First time hunting this season. Looking for advice

[jgutierrez]

Hey ya'll. This year will be my first time hunting and wanted to see if there was any advice you could offer for a first time hunter. I will be focusing on deer and then wild pig afterwards. Some questions i have are below. Please feel free to throw out anything i have missed.

1. What are some things you wish someone would have taught you on your first time?

2. What are some gear essentials you cant do a trip without?

3. What are some unspoken rules for hunters?

4. What are some good resources for first time hunters. (Youtube videos, podcasts, newsletters...etc)

 

[Designed2Hunt]

What tag do you have?
Tags and validation, licensee, Tripod, good glass, good boots, appropriate clothing

 

[jgutierrez]

What tag do you have?
Tags and validation, licensee, Tripod, good glass, good boots, appropriate clothing

I have my wild pig validation and both of my deer ta

 

[Designed2Hunt]

Which deer tags?

 

[jgutierrez]

Which deer tags?

I have zone d3-5 tags

 

[jgutierrez]

Which deer tags?

I bought them online about 4 days ago havent arrived yet

 

[Brnsvllyjohn]

You will read a lot of good advice on this forum as well as a lot of other places. Get away from the roads, watch the wind direction, be quite in the woods, glass at first and last light, and lots of other basics.
Things I think help me a lot that you might not read much about. Learn an area and hunt it frequently. Don't change areas every trip because you didn't see what you hoped to. Scout if possible and try to find the basics, food, water and cover. That is almost everywhere but details matter. Right now, I see deer eating acorns where available. You should be able to find tracks and possibly deer beds in areas the deer are using. Learn how to watch those areas with decent binoculars. I saw very few deer last year before I filled my tags. Others might have assumed there were not enough deer around to hunt that area.
Practice and become a good shot. Opportunities are few and you need to be able to capitalize on them when you get one. Don't try a shot beyond your capabilities. Have a plan on how to retrieve anything you harvest.
D3-5 can be difficult but you can be successful if you put in some time. I spend a lot more time glassing than I do moving.
D3-5 can be crowded. Do your best to avoid the areas that get a lot of pressure. I have changed the area I hunt in D3-5 three times in the last 10 years because of the number of people.

 

[Designed2Hunt]

Get onX maps phone app, find public land near where you live and scout it all year round.
Plan for 3-5 years of no harvest before you learn enough to have success.

Read the info on dfg website.

https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=83194&inline

 

[Oldtool]

Great Advice all! My biggest advice is to enjoy the process of learning and love the outdoor adventures. With those two things you will always be successful . Welcome to D3-5 . Was out Archery hunting this weekend. It’s a beautiful place to live and unbelievable outdoor adventures. Swimming ,fishing, hunting. There’s plenty of deer. But sometimes you will feel like there are none lol

 

[canamrider07]

The only way you can learn is doing it yourself. Some of the above advice is so far above what you need to start it’s useless. If you don’t have basic outdoor skills now, such as hiking and some camping experience your chances of success are close to zero. Instead of asking questions, write what you are thinking you are going to do and let others guide you from that. There are no easy ways to learn how to hunt. And you want to be successful when you hunt, that’s why you do it. Nobody is going to ask you how the scenery was when you get back, they are going to ask if you got something.

 

[Limited Out]

Time in the field is hard to beat. It's would be difficult to reduce this knowledge into a few sentences or ideas. I don't think there are to many shortcuts. Scouting is just as important as hunting for me!

 

[Oldtool]

The beauty of hunting is it’s up to you how you approach it and what you expect to get out of it. As I have got older , have killed plenty and get as much meat as we can eat every year. I can take the time to enjoy the scenery . That being said the rush of seeing , stalking and being successful in harvesting an animal is as real and exciting as ever. I just take a relaxed approach to it. If you aren’t patient and only want to kill D3-5 public land can be frustrating. As usual we have lost the person who started the thread. Haha. I’m Back out this weekend with some unusual cool weather for archery season. Then go shoot some birds the next weekend.

 

[jgutierrez]

You will read a lot of good advice on this forum as well as a lot of other places. Get away from the roads, watch the wind direction, be quite in the woods, glass at first and last light, and lots of other basics.
Things I think help me a lot that you might not read much about. Learn an area and hunt it frequently. Don't change areas every trip because you didn't see what you hoped to. Scout if possible and try to find the basics, food, water and cover. That is almost everywhere but details matter. Right now, I see deer eating acorns where available. You should be able to find tracks and possibly deer beds in areas the deer are using. Learn how to watch those areas with decent binoculars. I saw very few deer last year before I filled my tags. Others might have assumed there were not enough deer around to hunt that area.
Practice and become a good shot. Opportunities are few and you need to be able to capitalize on them when you get one. Don't try a shot beyond your capabilities. Have a plan on how to retrieve anything you harvest.
D3-5 can be difficult but you can be successful if you put in some time. I spend a lot more time glassing than I do moving.
D3-5 can be crowded. Do your best to avoid the areas that get a lot of pressure. I have changed the area I hunt in D3-5 three times in the last 10 years because of the number of people.

Awesome thanks for the info!

 

[jgutierrez]

The beauty of hunting is it’s up to you how you approach it and what you expect to get out of it. As I have got older , have killed plenty and get as much meat as we can eat every year. I can take the time to enjoy the scenery . That being said the rush of seeing , stalking and being successful in harvesting an animal is as real and exciting as ever. I just take a relaxed approach to it. If you aren’t patient and only want to kill D3-5 public land can be frustrating. As usual we have lost the person who started the thread. Haha. I’m Back out this weekend with some unusual cool weather for archery season. Then go shoot some birds the next weekend.

Nope im still here haha, I've been watching a few videos and will be heading out this weekend to do some scouting. I might have to switch zones next time though or wait out the rush it seems like d3-5 is pretty saturated

 

[jgutierrez]

Time in the field is hard to beat. It's would be difficult to reduce this knowledge into a few sentences or ideas. I don't think there are to many shortcuts. Scouting is just as important as hunting for me!

Yeah I've been reading that scouting as much as you can before you actually hunt is extremely important. Thankfully will be heading out a few times to scout before the general season starts

 

[Oldtool]

Just checking loll!!! Nice cool weather in d3-5 zone this weekend . We may actually see some animal movement

 

[Designed2Hunt]

Nope im still here haha, I've been watching a few videos and will be heading out this weekend to do some scouting. I might have to switch zones next time though or wait out the rush it seems like d3-5 is pretty saturated

There is no such thing as a hunter that doesn't complain about the crowds on public land. So, I wouldn't worry about it too much.

 

[jgutierrez]

Just checking loll!!! Nice cool weather in d3-5 zone this weekend . We may actually see some animal movement

Yes! I'm looking forward to it starting to scout this weekend, hopefully ill see some movement out there.

 

[Oldtool]

There is an absolute ton of room in our zones. No doubt everyone will be out for the opening. But its really easy to find some space I feel . The opener is a good time to use people to move animals around. Find some escape routes , funnels that deer will move through. This all takes time on the ground.l scouting . But you can start on google earth . Looking at topography that leads away from popular areas. High ridges with roads with roadless spur ridges leading into roadless canyons . Are great opening day locations . We killed several bucks in successive years off this flat. We would be set up below on the side hills . guys would push this flat from the ridge which is bigger than it looks . Guys would be on this ridge shooting it up . lol. I stopped hunting spot because it just got brutally hot . A zone !!!! Just an example of the kind of place that can produce with lots of pressure .

 

[Oldtool]