Originally Posted by
Kneller
I'm not sure how I would do this without a mentor, though. While I'm an experienced hiker, woodsmanship is a whole other level. I wouldn't trust myself to stray much from the trails, and wouldn't really know what to look for other than rubs. Really, I'd just be some dummy aimlessly wandering around the woods.
I do have a fair amount of firearms experience, but I'm not even worried about that yet. Since the shops are closed, I couldn't even buy a rifle to take the the range and start brushing up. However, my impression is that there are tons of skills to learn aside from shooting a gun when it comes to this, so I figure I could learn these skills in the meantime.
well as they say again, nothing beats putting feet on the ground, , and this is a basic in learning anything
to learn all you have to do is BE outside in the woods and forests, and pay attention to things,
look for deer tracks, there droppings, look at things they eat, you can for sure look up what typs of things they eat, then go outside and wander about and find like foods and look for things like ends of plants being chewed off, or again, deer tracks, well work in the ground paths, where they travel more often, stand out pretty easy,
maybe take you a little while to see the difference, but you only gain this experience by doing it
if your scared of getting lost, BUY a hand held GPS unit, tons out there and tons of videos on how they work and how to use them
or again, pay attention as you walk, at first DON"T go far off a trail, till you feel more comfortable, a mentor really isn;t going to help you here a LOT ,(as odds are you will end up following them and counting on them to get you in and out and not paying as close as attention to things as if your on your own) venturing farther off into the wilds, it comes with confidence you build as you learn and again learning, means doing!
I am a 100% self taught hunter, grew up in a non hunting shooting family, no family friends hunted or shot, I learned it all myself, mostly by reading for yrs before I was old enough to go and do things on my own!
but long before I was hunting, I was wandering woods, following and tracking game, learning(by reading, NO video's back then() how and why and where animals like to be
it was all about desire to learn something, the more you want it, the harder you will work at something,. if you want it bad enough, and have health on your side, you can do it!
very very few places in PA< left, that you cannot walk and sooner or later find a paved road, and cell service is almost every where,
so no better time to get out side and start learning IMO
a compass has been about for a LONG time, to guide folks in and out of places!!
a mentor is nice to have, I agree, but there NOT needed, if your willing to do more work yourself
and being in the SE part of PA< a lot of the game lands are smaller in size and closer to homes and such, so, starting in them will keep you feeling safer or a way out!
but again, tons of good books that tell what deer sign looks like and what they eat, where they typically like to be in forests and farms and so on
from there, again, go walk, look for them sign's
tracks, stand out in softer ground
streams edges, you can always walk UP stream or down stream and follow it back out, many streams wader thru many of PA's forested lands!
the more time you spend in the woods, the more you will learn and more comfortable you will become
you DON"T have to walk miles either
go walk a hundred yards, SIT for 15-30 minutes quietly and listen , watch what happens and move one and repeat
stay in site at first of trails, you will, find DEER will walk right down trails, so you don't need to be miles into the woods to find deer or deer sign
almost every Game land in PA , has roads that run thru them, you can walk the roads, and find things right from the roads, like state planted food plots, that draw all sorts of wildlife as they grow!
finding them sitting and watching them, will get you to VIEW wildlife in the wilds, again, watch and learn!
invest in a decent pair of binoculars, to help view tings better( IMO< something in the 10x40 range is good for this and prices can be from fair to HIGH as you like, you DON"T need top of line, but I also recommend not buying the cheapest you can find either)), or BUY a good camera with a good zoom lens, and pretend thats a gun, and try and take pictures of things, and as you get more experience,. try getting closer and closer to deer while doing so!
like I said, there is a ton of things you can do right now without a mentor if your willing and want to! and then when you do find one, you will be WAY better off , or maybe come to find you don't even need one at all!
all info today is a screen away more or less, but experience , comes from being out there and trying and doing!