hunting for the table for a newbie.. tips?

Stressica

Hi all.

As my next step to becoming self sufficient, I want to work on hunting skills.
I'm not talking about anything major just I'd like to hunt the odd deer/rabbit/pheasant for the table. I'm not into shooting for sport that much.

I've no experience myself, my Dad would have done alot of hunting in the past when he was younger so I'm hoping to re-spark his interest. (he's always saying we should)
I'm only 21 myself so have no intention of going in the woods at night on my own or anything lol

So whats the best way to get started?
I'm doing alot of reading/research about open/closed seasons for shooting.

Where me and my Da go fishing there can be alot of rabbits
(population seems to vary from many to none from year to year) there's no season for them is there?

What kind of gun is best for a complete beginner?

Thanks all.

yubabill1

No season for rabbits.

Taste a lot like chicken, if you've never eaten them.

Try to distinguish the younger ones from the older, tougher ones - the young (say, "teenage" ones are about 3/4 the adult size and the meat is nice and tender). Now some guys will say you can soften the tougher meat by various cooking methods, which I have no doubt is quite possible, but I'm a bit lazy.

You can shoot rabbits with a shotgun, airgun or rifle, the choice is yours.

You can also ferret them or snare them. Some people can train their dogs to catch them and I even know an old guy who could kill them by throwing a blackthorn stick!

cookimonster

There's a whole raft of things which need to come together before you chose a firearm.

Firstly the process for an license application is on a sticky on the main page here.

You will need land permisson suitable to your needs and eventuall choice of firearm.

You will need shooting insurance.

Choice of firearm will depend on circumstances such as type of quarry your after, landowners consent to weather a rifle or shotgun can be used on thier land, financial restraints and of course what the Guards will deems right.

Shotguns are a good all rounder for feather and fur, allowing you to legally hunt game birds and hares.
Rifles in rimfire or air will get you rabbits, pigeons and vermin birds but not game.
Center fire rifles in deer legal calibres will up your game, so to speak, but this will add even more to the process of application.

The bigger your game such as deer the bigger your commitment to end processing and storage will be. To hunt enough to carry you through the closed season even subsidizing your larder with rabbit and pigeon will require a lot of commitment. It's not impossible I can keep my family of four in red meat all year by shooting deer, so my meat bill is down, but this is only through the deer stalking.
The pigeons I shoot every year mostly end up as dog food with very little going into my food chain as many in the house don't eat them. Remember to shoot pigeons in large amounts to make it viably financial requires a good lot of cartridges. Two good sized pigeons would be the minimum portion per adult, so unless you are strolling out your door to shoot them, by the time you add fuel and ammo costs together its no good driving half an hour or more away just to get a few pigeons or rabbits. It would be cheeper to go to Lidal.
As a sport that can provide something for the table there's nothing like it. This week ends Bill of fare consisted of venison chilli, roast venison, a game terrine and we are about to have southern fried rabbit.

Stressica

Thank you for the speedy replies.

Firstly I didn't even know insurance for a gun was needed, although common sense should have prevailed so that's another thing I can start looking up about now.

It will probably be the winter before I am properly ready to start,
I'm in the country and my dad is friendly will all the farmers, some of those hunt themselves so getting somewhere to hunt shouldn't be a problem. (for rabbits/pheasant anyway)

Id love to use my dogs (springer + jrt) both have good hunting instincts, but defo not for the rabbits anyway as they (where I fish) are on the cliffs so too dangerous for them.

I should have added I'm also getting a few broilers soon for a trial for the freezer and if it goes well, ill continue with small batches throughout the year.

Also thinking about getting a goat for milk but only at the research period yet.

You manage to keep your family in red meat, how much time would you spend hunting per week say during the season (s)?

BillyBoy13

For hunting- especially for your what you are trying to do, get yourself a shotgun.

With a rifle you wont be able to take ducks or take pheasents etc.

Getting into deer hunting, imo, is a fair bit down the line. You want to get some basic experience in with rabbits. With the rabbits everything is a lot simpler. You could go out, shoot a rabbit, come home and have him skinned/cleaned/gutted and have him bubbling away in the pot all within an hour.

That wont happen with a deer. With deer you could spend days/weeks just doing your homework trying to build up a picture of the herd, where they live, the health of the herd etc And then after you pull the trigger you have to drag a 70+ kilo carcass through a forest back to the car/van and then when you get it home the butchering job can take upwards of an hour. Oh and the deer hunting = more paperwork/licences and a rifle which is expensive to feed and just a lot more politics in general.

My advice is buy a shotgun (which is cheap to buy and wont need any accessories and is very cheap to feed) and then hunt rabbits/ducks/pheasents for a year or so until you have learnt all the basic hunting/butchery skills and then see about moving onto deer.

cookimonster

As to the insurance, there is no legal obligation, but as you said it would be sensible. Most land owners would require it and all gun clubs enforce it

I live in the suburbs so all of my permissons and opportunities are outside of Dublin so when work and family commitments allow I will get out twice a week. Sometimes the day will combine stalking and bird shooting or a day on the birds starting with pheasant, snipe, woodcock etc and finishing up that evening on duck. The truth be known I'd be gone at the drop of a hat if I could.

If your going to start filling your freezer get your self set up right from the get go.
I can't recommend enough the vacuum sealers sold in the likes of Lidal and Aldi. In conjunction with the freezer bags thier perfect for fish, poultry and meats. There's enough on YouTube to direct you on larder skills and techniques when it comes to drawing, skinning / plucking and butchering.
Take my advice and put the time and effort into your portioning, packageing and labeling. This will ensure longer self life, less waste and better quality. Invest in simple technology such as hand mincers that will allow you to process the same meat / fish / poultry commodities into different products such as mince, burgers, sausage, terrines, pate etc. This will add a huge variety of eating experiences.

Eddie B

In my opinion, the first thing you should do is to ask someone who hunts, to take you along with them a couple of times to show you the ropes!

You can carry the game bag for them! Thats how most of us started out, carrying rabbits, pheasants, ducks e.t.c usually for our Fathers!

Before you decide on what gun to get, you should try snaring or even trapping rabbits! You don't need any licence for either, just a little knowledge got from either someone in the know, or the internet, and the end of summer is the perfect time for tender rabbit meat, as was mentioned earlier!

LoganV

Delighted I found this. I'm in a similar position to Stressica except I'm located in the suburbs. In terms of getting started with trapping/snaring do I just need to pick up some snares once I have access to land with a rabbit popularion?

FISMA

Stressica wrote: »

What kind of gun is best for a complete beginner?

Either a shotgun or a 22lr rifle would be a good way to start, depends on what you want to shoot.

To shoot birds, you would want to start with a shotgun. A 20ga would be nice to get technique down. They are also easier to swing. I shoot my 20ga better than my 12ga in trap and skeet. However, in the wind against birds, you'll want the extra kick of the 12ga.

The 22lr is a great firearm. It's the gun that you start with, sometimes leave aside, but come back to as it is so versatile.

The 22lr will allow you you take bunnies and hone your shooting skills with a budget in mind.

The 22lr is a light round, that doesn't move as fast as the centerfires. As such, the wind and elements will affect it's flight, and your precision.

I know a lot of shooters that started with bigger guns like the 308 and the 12ga that never learned how to fundamentally shoot well. The larger caliber, more shot, and faster speeds masked fundamental errors and misunderstandings they had.

For example, on the centerfires, they were fine within 100 or 200 ya, but out past 300, everything went wrong.

Likewise, some shotgunners I knew could break clay with the best of them, but could not shoot a duck or snipe.

Have you any feeling whether you want a shotgun or rifle?

If you are going to go with a rifle, try a Ruger 10/22. They are a lot of fun. I have a few and plan on getting more. They are a lot of fun. You can shoot all day on the cheap with them.

Another great thing about the 22lr is you can buy subsonic ammo. That is, the bullets go slower than the speed of sound. Thus, you will not have to wear hearing protection when shooting.

Being able to hear will allow you to hear the "splash" of the bullet. That is, what it hit. You will know if you hit the rock you were shooting at or if it went in to the ground.

You will also know if you hit the bunny, where you hit the bunny, or whether it was a miss.

With the big bores and shotguns, you will have to wear your hearing protection or you'll quickly lose hearing.

Kevhog1988

Excellent thread op. Im in a similar situation to yourself. I am currently away working in a concrete jungle but on my weekends at home etc it consists of me and my son out hunting. I dont have firearms licence yet but here in the uk i legally have a air rifle which i have used for rabbits, pigeon etc.

Would you look at getting a catapult?? i have just bought one and am hoping to become proficient in its use. Aswell as broilers have you considered lambs for the freezer??

LoganV

theemigrant wrote: »

Would you look at getting a catapult?? i have just bought one and am hoping to become proficient in its use.

I thought of this too but I'm fairly sure anything other than firearms, traps, dogs or ferret would be illegal for hunting in Ireland.

Kevhog1988

LoganV wrote: »

I thought of this too but I'm fairly sure anything other than firearms, traps, dogs or ferret would be illegal for hunting in Ireland.

Far from it!! Catapults are legal as far as i know. Out of interest where are you based??

LoganV

I'm just going by what this vast depository of knowledge has said previously. Found two threads saying slingshots/catapults are out.

I'm based in Dublin.

Kevhog1988

Ive just googled it and it seems a bit of a grey area. Maybe someone better informed can advise for certain.

Cass

Catapults, bow/arrow, spear, etc. are all illegal.

Rifles and shotguns are fine, and certain snares on "vermin" species.

LoganV

Cass wrote: »

Catapults, bow/arrow, spear, etc. are all illegal.

Rifles and shotguns are fine, and certain snares on "vermin" species.

Thought so but thank you for confirming this. Could you be specific about what you mean by "certain snares"? What would make a snare illegal? And what constitutes a vermin species? Sorry if this is all super basic but I just want to take my chance to learn given this is a bit of a newbie thread.

Also, does anyone know what the rationale behind bows and slings being illegal for hunting is? I know bow hunting is pretty big in the States so why is there such a problem with it here?

cookimonster

The vacuum sealers are back in this Thursday coming:

http://www.lidl.ie/cps/rde/SID-EB2F7929-23BC27A2/www_lidl_ie/hs.xsl/Offers.htm?action=showDetail&id=6556

As said very handy for meat processing and freezing of cooked meals.

Cass

LoganV wrote: »

Could you be specific about what you mean by "certain snares"? What would make a snare illegal?

Have a read of this:

SI 620/2003

And what constitutes a vermin species?

Vermin is a term we use but not a "legal" one. IOW there is no vermin list. There are;

• Protected wild animals/birds with a season (you can hunt during nominated seasons)
• Protected wild animals/birds without a season (cannot be hunted ever)
• Everything else.

Also, does anyone know what the rationale behind bows and slings being illegal for hunting is? I know bow hunting is pretty big in the States so why is there such a problem with it here?

No idea. I'd take a stab i the dark and say it's about the lack of understanding in terms of certain items being able to provide a humane kill, and then other items simply being inadequate.

Even thought "vermin"" species have no protection under the wildlife Act or any subsequent SIs/Acts they do have basic animal rights.

cookimonster

Legal Requirements for snares in the Republic of Ireland

S.I. No. 620/2003 — Wildlife Act 1976 (Approved Traps, Snares and Nets) Regulations 2003

http://www.nargc.ie/predator-control/legal-requirements-for-snares-in-the-republic-of-ireland.aspx


Beaten to it by Cass.

By the way unless you can service your traps etc on a daily basis its both unethical and a waste of time.