new hunter need advice
 

I'm a new hunter. Never hunted before. I live in the northwest. So any advice, tips, gear suggestions. Would all be super helpful. Thinking about starting off with dear and smallish game. Until I get my feet and some experience.

Thanks for the input

Whats your age? What weapon will you use? Have you taken hunters ed course?

I'm 25, I've been leaning on a Remington 700, .308 its familiar to me from my time in the military. But I'm open to any suggestions. As far as rifle and optics go. I have not taken a hunters ed course yet. But my next step from what I've been able to gather online.

Starting off with deer hunting you might want to find a friend who has done it before. It can be a lot of work but it's very rewarding when you finally get a deer in the back of your truck. Don't let anyone tell you that you have to start out by shooting the biggest buck in the woods. Just go out and shoot whatever your happy with and years down the road, if you want more bone, then you can hold out. Most important is just enjoy your time in the woods. And you'll learn along the way. I'm in my mid 40's and in the last couple of years I've realized that it's not the end of the world if you end the season with a little bit of tag soup. Good luck and welcome to the hunting family.

Right, I have a friend from the military, that lives near me, said he would take me and show me some of the ropes.

Target practice as much as possible, because you owe it to the animals you hunt and to yourself to make the best shot possible.

Thank you. I plan on going to the range at least once a week

Welcome to site the Calico. A Rem.700 in 308 is fine for anything you'll encounter in NA. You started in the right place for advice. Take your hunters safety course.
If some one's willing to take you out and show you the ropes that's great,best way to get stated. You can read all kinds of stuff on the internet,hunting mags ect....there's no substitute for hands on experience. Good luck and welcome to hunting.

Caiico,

Welcome and thank you for your service !!!

You might enjoy looking at this site............................

http://www.chuckhawks.com/index2d.rifles.htm

Jerry and Sheridan thank you.

Military training helps
 

It helped me. Remaining quiet in the woods. Looking for parts of an animal and not the whole one exposed. How to sit motionless. How to shoot and keep a rifle clean. How to hike deep in the woods. How to use even a compass and not get lost. In shape to climb tree stands. Attention at looking for movement, even slight movement. Good at survival training. Use to moving with minimal supplies. In shape to carry a tree stand into and out of the woods. Looking at film of young military training; not out of shape civilian forty year old hunters.

Lots of things the military taught me in hunting.

Also get yourself a hunting/fishing regs handbook from your local hunting store or walmart. Start reading up on the Rules from specific game to general hunting rules. You can also take the 100% online hunters ed course from TX. If you dont want to take a class.

What state are you hunting in? Each state usually has areas or counties that have different bag limits so also be aware of boundaries of these areas.

I strongly disagree. If you are completly new to hunting and have never done it it is more beneficial to take a hunter education class in person with live instructors that can actually help you and answer questions than to take a shortcut with an online course jst to get it over with. Personally, I do not believe the hunter ed class should be online because it is too eassy to have an experienced hunter take the test and then a complete no nothing is able to buy a license. The more exposure to experienced hunters a new hunter can get, the better. Hunting isn't playing hop scotch.

I know maryland you have to be over a certent age to take the hunter safety cause online and then if you pass it you must complete a field day and pass it. So if someone else takes the online test you still must pass the field day.

I'll be hunting in Washington and Oregon. I have looked into classes I'll be taking one in early march. As I felt it was a better option hands down to do the actual Class. As I said 100% newbie here so I need all the help I can get. Though the online is seemed like good option for a year to year refresher

Welcome to the hunting world! I've been hunting for about 8 years now and ask anyone that hunts, you'll learn something new every year. Whether it's the offseason or middle of the rut something will change every year! Wishing you the best of luck in your years to come as a hunter!

I couldn't agree more. If your gonna try hunting, then nothing beats hands on experience, and proper training from an instructor.

Lots of good advice. As a late comer to this string, I can add little. But ... ditto on the 308 Win. Been using it hunting deer for 40+ years. Advice .... don't scrimp on optics. Bad move if you do. What is the best? My answer is the one you can afford. The competition is so keen that about any scope or bino in the same price range will be practically equal.

As far as a hunter safety course? Should you take one ... sure. In person will beat an online approach. But as far as gaining hunting skills ? I doubt that. The courses I have been involved in .. Alabama, Arkansas, Texas, New Mexico, Montana .... all were focused on safety, as they should have been.

I suspect with a military back ground you already are a good shooter, have been trained in map, camp skills, compass use , in decent physical condition, etc. That puts you ahead of the game. I would suggest that you get out in the woods a bunch. Scout where you plan to hunt. Look for "sign" .... such as game trails, last year's rubs and scrapes, food sources such as browse (vines, brush, etc.) and oak bearing trees.

As far as gear .... avoid the gimmicks. If it sounds too to be true, it ain't true. There are no such things as a sure-fire game call, or a bring-em-in from miles around scent, or the perfect cammo pattern. About any quality, quiet woodsy colored clothing will work fine. Though I go out now looking like a walking tree, Lord only knows how many deer I have killed while I was wearing denim bibs and a red/black plaid hunting coat I ahd bought at Sears.

Just like optics, don't go cheap on your hunting shoes/boots. You are going to cover a lot of ground, junky boots = blisters and aching feet.

Hope you have some good luck and welcome to this insane group of deer hunting enthusiasts.

There is a lot of good advice here. Try to spend a LOT of time scouting the area where you are going to hunt. You will learn a lot more about the animals you plan to hunt and it's great fun.

You can also read some books. You can pick up some information from experienced hunters that might take you a long time to learn on your own. My husband swears by "Big Bucks the Benoit Way."

Don't know if you heard the news, but one of the Benoit boys just died recently. Those boys and their Dad were known as the gurus of whitetail hunting throughout the whole eastern part of the US for a lot of years.

Welcome to the site. Not much can be added to the advice that has been given. When you decide what rifle you are getting, don't cheap out on your optics. You will live to regret it if you do.

if you can just spend some time in the woods. Just walk around and look for old rubs and trails that they are wearing out moving from bedding areas to feeding areas. Buy a trail cam or two and place them in spots you know they will walk by. Also doesnt hurt to drop 100 pounds of corn in front of said camera. Its like Christmas morning as a kid when you camera says 6000 pictures after only 10 days lol.

Few tips for new hunters are: A deer is easily alerted to human cadence as we walk through noisy leaves, so go slow, use green flash light while hunting as this spectrum is not visible to deer, try to keep yorself scent free. As humn odor spooks deer.

I hunt for the experience and the meat more than bragging rights. For every Deer I've ever shot, I've spent hundreds of hours just watching.

If I've scoped it, I own it. I've let the biggest Buck pass and harvested a two year old Doe, better meat. I've scoped thousands of Deer.

Learning from the experienced people can help, some of it is just practice, like being able to transition from binoculars to a rifle scope and quickly picking up your target in the scope. Something you can practice in your back yard with an empty rifle.

Some of the answers are so simple it is amazing. Like not trying to see every direction at once. Animals and humans tend to pick up motion more so than shape. Turning your head quickly from side to side looks like a camera flash going off to wild game, even at night.

Learning the rhythm of the forest is another big hurdle. I've learned to move like a Deer just coming into the meadow from the thicket or forest. If you watch deer do it, you can copy it. The sound you make won't be exactly the same, but the rhythm is considered non threatening to many animals.

Game animals have no real rules, just tendencies. I was sitting in my Jeep Cherokee just watching a game trail, a young Buck came out of a Corn field right next to me. He decided the two open doors of my Jeep was the way he wanted to go, to get where he was headed (a bedding area). And was well on his way to running right through the inside of my Jeep before me and my dog dissuaded him. The point of the story is they are likely to sneak up on you before you sneak up on them, unless you do something to alert or startle them.

I always figure just about every animal within a quarter of a mile knows I'm there, just an assumption but likely close to the mark. The question is if they consider me a threat or not? I've sat in a spot for hours and seen no sign of game, then quietly climbed a ridge to look on the other side and seen a plethora of game. Learning to sit still and watching for hours, is a talent you have to learn. If you see no game, it is likely they have your scent and have moved on. Which way is the breeze blowing? I tend to look more into the breeze more so than the other direction. :)

There is much more to learn and you have years to learn it. Some you pick up by experience, some you can be taught.

That was excellent Mudder ! :barmy:

I guess I would add; even with all that "they" still seem to appear like a ghost................suddenly they are "right there" and you wonder how you didn't see them sooner !!! :poke:

Look for good sign and then sit down !!! :sign0016:

Fail one day
 

Keep going the next.

Good choice for a rifle. Small game would demand a shotgun for birds. Mossberg 500 or Remington 870 would be my choice. A .22 would be good if you weren't hunting birds, and just sticking to rabbits and small game. Good for target practice, too, though ammo is bit tricky to find right now.

Here's my my hunting advice: hunters fail because they get smelled, make sound, or get caught moving.

what does that mean?

1.) There's no substitute for proper wind direction. No cover scent product can make up for a wind mistake. Ideally you face into wind, but you can get away with it quartering you. Don't ever let yourself get upwind of where you are hunting.

2.) there's no such thing as too quiet in the woods. Clanking, banging, chinking, clicking, bumping mean that's time to start checking out the next county to a whitetail.

3.) The old adage is "the harder you hunt, the slower you move." On a stand, it means sitting as motionless as possible. Use your eyes to scan the woods, and turn your head only slowly. Have a comfortable lace to sit so you're not fidgeting from a sore rump, and wear warm gloves and footwear so you're not trying to warm your hands up.

I've been busted more times by deer because I turned my head too fast than anything else. (one reason I wear a face mask, but you shouldn't rely on it).

If you try your hand at still hunting (creeping through the woods), the old adage is, "walk a little, stop a lot." Another adage: "no step bigger than your boot." There's absolutely nothing in the woods that has the steady gait of a human being on a hike. Walk that way and you will alert the deer.

Keep looking out as much as possible , not down. Your trying to see a deer, not your toes. You have to see the deer before it sees you. Use your toe to feel the ground for twigs or debris. If you feel something, slowly move your foot to a different place. If you pop a twig (and you will), stay motionless for a minute or two and just watch. Stillhunters will take at least an hour to cover 100 yards of good cover. They move in small footsteps, more tiptoeing than walking, trying to stay as quiet as possible. They use cover and shadows as much as possible. When they stop, they try to stop next to a tree or bush and/or in the shadows if they can.

Last: learn about deer. Generally speaking, deer will feed at night and bed down in day they will use trails between the those areas at dawn and dusk. Be where they are going, and ambush them. This is where you have to be upwind, quiet, still, slow, etc.

Squirrels are good practice. Get out in the wilds and see how you do with squirrels. Try to sneak up on one and shoot it. Sit on a stand among hardwoods and see if the squirrels come out. Squirrels offer the added plus of living where deer do. You might see deer or the trails they use and give you some night as to what places to hunt.

Also deer are about as blind as a bat. As long as they cant hear or smell you and you are motionless then they will ignore you. I walk around my farm before dark with my binoculars and I am amazed how close I can get to deer if I am downwind. Im talking knife throwing range. They look at me then start moving their ears to listen in for any sounds I might make. Then that snout goes up in the air. Then for some reason they usually will start walking towards me. The only time they run is when I just cant stand still anymore.

About a month ago I stepped out into a field and saw 2 deer about 15 feet to my right. I slowly backed up until I was hidden by some 5 year old pines. I then watched 12 deer walk out into the field and crossed from right to left about 250 yards to the other side. If I had a 12 gauge without a plug and some buckshot I could have leveled all of them. A few of them looked right at me but after a few seconds the head went back down and they continued grazing.

THIS. Welcome to the sight.

You sound right where I was almost 40 years ago.
1. do your homework, listen to older shooters/hunters (they are not the same thing, but you can learn from both)
2. this sport is rife with mythology - take what you hear with a grain of salt.
3. Practice hunting in the off season by just sitting/walking in the field and observing.
4. Whether nature or people, you will learn more by listening than talking.
5. a successful hunt is one where you see a critter, not where you kill one.

Finepoint,

They could have not "named" you better !

Good list to live / hunt bye................................. !!!