Bocajnala

Welcome.

First off, what state are you in?

Register for a hunters safety course. While there ask questions, talk to the instructors and experienced hunters(there will be experienced hunters with their kids there) and anyone else willing to talk with you.

For deer hunting you'll need either a gun or bow that is legal for your area. Pick up a copy of your states hunting regulations and study them. This will answer allot of your questions, and the safety course will answer more.

After you've done these two things you need to buy and begin to practice with your gun or bow.

Find some public land, or private if you have access to it. Begin spending time in the woods. Begin learning what a deer trail looks like, what beds look like, watch where the deer are going and when they are going there. Time in the woods is very important. You can read allot of stuff, but nothing will beat actually getting out in the woods and doing it.

You can easily be in the woods this fall.

As for filling your freezers all year. Most people don't do that. I would guess statistically each season most people don't even get a deer (elk, moose, whatever it is that they are after) and of those that do get one, most probably don't get multiple.....

All that being said.... I've seen people say on this forum that it's "unrealistic" to expect to use hunting as your primary meat source... I disagee. But, it takes some money and some work, and depending on the tags in your state you may have to hunt multiple counties/areas or even states. The only time we buy beef is if we're having guests. We do buy chicken regularly.... because I love chicken. But most of our evening meals involve venison.

However, I don' know that we are saving any money. I love to hunt though, and we use all the meat. Between my wife, myself, and my dad, we typically shoot allot of deer every year.

Last year we had two cow elk, and 5 whitetail. So we use allot of venison between my family, and my parents.

Some states, both ohio and pa do, have crop damage permits that can be issued to farmers. When I had more time I did some of these and that's another way to keep the freezer full.

One option that many people scoff at (but it is a realistic option)...many game wardens and police departments will keep a list of people willing to pick up roadkill deer. If you live in a high deer area and you really want venison, then get on this list. I've only ever cut up the deer I've hit myself... But of the several I've done, most didn't have that much damage. Trim off what's damaged and use the rest. I've called people out to pick these up though and ultimately it's free venison if you want it. We just write out a tag, and the person comes and picks it up. Cut it up, and you've got 30,40,50,60 lbs of meat for free.

-Jake