First time (deer) hunting.

[ducktoller]

Me and a buddy of mine are starting hunting this year. No one in our family hunts and we will have no clue what we are doing.

Likely gonna be initially hunting (deer) out of Pemberton and surrounding communities, or Coquialla summit area. Both of us are happy to get out and hike into the backcountry. For vehicle I currently have a 2wd ranger, won't be able to upgrade for another year or so.

Any books/movies that might help on learning would be great.

inb4 "use search"

[Salty]

Hey, welcome to the site ducktoller. I take you have a ducktoller? Cool dogs my buddy's got one. Experience begins when you get out there, some scouting trips this summer looking for tracks and hopefully deer standing in them! For reading there's often excellent how to articles for various types of hunting in magazines. BC Outdoors is our classic, there's a couple Western Canadian rags and of course tons from the states. From the areas you describe you'll be looking at mule deer and blacktail I would say. A little further out towards the Okanagan you get in to white tail. Scan the covers of the magazines for decent articles on mulies and blacktail and buy a few. Have fun with it..

[ducktoller]

Thanks for the insight, I do have a young toller puppy, she will still be too young for this waterfowling season but she already loves to retrieve. Will hopefully be doing some scouting in the next few weeks.

Yeah we were looking at Mulies for Region 2 since we still need our CORE done so we missed the LEH :(

[Salty]

I'm going to guess you won't have much trouble training her to retrieve. My buddy's female was about 2 or 3 and had never seen a gun let alone a grouse. She was in the back of my then Pathfinder we were on an old trail in the north OK. Spotted a nice fat ruffed grouse on the trail, got out with the ol .22, knelt down and shot it. At the crack of the gun she launched herself from the back came airborn out of the drivers side window I'd left half open and was on that grouse in a few seconds! LOL

[Iron Glove]

Well, seeing as how you have a Toller, you are allright in my books however you really need two before you are fully accepted.
Do a little searching on this site and you'll find there are a number of Toller owners including at least one who takes his red devil along deer hunting.
Re the deer tho' the Coq. has it's areas such as the infamous Lawless FSR but if you are prepared to head a little further towards the Tulameen area there are lots of great areas for Mule Deer and the White tails are slowly moving closer too.
PM me closer to the fall season and I'll help you with the Coq. - Tulameen area if I can.

[hunterdon]

Welcome Ducktoller. Good to see some new blood to our sport. What I would suggest is go to your local sporting goods store. Many have tutorial videos on a wide range of hunting topics such as how to field dress your game, deer hunting strategies and tactics and so on. I started out this way many moons ago, and like you none in my family hunted either. You can probably rent them for cheap. As a beginner, I found these tutorial videos to be very helpful.
Best wishes in your hunting endeavors!!!!

[Singleshotneeded]

X2 Ducktoller...pick up a book or two, or videos...as well, you can google up tons on info online as well! Welcome!
Hunterdon...that actually happens in nature...it's not humans...so why do you have trouble with the rut? :-D

[BuckNaked]

Im in the same boat as you Toller, looking to bag my first deer this fall as well, get the Backwoods Mapbooks for this area and the Thompson if you havent already. Im looking at the Skagit Valley, West side of Harrison, and the Coq summit area as well.

[adriaticum]

I don't have trouble with the rut, but I do find the misplaced photo along with the vernacular to be inappropriate. This is a public forum for any and all to view. That shouldn't be too difficult to understand.

Ok Sir, I promise to behave.
I will repent and say 10 Hail Marys before I go to bed today.

[BearSupreme]

Glad to hear you are getting into hunting! There is a lifetime of fun and good memories ahead of you. Do some scouting this summer. All the big bucks are up in the hills right now, so keep that in mind. When they start to rut they come down for some sweet doe action. Look for sign, no sign, no deer, no matter how good it looks and how you think there should be deer everywhere. Look for tracks, rubs on small trees, food like alders and grass and of course water. Ive once heard that 90% of the animals are in 10% of the area, so it takes a while to find your honey hole, but when you do, hit it hard. Youtube is an awesome resource for learning hunting/gutting/cutting ect.

All the best to you!

[Jelvis]

If you try the Coq5 summit region you should see a deer to try a well placed shot.
Better to spend your hunting time in prime deer hunting country in the south central interior than squeezing thru the wet rain forest, vine maple, devils club, thick brush like down in the Vancouver area and the Fraser valley.
Carpenter Lake would be a great choice for top quality mule deer habitat above the man made lake.
Pemberton and up towards Lillooet for mule deer.
Hunt high early than hunt lower after the snows stay on the ground,
Hunt the rut in November for a muley buck in rut, big strong bucks with a rack 24 inch minimum wide at least a four point.
Jel .. If you want real good mules go up towards Clearwater, Region 3 late October to end of November.

[604redneck]

Adriaticum......Common guy. Next time try posting something a little more appropriate.
Nothing wrong with the truth is there?

[Moose63]

Don't forget the library. Tons of books available, and it's free (sort of)....I liked the books by Duncan Gilchrist

[Lillypuff]

postill lake, trapping creek in the Kelowna area, jamison creek, tunkwa lake in the kamloops area. A couple of general areas for you

[BCKyle]

A few good books:

Still-Hunting Trophy whitetails by Bill Vaznis
Mule Deer Country by Val Geist
Mapping Trophy Bucks by Brad Herndon

Just had my first deer hunting season last fall and working on getting my first bear right now. Those books gave me some ideas to try next deer season for sure! Still-Hunting TWs is great for info on hunting tactics and covers a lot of useful info. Mapping Trophy Bucks was less useful to me overall but had some really good info on deer behaviour and where they travel.

Good luck this season! Get out and look for a bear right now; it's good scouting if nothing else! I've found a couple new little areas already while stumbling around looking for blackies that I am looking forward to checking out in deer season.

[bigredchev]

buy good boots,pack water and a lunch and get out there. Books and vids are great and all but what counts is getting out there and spending time, seeing game trails, mannerisms, identifying, etc. No substitube for the real thing, try stalking into shooting range and lining up your binos.

[ducktoller]

Thanks for all the tips, I'll order some books and stop by wholesalE sports for some
movies/guides.

fortunately I already have good zamberlin mountaineering boots so that is one less eexpense. Hopefully scouting and looking for sheds in the next few weeks