Do you take small game hunting as seriously as big game?

[RuggedYogi]

I am passionate about big game and small game hunting, but I try not have a serious attitude around either. I shoot my bow every day because I enjoy it. I train gun dogs because I love working with animals. I workout hard and ruck because being fit and healthy makes me feel good.

I’ve run out of seriousness after putting out fires at work and dealing with unhappy clients.

 

[KurtR]

Waterfowl is number one for me my dog gets to come and i get to see him work and we train 5-6 days every week all year for it. I have found duck feeds while deer hunting and that evening it was ducks every time over deer. Living 10 minutes from it all is helpful as its easy to squeeze in a deer hunt after work or quick in the morning before.

 

[Trumpkin The Dwarf]

It's all fun and games till I shine a rabbit between my stand and the truck.

 

[Dr.Spaniel]

How do you all feel about the overlap in big game and small game? I didn’t draw here in Colorado so my time will be spent hunting small game and predators. I know it’s my mountain too, but want to be respectful to the folks that have drawn.

 

[rcook10]

I do a lot of bird and small game hunting in the pre season and really enjoy it due to the lack of pressure associated with filling my freezer for the year. I love big game but I feel like I am so focused and running so hard that when I punch my tags I feel relief and it's nice to be out in the field for fun.

 

[dreamingbig]

Nope. Not even close.


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[S.Clancy]

I started with ducks and geese at 9. Big game came later. At this point I strongly believe that goose hunting is a civic duty necessary to save the earth.

Sky pandas need to die.

With that said, I take them pretty close to the same. I scout, hunt hard, walk alot, etc. I can't do things "for fun".

 

[Szwampdonkey]

For me small game 100% is just about having fun or taking my 10yo along with zero pressure to find animals, though we always do.

I really dont take it seriously at all in fact I look at it as more of a diversion when im feeling burned out on bowhunting and need to take a break from it but still want to get out in the woods. It feels refreshing to sleep in on a Sat, enjoy my coffee, then head out whenever well after sun up and basically take a walk in the woods with my kid while teaching him woodsmanship and keeping him away from brain dulling devices.

 

[Maverick1]

Haven’t been interested in small game hunting since I was a young teenager. That was many years ago.

 

[Szwampdonkey]

I think kids are getting ripped off and gypped bypassing small game and going straight to deer. The small animals provide big lessons.

100% agree. Its a shame kids are made to take hunting, well most things actually, so seriously by like the age of 6 nowadays. Nothing like roaming the woods as a kid with a .22 and a friend on a nice Sept day just chasing bushytails without a care in the world.

 

[TSAMP]

How do you all feel about the overlap in big game and small game? I didn’t draw here in Colorado so my time will be spent hunting small game and predators. I know it’s my mountain too, but want to be respectful to the folks that have drawn.

I'll be interested in the responses you get. I generally don't gun hunt deer, so during our gun season I squrriel hunt my dog if upland is going slow in my area. I've had a couple run ins with guys give me a hard time and ask "do you know what day it is?" I always smile and say Saturday. I get it. They wait all year for this one weekend to hunt, and a large majority sit in a ladder stand all day long. So me and my dog walking through ruins it to them. If they push harder I generally say it's as likely I push deer to you, as I push them away. Some of this is on 100 acre pieces so I'd think it'd be less of an issue out west.

 

[TAArrowood]

I absolutely love hunting squirrels with a bow.. I have found it to be the absolute best practice for big game archery hunting.. You have to learn the habits/mannerisms of the animal you're hunting..With squirrels, just like deer, elk and other big game you actually have to learn how to hunt them, when they're alert or relaxed, what their next move is, the sounds they make, etc.. I can watch a squirrel and pretty much tell you what he's up to, why he's acting the way he is, are other animals around him, etc.. Once you learn how to read an animals behavior, a lot of it is transferable to others.. I killed 52 squirrels last season (all ground shots). After successfully and consistently taking squirrels, deer, elk and other become much easier.. Learning how to read an animals behavior and use it against him is what I enjoy most about any hunting. It's all about going into his home turf and being the ultimate predator.. Very little animal behavior is just random, it is a response to some need, fear, instinct he has to procreate, eat, survive that drives almost everything he does.. (same with most humans LOL)..

 

[Grisha]

Yes, esp. ducks. Love grouse and woodcock back east. Deer were always overpopulated and a nuisance where I grew up, so less challenging and less fun.

Out west, pretty inverted but that may also be in part because I don't have a bird dog currently.

 

[ewescue]

I agree with the original sentiment. Small game is just about fun for me, just plain old fun. Whereas big game to me is usually taken very seriously, train and scout year round, and induce probably too much unnecessary stress on myself because of it.. it is nice to every once in awhile head into the woods with a .22 or shotgun and just have fun.

 

[rtrevith]

I like the relaxed aspect of small game hunting, the ability to share with friends or my children and not necessarily have to be as quiet as deer hunting. It is also nice to have an outlet that doesn't require as big of a block of time.

 

[CobraChicken]

Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve always thought of small game as the “just have fun” side of hunting. Grab some water, knife, and a stringer then go tromping around the woods with a .22 and just have fun.

I always plan and scout more for big game (especially in the west), and seem to take it more seriously.

Anyone else feel this way?

I take it just as serious but there is more hollering and having a blast when the birds start falling, especially cackling away with buddies.

I do scout for waterfowl quite a bit but that's after the morning shoot

 

[TheGDog]

Doves I enjoy because if done right with decoys and motion decoys setup right, it's like shooting fish in a barrel.

Small game like rabbits actually takes a similar amount of effort in that you still gotta kinda scout for 'em to a certain degree. In order to find a good spot to post-up at for snipin' 'em with .17 HMR. Freaking LOVE making Rabbits do blackflips with headshots from a .17 HMR!

This one spot in particular... I was posted up in a chair with kwik stix. The year before it was frustrating because those CCI Copper-22's the trajectory starts to really begin to fall off at about 75-80yds, and that's about how far away the rabbits were presenting themselves at this particular spot.

So spurned on by that frustration (coupled with having to wait around all day in unmerciless 90+F heat just for a little bit of action at sunrise and then again around sunset). I made a plan. Did my research and found a better caliber (.17 HMR where you should be able to just hold crosshairs on 'em out to about 125yd)

Next year? Plan executed perfectly! Had my limit of 5 by 6:40a!

But as an example... this year that "tried-and-true" spot failed to have any come around.

Usually there's a bunch near the trailhead parking lot too. But I think because of the good rains this year here in SoCal... they've got a lot more thick stuff to spend their time in. So I'll have to spend some time taking sits on new locations to find another decent spot.

And that's with me taking care to arrive early such that I'm there and setup and quiet BEFORE the beginning of legal shooting time.

Another annoyance out here in SoCal is that for D11, in the regs it states shotguns only for small game. Which is dvmb as heck because the same places? I can walk right in with a centerfire rifle if I'm there to pursue predators (i.e. Non-game animals) So where in the heck in the logic in that?

I understand that they probably don't want a bunch of freshly immigrated people taking stupid shots around the foothill communities. But heck man, they should have stated such in the regs. Not do this foolishness of stating within the entire damn zone ya can't take rabbits with rifle. That's so "Bruno".

One nice thing about small game hunting is that it can turn into predator hunting whenever you want it to! I always have at least the Pocket Prey caller and maybe one or two mouth-calls, just in case. Sometimes you'll be in an area with the goal of rabbits but then you hear a buncha yips of them spotting you, so you just make mental note. And maybe on another day you go back with the goal of yotes. Since they already blabbed and showed you where they hangout at.

 

[thadf]

Small game puts the fun back into hunting.

 

[Dented]

Hunting is fun no matter what I'm after, but small game is non stop entertainment. It's the difference between catching pan fish all day long, and spending a couple weeks fishing for musky.

 

[Rangerwebb]

WV hunting in the 70’s was all small game. Very few whitetail or turkey for that matter. My dad tells the story about getting up early on a Saturday morning in the 50’s when he was a kid to drive two counties over just to look at a deer track lol.