John,
Others have provided good advice.
Let me start by saying your goal is terrific. My dad taught me much about hunting and I taught my son and my brothers. I can point to nothing in my life that did more to develop responsibility, fair play, self-reliance, confidence, discipline, and I like to think, a more interesting person than hunting.
As noted above, you'll have to take a Hunter Education Course to be legal in any state you wish to hunt. However, to learn more specific information about bowhunting I recommend you ALSO take the National Bowhunter Education Course. By the way, both courses can be taken on-line followed by an abbreviated field day later.
These are some of the things you'll need to learn, over time to be effective:
1. Understand the animal you want to hunt; habits, preferences, behavior, anatomy, etc.
2. Proficiency with your bow: develop an effective range (a distance you almost always hit). I wouldn't venture forth until I could center the kill zone on a life-size deer target (if that's what you want to hunt) nearly every time. Of course you're going to need to have other equipment such as tuned arrows with razor-sharp broadheads.
3. Woodsmanship; deer foods, especially know white oak from red oak, how to walk quietly, deer sign (tracks, scat, rubs, and scrapes). Alarm calls of squirrels, crows, & blue jays. Of course the more you learn about other vegetation and critters the more interesting your journey will be.
4. If you put in the time you will kill deer. So you'll need to know how to field dress, keep the meat clean, and where to have it processed or learn to do it yourself (many great videos on this subject).
5. Of course you'll also need to know the wildlife regulations that govern the seasons and hunting of the animal you intend to hunt.
I highly recommend you try some hunting besides deer. I think squirrel hunting is a terrific way to learn and hone hunting skills. Hunting squirrels teaches one to be quiet, walk quiet, stalk, hide, shoot well, learn oaks, hickory, cherry, beech, and walnut. In Indiana squirrel season come in on August 15th - 45 days before the statewide deer archery season.
One final note from me, college doesn't have to interfere with hunting. I know too many fellows who stopped hunting while attending college that never returned to the field afterwards. I earned two degrees simultaneously at Purdue (Wildlife Science and Forest Production) and took 160 credit hours of classes in 4 years with a 5.41 GPA (out of 6) and hunted every weekend of squirrel and deer seasons 120 miles from school.
Topic: Help me learn how to hunt (Read 675 times)
