How to Help an Adult New Hunter

Whether it's for one hunt or a season, there's a lot you need to know about what they - and you! - don't know.

There are two kinds of hunters these days: those who grew up hunting, and those who started as adults. I envy those who were raised as hunters, and wonder how many comprehend the value of both the ambient education they received and the resources that were made available to them.

I comprehend it, because I started as an adult, and it’s a huge learning curve. That experience has motivated me to help other adult new hunters when I can.

Why not kids? Well, I cuss like a sailor, and more importantly, research shows we get the most bang for our buck with adults, who typically have the agency (legal rights, incomes, vehicles) to continue hunting on their own after they’ve gotten their start. Kids don’t.

So I’m sharing with you everything I’ve learned so far about taking out new hunters. A lot of this advice is for really taking someone under your wing, but if you don’t have that kind of time to spare, cruise through this for highlights that would help you get someone through just one hunt.

And if you’re an experienced mentor, please feel free to read critically and suggest additions! I’m a gun hunter, not an archer, and very focused on bird hunting, and my advice reflects that.

Know someone who needs help but can’t find it? Here’s a checklist I wrote for new hunters who might not have the benefit of a mentor or adviser. It often mentions California, but most ideas should apply more broadly.

If you’re not interested in mentoring, consider making a donation to an organization that helps new hunters - that’s an important contribution to the cause.

Contents

Sadly, Substack does not allow me to embed links to each section, so if you want to skip to a specific part, you’ll have to scroll. But here’s what I’m covering:

1. How new is your hunter?
2. Do they have a firearm or bow?
3. Go shooting with them before you hunt
-How is their gun handling?
-How familiar are they with their gun?
-How do they respond to recoil?
-Do they know how to do things they’ll do in the field?
-Do they understand lead?
4. Hunter education
5. Preparing for a hunt: Assume your new hunter knows nothing
6. Fear
7. Special concerns for women
8. On the hunt
-Safety
-Modeling
-Remember how bad you suck at something when it’s new to you
-In the event of unsafe behavior
-In the event something happens to one of you
9. Success and failure
-Realities
-Missing
-Don’t lie
-Processing
10. What to do if they LOVE IT and want some more

How to mentor a new hunter

How new is your hunter?

Are we talking a brand new hunter who’s never been out before, or one who’s been out a few times?

In reality, it doesn’t make a whole lot of difference, because you have no idea whether they’re well grounded in safety and hunting basics until you observe them yourself.

Biggest change I’d make for someone with some experience is to preface all my advice with, “Stop me if you already know this…”

With duck hunting, though, I can tell you it’s very important for me to understand what kind of experience they’ve had. Have they hunted out of a blind with nice easy footing, or have they “free roamed,” hiding in bulrush and navigating sucking mud? The latter is a bit much for someone’s first hunt.

You may have similar issues with the type of hunt you’re planning.

Do they have a firearm or bow?

If not, they might really need your help. This can mean three things:

• Loan them a firearm or bow (be sure to follow any applicable state laws about loaning guns).

• Help them choose and acquire an appropriate firearm or bow, including navigating your state’s laws about background checks, storage and transport.

• Help them make the best of the shitty gun that’s been in their uncle’s attic since the Korean War.

Count yourself lucky if you get to participate in the acquisition process. All too often I have seen new hunters rush to buy a firearm before knowing what they need, and end up with something not desirable for what they’re aiming to do. Some gun stores have knowledgeable staff; some don’t.

If you are mentoring a woman, going to the gun store with her can be helpful because some gun counter staff treat women like shit, rushing to sell them a pink pistol or shotgun before they can even say what they’re looking for. Seriously.

Ultimately the goal is for your hunter to be able to handle that situation on her own, but it’s a lot to ask on her first trip to a gun store.

Here are some resources about choosing and buying shotguns - I’m not a rifle expert, so I’m not the best to help with that:

• Deciding what type of shotgun to buy

• Buying a shotgun on a limited budget

• Getting a shotgun that fits you

Those topics are all covered in a comprehensive one-hour webinar I did on choosing a shotgun.

Go shooting with them before you hunt

Ideally, your new hunter should take an archery or shooting lesson from a qualified instructor. This relieves you of the responsibility of having to learn all the things instructors must learn. Teaching is not as easy as doing!

Once they’ve had a lesson, you should still go shooting together if you can, because there are some things it’s better to discover at a shooting range than in the field when they’re shooting at an animal.

Keep in mind I’m a shooter, not an archer, so this is gun-focused, but here’s what to look for:

How is their gun handling?

• Do they always keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction?

• Do they keep their finger away from the trigger until they’re ready to shoot?

• Do they consistently re-engage the safety after shooting?

How familiar are they with their gun?

• Do they know how to load it?

• Do they know what all the buttons and levers do?

• Do they know how to spot whether it’s assembled correctly? If it’s brand new, they were probably terrified putting it together by themselves (I was), and probably feel very unsure about it. If they don't, check to make sure parts fit together correctly and anything that screws on is appropriately tight.

How do they respond to recoil?

• If they’re very sensitive, can you recommend ways to reduce recoil? A better recoil pad, like Kick-EEZ, can help, as can shooting the lightest appropriate loads.

• If nothing else, assure them that they’ll hardly feel a thing when they’re shooting at an actual animal.

In my experience, women worry a lot about recoil, but adapt to it pretty well, provided they have the right gun (I’m NOT a fan of 12 gauge pumps or over-unders). However, I have two male friends whose little girls desperately want to hunt with them, but the girls won’t shoot because they HATED recoil the first time they shot the gun. I don’t know how to solve that problem.

Do they know how to do things they’ll do in the field?

• With shotgun, can they shoot starting with low gun (not mounted)? If not, practice a few times, giving them a warning to mount a second before you fire the clay.

• With any gun, can they load it and unload it themselves? In many instructional situations, they’re told to load one round at a time and shoot it, and never have to unload. People often struggle with unloading shotguns.

Do they understand lead?

If you’re mentoring a new wingshooter and ducks or doves are on the menu, I strongly recommend this video I did that shows how lead changes with the angle of the target - it’s a real eye-opener for some people (I often hear, “Oh, that’s why I’m missing!”).

Hunter education

Not every state requires hunter education for adults, and I think that’s a huge mistake. Ask your hunter if they’ve completed hunter ed, and if not, strongly encourage them to do so even if it’s not required. It has a lot of valuable information, and it really hammers SAFETY into their heads.

Preparing for a hunt: Assume your new hunter knows nothing

Absolutely everything about your hunt has to be communicated with them in advance in language they understand. Here’s a list of things to go over:

• License, stamp and tag requirements - show them yours so they can see what they need (send a picture!), and ask to see theirs to verify it’s correct. Don’t wait until last minute!

• How to carry the license (e.g., waterproof case, must be visible, etc.)

• The importance of showing up on time (e.g., “I’ll leave your ass behind if you’re not there in time, because I’m not missing shoot time.”)

• Exactly what they need to wear (you may need to help them buy or borrow specialized clothing)

• How much food and water to bring (and if silence is required, how to re-package food to avoid loud, crinkly plastic wrappers)

• What the pre-dawn experience is like

• How much they will have to hold still or be quiet (one reason I love dove hunts for new hunters - hard birds to hit, but the hunter can fidget and talk at will)

• The level of physical fitness that is required

• The distances they will walk, and the terrain they’ll walk through

• Where restrooms will be, or whether there will be any restrooms

• If they are likely to fall at some point, warn them, and coach them how to fall, both staying mindful of the muzzle direction (pointed up and away from people, not burrowing into the mud), and minimizing the impact on themselves.

• How much time they will spend processing game if they’re successful

• Whether they need a cooler for bringing home game, and if so, how big

Every single item on this list is there because of experiences I’ve had with new hunters.

-I once guided a new duck hunter who kept donning brightly colored pieces of apparel. She had no clue that the ducks we were hiding from see color better than we do.

-I’ve been on planted-bird pheasant hunts where new hunters were shocked that they weren’t walking on trails. Even if your new hunter is outdoorsy, their experience might be limited to hiking trails - in fact, they may have been indoctrinated to believe it’s wrong to go off trail. Explaining the terrain helps them understand the need for the right shoes, too.

-I once told a new duck hunter that we’d probably have to walk a mile or two to get to our spot and they said, “No problem.” But they underestimated the physical demands of walking a mile or two in clunky, hot waders, awkwardly carrying a gun, ammo, decoys and other gear.

-Hank didn’t warn me about falling before my first duck hunt (a hilarious story, btw), so of course I put my hand down to break my first fall (of like six) retrieving my first duck. My sleeve was soaked, and it was cold that day! At new duck-hunter events, I have people practice, on a bed, falling to their knees with their hands up, and assure them that the mucky mud of the marsh won’t hurt their knees, but a soaked jacket sleeve or a soggy gun could ruin their hunt.

-Without fail, new hunters find the pre-dawn experience to be extremely spooky, especially in water that looks black, or when a flashlight catches a pair of eyes watching you. Are those eyes on a mountain lion or raccoon? Is that black water inches deep, or an engulfing abyss? They have no idea if you don’t tell them. I used to think it was cool to let them discover it, because I kinda enjoyed that process myself. But I’m weird - better to let them know.

This is important: You tell your hunter about all of these things in part to help you assess whether they’re ready for the hunt you’re taking them on. If you go down this list and find that they’re balking, you may need to choose an easier outing. There is no shame in that.

Fear

New experiences are intimidating, and new experiences that involve firearms and killing can be scary.

Ask your new hunter before the hunt if there’s anything they fear or worry about - an open-ended question - and address it the best you can.

I was worried I’d turn into a monster, indifferent to animal suffering, but I never would have said it out loud unless someone asked me. (Also, as it turns out, I care about and respect animals far more now than I did before I started hunting.)

Some new hunters who are women, or Black or brown people, don’t feel safe their first time out in the field when they know they’re surrounded by armed white men (and for women it could be armed men of any color). In my experience, this fear dissipates very quickly, like most fears they may have, once they get into the field and see what it’s actually like.

I know from personal experience that for many existing hunters - especially white men who’ve grown weary of being presumed to be the enemy - this fear feels like an affront, like an accusation. It's not! Don’t take it personally. It’s not about you. But don’t dismiss it, either. It stems from your newbie's experiences with, and knowledge of, people like them being victims of violence. (E.g., my mom taught me to have enough suspicion of strange men to avoid being raped, and that STILL enters my mind when I encounter men in some circumstances.)

If your new hunter confides this fear, you can reassure them by 1) communicating that inter-hunter violence is extremely rare, and 2) assuring them you would not take them into any situation in which you felt they wouldn’t be safe.

When reassuring your hunter, don't lie. If they’re worried about wounding, not killing, don’t tell them it won’t happen, or that animals don’t feel pain. Don’t tell them there are no racists where you hunt, because you just can’t know that. Just be honest about the likelihood (or lack thereof) of their fear coming to fruition.

Special concerns for women

We have a LOT of practical issues that don’t occur to most men, because there’s no reason for most men to think about them.

Gun fit. Guns are made for men - an average man’s height, build and hand size. This is a huge issue with shotguns, and I address it in detail in the many links I shared above. But it’s also a rifle issue: If your hand is a bit small for your rifle, it’s very easy to pull your shot (I did on my first big-game kill). Awareness can help prevent that.

Eye dominance. Women are far more likely to be cross-dominant (like me: right handed, left-eye dominant) than men. With shotguns, it’s ideal to shoot with your dominant eye.

Jackets. I used to wear men’s hunting jackets because there weren’t any duck jackets for women, and my gun constantly got tangled in the excess of fabric at the shoulder. Men’s jackets are made for flat chests; if you buy a jacket big enough to accommodate your breasts, there’s going to be excess fabric at the shoulder. I strongly recommend getting a women’s jacket when possible - it’s about function, not looking cute.

Gloves. It’s getting better, but there are not a lot of options for women’s hunting gloves. If your hunter can’t find what she needs, help her understand what non-hunting-glove options she might have (usually something in black).

Duck waders. There’s not a lot for us out there, and men’s waders only work for those of us with big enough feet to wear men’s sizes. Children’s waders have smaller boot sizes, but women have curves that children don’t have. This is one of the biggest obstacles for women. If you take a woman duck hunting and she has to borrow men’s waders with boots that are way too big for her, just understand that it’s extremely hard to walk in muck in oversized boots - it’ll slow her down and increase her risk of falling.

Shoot/don’t shoot. I don’t fully understand this phenomenon, but I and many of my women friends have found that men tend to urge us to shoot when we’re not comfortable. “Shoot! Shoot! Why didn’t you shoot?!?”

Please don’t do that. It is never wrong to not take a shot, period. If we’re not shooting, it’s often because we’re not confident we can kill cleanly, and that is a huge issue for women. We’re the baby-makers and the nurturers - we’re horrified at the thought of inflicting suffering.

I know you have to take shots to get comfortable with, and good at, shooting, and that involves some risk of wounding, not killing. But last time I forced myself to take shots I really don’t like, the results were ugly and deeply upsetting to me, and it’s highly unlikely I’ll put myself in that situation ever again.

Crying. Many women cry at their first kill. Don’t freak out. It’s usually not anything like regret. But it is a somber moment, and she needs to feel whatever it is she's going to feel. Let it happen. Offer her a tissue if you have one. Let her describe what she's feeling if she wants to. Men rarely cry when they kill, but I know many of you have these feelings too - if that’s the case, tell her that, if you’re comfortable doing so.

Peeing. It's more of a hassle for us because we have to pull our pants down, and some women worry about it. Let her know what kind of cover she can use if and when she has to go. Also, I’m a fan of pee-standing-up aids, especially Tinkle Belle.

On the hunt

Safety

When you’re with a new hunter, it’s best to make the hunt about them, not you. There may be some types of bird hunting where there are shots only you can take, so you might as well take them, if you’re confident your shooter is not swinging on the bird and potentially endangering you. But for the most part, your job is to coach them the entire time, and especially to monitor their safety habits.

If you hunt with dogs, make sure they understand how to keep the dog safe. If your dog is prone to jumping in the air at a flushing bird, let your hunter know to wait until the bird has gotten higher than the dog can jump before they disengage the safety and shoot.

“Is your safety engaged?” should be coming out of your mouth OFTEN, especially on bird hunts where lots of shooting is involved. After every shot they take, ask, “Safety?” Pretty soon, they’ll be telling you it’s engaged before you can ask. What a great habit!

Here’s the one that’ll get you: They raise the gun to shoot, but for some reason they don’t shoot. This is the thing that is most likely to result in a safety that’s not re-engaged. That’s why you need to ask the question often.

Modeling

You need to model good behavior. You need to be safe. You need to not contradict what they just learned in hunter education. Many times I have seen volunteer guides on pheasant hunts hit the deck and tell new hunters to shoot over them. Maybe it’s low risk, but the new hunter has just had it hammered in their head NOT to shoot over people, and conservative behavior with guns is always ideal, so having their mentor encourage it is confusing at best.

Hell, I’ve even seen a volunteer guide tell new shooters not to bother with hearing protection at the shooting range. That’s just dumb. If you don’t use ear and eye protection normally, consider doing it while you’re with the new hunter. If you can’t bear to, don’t discourage them from being safe, even if those earplugs mean they don’t hear you telling them to shoot the duck that’s right in front of them.

It’s worth reminding you this: Most serious accidents occur with experienced hunters and shooters who got sloppy, maybe just once. That newbie’s focus on safety is a beautiful thing, like a child’s wonder at Christmas. Don’t mess that up.

Remember how bad you suck at something when it’s new to you

It takes a LOT of repetition to do things smoothly and automatically. You didn’t get where you are overnight, and neither will your new hunter. They will do everything slowly and awkwardly, which will result in missed opportunities. Reassure them that this is OK. Avoid expressing frustration.

In the event of unsafe behavior

If your hunter is pointing the gun in an unsafe direction, or sitting there with their finger inside the trigger guard, calmly point it out to them. Don’t yell, don’t startle them. You know what happens when someone is startled or knocked off balance? Their hands clench. Not good when a finger is wrapped around a trigger.

Before every hunt or shooting event with newbies, I like to say this: We are all each other’s keepers today. If you see someone, even me, doing something unsafe, let them know. And the proper response when someone tells you you’re doing something unsafe is “Thank you.”

Accidental discharge. This happens sometimes, and if you’ve done your job coaching them to keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction, no one will get hurt. But it can be very scary for everyone involved.

If this happens, stay calm about it - your hunter is likely already freaked out about it and doesn’t need you amplifying that. Unload your guns and take a minute to discuss how it happened. If there is something about your setup that contributed to the accidental discharge, fix it. Assuming no one got hurt, point out what prevented that. Make a plan for avoiding the situation in the future. If you continue hunting, check in constantly about safety, where the trigger finger is, and where the muzzle is pointed.

And if this incident follows a long line of reminders that they weren’t heeding? End the hunt. Don’t hunt with them again. Fortunately, this is rare. I’ve been helping new hunters almost as long as I’ve been a hunter and there is only one I can recall who was banned from our programs because she repeatedly ignored safety instructions.

In the event something happens to one of you

Your new hunter is relying on you for EVERYTHING, so they might not be paying attention to what way you walked to get where you are. Periodically ask them if they know how to get back to the car or to find help in the event they get lost, or if something happens to you.

While our instinct is to not overwhelm them with too much responsibility, I have had a new hunter get lost on a hunt. How it happened is a long story, but we came away with a list for newbies:

• Have a fully charged phone with a hunting app on it, with offline maps for the area downloaded. Ideally, they should record their tracks.

• Have a paper map of the area if possible.

• Pay attention to where you make turns, and when you do, look behind you to see how that turn will look on the return trip.

Sometimes, knowing certain principles is enough. I took a friend mushroom hunting recently and asked her at one point if she knew which way the trail was. She didn’t. In our case, we were heading up a creek, so I said no matter where the trail is on the compass, following the creek downhill would get her back to the trail.

Success and failure

Realities

Help your hunter understand that success is never guaranteed. Most get this. In fact, in my experience, newbies are better prepared for this than mentors, who place a lot more importance on a kill than the newbie does. I know we want our new hunter to taste enough success to keep trying, but give them some credit. And hey, if they want to give up because they don’t get an animal on their first hunt, they’re probably not cut out for hunting.

Missing

One thing you can do to help someone who is missing a lot - a big issue in wingshooting - is to watch how they are progressing and praise them when they do something well. New hunters never shoulder the gun quickly, so if at the end of a hunt you see they’re getting the gun up more quickly and smoothly than at the beginning, tell them! If their swing is smoothing out, or they’re remembering not to stop swinging after shooting, tell them! Success comes from doing many things right, not just one thing, so praising them for each good step helps build both confidence and a desire to stick to it.

If your hunter apologizes for missing a lot (I get this constantly!), reassure them that game animals are not enemy soldiers that must be killed at all costs - it’s absolutely fine for them to live another day.

Don’t lie

Here are two important don’ts:

• If you both shoot at a bird and you know you’re the one who got it, don’t tell the newbie that they got it. Learning to shoot a shotgun is all about training your brain to know what works and what doesn’t so that shooting becomes automatic in the future. When you tell them a bad shot was actually successful, you are actively harming their training.

• If you shoot a bunch of birds on your hunt so your hunter can take them home, that’s fine, but don’t go back to your clubhouse and pretend your newbie got all those birds. Most newbies are fine with not being good at it yet, and it’s super awkward when your mentor tells a lie that you’re expected to go along with (even though you know the mentor means well).

  

Processing

If your hunter is successful, hopefully you’ve made plans to help them deal with their prize. We know you’ll help them dress a deer in the field, but if you send a newbie home with a dead duck or pheasant, they usually have no clue what to do. If you can’t help them personally, at least find them some decent videos (I’ve made a few).

If you guide them through the processing experience, understand that they are likely to be slow and not very good. That’s OK. Just because your bird or deer doesn’t look butcher-counter perfect doesn’t mean it’s not going to taste good.

What to do if they LOVE IT and want some more

This is what every mentor wants to hear. A huge part of the satisfaction of mentoring for me is to watch someone fall in love with hunting the same way I did, and knowing that I helped that happen.

But be aware that mentoring is work, and sacrifice. Some people have hunted so much that they’re happy to let new hunters take the front seat on their hunts, permanently. I’m not one of them - I need to hunt for me a LOT. So I do three things:

Find balance, which includes a lot of “me” hunts. For most of my time as a hunting mentor, I’ve done it through new-hunter programs. I’ve found I can handle giving up three or four weekends a season (we have a three-month duck season) before I start feeling put out. In 2020, when Covid knocked out all those programs, I worked with a single new hunter, and we went out seven times together, out of 30 bird hunts for me. That gave her a lot of diverse experience, but allowed me to continue doing hunts that were more challenging and put more birds in my freezer, as well as to hunt with Hank and other friends.

Encourage newbies to find a network of mentors. You never want to feel like your newbie is stuck at home watching Seinfeld re-runs if you aren’t personally taking them out. If they have a network of mentors, they’ll actually learn more, as well as get out more.

How to help them find a network?

• Introduce your new hunter to some of your friends (and ask them to read this) piece.

• Encourage your new hunter to join a Facebook group for new hunters in your area.

• Alert them to events for new hunters - events are a great place to meet others. For women, most states have Becoming an Outdoors-Woman. Many conservation organizations have new-hunter programs too, as does Hunters of Color.

Aim for self-sufficiency. Start talking about hunting independently early, and let them know when you think they’re ready for it. One of my most joyful moments as a mentor was casually telling my newbie, “I think you should hunt alone tomorrow.” She balked, saying she didn’t think she was ready. Then she thought about it for a few hours and realized she was. She hunted alone the next morning, and got her first solo duck!

With duck hunting in particular, the biggest obstacle is duck identification, because of complicated sub-limits. But once they can tell the difference between a duck and a not duck, if all ducks are open, they can hunt alone, as long as they have a good ID book (I like the LeMaster Method).

Here’s how: Hunter kills and retrieves duck, but has no clue what kind it is. Checks the ID book and identifies it. Checks the limits. If that duck has a limit of one, they are done hunting for the day. If not, they can keep hunting. The minute the number of any the ducks in their bag meets the daily limit, they’re done. The reality is they’ll be lucky to get one duck on their own, but even so, the value of a solo hunt is huge - they own everything they’ve done right.

I’m so into self-sufficient hunting that in my last job, I created a checklist for new hunters - many of whom aren’t lucky enough to have mentors. You can find it here, where there’s a web page version and a PDF you can download. It’s Cali focused in some details, but generally broadly applicable.

Got questions or suggestions?

Comments are open to all, so chime in!