Hi all, My name is Brian and live in San Antonio, hope you guys can help me out. Some serious rambling here, please excuse me if I bore anyone, but I seem to understand that most of the time people like to know what you are all about and your history with guns and such so I will present what I can think of.

I have recently taken up shooting firearms, beginning of this year, and have always thought about hunting but never really found a place or time in life to start it. I decided at the beginning of this year to buy my first firearm, Taurus tracker 357, and have really enjoyed shooting it and others I have gotten since then. Yeah, I went a little crazy with it, XDM 9mm, Taurus Mil Pro 9mm, Sigma 40, Misquito 22 and most recently a Marlin 30-30 lever action to begin my quest with hunting.

Something about the Cowboy type guns I love, revolvers and Lever actions, I don't know why. Thinking of trading that tracker for a S&W 686 because I have had trouble with it and don't love their service. Seems Taurus is a gamble and I hear the 686 is one of the best revolvers to get, mass production wise, though I do love the feel of firing that tracker, with the ported barrel 357 magnums are a joy to shoot, and accurate, when the cylinder doesn't get stuck that is, though it has not since sending it in and getting it back.

Wife and I took a handgun learning class right off the bat and I also took a CHL class so although I am new I do have a little bit of training, though could of course use more. Was hitting the range every couple weeks or so till recently. Lost my job I had for 12 years so been a bit worried about money lately. Also ruined my plans to by a lot of land out of the city, but thats another story, sort of, and life will go on.

Anyways, I have been searching and searching, looking for people that I can learn from. Found some resources on line, such as how to clean a dear and responsible hunting tactics and the like, but have yet to find a way to go hunting unless I am willing to pays thousands to roam a private hunting ground. So far I have found only this kind of thing.

Really? Is it really that expensive to hunt? Get a 200 lb. dear and thats like, what, 25 dollars or more a pound? Kind of ruins my plans to find a cheaper way to feed my family or just get the experience in case I ever really NEED these skills to survive. I won't get into all the details of the fears of a crumbling society, I am sure everyone has heard them all before, true or not. If that were to happen though, it would be nice to have the skills needed BEFORE it were to happen rather than learning on the fly. Only thing I have ever cleaned is a fish, and that was just a couple times. I am screwed if I ever need these skills. Sure, I can read about it on the net but until doing it for real I would not feel I know what the heck I am doing.

So basically, how do I find someone to learn from? Are there novice hunting groups or something that don't cost an arm and a leg that I am not finding? Anyone out there with hunting experience and/or a place to hunt? With all this talk about hunting I see on the net, I can't seem to find people that do it in person.

I have read the explanations as to why a person needs a license, preserving animals and wildlife preserves and such but at the same time it seems more of a way to prevent people from hunting as it seems only the well off can afford it. Make us all dependent on the USDA and such. What does a person do?

Thanks to all

In short, you definitely have to have a license and your only inexpensive options are public land or finding a friend that owns land that will let you shoot a cull or something for free.

Hunting isn't an inexpensive substitute for store-bought meat by any stretch of the imagination.

Hunting is by no means cheap anymore. Hunting is more like a sport like golfing that is extremely commercialized. We do not need to depend on hunting to provide for our families anymore and that has been a big cause in the increase in prices.

The cheapest way to get out in the woods and learn to hunt is to buy the required licenses and go hit the public hunting areas. When I learned to hunt, I had to buy a .22 and start out squirrel hunting. I was 7 years old. I hunted small game and birds until I was allowed to go on my first deer hunt. Today people just jump in to big game hunting without learning the basic skills of hunting.

If you want to learn there are lots of small game opportunities on public land with very little pressure.

Good luck in your endeavors!!

Thanks for the advice guys, I am currently searching for the public hunting grounds now and think I found some resources for it here

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/hunt/public/lands/table_contents/

Disappointing to hear of the "commercialization" of hunting.

If you live in San Antonio there should be lots of people that hunt. Talk to them. I'm sure you have friends that hunt and own/lease land. If not, try out the public land.

Well said.

On a good note, I just found out my CHL is in the mail.

If you're in SA, you are about 2 hours away from fantastic South Texas hunting. Find someone with a ranch down there or in the hill country and tell them you'd love to buy the beer if they'll let you help them with their doe-culling requirements. There are plenty of people with MLD places that literally have to shoot a ton of does and then drive them to town and give them away. If you really just want some meat, that's the way to go.

Now people might be less sympathetic to your cause if you're wanting a 140-class buck for cheap.

Perfect. This is how I started many years ago. I dont hunt small game anymore but I think that is where everyone should start.

Thats exactly what I am looking for Cameron, I just don't really know how to go about contacting these people. From what I understand it is not considered good manners, and can even be dangerous, to go driving up someones property. That is why I was posting here. Heck, I would buy the beer just so they would allow me to/show me how to clean a deer for them so I knew how to do it.

Please excuse my ignorance but what is MLD?

Oh and one other question, I mentioned I had been looking to buy land outside the city and a big reason to do that was to have a place to hunt, or at least target shoot without having to pay range fees. My understanding was that you did not need a license to shoot a critter on your own land, providing you have the correct amount and/or written property crossing lines from a neighbor. Is that not correct?

I went squirrel hunting for the first time in over 13 years back in may and let me tell ya, them bushy tailed rats get down right frustrating still today. Lol!! Had a great time brushing up on my stalking skills.

MLD - People that manage their property in accord with the specified harvest numbers per the TPWD (I believe - someone correct me if I'm wrong). After an annual survey is done, the landowner is issued a certain number of tags for deer they are to harvest. They need to fill the tags to stay in good graces with the program.

A buddy of mine has a place that needs to take out something in the vicinity of 60 does and 60 bucks every year. It's actually a hassle to kill and clean the required number of does, so they allow friends to shoot them.

Also have another buddy with a small property (100 acres) in the hill country. The deer population is just way too high and even on his small property, they take 10 or 12 deer every year. He lets me shoot a couple of does every year.

Now bucks are a different story. No one has any trouble getting rid of them.

I wouldn't recommend driving up to someone's property and asking them cold. You need to make as many friends as possible and eventually you'll stumble across someone that needs some does shot.

You need a license to hunt anything on your land. Don't listen to people that use "depredation" as a possible loophole, unless you're legitimately planning on planting crops for harvest.

The small game hunting does sound like a good place to start but I do have a reservation about just shooting certain things. I would want to eat whatever I hunted so I don't think squirrel would be good. People don't eat squirrel do they? What would you do with something like a squirrel or Coyote after shooting it? Maybe rabbit would be more fun and productive.

Never really thought to use depredation as a reason, just had the idea that it was legal, or maybe it was just people doing it because they didn't think anyone would raise alarm to it. I just had gotten the idea it was okay. So if it is not and you still need a license, does that mean you also need to follow the seasons and everything else as well? I am assume so now.

BTW- thanks for all the discussion so far. I am surprised to have not been "flamed" as of yet.

Personally I love fried squirrel. Rabbits are good too. Would never try a coyote but Love to hunt them.

Hm, I thought I had heard squirrel was a bad idea to eat but I suppose I am wrong. Certainly would be something if you didn't have anything else. I don't know that my wife would go for that though, haha.

squirrels are good eating. Fry them up or debone and put in dumplins.

You have to have a license to hunt anything, but there is no season for varmints. i.e. You can shoot coyotes, hogs, armadillos, bobcats, etc. all year. Check the TPWD regs for bag limits on squirrels or rabbits. I don't know them off the top of my head.

If you have enough money to buy acreage, none of this should be an issue.

The subject of acreage had come up because it was something I had thought of doing while I had my job, unfortunately I lost it after 12 years so the subject is mainly just academic at this point. Even then we were only talking the minimun, like 10 acres. Hopefully I can change that in the future though. Its all "what ifs" at this point, just talkin.

Mainly though my question is about learning to hunt and clean. Then how to do so without spending an arm and a leg to do it.

So I look up the topic of eating squirrel, how to cook it and such and find this video. It is of the stupid/funny variety in case anyone wants to see it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mXjFLtOb9g

Ok first off if you think you are going to hunt to feed the family cheaply, you can forget that, there is nothing cheap about hunting!
BUT, you act like you don't have any money but say you've bought 6 guns in the last 6 months....?

Now, if you want to learn to hunt, best option is find a friend who hunts, but you could always get the TPW public hunting thing. Get out and scout or hunt without a gun during off season (for practice/learning). Then get out and hunt a few rabbits or squirrels and learn to field dress them.

Next look for hog hunts on here and go hog hunting, odds for sucess hog hunting are better than the odds for deer hunting.

JUST BUY THE DANG LICENSE!!!

There are only a couple of instances where you don't need a license but they are few and far between...

Haha, yeah, my wife and I got really good at disposing of disposable income. Mainly on crap, no planning for the future. The thought of getting acreage and all that was probably a pipe dream but maybe possible with 401k, good credit which I had to work at to achieve, and all that. Even then things were not looking good. Had a good tax return and finally reached a point that there was not some huge need, like a car or house repair, that needed doing, so guns were the answer. Now if I had known I would have lost my job two weeks ago I would not have spent all that money. Nothing to do about it now.

The beginning of this year was some kind of change for me, don't know what to call it, maybe mid life crisis or something but I decided I wanted to change things, do things I never did before, never had time for, etc. Didn't feel like wasting my time in front of the TV no more like I had through most of my life. And didn't like my little 40k house I had lived in for the last 10 years anymore next to neighbors I can't stand who like to play their stereo on the car port all night or the other who has ten cars parked up and down the street and lets his dog run all over the place to bite people.

Wouldn't mind doing some other things as well, like bungee jumping or something but going to take a while to get to that point. Has to be cheaper than hunting though don't it?

Anyways, will do on the public hunting land and try harder finding people in the area that hunt. Thanks again.

Usually when deer season starts you'll see people on here offering MLD hunts for cheap.

Another option is a game ranch. Most unfenced deer are taken at a feeder anyways so there's little difference.