Can hunters be self-taught? I didn't have an expierenced relative around to teach me
Can hunters be self-taught? I didn't have an expierenced relative around to teach me
Can hunters be self-taught? I didn't have an expierenced relative around to teach me
Absolutely. I'd find someone to teach you skinning/butchering tho. The hardest part about hunting is finding a rich person or farmer willing to let you hunt on their land. Stalking and killing an animal is an art--some people are naturals.
>I'd find someone to teach you skinning/butchering tho
I've been watching videos on field dressing/butchering deer. I've prepared a rabbit a friend caught for me but that's about it. I'll see if I can find someone to teach me.
>The hardest part about hunting is finding a rich person or farmer willing to let you hunt on their land.
I might have my work cut out for me then
>The hardest part about hunting is finding a rich person or farmer willing to let you hunt on their land.
Do you not have national land for this where you live? t. non hunter, have to wear orange in fall on national forest hikes because everyone's hunting there.
That is an option
And yes, I do, but the herds have a nasty habit of hanging out in national parks during hunting season where I live and the biggest game is on private property. I only know west Coast over to Montana --definitely need to know someone in Montana or Wyoming and even Washington.
>getting outsmarted by deer
Good one
It's not like that, but I don't claim to be the smartest so that's a low bar to begin with.
Farmers and private land owners actually cultivate herds and provide food and bed down sites. Landowners watch the herds for, in some cases, generations. You can't compete with that and the grazing paths concentrate around these properties.
Felt. I know spot where a farmer has a herd of around 20 deer that all go to the same field each evening. Meanwhile I'm scrounging overused public land that gets swamped with rich people from the big city
Hunting pressure can dramatically decrease success. Experienced hunters tend to find ways around it, but newbies might as well be standing on the side of the highway. Still, if it's all they have, learn the hard way.
My advice is to walk in further than two miles. Most shitty hunters will max out at a mile
Nothing is public in texas 🙁
Apart from the border
Farmers are quite easy to convince. Got 1500 acres of farm land to hunt because I stopped and asked. The old man did know my grandpa so that may have helped. His only conditions is I kill every deer that I'm legally allowed, don't frick up the crops, don't tear up the roads, and text him before I go. He even disked a few acres here and there so I could plant food plots.
>just ask grandpas m8 with 1500 acres
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzCd8PErnZ91niG_Rie70wlryVZxsf21a&si=Bu2mXlNrYgHjqxX2
Here is a great series on butching deer.
Never been a better time to learn something. Figured out bad welding, electricity, horse, mechanics and all sorts from online guides. Even have videos to follow for most things.
Everything at some point was self taught. Think about it, moron.
wise men learn from the mistakes of others
you're clearly not wise--you need to spend more time listening and less time talking.
If you're going to shoot something just to take it to a butcher you might as well just skip the hunting part altogether. If you have to ask why: you're not a hunter and need to stop talking like this other guy (who is also probably you)
Can you explain what is wrong with asking someone who knows what their doing to do something for you, then watching and learning?
I figure you won't, you'll just go
>Ohhhh Goooooood! You guys just don't understaaaaaaaaand!
Because you gargle dicks nightly
>Keeps saying stupid shit
sure kid, whatever
Thank you for doing exactly what I said you would, for the exact reason I said you would do it. Consider removing semen from your diet before your next post.
<---you are still here
Huh
That's a lot of cats
The guy you're responding to is either a boomer or the butthole that always shits up the fall hunting threads on k. Don't worry about him.. he's literally just here to say moronic shit and try to stop people hunting
Idiot. The guy asked if you can learn to hunt on your own and you can with practice/getting experience. Obviously you learn more and in a shorter time from someone that has experience already. Get better reading comprehension and stop talking.
>If you're going to shoot something rather than just strangle it with your bare hands and eat it raw in the woods you might as well stick to impossible burgers
Nah frick off everybody got to start somewhere
If you're going to drop something to a butcher though and fair enough if you know bugger all about butchery and packing or don't have equipment to make it easy, you're still going to need to skin and gut the thing, only need a knife instead of saws mincers and stuff. But you're not going to drop an animal into a butcher with the skin on or you carved it off and half the meat with it and a bunch of shit perhaps literally shit all over the meat. Gross, give them a tidy carcass to work with, kill a few for your dogs first or yourself if you are keen enough, until you give something to a butcher
At least where I am there are people who will basically do everything including skinning and so on. They're not actual butchers mostly just avid hunters with a side gig. And they only operate during deer season to milk the rich buttholes that come from the city every year. I think there is some licensing exemption especially for deer.
And real talk skinning is probably the part you most want a professional to do unless you like hair on your steaks.
They probably also have a chiller unless you want to hang something off the roof of a shed or the tractor forks for a while.. depend on the weather and who's going to know later but some old bed sheet might not keep all the flies off. Gear to hang and process something large properly and cleanly is not in everyones garage. A sheep or a fallow deer start with that. Cost near enough to process a cattle beast as what it costs to buy one.. or you could just buy the mincer. Not to discourage anyone!
If you’re having the deer shoulder mounted, you’ll want to leave the skinning to a professional, or you risk fricking up the cape and having your trophy buck look all moronic on the wall. If you really frick it up the taxidermist may not even take it. Don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing wrong with a euro mount, but if you take a big mature buck with a thick grey muzzle, you’ll want to show that off as much as the antlers.
I hunt because it's my duty as a conservationist. I think your motivations are misguided.
Just start with birds.
The basics should literally be instinct. The nuances and intricacies will be learned with time and practice.
Either
>Find spot with visible animal trails
>Sit and wait in a bush nearby
Or
>Walk around on paths your feet naturally find easy
>Spot distant animal
>Either sneak up on, or pursue
I used to chase wile turkeys through the woods doing this as a kid. Literally just wandered around, spotted one, and pursued. Caught em a good percentage of the time. Never did anything, just grabbed em and let em go because I could.
As far as hunters and for the most part fisherman are concerned, we love sharing our passion for the outdoors. Just don't feel emasculated for asking, I have friends who were ashamed to ask when there is nothing to be ashamed of. Not everyone was born into a redneck family.
Hunting deer isn't fricking hard. Walk up to the deer. Shoot it dead. Carry the now dead deer to a butcher to have it processed.
Why would you type this when you have obviously no idea what you are talking about
Where'd he go wrong? I mean, butchering is the hardest part so if you want to go ez mode you can just pay somebody to do it. I guess meat processors would want you to field dress it so probably ought to learn that.
most everything we're going to kill for eating purposes will taste better if bled and cleaned asap. if you're walking it out for the butchering, you'll be packing less waste/weight and leaving nutrients for the earth. he was being flippant though and i think you know that
>Must clean it immediately
this guy hunts
...expert mode: aged meat
>carry to butcher to have it processed
There's a million tutorials out there to process your deer yourself. Save yourself some money and be a real man
I'm hoping to pick up small game hunting this coming year if I can find some public land around me to hunt on. Will report back.
Read old hunting books. There's shitloads of them, old timers used to have nothing to do but write and hunt.
Any recommendations?
Nah just go to an old book store and buy whatever books look interesting to you
Learn to skin and deal with a carcass. And learn how to cook. Shooting something is as easy or hard as you want to be. You can go shoot 100 turkey off the back of a quad bike or you can track a big stag days into the wilderness. Either way, no point letting them rot. Learn how to skin a sheep they are pretty easy if you are moving from something like small game and fish
Start with small game. Watch videos, read your local hunting regulations, and get a wild game cookbook.
In my country you can also sign up for courses.
I was on a reindeer course. It was very nice. Social too. Though I should've had better stamina, reindeer hunting is tough.
I really fricking hope so.
No hunters in my family before me, a lot of fishing, but no hunting.
my father in law keeps giving me birds that have been sitting in his fridge all week with the guts still in then, wtf
he knows what you do with his daughter anon
It's a common technique to age birds about 5 days or so. Supposedly it makes the taste better and they are also easier to pluck them bc the rigor mortis has worn off.
You need to remove the guts first otherwise the meat becomes toxic.
Factually incorrect
>I get head shots every time
well good for you, I use a shot gun
the guts are some of the first things to spoil in an animal after it dies, there's undigested food, bile, and feces present in the system that needs to be removed quickly after a kill in order to slow bacterial growth in the carcass. you could let it sit for a few hours, or even overnight if you failed to retrieve your kill same-day, but i absolutely wouldn't hang/age a carcass without gutting it first.
Deer are fairly straightforward and simple to hunt if you understand a few basic things.
In my opinion, the two main skills for success are: 1. using the wind to your advantage to avoid spooking the animals and 2. knowing how to recognize areas in which deer are likely to exist.
Google maps and OnX hunt are your best friends as they’re extremely useful for identifying likely areas to hunt before you even enter the woods, which will save you a lot of time wasted sitting in poor habitat. I scouted for one of the deer I killed this season by scanning maps of public land for transition zones between different types of habitat, namely the confluence of a trail, an open field, and a woodlot. Just being in a spot like this gets you 90% of the way there and puts you at a significant advantage over a hunter who picks a random patch of woods to hunt. Once you’ve found a spot, it’s crucial to hunt according to the wind because even the best places won’t produce game if they smell you from afar.
You don’t need any fancy gear to get started. A basic rifle, some warm clothes, a comfortable seat, and a skinning knife is the majority of the kit you’ll need to be successful.
Check out the Hunting Public channel on YouTube. They’re deer fanatics and have a lot of good information about the strategy and skills that go into hunting them effectively.
The big takeaway is to not overthink it. You don’t need a bunch of gimmicky accessories or years of experience to harvest deer. Get squared away on a few basic items and concepts, then just go out and try; that’s the only way you’ll learn, and with persistence, you’ll be surprised by how quickly you start putting meat in the freezer.
deer do like a nice transition zone. not too thick woods around either, so as to be able to flee more easily, nice hiding spots etc
wtf is this pic, do deers really say that stuff when they think no one's watching? creepy
Does follow innocent men around and try an seduce them
Start with small game, it's low investment in time and equipment. Great fun, more opportunities, and you can hone your ability to make tasty meals. Everything will transition well into medium/large game also. Knowing how to skin and gut a squirrel/rabbit is 80%-90% the knowledge it takes to skin and gut a deer.
>Knowing how to skin and gut a squirrel/rabbit is 80%-90% the knowledge it takes to skin and gut a deer.
bro what? you can skin a squirrel by stepping on its tail and pulling the whole thing off like a suit. I don't think you can do that with deer though I've never tried.
>he doesn't skin his deer by flapping the carcass like a bloody rug
ngmi
Are you fricking moronic? Who would take that statement to mean literally skin it exactly the way you do a squirrel? Like the size difference alone would make that obvious?
...oddly enough the principal is the same though. You cut around the anus, up the belly than around the hoofs and peal that shit off like a suit. I don't think you've skinned anything.
the process is the same, just slight modifications to the start/prep. you can skin a deer by putting a golf ball under the hide, tying a rope, and driving away from the hanging carcass.
between mandatory hunter education courses and the prevalence of online resources (meateater, bearded butcher, any country bumpkin with a gopro) there's never been an easier time to learn how to hunt.
>take hunter education
>buy a cheapshit .22lr or 12ga shotgun
>start hunting small game or birds
>learn how to field dress and butcher them, if you frick up a single bird or squirrel/rabbit, you're only out 1-5lbs of meat and can keep hunting tomorrow
>ask people in your social circles (lol) that hunt if they'd be willing to mentor you for big game hunting if you want to do that
the biggest barrier to entry is that you're coming in with no equipment. buy cheap guns, knives, camo and upgrade to nicer stuff when you figure out what you're doing and what you like
Me and a friend decided to learn together. We went on our first hunting trip together. Our only mistake that I think we made was that we hiked way too long. If we had gotten a deer at our furthest point, we would probably have taken 12 hours to haul it back (if we even managed to make it back at all)
Only about a month ago I got my first buck on a trip with just him and I (he had a few hunter friends take him on some trips, so we learned to not treat it like a backpacking trip)
He passed down the field dressing strategy, and I feel like I can do it on my own just from one viewing.
I hung it up at my parent's garage for a week, and butchered it with help from my mom (neither of us know how to butcher anything)
Now I got a freezer full of meat and a decent set of antlers that I like looking at from time to time
You honestly don't need to know much at all. You'll just know what game trails look like just by seeing them. I looked at satellite images of the spot we were in to find some clearings, then waited there and got lucky
The hardest part is following the law. They make it obtuse on purpose
Never hunted myself, also curious. Is there a way to tell the difference between wolf and deer tracks after light snowfall so you can't see the paw/hoof detail? Where might i find the right sort of stone for arrowpoints?
>I've never hunted before
>I'll just craft a bow and arrow and get a monster buck
>it works in my video games!
All i stated is that i'm curious. Have you any useful info, Mr. Bellend?
>t. went hunting with grampy when he was eight, won't shut the frick up about being a "master hunter"
I'm a new hunter, and I think getting super good with following tracks and stuff is for people who do serious stalking. I think you really need some real skill for that
My hunts have involved identifying spots where they're likely to hang out and eat or just pass by, and wait for them in the morning or evening
I will say that it feels like having enough snow cover that you have a hard time identifying wolf tracks vs hoof tracks, then it's probably a hopeless pursuit unless you're really skilled
Is the poster who said that in the room with us now?
Right, well I eagerly await the photo of his fresh kill beside his homemade arrows... as soon as he figures out where to get stone lol
Man's fighting actual ghosts in this thread
What prompted this post?
He's trying to argue with anons without responding to them directly, sort of like a boomer staring up into the corner and yelling "just sayin" when nobody agrees with him at thanksgiving dinner
Its the current year, anything can be self-thaught with internet and practice. Always keep it sixty nine and unprotected.
i thought most people are taught by youtubers these days