Pennsylvania Firearm Owners Association
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  1. #1
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    Default Deer Hunting School?

    Is there such a thing? Where can I learn the basic fundamentals of Deer Hunting? I’m sure it’s not as easy as grabbing a rifle and heading to the woods.... is it?

    Also what’s a good rifle to began with... I always thought a replica German Mauser or something of that sort would make a nice rifle for deer

    Let’s the wisdom flow guys

  2. #2
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    Default Re: Deer Hunting School?

    You sound like me a year back. Find a mentor, that's a good 1st step. Take the hunter safety class so you can get a license. Good gun, so many will answer but I have a Remington 786 and it works just fine in 30-06. Watch you tube videos on field dressing.

    Next...
    Gunowner99 - NRA Benefactor Life Member

  3. #3
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    Newport, Pennsylvania
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    Default Re: Deer Hunting School?

    Youtube videos will help you out. Watch some hunting shows but realize they leave a lot of footage on the floor to increase the excitement. Hunting mags/books also will give you a lot of valuable insight.

    If you're still-hunting (which is moving slowly through the woods) you're going to want a shorter, light rifle. If you're hunting from a stand or fixed point short isn't that much of an issue. Weight still is because you're going to be lugging that weight around with you. Then, with a ten pound rifle around your chest, you may have to drag 80 pounds of dead deer up and down hills.

    Scent containment is somewhat important but it's not as critical as manufacturers want you to believe. Shower, wear unscented antiperspirant and hang your clothes outside for a few days before the hunt. You may want to use a hunting clothes wash since UV brighteners in regular detergent will make you fluoresce to deer. With that said, I've walked to within 20 yards of deer when I had a good breeze in my face. The wind covered noise and scent.

    By and large, once you figure our where the deer are, getting yourself a comfortable place to sit quietly will return rewards.
    "A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself"

    "He created the game, played the game, and lost the game.... All under his own terms, by his own doing." JW34

    "Tolerance is the lube that helps slip the dildo of dysfunction into the ass of a civilized society." Plato

  4. #4
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    Default Re: Deer Hunting School?

    Patience. Also the detergent unclejumbo mentioned helps. Well, it hasn't helped me so to speak but I have a lot of issues ha ha!
    Gunowner99 - NRA Benefactor Life Member

  5. #5
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    Glockin, Pennsylvania
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    Default Re: Deer Hunting School?

    Google '2019 PGC Digest' to read up on the rules & regs. Will avoid you getting tied up with the law.

  6. #6
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    Default Re: Deer Hunting School?

    Or grab it at Wal-Mart, free this year.
    Gunowner99 - NRA Benefactor Life Member

  7. #7
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    Levittown, Pennsylvania
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    Default Re: Deer Hunting School?

    There is a lot of mythology and unproven beliefs about deer and deer hunting. Hate to appear argumentative, but having succeeded in acquiring a couple dozen deer over the years sans marketing ploys I beg to differ.

    I was smoking a cigar, standing under a tree, when my first buck walked in and stopped on the other side of the tree from me. It was not aware of me at all. It was studying the "road ahead" like they do before proceeding. It was 10:10 AM. Maybe it was wondering what that smell was and maybe it wasn't.

    Never have I worried about smoking cigarettes, cigarette smoked hunting clothing, lunch in my pocket, Hoppe's #9 smell in the rifle or pistol. reflections off of my eye glasses, whatever laundry and body soaps and detergents, or the UV that exists in nature.

    My hunting was 99% on the ground. I can't take height.

    Smoking showed the course of the air currents. I put my back facing downwind knowing the deer would scent me and avoid me anyway, for the most part, and scanned upwind, applying that advantage.

    Deer's reactions to a hunter are pretty unpredictable. I share some of the things they did about me:

    Detect me, stomp and snort and challenge, trying to get me to move so they can ascertain just what I am.

    Bolt before I can see it, hearing the noise as it leaves.

    Stand up as I still-hunted onto it, and just look at me. One day it was raining during archery. A browsing buck let me walk to within 15 yards of it. It knew I was there. I can only guess he didn't know what I was.

    During turkey hunting a buck and I approached each other on a trail. We both stopped about 50 feet apart. I took off my knapsack, set it on the ground, opened it and retrieved my 110 camera, never expecting to succeed in taking its picture but I did. (The film was so old, it yielded no features). VERY disappointing.
    I moved off the trail to my left. The deer did the same, and we passed each other. I looked back and he was looking at me. It was surreal. Like something you might dream. But it happened.

    One day I was just wandering with my .22 Ruger Mark I, when a small herd came onto a field. They were nervously aware of me. I fired a shot in their general direction but not at them just to watch them bolt. Didn't work. They advanced toward me and stopped. I fired again. Again, they advanced toward me and stopped. I did it a third time and one of them decided to leave, and the rest followed back into the woods...just walking. Setting was farmland. Maybe they were used to seeing the farmer making noises.

    There was a ridge below this farm with a deer that stayed in the thick mountain laurel during the day. I happened upon it one day and heard it leave before I could get close enough to see it. This happened twice and I surmised it was a buck since it was a loner according to the sound.
    The third time approached the spot whistling Dixie, hoping curiosity would delay its leaving. It worked. It held its ground until it could see what I was, and when it bolted I saw it had antlers. Next try, it wasn't there. It never was there when I tried again. Did it learn? Did some hunter get him? Dunno.

    Deer can be curious if not frightened. A strip miner told me of deer sniffing the radiator of an idling bulldozer, likely attracted to the sweet smell of the antifreeze.

    in my experience, the most important part of hunting from a stand is quietness and the least moving anything the better. And hearing is more important than vision when detecting the approach of deer.
    There are two kinds of guns. Those I have acquired, and those I hope to.

  8. #8
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    Default Re: Deer Hunting School?

    Deer Hunting School?
    i don't know if any exist but it's probably not free. I suspect it will cost a couple of bucks.

  9. #9
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    Default Re: Deer Hunting School?

    Thanks for the insight guys... i’ll See if I can find a club or a group of guys that can teach a newbie

  10. #10
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    Default Re: Deer Hunting School?

    Quote Originally Posted by eagleclaw View Post
    i don't know if any exist but it's probably not free. I suspect it will cost a couple of bucks.
    Did you really just go there?
    Gunowner99 - NRA Benefactor Life Member

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