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Originally Posted by David Safris
This post is exactly where I was ten years back. It is a tough sport to break into starting from scratch. Plenty of great advice above and i will share with you my experience. I grew up hunting with people who had solved all these problems for me...then suddenly it all stopped. I didnt hunt for probably 25+ years. I wanted to re engage with it but had no land and no dogs and an old gun.
I thought about it a few seasons and then i decided to move forward come what may. I picked English Springer Spaniels for the dogs and they have been great for us. Great size, smart, perfect for bird hunting in grass and cover. I took them to a specialized trainer and just admitted I knew nothing and we all started on the ground floor. It took a lot of evenings and weekends but it was a fun and rewarding process to get the dogs up to speed.
There was no hope we could buy up a bunch of land.. so a buddy took me to a private preserve and that was the best next step. Hunting public land after a few weeks into the season was not going to yield much and you dont want bored dogs and bored hunters. For a membership and approx $25 a pheasant and $15 for quail you get a great afternoon for a few hundred dollars. Dogs are happy, hunters are happy, and you clean up and head home. I highly recommend this as a way to get started. Sure its cheating a bit with planted birds but you and the dogs still have to find them and the goal is to have a fun afternoon.
Two last thoughts: enjoy the process. enjoy running your dogs, getting out daily for a walk , training your dogs etc. you do that daily and then hunt a few times a season.
Trust people to help. i have found that the seasoned hunters and people at the private preserves are really pretty happy to get new people going - i just admit i'm new and open to advice.
Getting the dogs heading into my 50's was the best thing i did. i hope you move forward and it works out for you.
these were not shot with Parkers but I intend to change that this year.
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This is helpful. I sort of feel useless here, especially since it’s not like I picked up a shotgun for the first time at nearly retirement age.
A different time, a different place, a different era.
My father was not rich by any means, didn’t even own property at all when growing up, rented a small house on 400 acres of land (and we only had access to a small portion of that), and hunting wasn’t even allowed on that land.
But my father knew folks, knew where to go to get access on private land, knew when and where public land was stocked, had a lifestyle at least somewhat conducive to having dogs and the rented land to have a few.
Even if you could have all that, times have changed. My neighbors are much closer, wouldn’t tolerate a barking dog for long, many would bristle at the sight of a firearm, and despite all that, my father somewhat regularly would come home with a grouse or woodcock. No more. Due to the scarcity of them now, he will never take one again, nor will I.
Amazingly, being not where I grew up, I know an amazingly small selection of folks, friends at Rod & Gun clubs are more likely to be there for a cheap beer rather than swap hunting yarns and if they have access to great areas to hunt—their lips are sealed.
I have gone out for whitetail deer on state land about 3 to 5 days a year and haven’t even had a shot at one. I jumped one a few years ago, haven’t seen one since. A different time…a different place. Growing up, if I didn’t shoot at least one whitetail deer a year I felt like a failure.