Clueless New Hunter Needs Help

[HunterBob]

For better shooting, check out some of Joel Turner's thoughts and practice routines. His website is ironmind hunting and you can pay for his online classes, but he also has alot of info on YouTube. It has helped my preparation big time

[Jonny]

Didn’t really read every word, but if I had to go give myself advice when I was starting to hunt, it would be very simple. Spend as much time in the woods as you can without sacrificing family and work life. (Need a job to pay for this). Don’t believe everything you read. Consider it, but trust what you personally see in the field.

Have fun, and keep learning. Hunting is supposed to be fun. If you aren’t moving forward as a hunter, you are moving backwards. Try to do something every day to get better. Might be scouting, might be personal health.

Best of luck! Everybody here is always willing to answer questions

[PK_]

Your are on the correct path. Just put one foot in front of the other. You already ‘know’ more than is necessary.

My honest advice is get some small game heads and go shoot some stuff with your bow. Rabbits, squirrels, grouse, you can gain a lot of good experience quickly doing this.

Sounds like you missed this ‘B.B. gun stage’ most life long hunters went thru as a young kid. You need to learn to kill stuff. Period. You are already prepared for enerything else.

[Beastintraining]

I was in the same boat as you 7 years ago, I got into hunting late (26 yrs old) and bowhunting 5 years ago. No one in my family hunted and I none of my friends liked the outdoors much so I was on my own. I read all the books and watched all the shows and scouted like a mad man on high pressure public land. Best advice is scout as much as you can, walk the deer trails, look for rubs, scrapes, any sign. Take your son with you too. It wont make sense at first but eventually you will find a no brainer spot like I did my first year and punch a tag (doe for me). During the season you will be able to observe how the deer use the woods, travel, interact with each other and you will slowly put the pieces together. As others have stated, being on here and buying some of Dans videos will fast track you on some of this but its really just all part of hunting. I have been lucky enough to harvest a deer every year with my bow and my first buck and bear with a bow last year. It takes time but its worth it. Goodluck this season.

[blackwidow]

Welcome, and it sounds you are off to a good start. One of the best things you could do to shorten your learning curve would be to find somebody (maybe from this site) to meet up with and do some scouting. If not, you will still be fine, it may just take a little longer to get where you want to be. I learned a lot on my own, and there is no better teacher than failure. It hurts, but you won't forget the lessons. There are a ton of knowledgeable people on here that are willing to share info, so you are going to be in good hands with all the advice from here.