I love this article. I am inspired to talk a little about my hunting experience. I grew up on a ranch in Wyoming, and hunted deer, elk and antelope at 8000 feet, generally on foot in rough terrain. (Horses announce one’s progress though light timber and high sagebrush to the deer and elk like a brass band.) Being a skinny little girl, I hunted with a .253, with slightly overloaded ammo- it weighed 7 lbs instead of the 11 pounds a typical .270 weighs. I had to get close to knock something down with it which kept me quiet. Also I did enough target practice to be able to hit what I was aiming at, as they say. I generally tried for head shots- if I hit it, it went down, otherwise the animal ran off with no wounds. No wasted meat, and no need to exaggerate stories. “I got him in the head from 55 feet, he was grazing and never knew what hit him. “ Always carry a really sharp knife suitable for field dressing. I have several stories about helping guys from California or Michigan dress out their gut shot deer that they really didn’t want to tag, and if your knife is sharp enough, you can get it done while they are still dithering about the smell. Women are generally better shots than men, better eye hand coordination, less tendency to feel that blood lust thing. I encourage all women to practice enough to be a pretty good shot - you will earn the respect of the good hunters, and shut the blow-hards up quick with your skill, as well as feeling safer in the world. Again this article was great!
I wish it were easier to practice. Used to have a great shooting range 20 minutes away, but shooting ranges are disappearing here. And then there's the ammo shortage.
I also had a childhood with many adventures that people always tell me I should write a book about. But I no longer romanticize the adventure of my parents plunging us into deeper and deeper poverty, as amusing as it is to talk about it.
All good stuff. While I've spent more time as a guide (formally and not) than as mentor, I can appreciate the instruction and the intent. I also think there's a lot of overlap.
Of all the things you said, the one that really resonates is to remember to make it about THEM, not about yourself. But for god sake don't make it seem like you're making some kind of heroic sacrifice to be there. "Man, if you weren't here I'd be over that second ridge where the big deer live!" or "Damn, if I were out here by myself, I could have killed my limit already!"
OK... so that may be extreme, and I can't say I know any mentors who would actually say that sort of thing...but you know, sometimes the newbie thinks that's what you're thinking. "Man, I bet he wishes I wasn't here."
One of the things I found great about guiding was that I wasn't usually carrying a gun at all, so the hunt was 100% attending to the client's experience. I feel like that's a good mindset to apply to mentoring as well (although, honestly, if the mentor didn't get to hunt too, I guess we might have a lot less volunteers out there). But the idea of putting the focus on the newbie's success over our own is solid... and that success doesn't just have to mean a full game bag, as long as the hunt is a positive experience (as positive as can be). Have they advanced a little bit in their safety practices? Have they gained a bit of fieldcraft? Are they able to appreciate the aspects that go beyond the kill... a great hike in beautiful country, or an amazing sunrise through the tules?
I think that folks new to hunting, just like paying clients, really expect the culmination of the hunt to be a kill. To the guide or to the mentor, there's a laser focus on that ultimate objective as well... and ego being ego, at the end of the day if your client/mentee shoots an animal, you can't help but feel the accomplishment is as much (or more) yours as theirs. So the hunting experience becomes a goal-oriented mission, and it's easy to lose sight of the bigger picture. I know I have stepped into that trap more than once. Don't let it become about YOU.
And don't let it become about the kill.
Other notes?
Safety and gun handling.... absolutely imperative. You want to know that stuff BEFORE you get into the field where things happen fast and almost never quite the way you expect. This is one difference between mentoring and guiding. As a guide, while I would have liked to see the client on the range before we hunt, that was not always feasible. More than once, the first time I saw a client's gun handling was as we were getting out of the truck at the trailhead. That's also where I experienced one of my closest calls... so there's a lesson there. As a mentor, you have a little more control over the chain of events.
Recoil... what I'm sure you know, but didn't mention, was that aside from recoil pads, there are a handful of ways to help the new shooter. Proper gun fit and mounting make a world of difference. Surprisingly to some people, proper hearing protection is also helpful. A lot of gunshyness can be attributed to the involuntary avoidance of that loud noise.
For wingshooters, you don't need to hunt with a cannon. Those 3 1/2" magnum 12 gauge guns get a lot of press, but they're absolutely unnecessary... especially with the advances in ammunition. A 20 gauge with bismuth or hevi-shot is every bit as deadly and just as powerful (velocity and energy are identical... the only difference is the size of the payload). For that matter, I'd go so far as to say that the old 2 3/4" shells are plenty sufficient for most waterfowl and turkey hunting if you are willing to be patient and not take the hail, Mary shots. And while I'm old-school enough to be skeptical about giving a newbie a semi-automatic shotgun, there's no question that the gas operated action reduces recoil significantly... and semi-autos are far more reliable than they once were.
A similar thought applies to rifle shooting, by the way. No one "needs" the biggest, baddest flat-shooting magnum. While I firmly believe in using enough gun, it's also true that the most effective rifle is the one you can shoot well. If you flinch and close your eyes every time you pull the trigger, you're going to have a hard time killing anything.
Again, with modern ammo being what it is, there's no reason a diminutive or sensitive shooter needs to take to the field with a .300 magnum for elk or pigs. Learn to shoot something smaller well, and ignore the manly men who declare your .270 to be a "pig crippler" (true thing I heard over and over). The 7mm-08 is a pretty amazing round with fairly light recoil. And while I wouldn't recommend a .243 for elk, it's deadly on deer and even hogs when applied judiciously (moderate range, well-placed shot, and good bullets).
And then there's the much maligned muzzle brake. Yes, it makes any gun far louder and no pleasure to be around when it goes off... but the reduction in felt recoil is immense and can be a game changer for the recoil-shy shooter. As someone who suffers from chronic issues of the cervical spine, I found that putting a brake even on my 30-06 improved both my shooting and my shooting experience. (A note by the way... if you're in a place where you can hunt with a suppressor, it mitigates the report while also reducing felt recoil. They can be a pain to acquire, but it's an excellent tool that I wish were more readily available for US hunters.)
Finally, guiding the newbie to self-sufficiency is absolutely a goal. Beyond that, even, is guiding them in the direction of becoming mentors themselves. I think it's great to share with them that, as they are now, so we were once. You don't have to have a lifetime of hunting experience to share your knowledge and help someone else discover the joy of the hunt.
Yeah, definitely important to help newbies avoid bigger-is-better syndrome - such a high price to pay for that.
The guide's focus on success is an interesting thing. I understand it. I understand lots of hero shots are how you advertise being effective. But increasingly, I'm intensely disliking the push for limits or a kill no matter how ugly it is. I don't want to shoot buffleheads so you can post "LIMITS!" on social media as early as possible in the day. I wish there was as much value in posting, "I helped a client have exactly the hunt she wanted today."
Huge agreement on not expressing frustration with your sacrifice to mentor, though I do think adult mentees need to understand that it is a sacrifice - it's a gift someone is giving to you.
The focus on success has a lot of edges to it, for sure. And while I was pointing out similarities between the mentor and the guide, the departures are significant too... especially depending on the guide.
A client hires a guide to rebalance the odds of success in his favor. Maybe, in a few cases, there's the hope of learning a little bit from the guide along the way, but people part with their money with the expectation of seeing a return. That's the first, and probably most significant difference between the guide and the mentor. Money is on the table.
That money is why you see these waterfowl guides showing off boatloads of buffleheads and ruddy ducks. "Done by 09:00!" And the inconvenient truth is that the clients keep coming back to pay them to shoot more. They see those photos and they book... most of them knowing exactly what they're signing up for.
I can't speak for other guides, though, but guiding to me was always as much about mentoring as about getting the customer on game. Some clients are more receptive than others, but for those who cared, my goal was exactly what you described. If someone asks one of my clients what they appreciated most, I would hope the response would be about the time I took to make sure they got a fulfilling experience... the hunt they wanted to have... that the kill was almost an afterthought. I want to read more in that customer review than, "I killed a 28-inch buck!"
But honestly, the picture of that 28" buck on social media and the website would probably draw more customers the next year than that glowing review. I guess, at the same time, the person who wrote that glowing review is very likely to come back again too. It's an elongated and convoluted trail.
I also think about hunting Tejon, and all the folks I led to their first hog there... not as a professional guide, but just as someone who had learned to hunt the place and really wanted to share the wealth. Ron Gayer, formerly the head guide at Tejon, shared some valuable insight with me on my first trip that completely changed my experience... and he did it for nothing. He had just dropped by the camp site to see how things were going with a couple of perfect strangers. He knew I was struggling for success, and he helped me. I wasn't a new hunter, but I was a relatively new hog hunter. My ego says I want to be remembered by the people I helped, in the same way that I remember him (Ron has become a great friend, and we still keep in touch). The rest of me is just happy that I could show some folks a good time.
Anyway, I've distracted myself. You know me.
I love what you're doing to bring more people into hunting, and the thoughtfulness you put into that effort. This is what we need in the sport, honestly. It may be a hard sell against the "success-at-all-costs" image we get from outdoors media these days, but it will make it a lot nicer to know we're sharing the field with mindful hunters.
All correct! And we pay with our feet. I think if I were looking for a guide right now, I'd be 100% clear about what I want before even scheduling a hunt, and I suspect there are a lot of hunts I just won't do now because I can't accept the terms and conditions, and I'm don't figuratively clicking "accept" without paying attention.
Great article Holly! I stumbled and bumbled into this world without any real mentorship and read this, wistfully imagining how much better my experiences would have been with a mentor who followed these guidelines. Luckily there is a lot of easily accessible information out there (which may explain the big increase in adult onset hunting), but it's just not the same as a good mentor.
One thing I would add is, as a mentor, don't regurgitate negative "wisdom" passed down through your family like, "Goose taste like shit" or "such and such isn't worth your time", or "Remingtons? Only a fool would use one of those" and so on. Let the newbie make their own decisions about those things with your light guidance.
Another good point! I think if you have something negative to say, it should be couched carefully, and it should be based on personal experience, not something you heard fifth-hand about jackrabbits being inedible. "I've had a hard time making mergansers taste good - but you can give it a try if you're interested" is better than a blanket "don't bother."
They have hundreds of videos that play and then offer you a multiple choice for you to pick what duck it was. You can also filter based on type of duck (dabbler, diving) and area. Duck ID was the most scary thing for me when I started hunting, but after some experience it becomes second nature!
That is fascinating! I'm very glad to hear it was helpful to you, because it wasn't made for you - it's made for biologists who fly in airplanes and helicopters to come up with the spring breeding population counts.
I have long wanted to do a video course for ID, because still photos don't cut it for identifying flying birds. I'll have to check these out and share them with new duck hunters!
Yes, a lot of the ID shots are from above (which isn't a perspective hunters get much), but I haven't found a better place where I can get random videos and a quiz attached. There are lots of duck quizzes online, but none with the volume of material that FWS provides. I can use it for hours and not see a repeated video. I would LOVE a phone "game" that just showed me duck videos and then asked me what duck it was. I would be playing that every chance I got.
Anyway also a great new hunter tip: Think outside the box! There are many resources available from biologists and academia that can help you hunting.
The shots-from-above thing is my biggest beef with bird ID resources in general. How freaking often am I going to see a hawk flying from above, FFS? Show me the belly! But of course for the population surveys, that's the whole point.
Those videos still struck me as useful because you could see wing patterns so well, which you can also see from the side on the downstroke.
Great piece, tons of great info that I’ll definitely be bookmarking! I am a big fan of taking new hunters hound hunting because they can experience the entire activity start to finish never even needing to handle a firearm if they don’t want to. We took my cousin who is blind from birth raccoon hunting with my dogs and he had a blast and we are putting together a rabbit hunt with beagles to take him on. I think any type of hunting involving dogs can be a great starting point for anyone brand new to hunting.
Great article! Your comments around "Shoot! Shoot! Why didn't you shoot?" are so familiar. I've had it said to me and I've heard it shouted at others (women and men and kids). It's a great reminder to let that new hunter find their own moment. We really don't need to interfere with that particular thought process.
On the duck ID front, I recently found the Cornell lab Merlin ap. While I'm not into using my phone much while hunting, I have been utilizing this ap during the off season to improve my duck and goose identification at local refuges. The audio files are fantastic (male, female, flock sounds, juvenile etc.). It is a free ap and not too burdensome to the average smartphone.
Falconry is an apprenticeship sport by law--new hunters have to have a mentor signed up for two years just to get a permit for the activity. So we are usually well acquainted with our students by the time of their own first hunt.
But there is usually a first experience with them in the field, before they have a bird of their own, and many of your good points apply well. What a new person doesn’t know is often staggering, and in falconry especially because of the complexity of birds and dogs working in tandem and the potential for unexpected chaos is so high, even when things are going well!
I once took the husband of my wife’s co-worker hawking (at his request) and wrote about it later. In his case, after the fear of snakes, his biggest struggle was with the fact that I couldn’t tell him how long the hunt would take.
Could be over in a few minutes and leave with a rabbit, I told him. Or we could be out here until dark and come home with nothing. For whatever reason, the fact that I didn’t know the outcome beforehand was very confusing to him. Perhaps, if your experience is watching a friend play baseball, or something, you know you can simply leave anytime...
The unscheduled nature of hunting is half the allure, as is walking through grass, and the wild sense of possibility (I realize that's too many halves...).
I'm super late to this, but thank you so much for this incredible resource. I can't say how much I appreciate the level of nuance and detail you've brought to this, especially when it comes to the unique challenges of bringing in folks who might have good reason to feel anxious about being around a bunch of white dudes with guns. Dex & I have talked some about this question, but it's wonderful to have such a practical and concrete article to bookmark. I think just reading this piece all by itself might help some of our friends feel safer and more supported -- it'll be a surprise and a relief to them to realize that there are actually *plenty* of expert hunters out there with really thoughtful approaches.
Thank you, Jericha! I think it's a good thing for the hunt-curious to read as well because it tells them how far out of their comfort zone they will be going.
Totally agree -- and gives a much more honest and detailed look at what the experience might actually be like if you've never had anything like it before. For urban weirdos like us who grew up without any concept of hunting beyond Elmer Fudd, I think it can seem super vague and overwhelming. (I will say that what got me into the swamp the first time was simply the rhapsodic description my husband gave me of the incredible beauty of the pre-dawn swamp with its owls and rushing of wings and so on...)
I'm bi - born city, raised rural from age 9-18, then off to the cities for work - and it was still pretty weird to me. I was NOT outdoorsy before I started hunting, though, so I never really intersected with the stay-on-the-trails hiking crowd, so at least I didn't have to unlearn that.
Definitely didn't know you weren't outdoorsy before you started hunting! I think it's extra-affirming for people to hear that -- it makes it seem so much more possible to just GET INTO IT without some kind of special prerequisite experience.
I loved being outside when I was a kid, but made no special effort to get outdoors as an adult. One huge reason that hunting makes me feel like a kid again (and I'm not alone in that).
Thank you for this, and opening the discussion - lots of good advice in the comments section. I'm going into my 3rd season mentoring new hunters and I'd be lying if I said I haven't been learning from those experiences too.
I love this article. I am inspired to talk a little about my hunting experience. I grew up on a ranch in Wyoming, and hunted deer, elk and antelope at 8000 feet, generally on foot in rough terrain. (Horses announce one’s progress though light timber and high sagebrush to the deer and elk like a brass band.) Being a skinny little girl, I hunted with a .253, with slightly overloaded ammo- it weighed 7 lbs instead of the 11 pounds a typical .270 weighs. I had to get close to knock something down with it which kept me quiet. Also I did enough target practice to be able to hit what I was aiming at, as they say. I generally tried for head shots- if I hit it, it went down, otherwise the animal ran off with no wounds. No wasted meat, and no need to exaggerate stories. “I got him in the head from 55 feet, he was grazing and never knew what hit him. “ Always carry a really sharp knife suitable for field dressing. I have several stories about helping guys from California or Michigan dress out their gut shot deer that they really didn’t want to tag, and if your knife is sharp enough, you can get it done while they are still dithering about the smell. Women are generally better shots than men, better eye hand coordination, less tendency to feel that blood lust thing. I encourage all women to practice enough to be a pretty good shot - you will earn the respect of the good hunters, and shut the blow-hards up quick with your skill, as well as feeling safer in the world. Again this article was great!
I wish it were easier to practice. Used to have a great shooting range 20 minutes away, but shooting ranges are disappearing here. And then there's the ammo shortage.
I envy your upbringing!
Well, like most things, it sounds more romantic from the outside, than when you are in the middle of it!
I also had a childhood with many adventures that people always tell me I should write a book about. But I no longer romanticize the adventure of my parents plunging us into deeper and deeper poverty, as amusing as it is to talk about it.
All good stuff. While I've spent more time as a guide (formally and not) than as mentor, I can appreciate the instruction and the intent. I also think there's a lot of overlap.
Of all the things you said, the one that really resonates is to remember to make it about THEM, not about yourself. But for god sake don't make it seem like you're making some kind of heroic sacrifice to be there. "Man, if you weren't here I'd be over that second ridge where the big deer live!" or "Damn, if I were out here by myself, I could have killed my limit already!"
OK... so that may be extreme, and I can't say I know any mentors who would actually say that sort of thing...but you know, sometimes the newbie thinks that's what you're thinking. "Man, I bet he wishes I wasn't here."
One of the things I found great about guiding was that I wasn't usually carrying a gun at all, so the hunt was 100% attending to the client's experience. I feel like that's a good mindset to apply to mentoring as well (although, honestly, if the mentor didn't get to hunt too, I guess we might have a lot less volunteers out there). But the idea of putting the focus on the newbie's success over our own is solid... and that success doesn't just have to mean a full game bag, as long as the hunt is a positive experience (as positive as can be). Have they advanced a little bit in their safety practices? Have they gained a bit of fieldcraft? Are they able to appreciate the aspects that go beyond the kill... a great hike in beautiful country, or an amazing sunrise through the tules?
I think that folks new to hunting, just like paying clients, really expect the culmination of the hunt to be a kill. To the guide or to the mentor, there's a laser focus on that ultimate objective as well... and ego being ego, at the end of the day if your client/mentee shoots an animal, you can't help but feel the accomplishment is as much (or more) yours as theirs. So the hunting experience becomes a goal-oriented mission, and it's easy to lose sight of the bigger picture. I know I have stepped into that trap more than once. Don't let it become about YOU.
And don't let it become about the kill.
Other notes?
Safety and gun handling.... absolutely imperative. You want to know that stuff BEFORE you get into the field where things happen fast and almost never quite the way you expect. This is one difference between mentoring and guiding. As a guide, while I would have liked to see the client on the range before we hunt, that was not always feasible. More than once, the first time I saw a client's gun handling was as we were getting out of the truck at the trailhead. That's also where I experienced one of my closest calls... so there's a lesson there. As a mentor, you have a little more control over the chain of events.
Recoil... what I'm sure you know, but didn't mention, was that aside from recoil pads, there are a handful of ways to help the new shooter. Proper gun fit and mounting make a world of difference. Surprisingly to some people, proper hearing protection is also helpful. A lot of gunshyness can be attributed to the involuntary avoidance of that loud noise.
For wingshooters, you don't need to hunt with a cannon. Those 3 1/2" magnum 12 gauge guns get a lot of press, but they're absolutely unnecessary... especially with the advances in ammunition. A 20 gauge with bismuth or hevi-shot is every bit as deadly and just as powerful (velocity and energy are identical... the only difference is the size of the payload). For that matter, I'd go so far as to say that the old 2 3/4" shells are plenty sufficient for most waterfowl and turkey hunting if you are willing to be patient and not take the hail, Mary shots. And while I'm old-school enough to be skeptical about giving a newbie a semi-automatic shotgun, there's no question that the gas operated action reduces recoil significantly... and semi-autos are far more reliable than they once were.
A similar thought applies to rifle shooting, by the way. No one "needs" the biggest, baddest flat-shooting magnum. While I firmly believe in using enough gun, it's also true that the most effective rifle is the one you can shoot well. If you flinch and close your eyes every time you pull the trigger, you're going to have a hard time killing anything.
Again, with modern ammo being what it is, there's no reason a diminutive or sensitive shooter needs to take to the field with a .300 magnum for elk or pigs. Learn to shoot something smaller well, and ignore the manly men who declare your .270 to be a "pig crippler" (true thing I heard over and over). The 7mm-08 is a pretty amazing round with fairly light recoil. And while I wouldn't recommend a .243 for elk, it's deadly on deer and even hogs when applied judiciously (moderate range, well-placed shot, and good bullets).
And then there's the much maligned muzzle brake. Yes, it makes any gun far louder and no pleasure to be around when it goes off... but the reduction in felt recoil is immense and can be a game changer for the recoil-shy shooter. As someone who suffers from chronic issues of the cervical spine, I found that putting a brake even on my 30-06 improved both my shooting and my shooting experience. (A note by the way... if you're in a place where you can hunt with a suppressor, it mitigates the report while also reducing felt recoil. They can be a pain to acquire, but it's an excellent tool that I wish were more readily available for US hunters.)
Finally, guiding the newbie to self-sufficiency is absolutely a goal. Beyond that, even, is guiding them in the direction of becoming mentors themselves. I think it's great to share with them that, as they are now, so we were once. You don't have to have a lifetime of hunting experience to share your knowledge and help someone else discover the joy of the hunt.
Yeah, definitely important to help newbies avoid bigger-is-better syndrome - such a high price to pay for that.
The guide's focus on success is an interesting thing. I understand it. I understand lots of hero shots are how you advertise being effective. But increasingly, I'm intensely disliking the push for limits or a kill no matter how ugly it is. I don't want to shoot buffleheads so you can post "LIMITS!" on social media as early as possible in the day. I wish there was as much value in posting, "I helped a client have exactly the hunt she wanted today."
Huge agreement on not expressing frustration with your sacrifice to mentor, though I do think adult mentees need to understand that it is a sacrifice - it's a gift someone is giving to you.
The focus on success has a lot of edges to it, for sure. And while I was pointing out similarities between the mentor and the guide, the departures are significant too... especially depending on the guide.
A client hires a guide to rebalance the odds of success in his favor. Maybe, in a few cases, there's the hope of learning a little bit from the guide along the way, but people part with their money with the expectation of seeing a return. That's the first, and probably most significant difference between the guide and the mentor. Money is on the table.
That money is why you see these waterfowl guides showing off boatloads of buffleheads and ruddy ducks. "Done by 09:00!" And the inconvenient truth is that the clients keep coming back to pay them to shoot more. They see those photos and they book... most of them knowing exactly what they're signing up for.
I can't speak for other guides, though, but guiding to me was always as much about mentoring as about getting the customer on game. Some clients are more receptive than others, but for those who cared, my goal was exactly what you described. If someone asks one of my clients what they appreciated most, I would hope the response would be about the time I took to make sure they got a fulfilling experience... the hunt they wanted to have... that the kill was almost an afterthought. I want to read more in that customer review than, "I killed a 28-inch buck!"
But honestly, the picture of that 28" buck on social media and the website would probably draw more customers the next year than that glowing review. I guess, at the same time, the person who wrote that glowing review is very likely to come back again too. It's an elongated and convoluted trail.
I also think about hunting Tejon, and all the folks I led to their first hog there... not as a professional guide, but just as someone who had learned to hunt the place and really wanted to share the wealth. Ron Gayer, formerly the head guide at Tejon, shared some valuable insight with me on my first trip that completely changed my experience... and he did it for nothing. He had just dropped by the camp site to see how things were going with a couple of perfect strangers. He knew I was struggling for success, and he helped me. I wasn't a new hunter, but I was a relatively new hog hunter. My ego says I want to be remembered by the people I helped, in the same way that I remember him (Ron has become a great friend, and we still keep in touch). The rest of me is just happy that I could show some folks a good time.
Anyway, I've distracted myself. You know me.
I love what you're doing to bring more people into hunting, and the thoughtfulness you put into that effort. This is what we need in the sport, honestly. It may be a hard sell against the "success-at-all-costs" image we get from outdoors media these days, but it will make it a lot nicer to know we're sharing the field with mindful hunters.
All correct! And we pay with our feet. I think if I were looking for a guide right now, I'd be 100% clear about what I want before even scheduling a hunt, and I suspect there are a lot of hunts I just won't do now because I can't accept the terms and conditions, and I'm don't figuratively clicking "accept" without paying attention.
Great article Holly! I stumbled and bumbled into this world without any real mentorship and read this, wistfully imagining how much better my experiences would have been with a mentor who followed these guidelines. Luckily there is a lot of easily accessible information out there (which may explain the big increase in adult onset hunting), but it's just not the same as a good mentor.
One thing I would add is, as a mentor, don't regurgitate negative "wisdom" passed down through your family like, "Goose taste like shit" or "such and such isn't worth your time", or "Remingtons? Only a fool would use one of those" and so on. Let the newbie make their own decisions about those things with your light guidance.
Another good point! I think if you have something negative to say, it should be couched carefully, and it should be based on personal experience, not something you heard fifth-hand about jackrabbits being inedible. "I've had a hard time making mergansers taste good - but you can give it a try if you're interested" is better than a blanket "don't bother."
Exactly!
This is great, Holly. I especially love this:
“That newbie’s focus on safety is a beautiful thing, like a child’s wonder at Christmas. Don’t mess that up.”
Ha ha, thank you! I have witnessed so many beautiful scenes of careful gun handling. Always warms my heart :-)
Just wanted to post a resource I use a lot to help me learn and practice my duck identification:
https://www.fws.gov/waterfowlsurveys/forms/identificationtest.jsp?menu=identification.test
They have hundreds of videos that play and then offer you a multiple choice for you to pick what duck it was. You can also filter based on type of duck (dabbler, diving) and area. Duck ID was the most scary thing for me when I started hunting, but after some experience it becomes second nature!
That is fascinating! I'm very glad to hear it was helpful to you, because it wasn't made for you - it's made for biologists who fly in airplanes and helicopters to come up with the spring breeding population counts.
I have long wanted to do a video course for ID, because still photos don't cut it for identifying flying birds. I'll have to check these out and share them with new duck hunters!
Yes, a lot of the ID shots are from above (which isn't a perspective hunters get much), but I haven't found a better place where I can get random videos and a quiz attached. There are lots of duck quizzes online, but none with the volume of material that FWS provides. I can use it for hours and not see a repeated video. I would LOVE a phone "game" that just showed me duck videos and then asked me what duck it was. I would be playing that every chance I got.
Anyway also a great new hunter tip: Think outside the box! There are many resources available from biologists and academia that can help you hunting.
The shots-from-above thing is my biggest beef with bird ID resources in general. How freaking often am I going to see a hawk flying from above, FFS? Show me the belly! But of course for the population surveys, that's the whole point.
Those videos still struck me as useful because you could see wing patterns so well, which you can also see from the side on the downstroke.
OK, I've checked it out. Great stuff! And I suck at ID'ing blue-winged teal, lol (in all fairness, I've seen them like twice).
Great piece, tons of great info that I’ll definitely be bookmarking! I am a big fan of taking new hunters hound hunting because they can experience the entire activity start to finish never even needing to handle a firearm if they don’t want to. We took my cousin who is blind from birth raccoon hunting with my dogs and he had a blast and we are putting together a rabbit hunt with beagles to take him on. I think any type of hunting involving dogs can be a great starting point for anyone brand new to hunting.
Super good point: Taking someone to observe a hunt can be an incredibly valuable first step!
And VERY cool about the cousin - I would love to hear what that experience is like for him.
Great article! Your comments around "Shoot! Shoot! Why didn't you shoot?" are so familiar. I've had it said to me and I've heard it shouted at others (women and men and kids). It's a great reminder to let that new hunter find their own moment. We really don't need to interfere with that particular thought process.
On the duck ID front, I recently found the Cornell lab Merlin ap. While I'm not into using my phone much while hunting, I have been utilizing this ap during the off season to improve my duck and goose identification at local refuges. The audio files are fantastic (male, female, flock sounds, juvenile etc.). It is a free ap and not too burdensome to the average smartphone.
Thanks for all of your creative work!
Falconry is an apprenticeship sport by law--new hunters have to have a mentor signed up for two years just to get a permit for the activity. So we are usually well acquainted with our students by the time of their own first hunt.
But there is usually a first experience with them in the field, before they have a bird of their own, and many of your good points apply well. What a new person doesn’t know is often staggering, and in falconry especially because of the complexity of birds and dogs working in tandem and the potential for unexpected chaos is so high, even when things are going well!
I once took the husband of my wife’s co-worker hawking (at his request) and wrote about it later. In his case, after the fear of snakes, his biggest struggle was with the fact that I couldn’t tell him how long the hunt would take.
Could be over in a few minutes and leave with a rabbit, I told him. Or we could be out here until dark and come home with nothing. For whatever reason, the fact that I didn’t know the outcome beforehand was very confusing to him. Perhaps, if your experience is watching a friend play baseball, or something, you know you can simply leave anytime...
The unscheduled nature of hunting is half the allure, as is walking through grass, and the wild sense of possibility (I realize that's too many halves...).
Hunting is more than the sum of its halves!
Indeed!
I'm super late to this, but thank you so much for this incredible resource. I can't say how much I appreciate the level of nuance and detail you've brought to this, especially when it comes to the unique challenges of bringing in folks who might have good reason to feel anxious about being around a bunch of white dudes with guns. Dex & I have talked some about this question, but it's wonderful to have such a practical and concrete article to bookmark. I think just reading this piece all by itself might help some of our friends feel safer and more supported -- it'll be a surprise and a relief to them to realize that there are actually *plenty* of expert hunters out there with really thoughtful approaches.
Thank you, Jericha! I think it's a good thing for the hunt-curious to read as well because it tells them how far out of their comfort zone they will be going.
Totally agree -- and gives a much more honest and detailed look at what the experience might actually be like if you've never had anything like it before. For urban weirdos like us who grew up without any concept of hunting beyond Elmer Fudd, I think it can seem super vague and overwhelming. (I will say that what got me into the swamp the first time was simply the rhapsodic description my husband gave me of the incredible beauty of the pre-dawn swamp with its owls and rushing of wings and so on...)
I'm bi - born city, raised rural from age 9-18, then off to the cities for work - and it was still pretty weird to me. I was NOT outdoorsy before I started hunting, though, so I never really intersected with the stay-on-the-trails hiking crowd, so at least I didn't have to unlearn that.
Definitely didn't know you weren't outdoorsy before you started hunting! I think it's extra-affirming for people to hear that -- it makes it seem so much more possible to just GET INTO IT without some kind of special prerequisite experience.
I loved being outside when I was a kid, but made no special effort to get outdoors as an adult. One huge reason that hunting makes me feel like a kid again (and I'm not alone in that).
Big same!!
Thank you for this, and opening the discussion - lots of good advice in the comments section. I'm going into my 3rd season mentoring new hunters and I'd be lying if I said I haven't been learning from those experiences too.
Right? Teaching teaches you a lot!