South Saturn Delta
Member
Hello. I would like to ask for some help from everyone. This post might be long winded and multi-faceted, but I really do appreciate any advice you guys can give. Thanks for your help.
I live in Georgia. I have very limited hunting experience and very little understanding of hunting techniques, skills and principles. I harvested one eight point buck and a few rabbits about 13 years ago. I took a 100+/- pound wild boar with dogs and a knife about four years ago. I disliked the taste of the venison and intensely hated the taste of the boar. I only enjoyed the rabbit meat. I didn’t continue to develop as a hunter because I didn’t enjoy the taste of the meat. I now realize the taste was not helped by my failure to properly care for the game (i.e. not gutting and skinning, not ageing, not being selective in who processed the animals.) In the future, as part of learning about hunting, I also want to learn how to gut, skin, quarter, age and then process the meat myself.
Now, for numerous reasons, I am highly motivated to resume learning how to hunt. I have several young children (6 years of age and under) that I wish to feed high quality protein that is low in fat and free of hormones and various additives. Additionally, I would like to share the outdoors with my children.
But I didn’t grow up in the outdoors and I have never been a “do-it-yourself” person. Without land or money to purchase an expensive lease on quality hunting land, I don’t really feel like I am in a position to get in the woods and teach myself how to hunt. Also, Georgia is very limited in terms of having various types of big game roaming around.
The person who took me to the woods and helped me harvest that 8 point buck is an avid outdoorsman who hunts, traps and fishes. He does all this despite being paralyzed as a teenager. I am very proud of him. He is my oldest friend. He is more than willing to take me back to his property to hunt consistently, and I do intend to hunt with him several times this year. However, he obviously can’t teach me the techniques associated with “spot and stalk” type hunting commonly associated with big game western or northern hunting. I want to eventually be able to do what Steve Rinella does. Have the skill set necessary to draw a moose or elk tag in a western or northern state and be able to drive their, walk onto public land and come out with a huge animal to feed my family. I simply am not in position to go pay 6 to 16 thousand dollars for a guided hunt.
For the past several weeks I have been researching numerous outfitters offering guided hunts all over the country. I have been unsuccessfully seeking a guide who will charge an affordable rate to teach me hunting skills while allowing me to harvest numerous does and/or hogs. I have zero interest in trophies. I don’t have the type of house where I can display them and the idea of paying $6 - $30K to “hunt” a large antlered buck that is practically farm raised and put in a pen just for a trophy seems off putting to me. But I have ran into a surprising lack of professionalism in the outfitter industry. I call, email and text businesses that don’t answer and leave messages to which I don’t always receive a reply. Furthermore, even businesses that actually advertise hunting opportunities for doe animals, commonly termed “meat hunts,” don’t actually have any intention of selling them. They might allow someone to add a “meat animal” doe or two and a hog as a package offering to someone willing to pay $10K for a trophy hunt, but they aren’t going to take someone into the woods to hunt a couple of their advertised $600 red deer hinds or $250+/- fallow, sika, blackbuck does. It is almost as if they see me as a waste of their time.
Add to that the nightmare stories attached to many outfitters involving bait and switch, exaggerated shot opportunities, and various other outright lies, and I become reticent to drive from Georgia to Texas, Oklahoma, Maine or wherever else for what might be an over priced “canned” hunt, a fruitless hunt with little opportunity for success, or an outright deceptive con job.
I am most interested in hunting a red deer hind, but I would be happy to hunt any does or hogs, rabbits, turkeys, doves etc. for meat for my family. I don’t want anything for free. I am willing to pay what I can afford. I’ve been gifted a crossbow that I am in the process of having reconditioned. I am planning on buying a bow and practicing archery so that I can be in the woods for an extra couple months every year. I am dedicated to working overtime so that I can buy whatever weapons and gear needed to become a true hunter. What I am lacking is an opportunity to go on a guided hunt with someone that will actually show me how to be a hunter, for animals that will fill the freezer for my family, that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. If I am driving 15 hours each way and back, I would rather go on a combo hunt for several animals. Again, the red hind is what I am most excited about hunting because they are much larger than whitetail and I have read they taste far better as well.
I appreciate any guidance, advice or suggestions this community can offer. If someone can’t point me in the right direction of a few hunters offering quality, affordable guide services for meat animals, that would be awesome. Thank you all for reading this long-winded message.
I live in Georgia. I have very limited hunting experience and very little understanding of hunting techniques, skills and principles. I harvested one eight point buck and a few rabbits about 13 years ago. I took a 100+/- pound wild boar with dogs and a knife about four years ago. I disliked the taste of the venison and intensely hated the taste of the boar. I only enjoyed the rabbit meat. I didn’t continue to develop as a hunter because I didn’t enjoy the taste of the meat. I now realize the taste was not helped by my failure to properly care for the game (i.e. not gutting and skinning, not ageing, not being selective in who processed the animals.) In the future, as part of learning about hunting, I also want to learn how to gut, skin, quarter, age and then process the meat myself.
Now, for numerous reasons, I am highly motivated to resume learning how to hunt. I have several young children (6 years of age and under) that I wish to feed high quality protein that is low in fat and free of hormones and various additives. Additionally, I would like to share the outdoors with my children.
But I didn’t grow up in the outdoors and I have never been a “do-it-yourself” person. Without land or money to purchase an expensive lease on quality hunting land, I don’t really feel like I am in a position to get in the woods and teach myself how to hunt. Also, Georgia is very limited in terms of having various types of big game roaming around.
The person who took me to the woods and helped me harvest that 8 point buck is an avid outdoorsman who hunts, traps and fishes. He does all this despite being paralyzed as a teenager. I am very proud of him. He is my oldest friend. He is more than willing to take me back to his property to hunt consistently, and I do intend to hunt with him several times this year. However, he obviously can’t teach me the techniques associated with “spot and stalk” type hunting commonly associated with big game western or northern hunting. I want to eventually be able to do what Steve Rinella does. Have the skill set necessary to draw a moose or elk tag in a western or northern state and be able to drive their, walk onto public land and come out with a huge animal to feed my family. I simply am not in position to go pay 6 to 16 thousand dollars for a guided hunt.
For the past several weeks I have been researching numerous outfitters offering guided hunts all over the country. I have been unsuccessfully seeking a guide who will charge an affordable rate to teach me hunting skills while allowing me to harvest numerous does and/or hogs. I have zero interest in trophies. I don’t have the type of house where I can display them and the idea of paying $6 - $30K to “hunt” a large antlered buck that is practically farm raised and put in a pen just for a trophy seems off putting to me. But I have ran into a surprising lack of professionalism in the outfitter industry. I call, email and text businesses that don’t answer and leave messages to which I don’t always receive a reply. Furthermore, even businesses that actually advertise hunting opportunities for doe animals, commonly termed “meat hunts,” don’t actually have any intention of selling them. They might allow someone to add a “meat animal” doe or two and a hog as a package offering to someone willing to pay $10K for a trophy hunt, but they aren’t going to take someone into the woods to hunt a couple of their advertised $600 red deer hinds or $250+/- fallow, sika, blackbuck does. It is almost as if they see me as a waste of their time.
Add to that the nightmare stories attached to many outfitters involving bait and switch, exaggerated shot opportunities, and various other outright lies, and I become reticent to drive from Georgia to Texas, Oklahoma, Maine or wherever else for what might be an over priced “canned” hunt, a fruitless hunt with little opportunity for success, or an outright deceptive con job.
I am most interested in hunting a red deer hind, but I would be happy to hunt any does or hogs, rabbits, turkeys, doves etc. for meat for my family. I don’t want anything for free. I am willing to pay what I can afford. I’ve been gifted a crossbow that I am in the process of having reconditioned. I am planning on buying a bow and practicing archery so that I can be in the woods for an extra couple months every year. I am dedicated to working overtime so that I can buy whatever weapons and gear needed to become a true hunter. What I am lacking is an opportunity to go on a guided hunt with someone that will actually show me how to be a hunter, for animals that will fill the freezer for my family, that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. If I am driving 15 hours each way and back, I would rather go on a combo hunt for several animals. Again, the red hind is what I am most excited about hunting because they are much larger than whitetail and I have read they taste far better as well.
I appreciate any guidance, advice or suggestions this community can offer. If someone can’t point me in the right direction of a few hunters offering quality, affordable guide services for meat animals, that would be awesome. Thank you all for reading this long-winded message.
