Also, being able to whack a rooster pheasant in the middle of a flush with hens, without killing a hen takes some skill. In the region where I hunt, you walk for an hour behind the dog, the dog get birdy, goes on point, birds fly up and you have about a half second to determine hen/rooster, and take a shot. Basically, nothing exciting happens for an hour, then 3 seconds of insanity.
Depends what type of hunting you are doing and with what sort of guns. Take it to a range/field and see how much practice you need. I was a natural with a rifle but terrible with shotguns and skeet. So deer hunting needed 5-10 minutes duck hunting was rather purposeless.
Looking at Elk. Maybe deer too. I've generally heard Elk is the best meat, though opinions vary some of course.
Learning how to shoot a gun is pretty easy. My 22 y/o daughter took a hunter safety course and then her boyfriend taught her how to shoot, proper shot placement etc. First day out on an open fence ranch she shot a nice whitetail deer.
However it's learning how to process the meat that needs to be taken into account as well. You said Elk...you're correct, great meat. But it's one thing to shoot a deer, which can be field dressed, transported from the field, processed etc pretty easily if you know what you're doing...however if you're expecting the same ease of process with and elk, think again. How are you going to remove the elk from the kill site, how are you going to process it...it's a much more complicated, time consuming, process....but it can be done.
Looking at Elk. Maybe deer too. I've generally heard Elk is the best meat, though opinions vary some of course.
Learning how to shoot a gun is pretty easy. My 22 y/o daughter took a hunter safety course and then her boyfriend taught her how to shoot, proper shot placement etc. First day out on an open fence ranch she shot a nice whitetail deer.
However it's learning how to process the meat that needs to be taken into account as well. You said Elk...you're correct, great meat. But it's one thing to shoot a deer, which can be field dressed, transported from the field, processed etc pretty easily if you know what you're doing...however if you're expecting the same ease of process with and elk, think again. How are you going to remove the elk from the kill site, how are you going to process it...it's a much more complicated, time consuming, process....but it can be done.
Depends what type of hunting you are doing and with what sort of guns. Take it to a range/field and see how much practice you need. I was a natural with a rifle but terrible with shotguns and skeet. So deer hunting needed 5-10 minutes duck hunting was rather purposeless.
Looking at Elk. Maybe deer too. I've generally heard Elk is the best meat, though opinions vary some of course.
Save the elk tag for people with experience to efficiently kill and harvest the animal. Heck, save the deer tag too. I've taken some very amateur hunters out only to see them wound an animal/get bored/choke on clean shots due to inexperience and arrogance.
Don't take a life after the aforementioned "5-10 minutes" of practice- especially something like an elk or deer or bear. Take it seriously or go trophy hunt with the dentists in Africa (not opposed to this, might be your best option if money is of no concern)
There's a lot more to hunting than simply shooting whatever you are hunting. Animals in the wild know that humans are predators, and they are very skittish. You have to know where to go and how to stay concealed. And an ethical hunter doesn't hunt because they want to kill something, they eat what they hunt. So you have to know how to efficiently get the meat cut off of whatever you are hunting. Hunting isn't as easy as people who have never done it think it is.
There's a lot more to hunting than simply shooting whatever you are hunting. Animals in the wild know that humans are predators, and they are very skittish. You have to know where to go and how to stay concealed. And an ethical hunter doesn't hunt because they want to kill something, they eat what they hunt. So you have to know how to efficiently get the meat cut off of whatever you are hunting. Hunting isn't as easy as people who have never done it think it is.
if you set up a legit concealed stand 50 yards from a corn feeder it is truly easy, even easier than you might imagine
I don't like that kind of hunting, but the reality is the deer will overpopulate if that kind of hunting isn't done because we've killed all of the predators Never kill a predator unless it's actually in the act of trying to kill you first