New Hunter Resources

[Samkha]

Hey everyone. New hunter here looking for some advice. I have been spending months on this forum, reading reviews, buying gear, reading articles and user stories. This has been a great resource. This year I had my first successful white tail deer hunt in Montana.

I am also trying to wrap my head around the various states drawing systems, as well as points and preferences. I live in Southern California, so there are not a lot of hunting opportunities. I imagine I will be traveling out of state for most of my hunts. I had one friend recommend Eastman’s Hunting Journal and another recommend the Hunting Fool. Just wanted to see if anyone here has experience with either. Or if both, which do you prefer?

 

[menhaden_man]

I used to get western hunter magazine but never really got into it. You might be better off picking up a couple books. Open Country Mule Deer (Dwight Scuh) and Robby Dennings book are good ones to start with.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Rinella puts out a couple of nice guide books. Plenty of good info within the meateater network. Brian Call on his gritty site is also good resource. If you get lucky, you might be able to pick the brains of one of these high flying rock slide moderators. Pro tip, if anyone helps you personally, send a gift. Dunkin doughnuts giftcard, Dairy Queen coupons (@Randy Newberg ) cabelas card...

points and applications are a bit of voodoo for me and many like me. Would be interested in responses.

FWIW, apparently there is more public land hunting in SoCal than i or many thought And it isnt all on Tejon ranch. I talked to a guy that hunts the angeles national forest and some areas near riverside and east of San Diego. He said that, like many places, there is a lot of pressure near the parking lots and trail heads, but if you are willing to walk, you can get away from the crowds.

 

[Samkha]

Rinella puts out a couple of nice guide books. Plenty of good info within the meateater network. Brian Call on his gritty site is also good resource. If you get lucky, you might be able to pick the brains of one of these high flying rock slide moderators. Pro tip, if anyone helps you personally, send a gift. Dunkin doughnuts giftcard, Dairy Queen coupons (@Randy Newberg ) cabelas card...

points and applications are a bit of voodoo for me and many like me. Would be interested in responses.

FWIW, apparently there is more public land hunting in SoCal than i or many thought And it isnt all on Tejon ranch. I talked to a guy that hunts the angeles national forest and some areas near riverside and east of San Diego. He said that, like many places, there is a lot of pressure near the parking lots and trail heads, but if you are willing to walk, you can get away from the crowds.

Thanks for the response. I do have Rinella’s book Hunting and Cooking Wild Game.

I believe California has the most public land out of any state (but I could be wrong). I do a lot of upland bird hunting here. But I have a friend who hunts deer in the Angeles Forrest also but he spends a good portion of the year scouting and he still has a tough time. He shot a nice buck last year and had to hike it out like 10 miles, with the help of another guy. I’ll for sure still try to hunt locally, but want to apply for tags in other states too.

I like your advise of sending a gift. Great idea to thank someone for their time and effort.

 

[Ace531]

Check out Randy Newburg's Youtube channel. He has a lot of great videos explaining every western state's tag/draw systems and how their points systems work (if they have it). It was great for me since they're all so different from one state to the next and can range from rather straightforward to mind-numbingly confusing, and he breaks it down so idiots like me can understand it LOL.

 

[Samkha]

Check out Randy Newburg's Youtube channel. He has a lot of great videos explaining every western state's tag/draw systems and how their points systems work (if they have it). It was great for me since they're all so different from one state to the next and can range from rather straightforward to mind-numbingly confusing, and he breaks it down so idiots like me can understand it LOL.

I will definitely do that.

Also I just found out today that some states require you to purchase a hunting license prior to applying for a tag. I figured I could apply, then if I draw a tag I could buy the license. Sounds like the yearly expense just to put in for draws in several states is going to cost more then I thought.

 

[Bigbenhunter98]

I second Randy Newberg... Also would recommend Elk101 if you're into elk hunting

 

[Samkha]

I second Randy Newberg... Also would recommend Elk101 if you're into elk hunting

Im in a Randy Newberg black hole. Spent most of the day watching his videos instead of working.

 

[Ggj80]

Gohunt.com insider. Explanations of the draw process for each state. Very detailed info.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[ScottR_EHJ]

Well, I will shameless plug a few things we have going on that help the new hunter, plus we have some pretty cool things coming from the TagHub side of Eastmans' that many NR hunters will be interested in.

In TagHub we put together a state overview for each of the 11 western states and explain their draws. The biggest challenge we have right now is the shear number of applications, thank you Covid. Navigating the world of point creep is going to be an even deeper theme than we have been fighting.

We put together a couple of handbooks, one for mule deer and one for elk that are available only inside of the TagHub platform. These cover the basic tactics side of things and we have some cool new things in the works that will be great resources.

The data side of things lays out pretty clearly based on trophy ratings, but it is pretty easy to find and get a visual on pressure from the heat maps we have as well.

 

[BigPun]

Well, I will shameless plug a few things we have going on that help the new hunter, plus we have some pretty cool things coming from the TagHub side of Eastmans' that many NR hunters will be interested in.

In TagHub we put together a state overview for each of the 11 western states and explain their draws. The biggest challenge we have right now is the shear number of applications, thank you Covid. Navigating the world of point creep is going to be an even deeper theme than we have been fighting.

We put together a couple of handbooks, one for mule deer and one for elk that are available only inside of the TagHub platform. These cover the basic tactics side of things and we have some cool new things in the works that will be great resources.

The data side of things lays out pretty clearly based on trophy ratings, but it is pretty easy to find and get a visual on pressure from the heat maps we have as well.

This is great, thank you!

 

[ScottR_EHJ]

This is great, thank you!

Let me know if you have any questions, we are aggressively adding to the discount codes page as well. Helps a new hunter get a few killer deals and makes cost of entry for quality gear a little easier. At least that is what I tell my wife!