Newbie Interested in Small Game

[14thASG_Historian]

Let me start off by saying that I am a complete newbie when it comes to hunting. I've spent the past year familiarizing myself with gun safety, cleaning, and generally practicing with a semi-auto .22.

At this point, I am in interested in hunting small game. I've always wanted to hunt squirrels and rabbits. They seem rather tasty-looking.

I live in Bethlehem, PA. I also admit to being a young, middle-class intellectual (heck I'm in library school) who is completely sometimes out of his league when it comes to shooting sports. So if anyone out there is willing to help a complete idiot, please contact me via PAFOA. I'm willing to learn and I need a mentor of sorts. Is there a class I can take for this sort of thing? I don't mind paying tuition.

(I just realized that I would need a bolt-action rifle at this point. Whoops)

[A-5]

Let me start off by saying that I am a complete newbie when it comes to hunting. I've spent the past year familiarizing myself with gun safety, cleaning, and generally practicing with a semi-auto .22.

At this point, I am in interested in hunting small game. I've always wanted to hunt squirrels and rabbits. They seem rather tasty-looking.

I live in Bethlehem, PA. I also admit to being a young, middle-class intellectual (heck I'm in library school) who is completely sometimes out of his league when it comes to shooting sports. So if anyone out there is willing to help a complete idiot, please contact me via PAFOA. I'm willing to learn and I need a mentor of sorts. Is there a class I can take for this sort of thing? I don't mind paying tuition.

(I just realized that I would need a bolt-action rifle at this point. Whoops)

1.Hunter safety course
2.Find a game lands.
3.Find a acorn tree on that game land.
4.Shoot squirrel with your new shotgun.
Squirrels are really that easy. Enjoy happy hunting.

[dk99358]

You don't have to have a bolt action, any manually operated rifle is legal. Pumps and levers appeal to some, check them out if you go rifle shopping.

Or get a shotgun, they're better in the early part of the season when the leaves are on.

Dale

[knight0334]

You don't have to have a bolt action, any manually operated rifle is legal. Pumps and levers appeal to some, check them out if you go rifle shopping.

Or get a shotgun, they're better in the early part of the season when the leaves are on.

Dale

Dont overlook a single shot too.

[Glenn Lynn]

Squirrels are fun to hunt and easy to shoot. Cooked properly, they taste pretty good too. But, are they ever hard to skin.

Unless you are going to shoot sitting rabbits, you better use a shotgun. A running rabbit is awful hard to hit with a .22. I suspect from your post that you expect to see squirrels sitting around like they do in parks and rabbits sitting in the open like in your yard. It isn't like that in the wild.

I would recommend a 12 gauge shotgun. I would use # 6 shot for squirrels and # 7-1/2 for rabbits.

Someone else can help out here, but I believe if you have never had a PA hunting license, you need to take a Hunter Safety Course. Help me out here!

Hunting is lots of fun and great exercise. Enjoy it!

[14thASG_Historian]

I would recommend a 12 gauge shotgun. I would use # 6 shot for squirrels and # 7-1/2 for rabbits.

Someone else can help out here, but I believe if you have never had a PA hunting license, you need to take a Hunter Safety Course. Help me out here!

Hunting is lots of fun and great exercise. Enjoy it!

Okay, I poked around a bit. I think I may have missed most of the hunting classes for this year.

So, to break it down.

1. Buy shotgun (looking at a Remington 870)
2. Take hunting safety course. When are they usually available?
3. Get license.
4. Find a state game lands in Northampton County (any particular one for rabbits?)
5. Shoot a rabbit
6. Uh, eat it? Do butchers fillet them for you?

[Glenn Lynn]

Find a state game land or a friendly farmer who would not mind letting you hunt. Ask first!

I hope you are not serious about taking your rabbit to a butcher. That may be OK for deer and bear but I am afraid for rabbits it is a do it yourself project.

[djturnz]

There are books on skinning a cleaning all kinds of game. Many youtube videos on skinning rabbits and squirrels. This will be my first year going out for small game as well. We'll see how it goes.

[14thASG_Historian]

Hahaha, I have no idea but somehow I thought that it would be illegal to butcher them yourself.

[justashooter]

tularemia...is a nasty and deadly bacterial disease that is endemic to the wild rabbit population on the east coast. tularemia can be transmitted by parasites from the rabbit carcasse biting the hunter's hands as skinning, as well as by a slipped knife involving shared blood. examination of the rabbit liver during evisceration provides a mechanism for a positive diagnosis, but may also lead to false negatives in circumstance of recent inection.

read up on it, exercise care in skinning, cook game meat thoroughly (150*F and 15 minutes kills the bacteria) and wait till after the fiirst couple of hard frosts before shooting rabbit.