Looking For A Hunting Mentor

Anthony Nardelli

Anthony Nardelli

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Newmarket, Ontario
Hello All,

My nineteen-year-old son and I have acquired our hunting credentials (Outdoor Card, Hunting Safety course) and want to begin hunting this year (or early next year). We are primarily considering small game hunting, coyotes in particular, and are looking for resources on how to begin. Ideally, a person or group of people willing to mentor us would be the best as we are both hunting neophytes.

I have attempted to meet and engage people at my gun club, Silverdale, but so far most shooters do not hunt or live too far away, as we are located in York Region. If anyone can offer suggestions, meetups or anything helpful, that would help us and be greatly appreciated. Thank in advance for any and all replies.
 
StansfieldMcElroy said:
Perhaps consider joining a club closer to home. Do you have access to land already set up?
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Many clubs that are closer are not accepting new members or require sponsorship. That's why Silverdale Gun Club was selected as it was the closest club I could join. I haven't secured access to property. That's why a mentor would be of help and help advise what would be the best practices. On the more practical front, having someone demonstrate key skills are ideal. Only so much can be learned from a book or reading online.
 
This week is the start of rifle season for deer so most people won’t be small game hunting in the area. Look at the Crown Land website and drive north for some Partridge and Varying Hare. Get a electronic call and do the same drive for coyotes.
 
Found said:
This week is the start of rifle season for deer so most people won’t be small game hunting in the area. Look at the Crown Land website and drive north for some Partridge and Varying Hare. Get a electronic call and do the same drive for coyotes.
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Thank you for the tips. Are you able to recommend an electronic call?
 
It's basically about you and your son as a duo gaining access to land, getting permission to hunt. Continue with your efforts to find a mentor but in the meantime both of you should plan to start your hunt by hunting for your own land to hunt on. It will take many long tiring drives way out deep into farm country and lots of knocking on doors and meeting farmers, it's no fun but that's how it's done. Eventually you'll get used to it and you'll get better at asking for permission to hunt. Eventually you'll start to get access to a few properties and then soon after that I'm guessing you'll both forget all about trying to find a mentor. Finding property is the hard difficult part. The hunting part is much easier and over the years you'll both get better at hunting learning from each other, no mentor required, good luck and good hunting
 
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Hunting coyotes is challenging, they are not easily fooled. You might want to start with rabbit and grouse hunting. Another option is to try some of the local pheasant preserves. A dog is required, but the preserves can provide a guide c/w dog if needed. You'll definitely get a opportunity to test, and improve, your hunting skills. PM me if you want more details.
 
cosmic said:
Hunting coyotes is challenging, they are not easily fooled. You might want to start with rabbit and grouse hunting. Another option is to try some of the local pheasant preserves. A dog is required, but the preserves can provide a guide c/w dog if needed. You'll definitely get a opportunity to test, and improve, your hunting skills. PM me if you want more details.
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Sounds good and thank you for the offer of additional information. I presume shotguns are the preferred method for small game, which includes rabbits.
 
cosmic is suggesting you try pheasant preserves, which can come with a guide and/or dog.
the shotgun would be for winged birds, and a .22 would be great for rabbits.
 
Anthony Nardelli said:
Thanks for the input everybody. We'll give it a shot and see how it goes.
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hey mate, youre in a tough situation these days, its really hard to find someone willing to learn someone, or even take them out to learn something...... by learning, it doesnt mean giving spots away , it should mean , this is an example of how we go about it......... which you would take so much away from an learn yourself.. i totally get it,,,,

now days best bet is to youtube flat out, ask heaps of questions on this forum, any Questions.. doesnt matter.... most wont give you the half day experience, but they will give you a 10 minute internet lecture about why your ideas stupid BUT heres how i do it....

;)

Try it...

then once u wack a few, or find a few on crown, you inviting perhaps more experienced guy along, can teach you a bit too, but of course.... th experienced guy might take YOUR spot eh..

Hooroo an get immersed
 
RVG_Don said:
It's basically about you and your son as a duo gaining access to land, getting permission to hunt. Continue with your efforts to find a mentor but in the meantime both of you should plan to start your hunt by hunting for your own land to hunt on. It will take many long tiring drives way out deep into farm country and lots of knocking on doors and meeting farmers, it's no fun but that's how it's done. Eventually you'll get used to it and you'll get better at asking for permission to hunt. Eventually you'll start to get access to a few properties and then soon after that I'm guessing you'll both forget all about trying to find a mentor. Finding property is the hard difficult part. The hunting part is much easier and over the years you'll both get better at hunting learning from each other, no mentor required, good luck and good hunting
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Pretty much this entire quote, bolded area extra important.

I didn't grow up in a hunting family so I had to learn everything by trial and error. Having a mentor would take years off the trial and error aspect of hunting. You'll miss a lot of the reasons why you shouldn't do certain things by having a mentor. But the friend I started hunting with 15 years ago and I are still great friends, and looking back on the things we royally f-d up over a few beers is always a great laugh.

But yeah, either start with finding property, hunting with someone with it, or driving North.
 
I tried to find friends that would let me tag along but timing never worked out, ultimately I just started going out solo and learning on my own by doing it. Read and watched as much online as I could find, first year hunting wasn’t much to brag about but I came home with a handful of grouse. Every year from then on has been more successful as I get to know my area and animal behaviour, I have a couple close friends that started at the same time and we have learned a lot from each other.

Bottom line is you can’t replace actually getting out there, the more time you spend walking trails and being in the bush the more you’ll start seeing animals. Be quiet, learn to sit still and watch and play the wind. You’ll eventually find like minded people to hunt with but you just have to jump in sometimes and learn on your own, luckily you have your son to start out with.
 
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