Small game and bird hunting is pretty easy if you have decent marksmanship. SAFETY, as with any gun activity is the goal. I just finished working a fatal hunting accident that occurred due to violating the gun safety laws.

Big game, totally different. I start people out on Antelope, maybe coyote or deer and make them go along for at least one season. A mistake with a high powered rifle is pretty much irreversible! Then I make them shoot 100 rounds in a variety of postions and a variety of ranges to establish their range limits, over 3 or 4 range trips. Spending several weeks in the woods in the summer and fall with no tag to fill will allow you to practice your spotting, stalking and woods skills. Obviously fieldcraft is for some people and not for others. If you want to hunt, that is one thing. Filling the freezer is another, road hunting yet another and Trophy hunting yet another. I spent 3 weeks in Mt. Zierkel Wilderness followig elk herds around one autumn, living off the land, learning the animals. Now, 100 head of big game later, that was still the most productive time I may have ever spent on anything.