Hunting School-would you pay for a hunting course...?????

[Sourdough]

every once in a while someone on the forum states that they are clueless about hunting skills, or field dressing game skills, or the extraction from the field, and butchering of game.

There are survival courses, there are self defense shooting courses, But would anyone really pay money to learn how to hunt wild game...???

My thought was this would NOT be geared for hunter's to expand skills. It would be designed for people who have never hunted.

[trax]

Well, I'm not going to pay for a hunting course. There's nothing that I want to hunt that I don't know how to hunt and the last time I checked, I was pretty ok at it. And, there's a few guys on here I figure could sell a hunting course, a real one, teaching those skills that go beyond baiting and shooting, and if some of your fellas want to go for it --good luck. My concern is, if I was to offer to teach someone to hunt for money, what kind of jackasses might show up and I've made a commitment to teach them.

I'm very selective about who I am willing to hunt with now. I guess if you get the right clients it's a good thing because you're putting hunters in the field who have some know-how

[Runs With Beer]

Feed me a fish, Feed me for a day. Teach me to fish, feed me everyday

[Nativedude]

FVR wrote: "Nativedude......Do I know you?

We have had to cross paths somewhere. I have yet to make it to Mojam, but have made my share of hatchet bows.

I've been building bows and arrows since 95 and have spoken with many fellow bowyers on many of the major boards.

Do you know me? Do I know you?"

FVR, we don't know each other, not that I know of. I have never been to MOJAM. I did have a hunting TV show in the past on the outdoor channel.

[Nativedude]

Trax wrote: ". . .My concern is, if I was to offer to teach someone to hunt for money, what kind of jackasses might show up and I've made a commitment to teach them.

I'm very selective about who I am willing to hunt with now. I guess if you get the right clients it's a good thing because you're putting hunters in the field who have some know-how."

When I had my bow hunting school I had my share of wackos show up. Guess what. . .they got a refund and were told to leave.

When you own a business you have the right to refuse service to anyone you choose. And if I felt someone was there for the wrong reason(s) I did not accept them!

It is the same for my survival & primitive living courses!

[trax]

No disagreement here ND, but I'm thinking more of situations where I really don't know what I can or can't teach a person just on first impressions. Idiocy, unfortunately, is rampant. The other thing I'm thinking is, how much information over what time frame at what cost? If someone here (and I know we've got people here who could make a go of it, you included) want to give it a shot, more power to them. But personally, it took me a long time to learn the things I've learned and I'm still learning. I suppose you could give folks the basics, personally I'd rather just grab my rifle and gear and go hunting.

[mountain mama]

My daddy had a hunting & guide service and taxidermy shop when I was growing up. I am sure many of his clients had very limited hunting skills/knowledge. I think if you are going to train others, part of that training is keeping them in check and giving them a respect for the wilderness. If they aren't capable, then they get the boot.

[red lake]

Yes, even if I thought myself an expert in a discipline, to think you can learn nothing from somebody else is foolish.

Jason has the right idea, to shoot a deer does not make one a hunter.

The only real hunters are the predatory animals that live in the wilderness, if only they ran a hunting class!

[Alpine_Sapper]

I may borrow that quote myself

anytime.

[Alpine_Sapper]

Jason has the right idea, to shoot a deer does not make one a hunter.

The only real hunters are the predatory animals that live in the wilderness!

While I agree that killing an animal does not a hunter make, I disagree that the only true hunters are predatory animals. Unless you consider some of the old bushrats I've met predatory animals. And while some of them seem that way, they are just guys that have spent their lives in the field doing what they enjoy doing...tracking,stalking,and just generally getting in tune with nature. You know, the 60 year old man that not only seems to know the 150 acre strip of land like it's his bedroom, seems to have an almost empathic bond with his prey...

[DOGMAN]

I think a school that combined general hunting skills, and primitive skills/bushcraft and a reverance for nature/wildlife would be cool.

There are people in the cities and suburbs that are literally dying inside, because they have no connection to the natural world. Just teaching them basic hunting skills is not enough. They need to FEEL the connection.

I am not surprised that most of us here would not pay for such a course- we are already feeling the connection- we understand that to truly participate in the cycle of nature we need to think beyond the aisles of the supermarket and learn what it takes to harvest our own meat....and, to know what that meat is made of (what the animal ate), etc... and to realize that WE are predators, and a part of nature- not observers...but participants in the world around us.

[oly]

I wouldn't want to be the instructor for people that has never been hunting or handled a gun.
I taught my kids when they were toddlers with dart guns and nagged nagged and nagged at them to keep that gun pointed in a safe direction. Then they was upgraded to a BB gun at about 6 y/o and I nagged nagged and nagged at them to keep that gun pointed in a safe direction and then I nagged nagged and nagged at them that the BB will go through the paper target and keep going, so you better look beyond the target to see what else it might hit.
Never had a broken window incident.

[trax]

Maybe I'm just approaching this based on the "where" of where I do my thing, but I can't do what Mountain Mama suggested and 'just give someone the boot' if we're 20 or 30 miles up a river in northern Manitoba. I've guided people a very few times in the past and that's why I gave it up. There's just too many dum-dums out there for me. I agree with the notion of the hunter being a predatory being. Predators have been known to have that empathetic relationship with their prey (I know there's going to be some arguments against that, but empathetic isn't sympathetic and the predator will be in finality, pragmatic) I also believe that a lot of what needs to be learned with hunting involves that feel for the environment, for the hunt, for the prey, for the process. That's why I said what I did about the years of learning. What I'm suggesting is that in a hunting course, all one could really hope to impart are the basics, even the basics involves a lot, but that it would be up to the post-graduate participant to learn about that feel.

Even with the basics, I wouldn't take anyone who couldn't prove to me that they had basic firearms/archery safety training before starting out. Make them field prove their shooting capabilities. Then beat into their skulls the absolute paramount importance of the clean kill. Teach them some tracking, stalking, field dressing the kill. In the course of that, they should learn some things (if they don't, they're screwed anyway) about the habits and habitat of the animals, the effects of weather patterns on game behavior and on shooting opportunities.

So again, I say it's do-able, but would take someone with a lot more tolerance and patience than I have for my fellow man. If you're one of the people contemplating teaching such a course, I recommend making it very, very expensive, to make it worth your while.

Just a wee qualifier: some evidence of empathetic relationships between mammalian predators and prey. other than that I don't know.

[Ole WV Coot]

I have hunted almost 55yrs now and I still prefer to go alone in an area I know and after game I have hunted. I have seen dumb moves by seasoned hunters with plenty of time in the woods so I just plain don't trust many people. I know better shots than me, always do well but I don't know how safe they are. I trust me and the men who taught me, most long gone now so I go it alone.