind. Besides that, you may make contact with an adult who could spend some time getting you familiar with firearms and could get you out into the woods and help you understand a lot of the hunting basics and woodcraft. There are a lot of great guys invlved with the hunter-safety programs.

At 17 you' ve got your whole life ahead of you - hunting is a wonderful sport, but like just about everything in life that is valuable, you get out of it what you put into it. Do the basics, get your hunter safety training behind you and things may turn around for you and one of the adults in your life may realise that this is something you really want! Best of luck and keep us posted.