What books can you recommend for beginners to learn about hunting deer and bear

O'Connor

"Hunting Big Game" by Jack O'Connor is an old classic, and touches aspects of the hunting of most of our big game species. A bit dated, but the concepts and overall info are all still valid.
 
Quote: I'll be hunting primarily in southwest: Arizona and New Mexico, for sure, and perhaps Colorado and Texas.

You can get a lot of area info from your local game warden or fish game person.

I'll address only the shooting aspect of the hunt:

Get a gun you can handle and be honest about it. No sense of trying to be macho about it, you'll be doing yourself and your quarry a disservice.

For years now, I've hunted with (mostly) one rifle:
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Winchester Model 70 (in .270) with a 3X9 Burris Scope

I've shot deer (mostly) from the woods of NY/VT, to the desert southwest;

Practice Practice Practice! I can't stress this enough! Since you'll be hunting primarily in the southwest, you're going to have some long shots Being that said, you'll need to know your limitations. If you can only hit targets consistently at 200 yards, then that's your limit - period.

For example - Here are two deer I shot in AZ years ago, one (on the right) I shot at 50 yards. I was climbing up a ridge to get into a classing position when I came across him. I had to shoot off-hand, cause there was no time to get rest. The other one, I shot at 350 yards and I had all the time in world cause he was chasing does (he never knew I was there-until the bullet hit him!)
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Why was I able get both of these deer, yup practice-practice-practice!

Finally - Know the anatomy of you quarry, generally in or behind the shoulder has served me well.
 
I'll tell you the same thing I tell every other person that wants to learn how to hunt big-game animals. EVERY skill you need to know to hunt deer except scent control can be learned faster and much cheaper by chasing small game. Squirrels and rabbits are the quarry of choice in most of the country but there may be other opportunities where you live. You'll clearn the skills of listening to the woods, stalking, camoflauge, etc.

In most places, the seasons for small game are longer than deer season and the "entry cost" is much lower. All it takes are a .22 (or shotgun), a license, and a pair of boots to get you out in the woods. You can even do it in the off season without the gun just to get the skills down.
 
I would recommend hunting magazines, and those regional hunting newspapers. You'll get more up to date info that matches current laws and conditions.

I'm not a big fan of hunting videos as learning tools unless you can find some based on regular people doing regular hunting. Most of those are based on canned hunt trophy hunters who don't hunt like normal people looking to have fun and fill their tag.


Also check with your local gun stores as they often have seminars for different game.
 
I had the same problem

years ago. I solved it by going to a library and reading 3 years of back issues of several hunting magazines. The end result, on my first hunt, was a 170's class whitetail buck!:D

To this day, I keep back issues of all 5 magazines I currently subscribe to.;)
 
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