Getting started in hunting is easier and harder than one would expect for reasons that may surprise you. Like many things in life, hunting is a generational tradition and leisure pastime of many, and there are industries built to help ensure your success. I will elaborate on that in a few moments, but first, I need to explain just how basic this can be if you want to get down to brass tacks.
The Hunter’s Mindset
The first thing you need to understand about hunting is that it’s a relationship between the hunter, the game, and the land. The trifecta of these things can’t survive if one vanishes or becomes hostile. If the land is mismanaged, the game disappears along with the traditions carried out.
If hunters kill unchecked, the game vanishes, and the land suffers a collapse in the ecosystem. If the hunter is banned, nature falls out of balance, and the ecosystem collapses. A true hunter is a person who strives to preserve the game they kill in the present for the surety of the traditions of future generations.
The hunter’s mindset is of incredible importance to preserving the natural world. I have said many times that no animal rights group exists that does more for the natural world than conservationists and hunters.
Political groups love to posture that hunting is murder but are themselves responsible for countless inhumane animal deaths. It doesn’t fit their narrative to acknowledge that deer tags pay for the conservation and management of massive populations of animals.
If you want to begin hunting, you need to understand that, above all, you are personally responsible for the taking of life. The hunt is a process that demands respect, and if your first inclination is to want to shoot something, you don’t belong in the field.
Shooting an animal is the foundation of hunting, but it’s only the basic element. In hunting, you’re taking away that individual animal’s life. You stop its heart from beating and cause it never to see its herd or flock again.
You’re wrong if you think that animals don’t feel that loss. I recently lost a prized Cayuga duck to a fox, and my remaining three ducks called to her for days and didn’t eat or drink. I saw them sitting on the spot I buried their sister several times in the days since her death.
What does my duck have to do with hunting? Not much, except to illustrate that you must realize that you are shooting at things that feel pain, have relationships with their kind, and can feel sadness, anger, stress, and fear. It’s thus of extreme importance to kill game quickly, humanely, and with great dedication. You can’t hesitate and need to be deliberate when taking your shot. Hunting requires grit.
You will hear them scream, choke on their blood, call for help, and if wounded, they usually look right at you as you deliver the final shot knowing they are about to die. It’s not a sight for the faint of heart.
I will not lie and say that the business of killing is fun or pleasant, nor is it noble or great. The pursuit of ambush is where the excitement lies. In a way, the most unnerving part of hunting isn’t the shot but rather the anticipation leading up to it.
What is Fair Chase?
Fair chase hunting is hunting where the game has the ability to escape and evade you. Hunting where a shot is guaranteed isn’t true hunting despite what some people, even people in this industry will say. Not getting a shot sometimes is part of hunting. The chance to be in the woods partaking in the hunt is a reward in itself and you shouldn’t be disheartened if you don’t see your game.
This is all part of the hunter’s mindset. A great hunter is marked not by the size of the deer or elk he’s shot, but the manner in which the animal was taken. In that sense, a great hunter may never take a shot in their life, despite being presented with many opportunities.
I wrote an article here on the ethics of long range hunting, which is an appalling trend pushed by many companies in the industry. Long range hunting is by definition not fair chase, as it extends the distance (and possible errors) in order to make the animal oblivious to the shooter. It is, in my opinion, a form of cruelty.
A long range hunter is not a hunter, but rather a killer who values the distance of the shot over the life of the animal. I have known and talked to many of these people, including names you’d recognize. Many display a blatant disregard for the animal. Each cited the distances they shoot with a certain giddiness. “I shot a coyote at 1,100 yards.” “I shot a deer at a half mile.” “500 yards is short range to me.”
I don’t think I’ll ever be convinced that long range hunting is ethical, sportsmanlike, or displays superior hunting prowess. It’s a cowardly act by people lacking the patience and skill to guarantee a clean shot, which can only ever be done at close range. The greater the distance, the more variables are introduced to the shot and variables increase the chances of cruelty.
As a new hunter, you should strive for excellence, and that excellence comes from respecting the life you seek to take by not recklessly causing harm or inflicting unnecessary pain on it. A good hunter knows when not to take a shot. If you second-guess yourself for a moment, don’t pull that trigger.