Are you new to hunting? Why?

ElkMasterC

ElkMasterC

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Stuck in the middle with you.
I had a nice chat with a member from here the other day who's new to hunting. Always curious, I asked him why he started from scratch in the first place. He said that he cooks, and grows his own food, so that going out and getting organic meat was the next logical progression, and he has had a great deal of success for a noob. (Feel free to chime in anytime here bud, lol)
Anyway, I'm so heartened by this resurgence in the acceptance of the logic of hunting. It was really unexpected by the Old Guard. After 20+ years of getting kicked in the kiwis, it's nice for hunters to get some recognition, and a renewed social acceptance, and eager new blood in the ranks.

So I'm curious: If you never hunted before, and were not brought into it by family, then what got you going?

And................Welcome to the Club!
 
First season for me, and hopefully I have some success. None of my family shoots or hunts, and none of my friends do either. I'm more outdoors oriented than all of them, however, and hunting is a good way to both get meat (it might be cheap later in life, but right now it's running around 1000$/0Kg with startup costs...) and combine my love of guns and the outdoors!

Finding a mentor has been hard, however. Luckily the Internet is a great resource and primer before the doing part.
 
Signed up for the course next week. Can't wait! I echo some of the sentiments of friend (maybe not the organic part).. To me it is about learning something new, being part of a long tradition, and realizing that there is life beyond the deli dept...

I'll look you up after I actually get out there.....
 
I by no means are a new hunter, but have started and mentored a few of my good friends. They got started from me going out every fall with my family having a great time, coming home with meat and occasionally what some might call a trophy, I call it home decor lol

Cheers
 
My family is very anti-hunting and anti-gun. I bought a farm in my early thirties and seen deer running all over. A few friends I know hunt and it was really something I wanted to try. We don't have a McDonald's anywhere nearby but we do have plenty of fast-food :) After a friend gave us some moose I was really liking wild meat. I've been hunting now seven years, time to introduce a newbie soon like friends introduced me.
 
My family are all urbanites and have no history of hunting. We are not even much of outdoors people either. This is a progression of me being exposed to firearms and by extension, people at my range who are hunters and think it is completely normal. I just want to try it as me learning skills. The same as learning to drive, shoot, swim, ride a bicycle. I live in a beautiful province and to think I've never taken advantage of it, while I'm still able to do it physically, I think it would be a shame.
 
Grew up to a family that was impartial, but had a mildly negative attitude towards firearms. Didnt get my opportunity to finally get into shooting until I was in the army.
Didnt get my PAL until I left the military - dont really have an answer as to why. Figured I dont want to just punch paper, and its hard to find meat that isnt pumped full of crap these days, I may as well get my own.

Hope to have some success this year. Since deciding to hunt for meat, Ive gotten into archery as well and love that. Now going from compound to traditional
 
For me, it was zero firearms/hunting experience growing up. Once I bought a place with 50 acres of cedar swamp and maple groves and seeing deer everywhere, I thought it would be good to learn how to eat them. Second season here for me; I'm learning all the time. Got a tree stand but haven't got it up yet - gonna try the ground blind thing again this year.

I'm always looking for the best way to get me a deer!
 
Grew up in a family that was somewhat anti-gun, but I always had a small interest in firearms/weapons in general.
Growing up, I was always playing with knives and airsoft guns. Then one day a friend of mine decided to introduce
me to the shooting sports. It started with just range shooting, and then I started to get interested in hunting
aswell since I guess it goes hand in hand with shooting sports, and another hobby that I really like, camping.
It has been pretty hard though, not knowing anybody who hunts. Have to figure everything out on my own.
Would really appreciate if somebody here could throw some advice in my direction, or better yet take me on
as an apprentice or whatever. I'm from the LML area, just throw me a PM if your willing to be that guy :)
 
I got into it later in life (a few years ago) but the instinct was there ever since I was about 12. My dad didn't hunt, and nobody I grew up with hunted (except my mom's dad, who died young), but I did some "under-the-radar" hunting up in northern AB as a young boy; killing snowshoe hare with my Marksman slingshot and ball bearings.

When I finally made my mind up to start hunting a few years back, there were a number of factors; primarily, natural meat. Not just that it is natural, but that the animals have otherwise lived as they should. I made a decision that if I was going to eat meat, then I would take responsibility for the lives of those animals. Since then, I have made a commitment to myself and my family to never purchase meat again. So far, I have been able to provide everything we need.

On that note, there are two types of anti-hunters; those who eat meat and those who don't. I have plenty of respect for the non-meat-eaters (whether they be vegan or whatever) and zero respect for the meat-eaters. Bloody hypocrites are fine with eating meat but then they frown upon (or worse) those who kill their own animals. Meanwhile they financially support the ill-treatment and mass-killing of animals every time they visit the grocery store.

I think we should need a license to buy meat. To obtain the license, you have to have killed, gutted and skinned an animal and participated in the butchering. Not OK with that? Fine. Go over there with the salad munchers.
 
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No one in my family has ever hunted, and growing up it was always looked at as sort of cruel.
As I got older, I realized/learned what the cows and other animals go through to get to the grocery store and I like the idea of eating something that was free and lived a relatively good life.
 
garybusey said:
so you guys actually prefer like deer/elk/moose/grouse meat over beef and chicken?
Click to expand...

Hell yes!!! My whole family prefers it.

Compared to grouse, chicken tastes like tofu. In other words, chicken doesn't even have a taste. I guess that's why it is so popular???

For beef to be any good, it has to be loaded with fat. That fat is added by feeding the cows sh!t they normally wouldn't eat, which jacks up the Omega-6 fatty acids and slowly kills people.

Deer, elk, moose, hare, grouse. All extremely low in fat (and what fat there is has balanced Omegas) and absolutely de-friggin-licious if prepared properly.

Note: I have noticed that most of the people I have met who don't like game meat have been "given" some game (from a friend, co-worker, etc.). Guess what kind of game meat is given away? THE GAMEY STUFF. The stuff that wasn't cared for well enough or had a horrific (adrenaline-filled) death.

Nobody in their right mind gives away the good stuff. I only serve it to my family and the best of friends. My dad (not a hunter and historically not a fan of game meat) absolutely loves to come to our place for dinner.
 
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garybusey said:
so you guys actually prefer like deer/elk/moose/grouse meat over beef and chicken?
Click to expand...
Sure do.
My wife quit ~14 years of vegetarianism to exclusively eat meat she hunted and has held true to that for about 7 years now. Thanksgiving dinner this year was pretty much cancelled due to a lack of grouse (mini turkey!) to cook. We probably average 10 or so different species in the freezer each year.
Given the choice wild game is the way to go. :)
 
I just starting to acquire all of the necessary licenses now. I grew up in a family that was only slightly outdoors oriented. I had always had a small interest in firearms but my parents were of the belief that you only people with violent tendencies get firearms. As I got older I was introduced into shooting by a friend who shoots and hunts and I find it is a great source of fun as long as you have any kind of common sense. Also Id rather eat something I shot and a had good life than support an industry that induces prolonged suffering of the animal before its killed.
 
I am deer hunting this year for the first time, with a friend and his 70 year-old dad, who have both been hunting for many years. Years ago I hunted rabbit and birds, set snares a bit in school....but never deer.
He did most of the scouting/prep work and if I am fortunate to harvest a deer, I will be giving most to him, with his large family versus my small one. They are currently making their way through some freezer bear meat. I am not quite as gung ho on bear.

I think I decided I wanted to re-join this Canadian tradition, after seeing that even my local outdoor range was full of hand gunners who didn't even have a wildlife resources card. NS just changed the system so that EVERYONE using a DNR range needs one.
Not sure that I agree with that, but it is what it is. And it has freed up the range, which is by app't, one small group at a time, for hunters to sight in.
Might as well give 'er a go, says I.
 
jaydog said:
Sure do.
My wife quit ~14 years of vegetarianism to exclusively eat meat she hunted and has held true to that for about 7 years now. Thanksgiving dinner this year was pretty much cancelled due to a lack of grouse (mini turkey!) to cook. We probably average 10 or so different species in the freezer each year.
Given the choice wild game is the way to go. :)
Click to expand...

I break the rules if we go to someone else's place for dinner. For example, my mom made a huge turkey dinner this weekend. I ate it without a second thought, but I wouldn't have purchased and cooked it myself.

Kudos to your wife. There are a lot of vegetarians out there becoming hunters. It makes no sense at all to the non-thinking meat-eaters out there, but makes 100% sense to those of us who know what Socrates meant when he said "The unexamined life is not worth living."
 
Reading all these posts is putting me at ease. I've lived in urban areas all my life but love the outdoors, any acreage or camping trip I always made sure to tag along and now that my love for shooting has manifested itself into a bit of skill and what some might call a pile of "specialized equipment" I feel like next year the logical step is to get out and to really start learning about survival (hunting, gathering, sheltering...) in hopes to always keep learning.
It's been hard not having family or any other relative to pass the torch down but I figured I'd be able to make a friend with the same interests eventually. Thanks for all the great advice and tips I keep finding in these forums and for the gun community I'm proud to be a part of.
 
ironsighter said:
Hell yes!!! My whole family prefers it.

Compared to grouse, chicken tastes like tofu. In other words, chicken doesn't even have a taste. I guess that's why it is so popular???

For beef to be any good, it has to be loaded with fat. That fat is added by feeding the cows sh!t they normally wouldn't eat, which jacks up the Omega-6 fatty acids and slowly kills people.

Deer, elk, moose, hare, grouse. All extremely low in fat (and what fat there is has balanced Omegas) and absolutely de-friggin-licious if prepared properly.

Note: I have noticed that most of the people I have met who don't like game meat have been "given" some game (from a friend, co-worker, etc.). Guess what kind of game meat is given away? THE GAMEY STUFF. The stuff that wasn't cared for well enough or had a horrific (adrenaline-filled) death.

Nobody in their right mind gives away the good stuff. I only serve it to my family and the best of friends. My dad (not a hunter and historically not a fan of game meat) absolutely loves to come to our place for dinner.
Click to expand...

ok now im interested. how does one go about trying some of the "good stuff" if they have never hunted and do not have close friends that hunt? I'd rather not waste money getting into hunting then finding out I diislike how the majority of game tastes.
 
I'm not new but I do come from a non-hunting family who had no hunting friends but ever since I can remember all I wanted to do was hunt. For me, reading the greats like O'Connor was all the fodder I needed to keep the dream alive until I was old enough to go on my own. I like to say I was born a hunter and there was nothing anyone could do to prevent the inevitable. I hunt for the hunt....the meat, trophy, etc are all a bonus.
 
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