New hunter looking for some help......

[recurry]

Hi Marko,

I didn't see anyone else point this out yet, so I just want to add that it might be useful to throw some basic wilderness safety/survival tips into the mix - it's very easy for new hunters, especially enthusiastic younger ones, to forget to pay attention to their surroundings and end up spending a night or two more in the woods than they had planned on.

You'd be surprised how easy it is for people to get lost - it can happen in an instant, and can be very frightening for people if they're not prepared to react calmly in that kind of situation. You'll notice something common across most of the responses here - safety is incredibly important in hunting, and it should always be your first consideration over everything else.

Oh, I might suggest you look at coyote hunting - depending on where you live, this can be both challenging and exciting, and you can go just about all year round in many states, not to mention the fact that most landowners are more receptive to predator hunters than they are deer hunters

Anyway, just a thought.

 

[qajaq59]

A lot has been covered, but I'd like to add just one thing. Buy the Topographical maps for the areas you wish to hunt. And maybe the book that will tutor you on them. Check your library for that one. Then study the maps well. And learn to use your compass with them. It's a lot easier to hunt when you know where you're going. Plus they'll not only keep you safer, but they also show you some of the better places to hunt.

 

[22-rimfire]

...show you some of the better places to hunt.

True, sort of. It takes knowledge to look at a topographic map and be able to make judgements concerning animal movement and so forth. I'm mostly talking deer and elk... After you get used to an area, you can in fact make some pretty good guesses as far as where deer or whatever are more likely to travel. But you still need to do the scouting on the ground to confirm the lay of the land, wildlife sign, tracks, and so forth.

 

[WTBguns10kOK]

Hunter's safety is mostly common sense stuff, like watch where you shoot...meh. You learn best by messing things up in the woods, just being out there, and eventually you become more and more patient and discerning. This weekend I was walking on a mountainside and stopped for some reason...anyway I had the sense to look around and something didn't look right down the mountain...turns out there was a huge cinnamon bear down there with a blonde cub. Patience and peripheral vision are big.