I have been hunting since I was a kid, but i am now teaching a friend about hunting. He is 35 and this sat. will be his first hunt. Never too late to start.
Good luck and glad to have a new member around here.

Watch the Outdoor Channel, fall asleep to the outdoor channel, wake uo to the outdoor channel. Then you'll start to pick up on the little tricks.

Just don't go buy everything on the outdoor channel.

Welcome Matt, hope you have many successfull hunts in the years to come. Like most of the members here, I grew up hunting and probably take for granted things that may totally baffle a newcomer. Most experienced hunters will gladly pass along their knowledge (except directions to their honey-hole), if you want to learn. I don't know it all, but I'd start by spending as much time as possible just sitting in the woods, soaking it in, occasionally moving to a new location and sitting some more. You might actually get lucky hunting this way, but mostly you will learn to become a part of your surroundings, not an intruder. Read everything you can on the subject, even if it doesn't make sense, it will later as you gain experience. Also hunt squirrels as much as possible when deer season is closed, they will give you more experience than you can ever imagine. Check out huntingclub.com. This is the website to the north american hunting club. The BB's, like this one, are full of salty old hunters just dying to pass on some hard won knowledge. Good luck, and don't get discouraged. One of our favorite sayings is "it's called hunting instead of killing for a reason".
P.S. My grandpa gave me some good advice about not moving my head around too much," look with your eyes-not with your head". And my favorite "you cant shoot a deer laying in bed all day", meaning, get your arse out in the woods and stay there.

It's the BEST diversion to the stresses of life. Your best moments won't have anything to do with what you killed. That's how good it is!

You guys are all awesome. Thanks so much for all the good info here. Deer season just ended in my parts (boise, ID) and now elk season is upon us. I don't plan on getting one, but sure am looking forward to the hunt.

Thanks again for all the advice and help. I'll be around for a while and look forward to getting to know all of you and hunting much better.

Matt

Wow, I just stumbled upon this thread. Man, does this sound like me or what?!? Matt, I got you beat. I am now 43 years old and still relatively new to hunting. I started out shortly after the 2001 season and got into bowhunting, shotgunning, rifle hunting, etc...

My dad hunted in the 50's and 60's, as did my uncles. With me being the baby of the family - you know how this story goes - once I came of age, they had all given it up. So, all these years later, I wanted to go out and had nobody to show me.

I learned everything from the hunting education class and all the excellent advice from everyone on this board. [8D] This website is the most amazing thing I have ever been a part of and everyone offers advice, suggestions, friendship, hooking up for a hunt, etc...etc...

WELCOME ABOARD!!!!!!!!

Butch A.

Hey Matt the first thing is you are already doing it by asking questions on this board and read other questions posted on this board and the answers I have been hunting for 41 years and I am still learning new things by just browsing this board these people are the greatest and most will be eager to help you out. This board is an education in itself as these folks have hands on experience. Good luck to ya Matt.

hi Matt, i was 27 yrs. old before i started hunting...you have alot of loss time to make up for, lol......all i can say is just spend as much time in the woods learning as you can....you'lll learn alot here too.....take what you learn into the woods....when i first started, the woods were just woods, now i can go into the woods, i know almost every track i see, i know alot of the planyts and trees ,so that makes them more than just woods to me now....good luck....

I think Swampmonster answered most of your questions. I live in Montana, so I'll tackle a few other points...

Deer leases are not something you should worry too much about given that you're a newbie and living in Idaho. Idaho is filled with public land so you've got all kinds of country at your finger tips just begging to be hunted. Leases are mostly for open-land-challenged states like TX and IL, where so much land is private that getting hunting access can be a real bear.

Forget about trophy size your first few years. Fill tags and learn to care for and cook venison, which has to be the core reason why you hunt in the first place.

One question you might want to think about is whether you're more interested in mule deer or whitetails. You can hunt both there in ID, but the better areas for hunting them vary with which deer catches your fancy. Speaking broadly, you'll find better muley hunting from Boise south, and better whitetail hunting to the north. I stress "speaking broadly", because you'll find some mule deer in every area of ID. You may also find good pockets of whitetails in the south.

Talk to Fish and Game guys - find their number in your hunting regs. Oh, and become an expert on the hunting regs. Idaho's regulations are probably above average in complexity, more complex than Montana's certainly. But that complexity yields opportunity. Many, many hunters trudge along doing the same old thing when great opportunities await just across the next mountain range if only they researched their hunting regs more carefully.

One final note: hunting mags can be a real dead end for someone in the Northwest. In fact, most articles are best used as a backup toilet paper supply, since they focus so heavily on private land farms in Illinois or Kansas. (I speak of whitetail hunting here.) Much of your premo whitetail land in northern ID is so far removed from a farm situation that you really almost need to throw out the magazines. Big woods hunting (like in north ID) is another animal from setting on a funnel between soy bean fields like the magazines are so big on.

Anyway, good luck and keep at it. I'm psyched that you've made the choice to enter our wonderful world of hunting. Enjoy the woods and let the results take care of themselves, even if it takes years. (I needed five years to kill my first deer.) Again, go have some fun!

Dirt2,

Thanks for the good response. That's good to know about the hunting magazines. I was thinking of subscribing but maybe I'll hold out for now as we have plenty of toilet paper at our house.

About calling the fish and game guys...Should I just call them up and say "i'm knew to hunting where should I go?" I've looked over the regs pretty carefully and you are right, they are somewhat complicated.

What difference is there between whitetail meat and mule deer meat? Is one better then the other? Why would you hunt whitetails and not muleys or vice versa?

Thanks again for all the responses,

Matt

P.S. Does anyone know of any good books that approach deer hunting from a beginners stand point?