Nobody in my family hunts, but I want to get into it.
What do I need to know/do to get started as an absolute beginner?

It's going to suck. Access to land with lots of animals is how 99% of it gets done. The remaining 1% is people who can find the few animals on the public land everyone hunts, which is where you are. Do the bare minimum to understand guns and learn the laws so you don't get in trouble but more than that spend all your time finding out what animals do and where. If you want to be successful you will need to be in the woods year round probably for several years before you can be reliably successful, and maybe enjoy some surprise success on the way. Don't focus on the weapons and gear I kill a deer every year sitting on a log or folding chair wearing jeans and with a rifle I shoot roughly 10 shots a year through.

>>2824010 (OP)
Watch Fresh Tracks episodes on youtube
Randy does a really good job going over stuff

>>2824020
Why do you bring this up in multiple threads?

>>2824023
I wish Randy was my dad

watch joe rogan vids

>>2824010 (OP)
Look up your states Fish and Game department and learn the rules of your state. Watch MeatEater to learn the basics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdFtwFN5G4A

I was once in your shoes. I went through the entire ordeal of getting a hunter's license (in Norway) only to learn that I'm not allowed to have a gun because I have autism.

I can still technically hunt, but only if I have a licensed hunter, with a recently renewed hunting license, with me at all times, who never leaves line of sight and who also provides the gun. And you don't even need a hunter's license yourself for that, so it was all a complete waste of time and money.

The few hunter's meetings I went to were all boomers, not a single person under 50, and the discussions were mostly them complaining that they weren't allowed to hunt every animal in the country to extinction.

I also know that in America, at no point does "hunting" involve actually finding and tracking an animal, the sport is just
>pay $1000 to sit and wait with a bipod until a goat or something walks by and then click to shoot.

Very shit hobby, definitely not worth getting into unless you have family or friends that can introduce you to it. But be glad you're American and don't have to live in a faggot European 0 freedom shithole like I have to.

>>2824037
>also know that in America, at no point does "hunting" involve actually finding and tracking an animal, the sport is just

Thats how faggots do it. Real hunters do spot and stalk. And theres a good few of them out there.

>>2824037
Kek

>>2824037
Get a bow my fellow autist, did you really fall for the autism diagnosis meme that jews have been pushing lately?

>>2824037
Well, I believe your autism diagnosis.
I'm pretty lucky, as me and some friends just started ou own group, with a total of zero boomers, so that's going to be nice this fall.
Have moose tags this year, and will probably hunt small game rest of the fall and some during winter.
>>2824057
Extremely illegal for hunting here in Norway, sometimes people are hunted with bows by autists here, but that's actually also illegal.

>>2824010 (OP)
Depends massively on your country and climate.

For example, here in Germany, I need to take a written test on laws and meat preparation (spotting diseases and avoiding spoilage) and a standardized shooting test, then get permission from the landowner (or a "representative" that the landowner might not even know about - there's a lot of corruption involved there that I won't bore you with).

Once you're legally allowed to hunt, the next topic is what and where you can hunt. Different terrains and animals need different guns and strategies. For example, if you're going for deer in thick undergrowth, you'll have to hunt on the move, and use a heavy, slow-moving bullet to get clean kills at short ranges and with possible obstruction from branches, while in open field, you can sit in a blind and use a fast-moving, light bullet. And small animals will generally require shot, and a way to get them to run / fly, since they're pretty hard to spot in cover, so you'd most likely need a dog, or another hunter to help.

And of course, laws will also restrict what you can do. I can use a short-barreled, silenced semi-auto (but only with 2-shot mags for all animals except racoon and nutria, to stop people from killing too much at once, supposedly), while in most of the US, the silencer and the short barrel would get you in legal trouble - yet you'd be allowed to use buckshot on boars and deer there, which would get me fined here.

>>2824094
Where I live you can't use buckshot on deer, but I could use a 9mm pistol as long as the barrel is 6" or longer.
The oddest one I know of is that in Illinois the only thing you can hunt deer with is shotgun slugs

>>2824014
Sounds good, budget is going to be a primary concern for me. Fortunately, my days of gear autism are far behind me and I like to keep things as simple as possible.

>>2824029
>Look up your states Fish and Game department and learn the rules of your state. Watch MeatEater to learn the basics.
Started on both of those. MeatEater seems pretty based, and it looks like my state's dept of wildlife actually offers seminars for beginning deer hunters.

>>2824156
Where in the world are you?
That will have a big impact on any recommendations I'd make.
If you are in burgerland, you'd be retarded for buying any other hunting rifle than a Tikka for example, as they are artificially cheap there.
.308 will be the most versatile hunting cartridge in most of the world, but here in Scandinavia, 6.5x55 is a better choice 99% of the time.

>>2824010 (OP)
Buy air rifle, put out bird feeders, infinite squirrel season

>>2824198
>Where in the world are you?
Southern US L. Tikkas look nice, but still out of my budget, I'm probably looking at > $600 for my first rifle. So far a couple of Savages have caught my eye.

>.308 will be the most versatile hunting cartridge in most of the world, but here in Scandinavia, 6.5x55 is a better choice 99% of the time.
What makes these better choices over something like 30-06 or 30-30?

>>2824200
Just get an SKS

>>2824014
This. You can't hunt unless you own a good chunk of land yourself, or know somebody who does. It's just not worth it otherwise

>>2824200
Get a Ruger American
You literally dont need anything more
Thats what I have

>>2824207
This is why I told you dopes to watch Fresh Tracks.
Randy shows how to do public land hunting. Its not for pussies.

>>2824200
>What makes these better choices over something like 30-06 or 30-30?
.30-30 is a retarded meme cartridge, .30-06 brings more recoil and barrel wear without enough gain to justify it, I'm assuming you aren't handloading, if you are then there are valid arguments for .30-06
.308 is available everywhere in the world, recoil isn't too bad, can kill any game in America, spoiled for choice in ammo, every good bullet is available in factory loads, same goes for 6.5 creedmoor as well.
Also, don't listen to this guy >>2824201, he's mentally retarded.
7.62x39 is a shit cartridge with shit choices for ammo and the gun itself is janky, inaccurate and generally inferior to anything available today, even a Savage Axis or Ruger American.
For poorfag choices, Ruger American might be the best choice.

tl;dr: get a Ruger American in .308 Winchester, or save up a few bucks more and get a Tikka, it's honestly retarded not to get one with the prices you guys get them for.

>>2824219
That makes sense, thanks. The Ruger actually looks pretty nice too.

I've seen a couple of anons itt recommend the Tikka, what is the advantage of that? Is it just build quality?

>>2824218
I've watched a couple of his videos since you recommended him, looks pretty cool. Half the point of this for me is just spending more time /out/, so hiking out into bumfuck nowhere to hunt sounds more appealing than some private land fish in a barrel situation.

>>2824218
>>2824235
Follow up question about Randy: is the public land app he keeps shilling worth it?

>>2824236
desu I haven't used it
it's probably one of those nice to have things that you don't really need

I get a deer every year in northern New England just skulking around public forest with a Glock 40 and electronic earmuffs.

>>2824037
>at no point does "hunting" involve actually finding and tracking an animal
>t.never been elk hunting
lmao

>>2824207
Everybody I know who hunts, hunts public land and bag a deer or elk every year

>>2824310
the guy's talking about how impossible it is to get into hunting in his country, of course he hasn't been elk hunting. are you retarded?

>>2824219
>30-06 brings more recoil and barrel wear
>Muh barrel wear
>On a gun that will be shot less than 50 times a year

>>2824322
>doesn't practice

>>2824324
>He needs to practice

>>2824343
I dont like seeing animals suffer

>>2824343
Most retarded poster of this century award goes to you.
>>2824322
I shoot well over 1k rounds with my huting rifle every year.
>>2824234
>Is it just build quality?
Mostly yeah, like tight enough tolerances that you can just buy prefit barrels, and almost as good aftermarket support as for rem clones, without the dogshit quality issues.
Many so called custom actions have looser tolerances than Tikka, despite costing much more.
It's a rifle that you can build on over time, without the upfront cost of a custom.

>>2824344
>>2824369
Then don't take 500m shots at rabbits. I dont hunt open plains or mountains, so I can get away with not taking shots farther than 150m. Hitting a roe deer in the boiler room at that distance does not require practice

>>2824855
I only hunt in the mountains though, that's the biome here.
Consistently hitting a hare or bird at 200+ takes practice.
Then there's the ethical aspect of it, if I wound an animal, and I know I didn't do what I could in terms of preparations, then that's going to weigh on me.
I also hunt seal at times, and you have to headshot them, and pretty quickly, before they dive under water.

>>2824037
When was this? The laws must have changed.

t. Norwegian gun-owning diagnosed autist

>>2825089
Why are you guys dumb enough to get an actual diagnose?
You should keep that shit under wraps, just pretend to be a functioning human, and not be labeled a mong officially.
I'm certainly ADHD and probably autistic as well, but I'm not stupid enough to see a shrink about it.
Also, I'm pretty sure it depends on the severity of your diagnose and the personal opinion of whoever processes your application for a firearm.
Our laws are pretty shit, too much room for some beraucrat asshole to apply their own subjective (lack of) logic to it.

Assuming you're able to hunt western states, hunting is accessible, fun, and rewarding. I got into it 5 years ago and haven't bought meat since.

I recommend hunting elk, deer, and antelope.

Tags:
You can get general tags or over the counter tags in many states but unless you're familiar with the area or have friends that hunt there its going to suck because of too much pressure from people that know what they're doing.

This is why I recommend applying for limited quota tags only. You will want to limit these to tags that have a high harvest success rate and large amount of public land. Sign up for gohunt.com use code RANDY to get easy access to this information.

Your odds of drawing these tags will be very low when you start, like 1% chance, but over time you will accumulate points and which will increase your odds exponentially. When you do draw a tag, it's going to be an amazing hunting experience with a high success rate.

I apply in 6 western states: WY, MT, NV, UT, CO, NM sometimes ID if all fails.

Each state has different system search Randy newberg videos for each state to learn how to apply.

Got a tag now what?
Aside from learning your weapon really well, you will need to e-scout. Use Gaia or ONx hunt, and Google earth. Treelineacademy has an excellent course for finding animals and access using these tools. This is where autism really shines.

Boots on the ground:
I recommend being mobile, sleep in your truck or near it in a quick deployable tent. You want to go to every spot you e scouted and glass until you find your animals. If you have 5 spots just hunt each one per day, making big loops on top of ridges, no elk? Next.

Over time you will learn the honey holes and can do back country camping which is more fun.

More training resources:
Outdoorclass
Elk collective
Treeline academy for e scouting

>>2825137
Keep my state's name out ya mouth, larper.

>>2824198
>.308 will be the most versatile hunting cartridge in most of the world, but here in Scandinavia, 6.5x55 is a better choice 99% of the time.
Meanwhile on German hunting boards, people are unironically claiming that anything below .30-06 is "too weak" for anything, ioncluding the tiny 10kg deer, and quite a few people have bought .50BMG single shots for red deer and boar...

>>2824200
>What makes these better choices over something like 30-06 or 30-30?
.308 can shoot 7,62NATO. As a result, it's extremely widespread (bcs muh milspec), meaning that ammo, and more importantly, good ammo, is readily and cheaply available.
If that's enough to make it a good choice depends on your laws, though. .308 will kill most animals cleanly, but you might not be allowed to use it, or have restrictions. For example, I could use supersonic .308 for everything, but subsonic .308 doesn't meet energy requirements for boar, sheep, red deer or elk. But again, that's legal stuff that varies between locations.

Personally, I'm going to get a shortbarreled, silenced AR10 once I get my hunting license. Short enough to go through the brush, strong enough to kill boar cleanly, and with silencer and subs quiet enough to take rabbits and deer without needing to worry about noise complaints near town.

>>2825159
I shoot 30-06.
Its way too much for the roe deer. More often than not you're not gonna be able to salvage neck and shoulder meat.
It'll kill adult boar and red deer just, but 9 times out of 10 you'll be tracking for 50-100m. Really sucks if your boars only hang out in dense swamps.

>>2825700
You can shoot a roe deer with .50 BMG without much meat loss.
Bullet choice matters infinitely more than cartrdige.
No clue why, but all german hunting bullets are fucking ass.
Use a bonded or monolithic bullet if you care about meatloss.
.30-06 is overkill for most things in Europe, not due to fucking up the meat, but because energy dumped in the ground behind the animal doesn't matter, and EVERYONE shoots better with less recoil.

>>2825818
>You can shoot a roe deer with .50 BMG without much meat loss.
Sure but why not use a cheaper cartridge?

>>2826408
Exactly why I suggested .308 win or 6.5x55 for scandis.
Less cost and less recoil and enough killing for anything except african dangerous game.

>>2826408
Oh, and I ordered a .22 lr yesterday, as I think it's too expensive to use my .308 for practice all the time.
.22 is also the best training tool there is for precision shooting, sure you get no recoil, but breathing and trigger pull is way more important with a .22

>>2824200
30-06 will kill basically any game in North America. Ballistics aren’t as good for long-ranged shooting a maybe underpowered for some big game. But assuming you aren’t starting off elk hunting you can buy a serviceable 30-06 used and kill all the deer you want with it. You can also get away with a .270 for white tail. It’s more relevant that you’re comfortable with it and can place bullets well. Be advised the people saying you need a 6.5 prc or whatever are the same people who recommend 1k in ultralight gear for day hikes.

>>2824010 (OP)
If you're a dead-ass beginner find some friends who hunt, tell them you are interested, and go hunting with them. Not just once or twice, lock-in and go hunting until they shoot something, then help them through the whole process of quartering it, bringing it back, and hopefully butchering. They'll be happy to have you along because there's a lot more to hunting than pulling the trigger. That way you can learn how to do it and let experience tell you if it's your thing.

If you're still into it get yourself a .270 or something, take hunter's safety, and get your tags next season. Then by that point you'll know exactly what to do.

Anyone ever use their phone and a bluetooth speaker to call in animals? I was looking into purchasing an e-caller to lure geese and foxes, only to realize these things are just weirdly shaped BT speakers.

>>2824010 (OP)
Start with a 12 guage or a 20 guage and a small game license and go hunt rabbits or squirrels

>>2825700
Fully agree. Like I wrote, I'll be getting a .308 and subs for deer, and supers for bigger animals. It's just a running gag that german deer are armored, because we have those retarded minimum energy regulations (1000J at 100m for deer, 2000J for everything else with hooves). Funnily, those are only for rifles, while with airguns, peolpe can (and do) legally use ~50-100J for the same animals.
>>2826408
Because you need a reason to make your .50BMG tax deductible? Can't do that if it's just for the flat range.