guns, gear,help!
 

hey guys, my names jordan im 16i live in ayden NC and am wanting to get into many kinds of hunting ive got a good friend with two deer stands across the field in the country. id like to get into deer,dove,and quail hunting. whats the main gear i would need , cloths, calls, guns, ect. any help appreciated.. be as specific as possible, im new and dumb.

RE: guns, gear,help!
 

jordan you may be young and new but not dumb. just learning.

I am mainly an black powder guy.
needed, in my mind
extra loads (bullets, arrows, black powder charges)
food and water or other liquids
some type of locater or communication (cell phone, two ways, or mirror)
let someone know where you are.
multiple layer of clothing (add or remove as temp. changes)
rope (to drag, pull stuff up to the stand (never carry things while claiming an ladder, that is good over all advice))
backpack and/or fannypack to hold it all

that is all I can think about

welcome to the forum

RE: guns, gear,help!
 

Well its nice to see your trying to do it right from the start. IM going to try this with a 16 year olds budget in mind.

Clothes: You dont NEED the best camo you can get. I go out and spend $30 on pants and $10-$15 on a shirt. You honestly dont NEED camo at all. Ive killed many deer without it. Juts find something that kinda blends in. And be sure to have plenty of clothes to keep you warm.

Guns: Your best be for a gun would be a good combo shotgun from Mossberg or Remington. You can get one for around $250-$300. It comes with a smooth bore barrel for Dove and Quail, and a rifled barrel to shoot slugs for Deer.

Main Gear: IM just going to make a list for this one:
20' rope (pull stuff into treestand)
Good Knife (Kinda obvious)
Communicators (cell phone, 2 way radios, we have found texting in the woods works well)
Some kind of bag to carry everything.


Dont worry about calls for now. I have them and barely use them. Some good sents for deer always helps though. I use Tinks 69. Its about $10 a bottle but ive used the same bottle for 3 years.

I feel like im missingsomething. If i remember anything else ill post it on here and im sure someone else will add more to the list.

RE: guns, gear,help!
 

ok, now for some extra questions, i went and looked for the mossberg combo gun and found a mossberg 500 12gauge feild/deer combo,online for $299,(a gun is one of the things i dont mind waitin to save up money to get a good one.) is that one a good gun? btw if any one reads this and lives in NC help with spots and clubs would be great.sry, my dad will fish with me but he dont like hunting. (what would a deer slug be?) the two deerstands my friend has is one in a little bit area of cleaned out woods and a huge field with the other, the one in the woods he just uses a shotgun, what guage shotgun would be good for me im sturdy im 16 5'11 195 , and if u didnt read the first post id like to hunt deer,quail,dove. and maybe some duck with my friends dad.

RE: guns, gear,help!
 

Jordan,
Retaks advice is "spot-on". The main item you need right now it a firearm and the Mossberg you asked about it a great starter gun. Good value for the money. As Retaks says...you don't need the camo right now. Heck, if you just have to have it go to a yard sale around a military base and pick up some BDU's (battle dress uniform) for a dollar. I've used them for years. Anything to break up your outline....but this is mostly just needed for archery hunting and turkey. For deer, most states require some type of blaze orange.
Calls...yet, they can wait. Learn how to truly hunt and use your skills. PATIENCE is the main thing you need to learm. That and being still/quite. You have these two things learned and you WILL have good luck.
Stands...nice to have but I have harvested all of my trophy sized animals from the ground. Learn to use it to your advantage. Hide in brush or pile it up and stay still...watch the wind.
There is not enough time in the day to try and tell you everything. Most of it will come from experience, also there are many good forums to read and books out there to cover any type of hunting you can imagine.

Good Luck,
WW

RE: guns, gear,help!
 

Very good advice!................................I too have hunted many years without camo. If you want Camo clothing, go to an Army Surplus to purchase them, you will save yourself a bunch of money...

RE: guns, gear,help!
 

I have a 500 Mossberg in 20 & 12 gauge with a slug barrel for the 20,Ive had thesefor almost 30yrs and dont see a need to buy anything else..The best gun in the world wont get ya deer or birds...
The 500 is a awsome starter shotgun.

RE: guns, gear,help!
 

MOssbergs are good guns. what i hunt with. I use and 835 instead of a 500 though. ITs not any better then the 500 its jsut my preference.

RE: guns, gear,help!
 

I have the Moss 835 "Combo" and a 500..............and use both of them...

RE: guns, gear,help!
 

Jordan,welcome to our sport/lifestyle! You are going about this the right way. The FIRST thing I would suggest is a safety course and/or take a shooting course to learn safe,proper gun handling and to be able to hit what you aim at. In fact,it may be a requirement in your state to go thru such a course before you can get a hunting license. Safety is the #1 concern. It would be very easy to get excited by sight of game and shoot without thinking about what's behind deer(safe backstop). That being said,it's my opinion that a remington 870 or mossberg 500 combo would be very hard to beat indeed. With 1 barrel vent rib and interchangable choke tubes and other barrel with sights and rifled for slugs it will do anything you want within reason. I would stick with 12 gauge simply because of the versatility and convenience of being able to find any load you need anywhere. Also with a 12 gauge,you'll be able to match the ammo to desired game and recoil level and you won't feel the need to "move up" later. I can see no need of shooting 3" magnum shells. Clothing needs are pretty flexible except for needing blaze orange as required by law and to meet safety ideals. Remember to dress in layers so you can adapt to conditions. Camo clothing is unneccecary as deer are color blind and see movement a lot more than a person/object that is totally still. Just about any quality well designed knife such as buck,gerber,scrade,kershaw,camillius,or case will do several jobs but you need to get a good knife sharpener. A fixed blade will be tougher/stronger,have less moving parts,and usually last longer than a folding knife-not to mention safer. I reccomend sharpening sticks such as those made by smith's or lansky.They are made of ceramic,are preset at proper angles for optimum sharpness,and very easy to use. Be sure to get an oily rag to wipe down gun and knife so that they don't rust as once it's on there,it's harder to get off than to prevent it from rusting in the first place. The BEST way to be successful when deer hunting is NOT to let them know you were ever there. #1 way to do this is scent control. I honestly believe it's impossible to completely fool a deer's nose every time but you can reduce scent to a point where there's so little that they aren't alarmed,possibly because with such little scent they think you are a lot further away. Hunting into the wind is the single best way of keeping them from smelling you. That's why if the wind is wrong it'll be hard to hunt from a permanent fixed stand. Also,if you hunt from the same stand all the time,you'll get "busted"-the deer will pattern you and learn to stayout of rangefrom your stand. Washing with no scent soap,washing clothes with no scent landry detergent,keeping your hunting clothes from normal human scents(don't put hunting clothes on until you are ready to hunt),cover scents,and attractant scents are all proven basics of scent control. I guess I'll quit rambling on-yall let me know what I've missed.

RE: guns, gear,help!
 

Hey, Jordan!

For doves and quail, plus possibly other birds and small game in other locations, you can't go wrong with a 20-ga. shotgun. Get one that is light & handy chambered for the 3" shell, and with choke tubes you can unscrew and replace with others as needed. The Remington 870 is a great gun, as are their 1100 types. Fast & easy to get on target. The Mossberg 500 is also quite satisfactory! The fact that the Army issues the Mossbergs to the troops when a shoitgun is needed tells you that it is very good!

You can most definitely use a shotgun for all deer hunting except long, cross-beanfield shots.

For shooting across fields, you need a rifle that will give you the ability to shoot deer etc. at relatively long ranges, but can be used in the brush as well. For this purpose, I'd recommend the 7mm Remington Magnum or the .270 Winchester. Both roundshave heavy-bullet loads available for shorter ranges, andlight, fast loads for cross-field shooting out to 500 yards or more (not that I recommend taking such long shots!!). There are no flies on a good .25/'06 either.

Good luck. Let us know how your hunting adventures turn out I started hunting deer (in North Carolina at Fort Bragg) at age 13, and was 21 before I finally got one-in New Mexico! So never get discouraged!!

RE: guns, gear,help!
 

alright thanks for all the help guys, now my main concern with that mossberg 500combo is the accuraccy factor, and how solid it is? now if that is a factor would that same shotgun be good for close range deer, quail pheasant, duck, dove hunting and in what 20 gauge or 12 guage?

RE: guns, gear,help!
 

The Mossberg is plenty accurate. I have a Mossberg with both barrels. When i was in the USMC we were trained to shoot Mossberg 500's because they weregetting rid ofthe Remington 870's if that tells you how solid they are. Its more up to you in what you want for gauge. I like a 12 gauge and being you want ot hunt ducks i would choose a 12 gauge but for all the rest a 20 would be plenty of gun.

RE: guns, gear,help!
 

Honestly, I would decide on which type of hunting you are going to be doing the most of and get a firearm specifically for that purpose and get the other firearm for Christmas, birthday, etc... If you are going to be deer hunting more (very likely) I would get a good solid bolt action rifle first. If you are going to be doing more bird hunting then go with the shotgun first. The combo shotguns are fine but they are a compromise and don't do either type of hunting as well asa firearm dedicated for the purpose would.

At 16 years old you probably don't have a pile of cash dedicated for hunting. It can be expensive and you may not be able to afford to do all of it right now so concentrating on one will allow you to do it better than the others. Besides I am sure that you have friends or relatives that would let you borrow a firearm if you needed to.

Deer hunting -a solid bolt action rifle like a Remington, Savage, Howa / Weatherby vanguard (same gun different name), Tikkain a STANDARD cartridge like a .270, 30-06, .308, 7mm-08 and put a $200 - $300 scope on it like a Bushnell 3200, Nikon buckmaster, Burris fullfield II.

Bird hunting - you will much prefer a semi auto over a pump. You don't have to break the bank to get one either. Stoeger makes dependable semi autos for $400.

If you still want to go the rout of the combo gun then the Mossberg is a very dependable shotgun. Don't worry about the 835 because if you can't kill it with a 3" shell then you can't kill it. ;)I would definetly get a 12 gauge over a 20 gauge. The sheer ammount of available types of ammunitions is reason alone and it is cheaper to shoot 12 gauge shells then 20 gauge shells. Accuracy with a slug out of a 500will be about 100 yards or so andpossibly to about 150 yards.

As for camo you can get army BDU's and they will work well and they are cheap.Personally Iwould look atone of the leafy, full bodysuits. It is one garment that you can wear absolutely all year long for every type of hunting that you might be doing and you can wear it over any type of clothing from shorts and a T-shirt in theearly seasonto full winter clothes in Janruary.

RE: guns, gear,help!
 

alright now that ive pretty sure im gunna be going the 12 gauge shotgun route , what the next step, im thinking finding places to hunt and people to hunt with right? how do i go about that, i live in ayden/grifton north carolina. with the shot gun id also be hunting deer with a deer slug or sumin bc right across the feild my buddys got a stand set up in the woods but he only hunts deer and doesnt even do that as intense as id like too. all help is very appreceated. thanks guys.
also how do you scout deer and ducks. and quail

RE: guns, gear,help!
 

Well your getting a gun so the next step is to practice with the gun all summer to be sure your not going to wound an animal. Ive been hunting for a few years and still go shoot atleast once a month. I shoot plenty good enough for hunting purposes but im never good enough. If i can gain 1/4" of accuracy that is that much less chance of me wounding something. Find someone that is willing to tech you things and wont mind you going on a few hunts with them even if they are doing the actual hunting. You will learn alot that way.