I tend to dive in head first with a lot of new things. I find that quickly immersing myself in new subject matter helps me learn and understand. I don't learn from books well, I am a hands on type of person. I will learn so much faster when someone shows me something that trying to figure it out in a manual.
As such, here is my journey learning how to hunt.
My first rifle I planned on using was a Stevens 334 in 6.5 Creedmoor. This quickly evolved into a Weatherby Vanguard S2 in 6.5 Creedmoor. I chose this round as it seems to be the most forgiving for a person like me, new to hunting and guns in general. It has a flatter trajectory versus the .308. My reasoning is, I can just put my crosshairs on my target and not have to worry too much about bullet drop like I would with a different calibre. I am using a Vortex 4-12x44 scope and I am pretty happy with it.
I quickly discovered that my rifles seem to favor the Norma 140 grain whitetail ammo. I have been pretty happy with the performance of it out to 350 yards and am pretty confident now that I am accurate out to that distance. I don't ever want to have to shoot that far out and would like to keep it under 200 yards.
I have even started reloading 6.5 Creedmoor now, and am looking to go start my testing on the loads I have worked up.
I have gotten incredibly lucky too. I have been given permission to hunt on about 400 acres of land near Longview, AB, and a few thousand acres NE of Calgary. To talk to other hunters, this is unheard of for a new hunter with no connections. I am counting my blessings and doing my best to be an impeccable representative of the hunting community. This is a big weight off my shoulders as I was planning on hunting crown land west of Calgary, but in talking with other hunters, its scary out there as others are reckless and unsafe. The term "wild west" was thrown about in almost every conversation and everyone had tales of near misses with other hunters. As I may be taking my youngest daughter hunting with me, I wasn't keen on taking her to that area. Now, I don't have to worry as I have private land, and all I could ever want!
I went and purchased a couple solar power trail cameras with cellular connections and put them down on the land by Longview. And I checked my notifications today and found out that I managed to snag a picture of a deer!
It looks to be a young whitetail buck, I am guessing about a year old. Probably not one I would harvest, but I am just psyched that my cameras have verified that deer do frequent the area!
I will post more updates here as I progress in my journey!
As such, here is my journey learning how to hunt.
My first rifle I planned on using was a Stevens 334 in 6.5 Creedmoor. This quickly evolved into a Weatherby Vanguard S2 in 6.5 Creedmoor. I chose this round as it seems to be the most forgiving for a person like me, new to hunting and guns in general. It has a flatter trajectory versus the .308. My reasoning is, I can just put my crosshairs on my target and not have to worry too much about bullet drop like I would with a different calibre. I am using a Vortex 4-12x44 scope and I am pretty happy with it.
I quickly discovered that my rifles seem to favor the Norma 140 grain whitetail ammo. I have been pretty happy with the performance of it out to 350 yards and am pretty confident now that I am accurate out to that distance. I don't ever want to have to shoot that far out and would like to keep it under 200 yards.
I have even started reloading 6.5 Creedmoor now, and am looking to go start my testing on the loads I have worked up.
I have gotten incredibly lucky too. I have been given permission to hunt on about 400 acres of land near Longview, AB, and a few thousand acres NE of Calgary. To talk to other hunters, this is unheard of for a new hunter with no connections. I am counting my blessings and doing my best to be an impeccable representative of the hunting community. This is a big weight off my shoulders as I was planning on hunting crown land west of Calgary, but in talking with other hunters, its scary out there as others are reckless and unsafe. The term "wild west" was thrown about in almost every conversation and everyone had tales of near misses with other hunters. As I may be taking my youngest daughter hunting with me, I wasn't keen on taking her to that area. Now, I don't have to worry as I have private land, and all I could ever want!
I went and purchased a couple solar power trail cameras with cellular connections and put them down on the land by Longview. And I checked my notifications today and found out that I managed to snag a picture of a deer!
It looks to be a young whitetail buck, I am guessing about a year old. Probably not one I would harvest, but I am just psyched that my cameras have verified that deer do frequent the area!
I will post more updates here as I progress in my journey!
