Looking for help getting started into hunting

Hi Jason,
I am wanting to get started with Hunting. I have never hunted before and haven't grown up with or around any hunters or guns or bows in general. I live in the Northeast and have a small farm where I could definitely take advantage of hunting the wildlife on my own property. What are your suggestions of the best/easiest ways to break into hunting? I don't really know any hunters who I could go out with and or learn from. I would like to eventually hunt deer for the meat to help feed my family.

Hi Dave

In my book I recommend a few things that will help a person who has never hunted get started.

1. Take a hunter's safety course and learn safe and ethical hunting first. Learn how to handle a weapon (Appleseed shoots are good for this).
2. Find a mentor if you can.
3. Start small with squirrels first. A .22 rifle is a cheap and good way to learn the basics on squirrels.
4. Mock hunt the first few times with no ammo (carry a gun if you want and aim and pull on some squirrels). You can't recall a fired bullet.

You've got hunting land to leverage. Put an ad on Craigslist and invite someone to hunt for free with the condition that they take and teach you. Treat it like a job. They are working as mentor in payment for a spot to hunt.

Jason

Great question and great reply. Thanks!

Thanks Jason. I appreciate the insights. That's a great list to get me started on the right path. Thanks again.

As Jason has said, mock hunting is a good way to start. Take a camera along, If you can stalk an animal and get close enough to get a good picture, (when you are hunting you should be able to have time to aim at your target, take a few breaths to steady yourself , and get a clean kill.) I would say you are ready to hunt!

Miles Flansburg wrote:As Jason has said, mock hunting is a good way to start. Take a camera along, If you can stalk an animal and get close enough to get a good picture, (when you are hunting you should be able to have time to aim at your target, take a few breaths to steady yourself , and get a clean kill.) I would say you are ready to hunt!

I have used the camera trick for school age kids who thought animals are defenseless and hunting is easy, not a "sport"... Hunters are wimps.... All that good stuff... And the game I seek with them is turtles.... After I get a class consensus that turtles have a relatively small brain and move slower than most wildlife. Then I tell the biggest boys in the class they will make the worst hunters, which almost always turns out to be the case...

However, a camera does not substitute for a real gun loaded with a snap cap. This is an excellent way to not only practice safe gun handling under actual hunting conditions, but your mistakes have a safety net. It builds the coordination, muscle memory, and strength for this non sport of wimps....

I recommend this to my menttees as well as target practice for a year first and take shotgun shooting lessons from a certified instructor. Get a hunting dog pup and join a hunting dog training group. And dont start with deer... That is a fairly recent trend and hasnt served well....

Yup agree. We are in the northeast also. Good for you!

Jason Akers wrote:Hi Dave

In my book I recommend a few things that will help a person who has never hunted get started.

1. Take a hunter's safety course and learn safe and ethical hunting first.  Learn how to handle a weapon (Appleseed shoots are good for this).
2. Find a mentor if you can.
3. Start small with squirrels first.  A .22 rifle is a cheap and good way to learn the basics on squirrels.
4. Mock hunt the first few times with no ammo (carry a gun if you want and aim and pull on some squirrels).  You can't recall a fired bullet.  

You've got hunting land to leverage.  Put an ad on Craigslist and invite someone to hunt for free with the condition that they take and teach you.  Treat it like a job.  They are working as mentor in payment for a spot to hunt.

Jason

A few points of strong disagreement with some of those recommendations:

1) Telling a beginner to seek permission from landowners to hunt on private land is a kiss of death. A) totally unnecessary, there are many acres of public hunting lands, some of which is managed to favor a particular game species. In addition, about half of the 50 US states have pheasant stocking programs that provide areas for hunters to concentrate their efforts. B) permission is difficult to obtain and is a discouraging task. Especially novice hunters with lack of experience, this may add to landowner concerns. C) It is a part time job to get permission. Learning to hunt is a full-time job. Novice will be working overtime for less pay so to speak. D) The narrative that there is better quality hunting on private land is exaggerated at best and patently false at worse. This narrative is counterproductive.

2) Squirrels are NOT an ideal species to start on. Although widespread, abundant and so is their habitats; squirrel meat is bland and can be chewy. Better off walking the woodlands and overgrown meadows in pursuit of ruffed grouse, even with a .22 where legal, and shooting them out of a tree or on the ground, like squirrels. As mentioned, half of the states have pheasant programs, and those are the logical starting points for new hunters.

My first few hunts were with close family that had relied on hunting to keep their families fed. One of my cherished memories is my uncle and grandfather kidding me as I learned to dress out a squirrel for the first time.

If you do go squirrel hunting, I'd recommend a shotgun and some small shot. You can 'hit' a squirrel with 7/8 shot and not penetrate the hide but effectively dispatch them. I used a 20 gauge with adjustable choke to start with great effect. If you find a 'hot-spot' and you dispatch your first squirrel, hang around for a few minutes because they are most likely going to come back.

I love the pheasant suggestion. A good game bird to learn on, tastes nice, and are plentiful due to conservation efforts. I had a 'game farm' nearby my hunting area and we would end up with lots of pheasants in the area. They are affectionately named Ditch Chickens where I live.

in NJ you have some really good resources. I`d suggest when you take your online hunter ed course you go do a live fire range session (they have them for shotgun and bow), it's a good chance to learn and to meet other new hunters, https://dep.nj.gov/njfw/hunting/hunter-education/

there are also lots of hunting groups that have events and outreach, like backcountry https://www.backcountryhunters.org/new_jersey and hunters feeding the hungry https://www.huntershelpingthehungry.org/ - see what is in your area. and Fish and Wildlife has a new hunter mentoring program (R3) that is really cool. https://dep.nj.gov/njfw/education/hunting-education/

if it were me though, the first thing i would do is go to where people buy their permits and ask about nearby clubs and groups.

(I live far away from NJ and have never hunted, but my family lived there for ages and I did a bit of competitive target shooting, have to get back into that someday....)

I wonder how much hunting Dave has done since he posted this 10 years ago.

My daughter and her boyfriend took the hunter safety course when they were in high school.

He is now her husband and since about 2005 when we took them out to our property in West Texas they are both avid hunters, they have even been on some safari hunts and bear hunts. Our daughter asked why we waited until 2005 to take them out there.  Well, that's life ...

So I will have to say that Jason made a very good suggestion.

And having a mentor to help makes for a fun experience.

If nothing else ask at the local sporting/gun store as I bet they can make some suggestions on how to get started.

The father-son chain was broken decades ago. Most new hunters today are not family-initiated. Most are either peer-initiated or self-starters. You could consider the peer- initiated to be mentored. However, both the self-starters and the peer-initiated are under the influence of the hunting industry.  In fact, the older this trend gets, even father to son initiation follows the industry, not local or personal traditions. The state (and federal) wildlife agencies charged in part with hunting programs and hunting opportunity is increasingly comprised of DEI hires, nonhunters, and the paradigm of these departments has changed to more and more nongame and ecological priorities (despite being funded mostly by hunters). In fact, the DEI starts in college, with favoritism not merit are given the grades, the references, the internships and later the research grants, then the jobs. Thus, those government offices without staff personally well-versed in hunting, get their information from questionnaires, other social data, and the hunting industry. Such compounds the trend.

Indeed, more girlfriends and wives are hunting with their spouses these days, something that could not be more natural. But that too is more akin to peer init than family init and the male likely was raised on the diet the industry feeds...

But, if you are in your twenties or thirties, the kids today that hunt ducks and geese are not at all on conserving their hunts for a season's worth. If they find birds, they send out party invitations. I am not at all condoning this, but the point is, in that age bracket, if you want someone to take you , its there like never before. Also, a lot of guys don't like hunting alone but have none to go with them and are interested in taking others. The level of interest the comradery  aspect of hunting is a spectrum and it varies from individual to individual. To some, it is the only reason they hunt. So, finding a mentor and/or people to hunt could be easy.

I was careless when I read this post. Now I see the author lives in NJ and also is a landowner himself. That somewhat requires a different answer. But I still say if you get bored with eating squirrels, soon you get bored with hunting them. NJ also does have a pheasant stocking program, as well as stocking quail on two properties and before the season, stocks chukar on 13 sites for dog training. I have also known many people that, like the comradery -driven hunters, will not hunt if it is not on land they own. For them, that is the main attraction. So, all I can offer is go after something tastier than squirrels. They are great to feed picky eaters that don't like meat, because they have little flavor, except any spices you add... But I will take grouse, Unfortunately, NJ closed its grouse hunting and, except for two properties, also closed quail hunting. There's always deer and turkey, the industry favorites... Author mentioned deer, so... Not the hardest animal to figure out. Might take a few seasons, but thats the fun of the journey...

Mike Rossi wrote:The father-son chain was broken decades ago. Most new hunters today are not family-initiated. Most are either peer-initiated or self-starters.

This depends very much on the area you live in.  Father-son hunting is very, very prevalent here in the midwest.  Everyone I know learned that way.  Kids here still have permission to take off school for deer hunting season and everyone I know takes their kid, boy or girl, hunting with them as soon as they are old enough.  Youth hunting has it's own separate season here almost 2 months before regular season starts so kids can get some practice in before the regular season that has far more people in the woods.  Youth hunters have to be accompanied by an adult, and in most cases, that is the father.  Hunting is still very much a way of life in rural areas in many states, especially in the midwest and the south.

I agree with Trace though hunting where I live is so popular that most folks have deer leases where it a big party time.  Parents and kids might or not be included.

Our daughter has never invited us to their deer lease and she has no kids and prefers not to be around kids so I bet their deer lease has no kids at the parties/hunts.

Here in Oklahoma the wildlife department hosts workshops and webinars.  Also, get to know your local game warden.