Becoming a Hunting Mentor: Everything you need to know and more!
Sheldon Marion
Becoming a Hunting Mentor
In recent years the number of hunters has been declining. Partially from the lack of animals, not enough time and money, influence from non-hunters and anti-hunters, they don’t know where to start, they have kids or they don’t have any experience whatsoever in the outdoors. That’s where you can make a positive difference. By introducing someone new into the outdoors and the hunting industry, you are making the outdoors a better place and more sustainable. With more hunters, there’s more licenses and tags being sold, more money being spent on outdoor gear, maybe even more memberships to your local gun clubs or conservation clubs. All this means that more money is being put back into wildlife and conservation.
Baby Steps
If you want to set someone up for success in anything, you have to start small. You can’t just give someone a gun, a handful of bullets and point to the trees and think that that’s all it takes to get someone into hunting. Start out by doing the little things that you enjoyed as a kid. Shed hunting, small game hunting, pre-season scouting, target shooting, setting up trail cameras, walking deer trails, planning where to set up a blind or tree stand and building a natural blind. You have to involve them in all aspects of the hunt, as long as they’re willing, so they have a good understanding to what all goes into it. All of these things help anchor the persons interest in the outdoors and helps them get the knowledge that they will need to be successful in the field.
Bringing Kids to the Woods
As mentioned above, some people don’t get into the outdoors simply because they have kids. I think it’s a reason to get even more into the outdoors. There’s something special about the time spent in the woods with your kids. There is a ton of activities that kids can do in the woods and the earlier you get them into it, the better off they will be in the long run. A life in the outdoors teaches the fundamentals of life to kids. Hard work, dedication, patience, troubleshooting, heart break and how to overcome anything that comes their way. They will love being out in the outdoors with you every step of the way and the satisfaction and pride that they will have even when doing something as simple as enjoying blueberries on pancakes that they picked will have them hooked. Some activities are not very child friendly like sheep hunting, but I know for a fact that with the proper preparations, they are able to do almost anything that you do. I’ve had kids sit in the blind with me while deer hunting, ride in the pickup looking for bears and even had kids stay a week on the trapline in a wall tent while trapping beavers and making birch syrup. Bottom line is you can’t let kids hold you back from going to the woods. Make a couple extra preparations, pack them a lunch and bring them with you.
Safety
When you’re starting something new, there’s always going to be new safety procedures that is involved, especially when it comes to being in the outdoors with knives, guns, predators and being miles away from any help. Don’t take it lightly. There is five golden rules when you’re in the outdoors.
Safety
Safety
Safety
Safety
and
Safety
This is one detail that you cannot skip out on or cut corners.
When we are out in the wilderness, we are typically on our own. Meaning its up to you to be able to get in and out safely. There’s lots of times when you are miles away from the nearest road, no cell service, no one is expecting you home for a couple of days and they only have the slightest idea of where you are if a search and rescue is needed. As a mentor, you really need to stress the importance of being safe in the woods with your new hunting partner, especially if they are the city dweller type and have lived a life of cell service and emergency personnel a few minutes away. It takes a lifetime of due diligence to make it a habit of being alert and safe. For people that have spent a lifetime in the woods, it’s a force of habit to be safe. Cutting away from them, keeping the gun unloaded, pointing the rifle in a safe direction at all times, watching where they step, knowing where their partner is at all times. Its things that come to us as second nature and we often look past it, but as a new person coming into this world of ours, they need to be taught this and it has to be enforced. Some don’t have the slightest clue how secluded we really are in the woods and how fast a simple situation, like a bad cut, can turn into a very serious situation if you cant get help on time or you’re not prepared for that situation. A good rule of thumb is to be prepared for the worst and hope for the best. One of the best ways to be prepared is to let someone know where you’re going, have some sort of communication device and have at least one first aid kit. I personally have several first aid kits. There’s one in my truck, my girlfriends truck, my holiday trailer, the side by side, my hunting bag and one in my house. I also have taken a first aid course, CPR course and a course on how to transport a patient via helicopter. Now you don’t have to take those courses and mine have come from the line of work I’m in, but it is good knowledge to have. I would recommend taking a basic first aid course.
Communication
At the beginning, you have to realize that the people that you are introducing into the outdoors might not be as excited about it as you are. Communication can play a huge role in making them want to keep coming back and really enjoying themselves in the outdoors. There will be times when it’s the perfect day to be out but your new hunting partner just isn’t into it. Whether they’re tired, bored, not enjoying the certain activity you picked that day or whatever the case me be, your main goal, as a mentor, is to keep your new hunting partner happy. Sometimes that means giving up a day of hunting or going out without them from time to time. In the long run they will thank you. If you push too hard they will not enjoy themselves and wont want to come back out. Listen to them when they ask questions and watch their body language. If they are slow and sluggish and asking how much longer, it’s a good indication that its time to pack things up or change what you’re doing. You also have to take into consideration what they enjoy doing. Some people love shed hunting, others hate it. Its human nature. Not everyone is going to love the same things and have the same passion for something. You need to mix it up a bit and let them decide on what they would like to do on certain days. Making a schedule might help with that. Every second outing let them decide what they would like to do and let them make decisions. If you think it’s a bad decision just talk it over with them and if they still want to do it, then let them do it and let them make the mistakes. At the end of the day discuss what went wrong and what you could have done differently to have a better outcome. With that being said, some of my best days in the woods was because someone wanted to do something that I didn’t think was a great idea and it turned out that I learned something new that day.
Legalities
In British Columbia, there’s a couple ways you can start hunting. There’s the Initiation Hunting License, Youth Hunting License and a BC Resident Hunting License.
Initiation Hunting License
An Initiation Hunting License is for people 18 years old or older. It gives hunters a one year period to try hunting and they don’t have to go through the Conservation Outdoor Recreation Education(CORE) course. The license costs $19.00 ($15.00 license fee plus $4.00 Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation surcharge).
To be eligible for the initiation hunting license, a person must:
-Have a Fish & Wildlife ID (FWID)
-Be a B.C. resident
-Be 18 years or older
-Not have held a B.C. hunting license in the past, with the exception of a youth hunting license
-Be under the close personal supervision of a licensed adult who satisfies the qualifications to be a supervising hunter.
Supervising Hunter
A person who holds an initiation hunting license must be accompanied by, and under the close personal supervision of, a supervising hunter who is 18 years of age or older and meets the prescribed qualifications. It's an offense for an initiation hunter to hunt without a supervising hunter.
A form must be signed by the Supervisor Hunter before you start to hunt on each day of hunting and the form must be carried with you at all times during the hunt. You can get the form online on the British Columbia government website.
The prescribed qualifications to be a supervising hunter are:
1. The person must be a resident of B.C. and hold a resident hunting license other than an initiation hunting license.
2. The person must have held a hunting license in B.C. (other than an initiation hunting license) or a license to hunt elsewhere in not fewer than three of any of the license years preceding the current license year.
3. If the person is exempt from the requirement to hold a hunting license, paragraphs (a) and (b) do not apply and the person must have received training in hunting and previously hunted lawfully without supervision.
4. The person must not be prohibited from carrying a firearm in any jurisdiction.
The supervising hunter may accompany no more than:
Two initiation hunting license holders at one time
One youth and one initiation license holder at one time
Bag Limits for the Initiation Hunter
The Initiation Hunter doesn't have an individual bag limit and isn't eligible to obtain a species license. The supervising hunter must hold the appropriate uncancelled species license for any species that is hunted. Any game harvested by the holder of an initiation license must be accounted for as part of the bag limit of the supervising hunter. The holder of an initiation hunting license isn't eligible to participate in limited entry hunting.
Youth Hunting License
The youth hunting license is available for youth aged 10 to 17 years, inclusive.
The youth hunting license can be purchased at any Service BC office or local vendor. The license costs $7.00.
A parent or legal guardian must purchase, as well as hold, the youth hunting license on behalf of the youth. To purchase the youth hunting license, the parent or the legal guardian must sign a written undertaking form making sure that the parent or legal guardian will be fully responsible for the actions of his or her child while the child is hunting or carrying a firearm in B.C. The form must be submitted with the application for hunting licenses. A hunting license cannot be issued to youth without this form.
Supervising Hunter for a Youth Hunter
Youth who participate in hunting in B.C. must be accompanied by, and under the close personal supervision of, an adult 18 years or age or older, who holds a hunting license and meets the qualifications as a supervising hunter.
A supervising hunter must be 18 years of age or older, hold a hunting license (other than an initiation hunting license) or be exempted from holding a hunting license, and meet the prescribed qualifications.
The prescribed qualifications to be a supervising hunter are:
If the person is a resident, the person must hold a FWID and resident hunting credentials.
If the person is a non-resident or non-resident alien, the person must have passed a hunter safety training course anywhere in Canada or the USA
The person must have held a hunting license in B.C. (other than an initiation hunting license) or a license to hunt elsewhere in not fewer than three of any of the license years preceding the current license year (or be exempted from holding a license)
If the person is registered under the Indian Act (Canada) and residing in B.C., items (a) to (c) do not apply and the person must have received training in hunting and previously hunted lawfully without supervision
The person must not be prohibited from carrying or possessing a firearm
If the youth, on whose behalf a youth hunting license has been issued, is hunting with a licensed guide, items (a) to (c) of the prescribed qualifications do not apply to the supervising hunter.
Bag Limits for Youth Hunters
The holder of the youth license does not have an individual bag limit and is ineligible to obtain a species license.
The supervising hunter must hold the appropriate uncancelled species license for any species that is hunted. Any game harvested by a youth must be accounted for and is part of the bag limit of the supervising hunter.
A B.C. resident youth who holds a valid youth hunting license may hunt in a Limited Entry Hunt (LEH) if accompanied by, and under the close supervision of, an adult who holds a valid species license and a valid LEH authorization. The supervising hunter must cancel the species license when an animal is harvested and it is part of their bag limit.
If the youth, on whose behalf a youth hunting license has been issued, is hunting with a licensed guide, the youth is allowed their own bag limits for small game only.
BC Resident Hunting License
In order to get a BC Resident Hunting License, you must be 18 years old, be a BC resident and have completed the Conservation Outdoor Recreation Course. There is a couple of ways of completing this course. You can now do a majority of it online and meet with a examiner to do the hands on training and to complete the course. The online course costs around $100 plus a $30 examiner fee.
You can also do the course in a classroom setting. It is typically a two day course that cost about $150. With the completion of the course you will be able to get your Fish and Wildlife ID(FWID) number which allows you to buy your hunting license and tags.
After getting your BC Resident Hunting License, you can now hold your own bag limit but you can not hunt with a rifle by yourself until you have the Possession and Acquisition License(PAL) or the Possession Only License(POL). You can however hunt by yourself with a bow.
PAL and POL
In order to be in possession of a firearm and to buy ammunition, you must hold one of two licenses, Possession and Acquisition License(PAL) or a Possession Only License(POL). These are a Federal License and are not province specific. I’m not going to go into great detail about this but if you want to learn more you can go onto the Canadian Governments website and find out more.
Making the Shot
For a lot of new hunters and outdoorsman, they haven’t even shot a gun before. It is up to you to train them up right or to get them to take one of the above courses so they have a good understanding of firearm safety. Its best to start them out with something small like a BB gun, pellet gun or a .22 just to get the basics of shooting. Once as they start to become good with that, you can move them up to something a bit bigger. I typically use my .243 or .223. The .243 is what ill get them to hunt with, for the most part, so it is good for them to be comfortable with the rifle that they will be carrying in the field. With that being said, you don’t want them to move up to a bigger caliber to fast. Part of getting the fundamentals of shooting down is so they don’t get any bad habits like flinching or closing their eyes when they shoot. If you don’t have a small caliber rifle for them to shoot, don’t make them move up. It’ll be nothing but heartache and possibly some wounded animals because they are not comfortable shooting a big caliber. Chances are they will never want to hunt again if they wound an animal and it gets away because you were to pushy and made them shoot a caliber that they are not comfortable with.
A part of them making the shot on an animal is knowing proper shot placement. There is a ton of educational pictures showing the internals of animals that you can use to teach the proper shot placement. One of the best things to teach them is don’t aim for an entrance, always aim for the exit. This is very important when it comes to a quartering to you or a quartering away from you shot. With new hunters, you shouldn’t be taking a quartering shot, however, there is times when it’s the only shot that they have so it is a good idea to teach them where to shoot so they know if they are ever in that situation.
Never rush them to take a shot. You have to remember that they may have never killed an animal before and they might react a bit differently than us, who have made many meals from game that we have harvested. You have to be there to back them up physically and mentally. A little comforting words and telling them to take their time can make a huge difference. If they decide to pass on an animal, it is your job to take it as it is and move on to the next one. Remember, we are here to help mentor and get them involved in hunting, not be a drill sergeant and get mad and stop our feet when they don’t feel comfortable with the shot placement, killing an animal or if they are just being picky.
Being picky…..
This is something that should be mentioned. Unfortunately, a lot of new hunters will watch a bunch of hunting shows before going out on their first hunt. Its not a bad thing if they are watching it to do some research and gain some knowledge on hunting, however, you have to remind them that what they are watching isn’t always how it is in our neck of the woods. The chances of them getting a 160” whitetail or a 50” moose are very slim. Remind them that they are hunting for meat. The shows that show people passing up animals or waiting it out for their trophy of a lifetime is completely different hunting then what we do. You have to bring them back to reality and when something comes in that is legal you might have to convince them to take it.
After the Shot
Congratulations! Your new hunter has successfully taken their first big game animal…now what?
You might be used to getting in there and getting the job done as fast as possible but it is just another time where you have to slow down and take your time in order to teach them the right way of doing it. You still have to stress the importance of getting the job done quick so you don’t run the risk of meat spoilage but, again, you are there to teach them. Some questions they ask can be answered by showing them and some questions can wait till you’re done.
Something that you might have to remind yourself is when you’re gutting an animal, there is a lot of blood. For us, we are used to it, but, for some new hunters its going to be a totally different experience for them. Take your time and maybe give them a fair warning. Some people freak out when they see a small cut on a finger, we all know that that’s nothing compared to what’s inside the cavity of animal that has just been shot. I wouldn’t say force them to get their hands in there but motivate and convince them that it is part of taking care of the animal. In my honest opinion, if they can not take care of the meat and respect the animal, then they don’t deserve to hunt and I will not take them out again.
In any hunting situation its important to keep your game clean. Clean knives, clean tarp, paper towels, rags and to keep all of the hair and dirt off of the meat. Its also important to leave the area behind clean. Don’t be leaving blood soaked rags behind and clean up after yourself when you’re done. This is especially important when you have a new hunter because chances are the way you teach them the first time is the way that they will be doing it from here on out. If you leave a mess behind with them the first time, they will leave a mess behind when they are on their own, simply because “it’s the way I was taught.” Don’t get lazy and complacent with one of the last things you have to do before being able to enjoy fresh wild game on your dinner table.
From Field to Plate
After a successful hunt I am always excited to get to eat that first piece of meat from the animal that I have harvested. For a new hunter, its even more exciting. Whether you take the animal to a butcher or do it up yourself is up to you and your hunter. For me, I like to cut it up myself. I save money and I can be as picky as I want. As an added bonus, you don’t have to worry about a shady butcher ripping you off and keeping some of it for themselves.
If you chose to butcher it up yourself, there is a ton of YouTube videos that you can watch and books you can read to get the general idea on how to do it. Its something that you and your new hunter can learn together and save some money in the meantime. It also helps connect you to your food that much more. If you want to take it up a notch you can make sausage and jerky just the way you like it as well.
Cooking wild game is slightly different than farm raised meat. Its much leaner and you have to cook it just a little bit different. It might take some time for the new hunter to perfect the way to cook it but if they cook the meat like they would with beef it’ll still turn out good. Don’t be afraid to experiment a bit and try different ways of cooking. At the end of the day its all about supplying your friends and family with delicious, free range organic meat that you can be proud of.
