Introducing a new guy to hunting this year

wiscwhip

5 year old buck +
I just found out that my new neighbor, who I go to the gun range with a few times a month has gotten his hunter safety credentials and has asked to go out hunting with me this season. He is 23 years old and was fresh off the boat from Afghanistan last January, so the only thing he has ever hunted is goatf*(k!ng towelheads. Always willing to introduce new poeple to the sport, I of course said sure and he has his license for this gun deer season. Any and all reading material suggestions for newbies(remember, kid from Janesville area that has never hunted anything, so keep it simple), personal suggestions or comments are welcomed. It has already been ingrained that above all other rules, it is Safety First and Foremost! I have already warned him that the populations are down where we typically hunt, so not to have any expectations of the kill. I have made it clear that learning and camaraderie should be his "goals" for this season and kills are to be viewed as incidental to the rest. Kind of sucks we are basically in a no antlerless kill zone this fall, but maybe we can get out during the late holiday hunt in the Farmland Zone to harvest a doe if it doesn't go well during the regular season. Wish us luck!
 
a little more on the ethics/philosophy side of things...but good reads.

Jim Posewitz's Beyond Fair Chase and Inherit the Hunt
 
Thanks phil, I might suggest those, as I personally feel that not enough of that type of thing is instilled in young hunters these days. He really is excited to be able to go, he stops over every day or two to ask me questions, it's really funny and kind of like the son I never had.
 
I have read:
"In camps of orange: Tales of deer hunting from the Pearly Swamp Camp"


There is also:
"On the Hunt: The History of Deer Hunting in Wisconsin"
 
Enjoy the hunt Whip. WTG.
 
That is a great thing your doing wiscwhip! Very unselfish! Please tell him from me, thank you for the service!

He needs to cook all meals for this season and wear some kind of hat or apron at all times. Also, he must gut every deer shot. Welcome to the brotherhood my friend :)
I only wish I had some decent private land to take him on for his first hunt, but I will make the public land experience as good as I possibly can for him. Now I will have to let him and my daughter fight over who gets to gut the deer, they are both eager to learn how it is done and grandpa(my dad) is so good at it that it is hard to learn from him because he goes so fast. I like the hat thing, I will have to get a plain one and have it embroidered for him. "Camp Newb 2014" might be good. LOL I'm sure he is all up on the ribbing in good fun, as he was a part of the same unit that my grandfather was in during WWII(both 82nd Airborne Division) and I'm sure they all get ribbed at some point in the military.
 
I have read:
"In camps of orange: Tales of deer hunting from the Pearly Swamp Camp"


There is also:
"On the Hunt: The History of Deer Hunting in Wisconsin"
Thanks for the suggestions kabic!
 
Thanks phil, I might suggest those, as I personally feel that not enough of that type of thing is instilled in young hunters these days. He really is excited to be able to go, he stops over every day or two to ask me questions, it's really funny and kind of like the son I never had.

I agree....we need more thinkers in our ranks....for our future and the future of the resources.

I have a friend that is 19...he grew up hunting...but he lost his father when he was 7. His cousins, uncles and grandfather kept him involved in the outdoors. I am friends with one of his cousins and that is how i met him when he was 13. He was full of questions the first few years that i knew him. I shared everything i knew about food plots, habitat, deer, hunting ethics etc....now I call him for advice..lol. Seriously good kid and one helluva hunter with trophy class animals of several species of game...all of which were earned. he had a good support network when he was young and people that answered the questions and encouraged him to learn. He's out in Illinois right now on a DIY public land hunt....i'm sure i'm gonna be getting a call very soon followed by texts with pics of a slammer!
 
Post those pics, these are the seeds we must sow to keep our tradition alive for the future generations!
 
Enjoy the hunt Whip. WTG.
Thanks foggy, I don't mind foregoing the hard hunting myself if I have situations like this. This may be the last year I hunt in WI with my dad, since he moved to WY earlier this year, but is coming back for one last WI hurrah this season. Might have found someone to share some hunts with moving forward. I will always have my daughter, who will never hunt anything without dad along, but it is always nice to have new blood around as well. I will be hunting this season for others and I am quite happy with not harvesting a d*mn thing if that is the way it has to go.
 
Great thing to do whip, sounds like you are going about this the right way. Hope you guys do alright
 
Thanks for the vote of confidence Scott. I was fortunate to have been raised in the woods with a whole family of hunters/fishermen and I realize that those who do not have that advantage need to be exposed to our great sport as well. I only hope I can put dad, uncle, daughter, and friend on some deer this season. Lots of homework and strategizing to do now and a week and a half left to do it.
 
The older I get and the more I'm getting into habitat building it seems the more I want to share it with others, don't get me wrong I still enjoy hunting killing a great buck for my area but I really want to see my wife and my FIL and boys get one this next weekend in MI rifle opener. I guess getting a good buck has taken a back seat to seeing others enjoy this great sport is more important now.
 
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Nothing like getting someone new started - only advice I would give would be to ignore the hunting shows and magazines. Learning from someone with experiance will be far better and will teach him the true sport. You are doing a really cool thing and possibly creating a hunting buddy for a long time.
 
Got that covered j-bird. He doesn't have cable, so no shows and he wouldn't have a clue what magazines to buy, so no worries there either.
 
I took out a couple co-workers for their first hunt a couple years ago. Showing them the deer sign and how and why to setup in particular areas was fun. But the biggest hurdle over the years with them has been proving to them that harvesting a deer is a real possibility. I hunt high pressure IL public land with them. After a season and a couple days of nobody in our party harvesting anything, and them not even seeing a deer, I finally harvested a yearling buck. I immediately called them over to the scene. Once they arrived I walked them through how it happened and we gutted it together. This was the confidence booster they needed. I really feel that they were beginning to think twice about this whole deer hunting thing. The next year we all saw deer and had our opportunities but no deer were harvested. They are now hooked and believe that THEY can do it. Like I said, before I harvested that deer while hunting the same ground with them their confidence was at all an all time low. Hopefully this will be the year that at least one of them harvests their first deer.

The point of all that rambling above....Whip if you get the opportunity to harvest a deer with the new guy around, don't pass on it, take the shot, even if the deer doesn't quite fit your normal QDM practices. Unless of course that deer is on a path sure to take it past the new guy or your daughter. Good luck out there.
 
The point of all that rambling above....Whip if you get the opportunity to harvest a deer with the new guy around, don't pass on it, take the shot, even if the deer doesn't quite fit your normal QDM practices. Unless of course that deer is on a path sure to take it past the new guy or your daughter. Good luck out there.
I hear ya bueller. I will most likely take the shot this year, QDM practices be damned. I am sick of not getting any venison, so unless my daughter gets one, I will most likely take the first legal buck that crosses my path. If we were hunting in our stands on my dad's old place I would be able to judge if a deer was walking their directions, out on the public lands it would be anyones guess for the most part, so I will be shooting.
 
I'm sure you will be like a father figure to him. Good luck.
 
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