I've been browsing the forum quite a bit last week or so, and something I've noticed to be lacking (when compared to forums for my other hobbies) are threads that provide basic, but concrete information on various hunting-related topics for fresh newbies.
Some examples:
- Buying your first firearm
- Essential gear/equipment; everything from footwear, to clothing, to knives and emergency equipment
- What "is" hunting? Finding a location, hiking, best tips, how to do this and that.
- Field-dressing the animal and transporting it to your vehicle
- Unspoken rules / common courtesy items that all hunters know, but may not be obvious to others
A dedicated (and stickied) thread on each of these topics (and more, I'm sure) would be very valuable to newbies like me, and would certainly make getting into hunting seem like less of an overwhelming experience. Lots of this information is already available, but it's scattered through thousands of threads and is very hard to get a solid grasp on.
For example, when I got into motorcycling some seven years ago, I didn't know a single person that rode bikes and wasn't aware of any resources; I didn't even know about bike schools - the thought never even crossed my mind. I learned mainly through trial & error and the school of hard knocks (some harder than I would have liked!). I went through many of sets of gear, buying this and buying that because I thought it would be useful, and ending up wasting massive amounts of money on things I didn't need. If I had a thread that outlined the basic essentials of gear (as well as optional "nice to haves") and what to look for when choosing it, I could have saved massive amounts of money & headache, and generally enjoyed the hobby a lot more. The same concept applies to hunting.
Any experienced locals up to the task of throwing some info together? Thoughts?
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