Can any Northeast hunters tolerate a newbie???

theonew

theonew

Joined
May 16, 2006
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I've never gone hunting in my life. I shot a few varmints with a .22 when I was growing up but have never killed and dressed an animal for food. I view this as a valuable skill and would like to learn. If there are any hunters in the Northeast that wouldn't mind having me along on a hunting trip I will buy the food, ammo, gas, booze or whatever to recompense. I'm woods savvy and will follow your instructions carefully I promise.
 
I live kind of far away and I guess I could just take you spearfishing... LOL. I am sure that someone will chime in (or send you a private message) and invite you for some hunting. Beeing already a woods man there is only a few skills your are lacking right now. Good luck.
Mikel
 
Esav Benyamin said:
Buy a live chicken and practice on that.
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i live in syracuse and i bow hunt only.

problem is i suck and the only things you would learn from me are all the things you dont want to know.

if you want to know how to NOT fill the freezer come on up.

on a more serious note....

dont be afraid to tackle as much of this as necessary by yourself.

i taught myself to hunt, my father doesnt hunt and didnt teach me.i was a bit woods savvy,read,read and read some more and talked to other as much as possible.i know some knife forums have a hunting sub-forum to ask questions on.their will be people that are very willing to talk with you.

study and learn whatever it is you plan to hunt with....rifle,shotgun,bow...

study the proper techniques of using it and practice,practice,practice in a realistic way and environment.


study and learn the particular animals you plan to hunt.

go out their and take it slow.you will fall in love and be supprised at how fast you handle the learning curve,although you never stop learning.

next time your in the woods put yourself in a hunting scenario and see how close you can come to game with out being detected and if you see any game study it and try and get a feel for how much movement and sound you can get away with.just get out their and feel your quarry out.

i would start by deciding what you want to hunt and what you want to hunt it with.since your in new york most likely white tail.

go to the book store and buy books on white tail hunting to learn the basics.

as far as what to hunt it with just understand that bow hunting will be much more challenging if you decide to go that rout although i still recomend it personally.

for me their is nothing like being on the ground with the animal,10 yards away and you can hear its breath and about to take its last.hope you have a good heart.it'll be a'pumpin
 
Theo, it is important that you spend time with at least one oldtimer...have them take you through the basics. A hunters safety course is a good idea as well..it will familiarize you with alot of the LAWS that come along with hunting.
 
Since you're in New York, you will have to take a hunter safety course and show that certificate when you buy your hunting license. The safety course instructor may be able to put you in touch with the kind of person you're looking for...or a fish and game club that could help you.

Edit: This site will tell you how to find a course:

http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/7860.html
 
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Most states now require a course , NY was the first. The DEC has screwed up so the deer numbers in the Catskills have dropped significantly. Sadly NY used to be a model for wildlife management but that disappeared when the DEC started to be run by the environmental wackos ! Same has happened in other states.
Perhaps the best thing for you to do is to hunt small game first .Pick a state park or other public land and hunt squirrels, grouse , turkeys.Then you can go on to hunt deer or bear .The photo is a bear on my lawn taken last week !!
 

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theonew said:
I've never gone hunting in my life. I shot a few varmints with a .22 when I was growing up but have never killed and dressed an animal for food. I view this as a valuable skill and would like to learn. If there are any hunters in the Northeast that wouldn't mind having me along on a hunting trip I will buy the food, ammo, gas, booze or whatever to recompense. I'm woods savvy and will follow your instructions carefully I promise.
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There might be an opening on the broke back mountain hunt.
 
theonew said:
I've never gone hunting in my life. I shot a few varmints with a .22 when I was growing up but have never killed and dressed an animal for food. I view this as a valuable skill and would like to learn. If there are any hunters in the Northeast that wouldn't mind having me along on a hunting trip I will buy the food, ammo, gas, booze or whatever to recompense. I'm woods savvy and will follow your instructions carefully I promise.
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I'm in the same boat as you. I'm an avid fisherman but have never hunted in my life.

I went deer hunting with a buddy of mine a few times. My roll was to be camera man and get everything on video. Problem was, we didn't see a darn thing. Froze my a$$ off on a few different trips to see a bunch of squirrels and a stray dog. :grumpy:

I do have a friend that duck hunts and that looks like it could be a bit of fun because you don't have to be so quiet, but you have to drag a bunch of crap out there with you.

I'd be more interested in hunting skills as it pertains to survival and the tools at hand. I do not know how to dress an animal, which is what actually interests me more than the actual hunting of the animal.

You are more than welcome to come to my house and shoot all these rabbits that dig holes in my yard and try and eat my vegetables. :D
 
I'm going to suggest that you hire a guide.

I have done this when fishing in a new location. I moved to SE Texas and wanted to start fishing for red fish. Being from the midwest I had never seen a red fish let alone caught one. So I did my research, hired a guide for a half day, he showed me the ropes on red fish and flounder. Then I went out on my own and had a blast.

Hopefully you will find someone that will take you out, but the problem with getting a stranger to take you is, they don't know you and you don't know them. I am very particular with who I hunt with. I don't want just anyone running around in the woods and possible pointing a gun in my direction. Plus good hunting spots are getting hard to come by and people guard them jealously.

I'm not trying to be negative, you may be the most thoughtful, safest person in the world, but guns and people you don't know sometimes don't mix.
John
 
I'm sorry I don't live close enough to take you elk hunting, but I applaud your willingness to learn. I would suggest read, read, read and learn as much as possible.
 
theonew, there are 3 separate aspects to hunting, and you can study each separately from the others, until the day you are comfortable with each, and put it all together.

The first is stalking the prey. Many people find this is the hunt itself for them, take a camera and "bring 'em back alive" on film. In any case, until you can find and approach animals in the wild, you can't do any other kind of hunting yet.

The second aspect of hunting is actually killing the animal. You will need to become proficient with the weapon you choose and this is a good time to take that hunter's safety course.

The third aspect is processing the kill. Different techniques and amount of work will be involved depending on the prey. You can practice some at home, working your way up to large animals killed in the wild.

Begin with a roast chicken from the deli. Learn to carve it, to learn how its parts fit together. Next, do the same with an uncooked chicken. Perhaps next, get a live bird, kill it, pluck it, and dismember it. At this point, you will have a reasonable idea -- on a much smaller scale of course -- what you'll be up against with a deer.
 
Along the lines of what Esav has said I would start with time in the woods. You say that you are woods savvy, so you should be ahead of the game.

To become a good woodsman you need to spend as much time in the woods all year long observing wildlife and your enviroment. You don't need anybody to help you with that. If you could hook up with someone your learning curve would just be quicker.

You hike in Harrimans state park don't you? When your out in the woods listen and watch. Start to ask yourself questions about the game you are going to harvest. Remember that for game animals their concerns are Safety, Food, and Water. Start to put yourself in the animals frame of mind and observe the wildlife. You can give yourself a big leg up if you do this during the spring and summer while you are out an about.

Learning to be proficient with a weapon is mechanical in my opinion and there are plenty of ways to practice that. even in NYC.

Again this is my opinion based on hunting the Northeast for 30 years. There is no substitute for time in the woods and watching. You could bring a small piece of camoflage cloth or netting with you on your hikes and then just set up a small ground blind off of a game trail and sit and observe.

Just some random thoughts on my part, hope they help.

Paul
 
theonew said:
I've never gone hunting in my life. I shot a few varmints with a .22 when I was growing up but have never killed and dressed an animal for food. I view this as a valuable skill and would like to learn. If there are any hunters in the Northeast that wouldn't mind having me along on a hunting trip I will buy the food, ammo, gas, booze or whatever to recompense. I'm woods savvy and will follow your instructions carefully I promise.
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Find an oldtimer, volunteer to do up anything youn's get. I guarentee you after you do a dozen or so squirrels/ groundhogs you'll get the nack of things. You won't be an expert but oh-well. Also it might be a good idea to learn to can your meat.
 
im going to give you a good tip. if you are hunting in a blind that is 4 foot tall and you are 6 feet tall and have to squat to see out the window, and when you see an animal and you decide to shoot it with a large caliber rifle you will end up on your back ;) trust me i fund that out the hard way one day.
 
valcas1 said:
There is no substitute for time in the woods and watching.
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I wholeheartedly agree. :thumbup: I was taught how to hunt as a kid - but "taught" is a relative term. The truth of it is that I was given the opportunity to spend a lot of time just sitting in a tree stand. My ability to hunt is based on one thing - the time I've spent in the woods, looking and listening. Observing - it's a skill you already have and if you apply it to sitting still or walking very, very slowly in the woods then you too will become a hunter. It's an innate capacity that we all have - but it's underdeveloped in a society that doesn't put much value in slowing down and really observing what's happening.

Hunting, especially deer hunting, is incredibly boring unless you learn to slow down and watch the amazing theater of the woods unfold in front of your eyes. If spending many tens of hours sitting in the woods, cold and uncomfortable, and not seeing your prey isn't appealing then hunting may not be your cup of tea. I think that's why a lot of people opt for bird hunting and other small game where the likelihood of some "action" is higher. Or they opt for a guide to bring them in and set them down where they know their going to fill their tag.

It helps to have someone show you where deer bed down, what a scrape looks like, what deer droppings look like, how to look at a piece of land and see how a deer will prefer to travel over it. But that stuff can be gleaned from reading as well. Hunting is ultimately about just immersing yourself in something very big that is happening all around you, all the time. It's a sad commentary on our society that it isn't held in higher regard - how can we expect people to care about the environment when they don't spend any time experiencing nature happening at its own pace?

ok, nuff said, i'm beginning to ramble... :o

oh yeah, specific advice - deer know when a storm is blowing in and they know they have to hunker down for it. so right before a storm they'll move around a lot trying to collect a few extra calories to make themselves more comfortable while they're bed down. so it's a great time to be out hunting them plus there's the added bonus that a good storm will bring colder temps that will cool down your carcass quicker after you dress it out.
 
theonew said:
Thanks everyone for the advice. I'm going to start researching and learning and definitely will take the Hunter's Safety Course.


:confused:
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I'm planning a rifle season hunt in the Adirondacks for friends from another board. Tell me the specifics of what you want to do.
Do you want to actually pull the trigger or just come along and shadow a hunter to observe and learn .
If it's the later, I'm thinking if you volunteer to do some of the more mundane chores at camp like split wood or help butcher and cook there might be a slot.
 
theonew said:
Thanks everyone for the advice. I'm going to start researching and learning and definitely will take the Hunter's Safety Course.


:confused:
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You can not hunt without a hunting license. You can not get a hunting license until you take the Hunters Safety Class. Do that then send me an email. I am 60 miles north of the city. Iv'e been hunting for 24 years.
 
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