Hunting - Getting Started

Mathieu18

Mathieu18

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2A Bourbon Hound 2024
2A Bourbon Hound OG
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I have to confess, I’ve never hunted. Interested in checking out Dove season this year. Can anyone point me in a good direction? I gather I need to do the Hunter safety course, looks like it’s online now? And get a license but if it’s like fishing I assume I just need to pay the man his dues and I’m good to go? Then how does one find a good place? Just the gamelands and dove fields (which IIRC were terrible last year?) I’m in Southeastern NC if it makes a difference).

Anyway, whoever grilled dove jalapeño poppers last year got me hungry. Can anyone point me in a good direction?
 
Yes, generally, licenses are annual, but if your 50 you can buy a lifetime one. Yes, in order to qualify for a license you need to be in the system for a safety course. They’re free. I took mine taught by a local gun range in Greensboro. I remember at the break, watching the instructors daughter come in and examine all the firearms. She was well trained in gun safety. You can find the classes on the DNR website.

Sorry I can’t help you with doves, but if you want some deer, they’re plentiful and easy to get from my parents front porch.
 
There's a pile of hunt clubs over in the Green Swamp. Mostly doggers. I used to belong to Jones Hunt Club.
9000ac IIRC just North of Shallotte off 130/17. Then moved to Burgaw and switched to Long Bluff HC ~29000ac.
Dunno outside of that but point being there's places available to those who look. Networking is key.

Far as doves are concerned all I can say is prepare to be humbled..
And take 3x as many shells as ya think ya need. 🤣 🤣
 
Ben Jefferson said:
They do alot of coon hunting in SE North Carolina!
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An excuse to get drunk and fall inna briar patch or creek.. The Old Man and the Boy.
An excuse to talk smack to yer buddies about their dogs all night.. SE Hunt Club Coon Hunter.
Kinda like King Mackerel fishing it's much ado about something nobody really wants to eat! ~~Yers truly. 🤣 🤣 🤣
 
If ya really wanna "set the hook" in yerself get a copy of "The Old Man and the Boy" by Robert Ruark and read it.
Ya don't hafta be a book readin kinda guy to thoroughly enjoy this.
There's a little somethin missing from an outdoorsman that hasn't read that series.
And +1 it's based mostly in the Southport area.
The "Old Man" is buried in ILM and the Willing-But-Slow used to run thru my old yard off Dosher Cutoff. 😺 👴
 
noway2 said:
Yes, generally, licenses are annual, but if your 50 you can buy a lifetime one.
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You can get a life time licenses at any age, but under 1 y/o is the cheapest, about $200. 1 to 11 is $371. After 12 y/o it goes up to $530. Then once you hit 50 it's half price, $265. There are other prices for seniors, 70+. The new regulation book does not list the prices, but you can find them online.
 
Dove hunting is fun. Even if you miss a lot (like me!)! So definitely take extra shells. I usually just take 100. Game lands are a good start. The ones up here in wake county around falls lake aren’t too bad. They used to plant sunflowers and that was great. Now it’s corn.

Also take lots of snacks and a cooler in the car with drinks for that mid day break. I like dove hunting, especially with a few buddies. Just don’t get to get out as often as I like during the season.
 
NC was doing online hunter safety classes during the scamdemic. Not sure if they are still doing those or not but ALOT more convenient than driving across town.
 
noway2 said:
Yes, generally, licenses are annual, but if your 50 you can buy a lifetime one. Yes, in order to qualify for a license you need to be in the system for a safety course. They’re free. I took mine taught by a local gun range in Greensboro. I remember at the break, watching the instructors daughter come in and examine all the firearms. She was well trained in gun safety. You can find the classes on the DNR website.

Sorry I can’t help you with doves, but if you want some deer, they’re plentiful and easy to get from my parents front porch.
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Tell your mom and dad I'll be in the blue F150 in their driveway on opening day. They can have the tenderloins
 
cchioda3 said:
Dove hunting is fun. Even if you miss a lot (like me!)! So definitely take extra shells. I usually just take 100. Game lands are a good start. The ones up here in wake county around falls lake aren’t too bad. They used to plant sunflowers and that was great. Now it’s corn.

Also take lots of snacks and a cooler in the car with drinks for that mid day break. I like dove hunting, especially with a few buddies. Just don’t get to get out as often as I like during the season.
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So Sunflowers good? We’re going to plant a couple acres in the spring, my land. That’ll be even better if so. Guess I’ll get my course done and get a license and see if I can hit a game lands down this way.
 
Mathieu18 said:
So Sunflowers good? We’re going to plant a couple acres in the spring, my land. That’ll be even better if so. Guess I’ll get my course done and get a license and see if I can hit a game lands down this way.
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I’ve heard so anyway. I feel like I have seen more dove when they planted sunflowers over corn at the game land fields.
 
beamernc said:
You can get a life time licenses at any age, but under 1 y/o is the cheapest, about $200. 1 to 11 is $371. After 12 y/o it goes up to $530. Then once you hit 50 it's half price, $265. There are other prices for seniors, 70+. The new regulation book does not list the prices, but you can find them online.
Click to expand...
Cool. I chose the lifetime after turning 50. TBH, I hadn’t thought much about it till then, but then at 50 my mother suggested that if I were interested in harvesting deer, it was a cheap way to go.

We did bag a deer last December, and I did report it and record the “stamp” but I didn't bother sending in the head for CWD analysis or take it to a processor (a reason to record it). Instead, it got strung up and processed right on our own property.
 
My father taught me a lesson when I first started hunting. If you harvest a deer off of someone's property, take a tenderloin to the land owner as a thank you for the permission to hunt. Doing so paves the way for more hunts. Take care of the land and landowner.

As more and more land is turned into subdivisions, it's harder for hunters to find places to hunt. Best of luck. Be safe.
 
When I was ~12 I hunted with an old man who had a Fice dog for squirrels and knew many dove fields around Bear Creek.
That was some large living for a kid.
His favorite fields were planted in Milo.. :cool:
 
I thought if you were born before a certain year you didn't have to show proof of hunters safety. Still a good course to take regardless. Sort of a right of passage for young kids, I made my son sit through the class as apposed to online.
 
Used to be. This is what it says now:

North Carolina Hunter Education Requirement​

All first-time license buyers must first successfully complete a hunter education course. There is no minimum age requirement to take the hunter education course.
At 16 years of age, individuals are required to successfully complete a hunter education course prior to obtaining a hunting license in North Carolina. A youth under age 16, accompanied by a properly licensed adult, may enjoy those privileges conveyed by the licenses held by the accompanying adult.
On or after July 1, 2013, a person, regardless of age, may not purchase a hunting license in this State without producing one of the following, a hunter education certificate of competency, a NC hunting heritage apprentice permit, or a NC hunting license issued prior to July 1, 2013.
 
I would suggest either going somewhere to shoot skeet or get your own thrower. If you can hit skeet you can hit birds. And FYI never heard of The old man and the boy. I cut my teeth hunting eastern NC outside of Bath small game and deer. The bear population wasn’t as large back when! Enjoy and remember it isn’t as easy as they show on TV!
But far more rewarding!
 
Ruark wrote some good stuff. According to some friends who went to school with him, he was a jerk but could certainly write good stuff. The Old Man and the Boy is a good read. I have enjoyed Something of Value and Use Enough Gun over the years.
 
I know of Raurk but haven’t really read his stuff, I’ll have to check it out.
 
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