Hunting – a skill worth learning

Hunting is one of the most basic skills of humanity and one that I feel everyone should learn. From the dawn of time, man has had to hunt in order to survive.

In todays fast-paced lifestyles of drive-thru burgers and supermarket prepackaged meals, hunting is also one of the skills that is least used by many today.

I’m a country boy and grew up hunting from an early age, but for many years I was trapped in the rat race and could never find the time to hone my hunting skills. Last year I was able to leave the rat race behind and have once again taken up hunting. I was a basic hunter many years ago, rifle hunting deer and small game hunting with a shotgun. There are many types of hunting that I hope to learn and participate in this coming year.

Currently, in Southwestern Pennsylvania, archery and small game are in season. Archery is one of those skills I plan on picking up and learning as much as possible. Small game hunting, on the other hand, I had been doing since I was old enough to hunt. However, when I was growing up we used shotguns, this year, my son and I started using .22 rifles to hunt squirrel. Using a .22 is definitely more challenging, especially when you consider we decided to use open sites, not a scope.

Rifle season for deer is right around the corner and we will be sighting in our guns in the next few weeks. This will be the second year that my son, Sawyer, has gone deer hunting and we are both getting quite anxious and excited.

Check out Save Our Skills YouTube channel, we recently posted a video on Skinning a deer. A neighbor of ours, R.T., harvested an 8 point buck last week and we were fortunate enough to video the processing of it. You will notice in the video that the deer was not field dressed. We skinned the deer first, then dressed it, and finally butchered it. That process is a little out of sync, we would normally field dress the deer prior to skinning.

 

If your going to hunt deer or small game, your going to need a few “tools”.

The first of course being a rifle and/or a shotgun. For deer I use a bolt action Tikka 25-06 and my son, Sawyer, uses a bolt action Ruger 30-06. For squirrel I use a single shot Rossi combo rifle with a 12 gauge or a .22 long rifle barrel and Sawyer uses a Henry model H001T lever action .22LR. These tools will help you get your prey, but there are a few more items you’ll need to get it on the table.

Henry .22LR Model H001T
Rossi Combo Rifle .22LR/12ga

Next you’ll need a good knife to gut, skin, and butcher your game. For deer, a good knife would be a Mora knife from Sweden. Mora of Sweden was formed in 2005 through the merger of Frosts Knivfabrik and KJ Eriksson. A MoraknivĀ® (Mora knife) is always a knife from Mora of Sweden.The company is still family-owned and develops and manufactures knives which are delivered to all parts of the world. All Mora knives are made in Sweden. When it comes to squirrel, all that is needed for the job is a Gerber EAB (exchange a blade). Make sure you check the Save Our Skills YouTube site for an upcoming video on processing squirrel.

Mora Knife, Gerber EAB

Gerber EAB (Exchange a blade)
Gerber EAB

 

 

Here are a few other items that may be useful in your hunting quest.

Deer Stand – Set up and wait at the perfect location

Bleat call – Lure that big one in close to the stand

Butt Out tool – An awesome addition to your field dressing kit.

Rubber gloves – Another great item for your field dressing kit

Deer drag – To haul that trophy buck out of the woods

Gambrel – To hang and process your deer

 

Happy hunting,

Shane

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Author: Shane Cole

Shane is a retired 26 year military veteran that moved back to the family farm in 2013. He and his wife, Deanna, are making a go at traditional homesteading and living a simpler life.