First year hunter

First-year bowhunter embarking on a "wing it" approach for the remainder of this season, yet eager to strategize for the upcoming fall.

Observing the substantial time commitment many hunters invest in their stands/blinds—ranging from dozens to hundreds of hours—raises the question: Are these individuals securing time off from work, enjoying retirement, or benefiting from proximity to their hunting grounds?

Considerations for Planning (offered for brainstorming purposes, with an open invitation for friendly and constructive ideas):

Household Dynamics: Two non-hunting residents at home, both frequently engaged in weekend work commitments.

Work Schedules: Two out of three hunters maintain full-time Monday to Friday employment, with schedules requiring their absence from home between 5 am and 7 pm.

Gear Evaluation: Assessment of gear for three adult-sized hunters, with a focused effort to discern essentials from mere conveniences. Recognizing the imperative need for insulated boots in the forthcoming season.

Urban Living Challenges: Residing in an urban setting (GTA - 78E) with no garage and limited backyard space poses challenges for deer processing, with potential concerns prompting complaints to the condo board.

Height Phobia: Hunter #2 contends with a fear of heights, actively working to desensitize and overcome this hindrance.

Hockey Season Overlaps: The hunting timeline intersects with hockey season, where hunter #3, involved as both player and referee, frequently participates in activities during weekends.

Distance to Hunting Location: The chosen hunting location, with proper permission, entails a substantial 2+ hours' drive from the residence (68A).

Scarce Crown Land: Scarce availability of Crown Land within a 2+ hour radius adds complexity in identifying suitable hunting areas.

Absence of Hunting Mentors: None of the hunters have benefitted from hunting mentors (parents / grandparents / etc) during their upbringing, despite originating from families with a hunting tradition. Consequently, the group lacks fundamental knowledge and is actively acquiring skills through hands-on experiences, instructional videos, and reading materials.

not sure about the hundreds of hours. the hardest part would be securing private land to hunt. Once that is done some scouting in the off season to locate spots to hunt in the bush, that shouldn't take a great deal of time if there is snow on the ground, but may take a few years to hone the exact spots down. I'm a ground blind person so might put couple hours in a year to spruce them up, maybe. A trip out to the bush to put cameras up maybe another hour. I personally put more time in helping land owner around the house or baking goodies than I spend in the bush. I probably only have 5 hours in the bush before season or after. I will help the landowner out whenever he needs help and that usually takes a couple hours each time and maybe 5 to 10 times a year. Since I hunt 2 properties can double that time. so I would guess less then 50 hours of total off season time that would include both properties. 30 minute drive to get to the bush. this was all done on weekends. but if you have a 2 hour drive one way yeah that going to add a lot of hours. Patience and time it took me a lot of years to get there, you probably young so give it time. I was probably 50 by the time I have a good place to hunt and took lots of talking to people to get there.

Woooooo that is an evaluation .....
What are you doing for living ? (If you don't mind )

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Originally Posted by RandomName

First-year bowhunter embarking on a "wing it" approach for the remainder of this season, yet eager to strategize for the upcoming fall.

Observing the substantial time commitment many hunters invest in their stands/blinds—ranging from dozens to hundreds of hours—raises the question: Are these individuals securing time off from work, enjoying retirement, or benefiting from proximity to their hunting grounds?

Considerations for Planning (offered for brainstorming purposes, with an open invitation for friendly and constructive ideas):

Household Dynamics: Two non-hunting residents at home, both frequently engaged in weekend work commitments.

Work Schedules: Two out of three hunters maintain full-time Monday to Friday employment, with schedules requiring their absence from home between 5 am and 7 pm.

Gear Evaluation: Assessment of gear for three adult-sized hunters, with a focused effort to discern essentials from mere conveniences. Recognizing the imperative need for insulated boots in the forthcoming season.

Urban Living Challenges: Residing in an urban setting (GTA - 78E) with no garage and limited backyard space poses challenges for deer processing, with potential concerns prompting complaints to the condo board.

Height Phobia: Hunter #2 contends with a fear of heights, actively working to desensitize and overcome this hindrance.

Hockey Season Overlaps: The hunting timeline intersects with hockey season, where hunter #3, involved as both player and referee, frequently participates in activities during weekends.

Distance to Hunting Location: The chosen hunting location, with proper permission, entails a substantial 2+ hours' drive from the residence (68A).

Scarce Crown Land: Scarce availability of Crown Land within a 2+ hour radius adds complexity in identifying suitable hunting areas.

Absence of Hunting Mentors: None of the hunters have benefitted from hunting mentors (parents / grandparents / etc) during their upbringing, despite originating from families with a hunting tradition. Consequently, the group lacks fundamental knowledge and is actively acquiring skills through hands-on experiences, instructional videos, and reading materials.

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Originally Posted by alfoldivandor

Woooooo that is an evaluation .....
What are you doing for living ? (If you don't mind )

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1 works in a factory
1 in an office

I would spend whatever time you have available out in the woods, even if it's not the place you intend to hunt. It's a long road to teach yourself the skills you need and I've been on it for 10 years now. You can read and watch videos but in the end you need to spend time observing and interpreting nature first hand to connect the information to reality. Every year and every experience will teach you more about what you need to do to be successful. Tying yourself to other's schedules doesn't help if you are eager to make it happen so just do whatever you can.

Why Bow hunting only ? Everything else on your list can be overcome as that's just life in general, right ? Non-hunters in the family, conflicting schedules, time/distance to hunting grounds, etc., etc. are just the beginning of problems you will have to solve. I would like to tell you that at some point you will have it all figured out but I'm 66 yrs. old , hunted all my life , had some old guys show me some tricks and have/had places/properties to hunt and yet there is always something to figure out.

If You and your buddies are seriously considering hunting(not so sure,since there are a tons of "why and how not's" in the list of challenges)perhaps consider going with an outfitter?
Most of them will have zero problem of your guys hunt from the ground.
You will have to make a time and money commitment-yet that would take away the :schedule conflicts, when to hunt ,where to hunt and how to hunt,and the guides act as indirect mentors also.

Yes,it is expensive(to a degree)but there is no free lunch in life.

Well I can empathize, when I started hunting there was no internet but I asked a lot of questions and read a lot of books. One guy mentroed me in duck/goose but I quickly gravitated to deer. Most of those books on deer hunting were not applicable to me but one was: Bowhunting Pressured Whitetails by Eberhardt. If you do half the stuff he recommends you will be good.

Secondly, in regards to fear of heights, I too had an unhealty awareness of heights but after taking a few courses in High Angle Rescue which covers roping up and down vertical elevations higher than a tree stand I now feel safer roped in up a tree than on the ground. Falling asleep is now my biggest problem. Before taking the rope courses I can say with honesty my fingernail marks are still in a few trees from 20 years ago as I clinged on for my life.

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Originally Posted by longpointer

Why Bow hunting only ?

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No PALs yet.

Find land, scout, bait, ground blind, get butcher lined up, know how to knock the guts out and skin at kill site. Drop deer off at butchers. Nobody knows a thing. Good luck.

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Originally Posted by contaucreek

Find land, scout, bait, ground blind, get butcher lined up, know how to knock the guts out and skin at kill site. Drop deer off at butchers. Nobody knows a thing. Good luck.

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You make it sound so easy!

Toughest part in my experience has been land access. I will probably pick up crossbow hunting just because gun hunting season is mayhem, even on crown land it is difficult to find some space to yourself in southern and eastern ontario.

the part about nobody knows a thing, has me wondering what you mean. I'd never skin a deer at site of kill as it would be difficult to keep meat clean.

try and see if any hunting camps are taking new members, if they are try to get in asap because it will fill up quick. and be ready to put in alot of work. in the mean time you all need to watch alot of videos, buy a bunch of books and read alot. i have a few i could recommend if you wanna pm me, i know a bunch of people here would have alot of recommendations as well. if you all have 0 idea what you guys are doing my best advice is hunt small game first and work your way up. sure you could go for deer, anythign could happen, you could shoot one and kill it. then what do you do? you could search youtube for a video how to gut a deer, but what happens if the shot wasnt clean, what happens if its a gut shot? etc etc. ive seen some nasty gut shots that have ruined almost a quarter of a deer before. shooting is probably the easiest part of the whole thing, and trust me its not as easy as you think it is, especially when its your first time seeing a massive buck, youll forget that you need to breathe you legs wont stop shaking and youll prob scare him away with the sound of your teeth chattering from shaking in your blind.

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Originally Posted by sabmgb

the part about nobody knows a thing, has me wondering what you mean. I'd never skin a deer at site of kill as it would be difficult to keep meat clean.

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Hang to skin and tarp the rest. There was a concern about dealing with the deer at home. I'm trying to help with options. There are cutters that will also skin.