How do you get into hunting at an older age?

[recongeek]

OK, this might sound dumb, but most people I talk to about hunting have been hunting since they were children or went out with their father/uncle/grandfather/etc....

However, I grew up in a single mother household in a lower income slum area outside philly, being a white kid I was the minority, nobody I knew had ever hunted. I joined the Army when I was younger, and that got me out of the ghetto, and gave me the opportunities to change my life going forward. I have a decent job, own my house, and my 10 year old son is in cub scouts asking me questions about hunting and fishing. He knows I was in the Army, and know I know a lot about guns and help him shoot and learn firearm safety, and just assumes that I know about hunting and wants me to take him hunting.

I do not have too much pride to tell him that I don't know about hunting, but he keeps asking about it.

So, how does someone in their mid 40's get into hunting? I am a transplant from the east coast, and most of the other cub scout dads in my area are either super hunter with all the gear and goes to wyoming or somewhere for their hunts, or like me have never hunted before, so I have no "friends" that are in a situation to teach me. I want to give my son a lot better childhood that I have had, and he wants to know about hunting, and I am not against learning myself, but not sure where to start.

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[Andy54Hawken]

I would suggest taking a Hunter Safety /Education Course....these are offered by your state Fish & Wildlife department.
This could be something you both take together....

Small game like rabbit and grouse is a excellent place to start and may even become your favorite , even after hunting big game.
Andy

 

[wp4]

I hunted from a young age, so I have nothing constructive to add here, but I'm in for the excellent replies I'm sure will follow Andy's good advice!

 

[turq]

Go to canbyrodandgun.org look at their calendar see a date for Hunter safety instruction, both of you can attend. Maybe twice. Email or call on public trap Tues. and Thurs. evenings near 6PM. Ask well ahead of time to Register. Register is a must.
Look at past months to see what the hours were on previous classes.
It is not that far away from you.

 

[Capin JRo]

I would suggest taking a Hunter Safety /Education Course....these are offered by your state Fish & Wildlife department.
This could be something you both take together....

Small game like rabbit and grouse is a excellent place to start and may even become your favorite , even after hunting big game.
Andy

Andy is 100% correct!

If I could add start looking at how to break down the anamls you plan on hunting, Steve Renella has some good stuff on YouTube. Even start with breaking down a chicken or something like it because this is a big part of hunting it's not just the kill.
Also pick up the hunting arms you will need for the anamals you will be hunting and start practicing with them. If you plan on shooting birds grab a clay pigeon chucker and start shooting at moving targets.

 

[Roundball58]

ODFW has hunter safety as well as "how to hunt (fill in species)" classes. They also schedule youth hunts where mentors take kids out for a hunt (rabbits at E.E Wilson and pheasant at stocked locations). Looks like the virus is shutting these things down for awhile but here's the info page on their website: Workshops & Events | Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife

Beyond that, finding a mentor is a good way to go. Hitting up the local guns clubs is a way to make contacts. It also gives prospective mentors a chance to evaluate you before they put their bird dog out in front of you.

 

[JuglansRegia]

Like others have said, take a hunter safety course, get your hunting license then find a guide that will gut and butcher your kill, shooting it is the easy part.

 

[wcarroll19]

Check around for a local YHEC group, they teach all aspects of hunting, animal identification to field safety, what happens after your game is on the ground!

 

[No_Regerts]

I would suggest taking a Hunter Safety /Education Course....these are offered by your state Fish & Wildlife department.
This could be something you both take together....

Small game like rabbit and grouse is a excellent place to start and may even become your favorite , even after hunting big game.
Andy

This is a great suggestion. Even if you never become the great white/black/brown hunter, at least you'll be able to help keep your kid within the rules. Game recognition, private vs public lands, weapons safety, and the Fish and Wildlife minutia will keep the kid out of trouble.

There is a good program on Netflix called "Meat Eater". No other show explains the connection between hunting and sustenance. Activities like tending a garden, raising livestock, and hunting will help develop a much better appreciation for what it takes to put food on the table.

I really enjoy reading, so I get a lot of enjoyment about reading hunting stories. Mostly the older ones and current writers who are a throwback to the writers of the past.

Once the desire has been fully stoked, the tedious stuff won't seem so bad.

 

[gtivan]

Do you care what you are hunting? Big game or birds? There are several wild life refuges around that offer good opportunities for pheasant or quail, especially if you have a kid with you. Probably the easiest way to start out. I stopped hunting deer in the valley years ago. Too hard without access to private land. I go to southern oregon.

Before going all in, you may want a practice season just to get a kill. Killing a living creature isnt for everyone. Picking up a still warm and wiggling duck our grouse and ringing its neck isnt for everyone. To me, it is a target when i am shooting and dinner when i am butchering. I was brought up like that though.

 

[P7M13]

+1 to Hunter Ed Classes.
Do you still have family in PA? Believe it or not, a PA out of state license, with 2 deer tags, spring and fall turkey tags is around same cost as an Oregon resident and deer tag. In PA, if you're hunting zones 4/5 (SE PA), you can hunt fall firearm (shotgun or muzzle loader), fall archery (extra $25 for archery tag), winter muzzle loader and archery. Plus, fall and spring gobbler season (shotgun or archery).
I've hunted a few times up in Montgomeryville area. Love the Eastern woods.

 

[awshoot]

I hunted until I went off to college and then didn't hunt again until my mid-40s. I don't know what it is like near you but where I am, there's a lot of state forest land you can hunt on. Old logging roads that are blocked off so you can only walk in are a great opportunity to see things.

When I got back into it, I found a closed logging road about 30 minutes drive away and just started hiking all over that area the summer before hunting season and looking for deer signs. Tracks of course, but more often I'd find places where shrubs had been eaten. The deer where I'm at seem to love thimbleberry leaves. They eat the leaves and leave the stem and you can get an idea of whether it was a recent browsing by a deer by how dark the bit end of the stem is -- if it is blackened, it is old -- if it is still green and fresh, that deer was there recently. Both and they are returning to that spot. Look for droppings and take a ziplock with you. I collected some and would sort of rub them on my boots when the hunting season happened. It is surprisingly hard to find scat in the dense wet coastal forest where I hunt.

What was really helpful was just going out every weekend for four or five months pre-season and learning the area I would hunt. You will find out where the deer are and also learn the land -- think about transporting the deer back to your vehicle. You don't want to pick a spot that is going to mean lugging a deer carcass up a steep hill through underbrush you can barely push your-own-self through.

It's also important to have complete confidence in your shooting. Don't just buy one box of ammo, zero it in, and call it good. Really practice your accuracy and know where your bullet is going to hit at various ranges. Print up a dope sheet and tape it to your scope. If you reload, that is best. If not, try a number of brands of commercial ammo to find out what provides the best accuracy (but also see below -- some bullets are better than others -- if you don't reload, this may be a tradeoff between accuracy and bullet). And don't just accept bench rest shooting -- work on other positions. Get or make a shooting stick and practice with it.

I second Steve Rinella's show Meat Eater (streams on Netflix, if you don't have an account, get one and consider it part of your preparations). He also has some additional content on youtube -- watch that.

Read this many times all the way through: Effective Game Killing If you can really hone in your accuracy, I can say from personal experience the autonomic plexus shot is good for a DRT (dead right there) shot. The guy is in New Zealand but the concepts translate just fine.

The same guy also has a bunch of articles on the real world effects of different cartridges and specific bullets on different game. Whatever you are shooting is likely covered and it is worth it to know what it should do: Knowledgebase (click the cartridge research tab) If you don't have a hunting rifle yet, you can also use that info as an aid in selection.

 

[awshoot]

Hey -- thank you for starting this thread. Thinking about all those days hiking around and looking closely at the environment is such a relief from all the all the coronavirus stuff, and there are some great memories.

One day I was out scouting and came across a spot with moss about a foot deep underneath some hemlock trees. I plopped down, ate some food, drank some coffee, and then laid back. I dozed off for a while -- when I woke, there was chipmunk about 20' up a tree trunk looking at me and totally loosing his sh_t -- chattering away so frenetically you'd think he'd found bigfoot. I laughed, packed up, and went on scouting.

 

[Andy54Hawken]

Learn to shoot and carry your firearm effectively in the conditions and terrain that you will be hunting in.

Hunting requires knowledge of :
The animal hunted..
The area hunted in...
How to shoot in the field after hiking around all day and or just being out in the weather and such , again all day...
The cleaning and dressing of the animal...

Most importantly of all , hunting requires respect.
Respect of the animal hunted , the land hunted in and respect of yourself.
Andy

 

[awshoot]

...
Respect of the animal hunted , the land hunted in and respect of yourself.
Andy

This most of all. Great comment.

 

[bbbass]

Skip a season. Read everything you can get your hands on, and watch lots of "quality" how to vids. Cultivate relationships with co-workers, neighbors, people you meet at the range, hunting clubs, etc.

Older dudes in particular love to pass info down.... Don't be afraid to ask!!!

 

[EPS]

Well first take the hunter safety course.
Then decide what you want to hunt.
Get the gear you need to hunt that animal
Or bird.
Maybe ask some of your friends if they hunt and ask if they can help you.
If not it's a live and learn your on your own.
Or you can go down the really exspesive route and go hunting with a outfitter or guided hunt.
Bird hunting is probably the easiest to start out with .
Or small game like rabbits.
Then go up from there.

 

[awshoot]

Another note: good boots before a rifle.
Also: don't be afraid to spend more on your scope than your rifle.

 

[EPS]

Someone already said it but .
You can look up MEAT EATER .
On YouTube or I think it's on Netflix or Amazon prime .
Steven Rennila hunts all kinds of stuff and then show's you cleaning and cooking.

 

[NCW_Robert]

When I was 14, I had a friend that was just turning 16. We both loved guns and hunted locally any where we could. Thing is, back then it was different and even though we were in California people in rural areas did not have nervous breakdowns when seeing 14 yr olds walking or riding bikes with guns. Try that now???

Any way when my older buddy got his drivers licens we suddenly had a 100 mile radius instead of a few miles around our house that we could hunt.

The other thing is we had no adult supervision. We decided we wanted guns, starting with pellet guns then .22's and next shotguns. We did it all our selves with no adults.

So I say this, first find out where to go, next, just go do it. Start small and work your way up. Become an expert on your local area and where to go.

If me and my friend could do it, start from nothing and become hunters so can you. Just start slow and safe. Maybe go to your local gun store and ask them where to go and for any advice they might offer. I still do that now, people there are usually pretty cool unless it is just a big chain store and then they would just consider you a bother. Find the smallest gun store around and make friends and then ask for suggestions.

Bring your kid. Adults can suddenly take interest and become pretty helpful when a kid is involved.

also, figure out ahead of time what your going to do with the critters you kill. This way your not holding a dead animal and looking clueless.

Farmers and ranchers can be a great source of places to hunt. Ask around about them. Some one might know something and eventually you could maybe meet one or more. I have ran into these guys at the gun store. Here is the thing, if one farmer or rancher does not have anyplace you can hunt or shoot he probably knows another one that does. Like I said, bring your kid. Out doors types love to see kids taking up shooting and hunting.

Best of luck to you.