Jamesan’s First Hunt
Not everyone is drawn to hunting and that's okay. This post might not resonate with you. But it can provide a different perspective. Hunters make up a huge percentage of shooters in Canada and it is for good reason.
I was a kid from the city, having lived my whole life in urban and suburban parts of Toronto. At the age of 18 I got my firearms license. Immediately I realized I had no idea what to do with it.
There weren’t many shooting ranges nearby and I had no idea where to start. Then I went to university and met a whole bunch of new folks, one of them an avid hunter. He invited me out to his family property to go hunting. This exposed me to a part of Canada I had never seen before.
My very first hunting trip was headfirst into big game: hunting the white tail deer. I spent two weeks on and off, sitting out in the woods. What an experience that was. We would wake up hours before the first light. In the dark of the pre light morning, we would check wind direction and pick out the path for the day. And hike to our chosen spots.
Trying to clear the sleep from our minds and the grogginess from our eyes, trying to be as quiet as humanly possible, while also hiking through the woods in the dark sounds about as easy as it is. The cold of the dark sky sets in quickly and the stillness of the sit makes it hard to warm up. It is worth every moment of suffering though. As the light of the sun creeps over the horizon, the whole world seems to wake up at once. Birds begin their morning rituals of song and dance, the squirrels, chipmunks, and woodpeckers begin moving throughout the trees.
It’s truly an awe inspiring way to experience nature. Watching and listening to the world wake up. But this is only the beginning of the long sit. Deer being diurnal move at dawn to pasture and sleep midday, only to wake up and move again at dusk. If you don’t catch them in the morning you’ll have to wait till evening for another shot, unless you decide to stalk, a whole different kind of hunting, which is a topic for another day.
Ultimately, if you enjoy the outdoors and can endure a bit of worthwhile discomfort, hunting might be the best way to enjoy wilderness. The hardest part of it all was starting. I had no idea where to look, but taking the hunting course was a solid start. It pointed me in the direction of the research that starts with an interest in hunting.
Meeting new people and making new friends is what led me to hunting. There is a lot of crown land around, you only need to look. There is a ton of research to wade through but just getting over the hump of getting out of your comfort zone is the most important thing.
Make some friends who also want to hunt, split the load of research and buying gear, and just get out there. Start on trail hikes and start looking for signs of animals and make notes. Planning and preparedness will help you a long way.
- Jamesan (Range Arts Founder & Head Instructor)
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