How do I learn how to hunt?
09-04-2014, 10:35 AM
#1
Spike
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2014
Posts: 2
How do I learn how to hunt?
Ok so I live in GA and have been wanting to go hunting for a really long time but I have no one to teach me and I am the only one in my family interested in hunting.Should I just watch a few youtube videos and try my luck?
09-04-2014, 11:04 AM
#2
Boone & Crockett
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: south eastern PA
Posts: 15,424
Try to find yourself a mentor, it does not have to be a family member. Perhaps your state's Game agency can send you in the right direction. It is pretty hard to learn without someone to teach you. You will have to take and pass a hunter education training course and the instructors there would also be a good source of information on finding a mentor.
09-04-2014, 11:24 AM
#3
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Nov 2004
Posts: 5,425
Start with small game, like squirrels...This can teach you shooting skills, how to look for food sources, stalking skills and of course being in the woods and observing helps as well...
Start with a shotgun and move to a .22 with a scope as you gain new skills...After a couple of years of this, move up to deer...By then, you should be a decent shot and will know the area you hunt well enough to know where to set up to ambush a deer...
Start with a shotgun and move to a .22 with a scope as you gain new skills...After a couple of years of this, move up to deer...By then, you should be a decent shot and will know the area you hunt well enough to know where to set up to ambush a deer...
09-04-2014, 11:25 AM
#4
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Port Neches, Texas
Posts: 5,514
OT has some good advice. Also, look for some good books on hunting. Get some good videos too, not the "canned hunt" know-it-alls on TV, but there are some good ones out there. Above all, be patient! You won't learn everything in one hunt or even a season. I hunted for 4 or 5 seasons without getting anything. Since then, I've always had a freezer full!
09-04-2014, 11:44 AM
#5
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location:
Posts: 5,130
First take the Hunter Safety Course - hopefully you will befriend a few "other" hunters there.
Go to your local shooting range and talk to "them" about your interest in getting "started".
Once you start hanging around like-minded people, you will get a invite to join them on their outings.
Always remember that safety is paramount - In this "sport", sorry doesn't cut-it !!!
Go to your local shooting range and talk to "them" about your interest in getting "started".
Once you start hanging around like-minded people, you will get a invite to join them on their outings.
Always remember that safety is paramount - In this "sport", sorry doesn't cut-it !!!
09-04-2014, 11:49 AM
#6
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 2,445
Focus on learing the characteristics and behavior of the game you're after, and becoming proficient with whatever you are shooting, whether its gun, bow or whatever.
Don't get caught up with gadgets. Hunting is not purchasing some product, taking it to the woods and trying it, and then buying something else when it doesn't work.
Hunting is the application of skill, knowledge, patience (sometimes perseverence), all toward putting youself in position to get a shot at your intended game. That is the majority of hunting. The more you hunt, the more you learn (assuming you're paying attention rather than just going back to the store to buy the next gimmick). The more you learn, the easier hunting becomes.
Hopefully you connect on your shot. If you do, you may have to "hunt" for your game all over again, and here is where MANY fall short. You owe it to the animal to do your best to recover it.
Last, I encourage you to have a positive mental attitude. You may not see any game the first few times you go out. You have the choice of giving up, or, trying to determine why you are not seeing game. Nobody said it should be easy, and if it was, it would not be so rewarding. Enjoy the effort and work, enjoy your time in the woods, and enjoy the fruits of your efforts that will surely follow, if you choose to take this advise. Good luck!
Don't get caught up with gadgets. Hunting is not purchasing some product, taking it to the woods and trying it, and then buying something else when it doesn't work.
Hunting is the application of skill, knowledge, patience (sometimes perseverence), all toward putting youself in position to get a shot at your intended game. That is the majority of hunting. The more you hunt, the more you learn (assuming you're paying attention rather than just going back to the store to buy the next gimmick). The more you learn, the easier hunting becomes.
Hopefully you connect on your shot. If you do, you may have to "hunt" for your game all over again, and here is where MANY fall short. You owe it to the animal to do your best to recover it.
Last, I encourage you to have a positive mental attitude. You may not see any game the first few times you go out. You have the choice of giving up, or, trying to determine why you are not seeing game. Nobody said it should be easy, and if it was, it would not be so rewarding. Enjoy the effort and work, enjoy your time in the woods, and enjoy the fruits of your efforts that will surely follow, if you choose to take this advise. Good luck!
09-04-2014, 01:37 PM
#7
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: gilbert az
Posts: 1,168
get a hold of your game and fish department and see if they have a program to bring in new hunters to the sport they have them here in arizona. also get some good videos of guy's that teach you some of there tricks of the trade so to speak i watched a bunch of roger raglin videos even though some people think he's a little cooky he is a very good hunter and the cost of his videos are well worth the money it takes a long time to learn some of these things. wish you luck and most important be safe !!
09-05-2014, 02:00 AM
#9
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: MICHIGAN
Posts: 2,568
Go to your local sportsman club and see if they have a program like ours. We have members who mentor young adults (14 and up) who do not have hunters in their family to take them. Many of the young adults are from single parent homes or like your self no one else interested in hunting to teach.
Many here will start by getting you thru a hunters safety course, lots of week end range work on the shot gun courses, 5 stand sporting clays. skeet and trap. Some week ends on the rifle range and pistol range.
There is no fee for this, many times the mentor will even pick the young adult at their home. Also any members keep starter type guns around just for use by the young adult they took under their care.
There are several different county clubs here with a similar program.
Al
Many here will start by getting you thru a hunters safety course, lots of week end range work on the shot gun courses, 5 stand sporting clays. skeet and trap. Some week ends on the rifle range and pistol range.
There is no fee for this, many times the mentor will even pick the young adult at their home. Also any members keep starter type guns around just for use by the young adult they took under their care.
There are several different county clubs here with a similar program.
Al
09-05-2014, 02:26 AM
#10
Spike
Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: CT
Posts: 14
The folks are right............get into a Basic Hunter Safety Course. You'll need it for your right to get a License.
After that.........here are some thoughts:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sf-g...9W_GhDwM9krwmg
After that.........here are some thoughts:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sf-g...9W_GhDwM9krwmg
