Small Game Hunting Instruction

With September in Virginia comes an early taste of hunting season. Doves, squirrels and Canada geese are all in season during that month and there is plenty of good public land on which to hunt any of them. Having been an advocate for using all of these species as a food source, I want to encourage new and aspiring hunters to go out there and eat them.

While I am always happy to dispense information via email (and this blog) free of charge, many people don't feel comfortable going out and hunting by themselves for the first time, even after taking the free DGIF hunter's safety class. This is why I'm going to offer guided hunts for beginners on a limited basis during the month of September.

This is going to be a little bit different from most guided hunts, because the purpose here is not to put a trophy on your wall. It isn't even to fill your whole legal bag limit. The aim will be to teach you how to hunt and dress your own small game for food.

We will be hunting doves and squirrels on either public or private land, depending where I am seeing the prey in good numbers during scouting trips before your arrival. Dove hunting on wildlife management areas is only permitted on Wednesdays and Saturdays and all hunting is still (archaically) illegal in Virginia on Sundays. I will be available on both weekdays and weekends.

All students must hold a valid Virginia hunting license in order to participate. This can be either an apprentice license or a standard license. A rifle or shotgun can be provided if necessary. If you require basic instruction with a .22 rifle or a shotgun then this can be included, although that will either have to happen on another day or cut significantly into our hunting time.

The cost is $100 per day, per person. For safety reasons, no more than 2 hunters can be accommodated at a time. Students will need to be in good enough physical shape to walk several miles on woodland trails in unpredictable weather.

This will not be a canned hunt. I cannot guarantee for certain that you will end up taking any meat home, although I will certainly do my best. What I can promise is that you will come away from the experience with a good idea of how to go about hunting several species of small game and hopefully with the confidence to go out and do this on your own.

By the way, the deer hunting classes will be scheduled again once the weather cools down. Through the end of September I expect that it will still be too hot for us to transport a whole, un-gutted deer to the field-dressing site for the class to work on without serious risk of spoilage.

Interested people may contact me at jack.landers@gmail.com