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Aaryn's avatar

Pieces like this would have been so helpful to me when I first started hunting 9 years ago - entirely adult-onset, self-taught, non-guided, public-land-only (so far) hunter over here āœ‹ Now, I'm trying to teach myself to elk hunt after moving to Wyoming 4 years back, and hoping my 3rd hunt season for them is the one that seals the deal. Thanks for putting out thoughtful and useful pieces, I will definitely share this with any other women, or anyone for that matter, who ask me about learning to hunt (not an uncommon occurrence)!

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Nicole Qualtieri's avatar

Awesome! Elk hunting is a blast, I’m working on it myself :) Good luck out there and glad you saw the value in this piece!

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Madison Baldwin's avatar

This will be my second season deer hunting, and hopefully, I will fill a tag this year. I went to a hunter safety field day event last year and it was a hilarious educational experience. Most of the room was filled with 9-12 year old boys. The instructors were all men my grandfather's age. The shoot/don't shoot situations had me in stitches, because the boys would singsong "don't shooooot" sadly in their small country voices.

The instructors would call on different members of the class to read aloud from the book. Some of the boys were struggling to read aloud, which is common for 5th graders. However, they did not struggle to shoot clays. It was an impressive display.

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Nicole Qualtieri's avatar

Ummm this is why I think everyone needs to go to a field day. Kids are amazing. And you really can have a lot of fun working through the scenarios! I love this story Madison! Good luck this year!

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Madison Baldwin's avatar

Many thanks! and likewise

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Matt Juarez's avatar

Such a good summary of what it takes to become a hunter. My non hunting or hunt-curious friends and family will ask me about hunting and I watch their eyes glaze over as I monologue on about species identification, drawing statistics, and how to calculate the perfect FOC for my arrows. I think most people just think you walk into the woods a blast the first thing that moves... and that is just so far from the truth.

The mentorship section is really cool. Having like minded folks available to show you the ropes goes so far.

That AMB West Program is a seriously cool opportunity! If I lived locally I would totally take advantage of that!

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Nicole Qualtieri's avatar

People ask me all the time! It's such a process. It's SUCH a commitment. I hope I can hand them a handout with the resources I'm creating so they can have a starting point. <3

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