Workshop targets new and novice hunters
The young man had taken a feral hog — shot and cleanly killed the porker while participating in a public hunt on a Texas wildlife management area. And he was rightly ecstatic.
That both pleased and somewhat surprised Marc Ealy.
As the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department wildlife conservation biologist who manages the tract, he was happy to have one less invasive pig competing with native wildlife and savaging the landscape. And it was gratifying to have had a hand in providing an opportunity for a fellow Texan to get afield and enjoy the multifaceted rewards that recreational hunting provides. But Ealy was a little surprised the young man standing next to the prostrate pig had been successful.
It was obvious the guy was new to hunting. His clothes were wrong — too lightweight for the conditions and in colors that didn’t blend into the natural landscape. His other gear, including his firearm, was mismatched for the task. His knowledge of woodsmanship, game behavior and hunting tactics was, to be kind, limited.
Still, he was enthusiastic about hunting and, somehow, despite his unspoken lack of experience, he had taken a pig. And now it was time to handle the tasks that come after the shot is made and the game is down.
“I told him he needed to field-dress the hog before we dragged it out. He was obviously nervous about that,” Ealy said. “I asked him if he had a knife. He said he did, and pulled out this huge thing. It was a like a sword. There was no way you could use that thing to field-dress a game animal.” Here’s how it’s done
Ealy, a veteran hunter, pulled out the knife he carries for such things — a Gerber with a 3-inch, razor-sharp blade — and he and the young man field-dressed the pig, Ealy coaching the obviously inexperienced hunter in the first phase of transforming the feral hog into the wonderful meals these animals can provide.
Such incidents are not rare. Among Texas’ 1.2 million or so licensed hunters are a contingent of new or novice hunters who lack many of the basic skills and knowledge more experienced hunters tend to take for granted. Many are young adults — men and, increasingly, women — who did not grow up in a hunting family but are drawn to hunting as a way to directly connect with the natural world and, for an increasing number, accept the responsibility of obtaining fresh, highquality, healthy, sustainably produced meat for themselves and their families.
“You have people who come to hunting relatively later in life — who didn’t grow up hunting with their fathers and grandfathers, other relatives or friends. They didn’t have those mentors to teach them the basics,” Bill Balboa said. “They’re open to hunting. They want to do it. But they don’t know where to start or how to go about it. And they don’t know what to do with game if they’re lucky enough to be successful. How do you field-dress a deer? How do you butcher it? How do you handle and prepare it?”
Balboa knows this firsthand. He began hunting in his 20s and faced many of the same obstacles other new, novice or even prospective hunters face.
“I was lucky; I had friends who took me under their wing and helped me,” said Balboa, who works as Matagorda County coastal and marine resources extension agent for Texas A&MAgriLife and Texas Sea Grant. “But there are a lot of new and novice hunters, and some not-so-new hunters, who are looking for that kind of basic help and are too embarrassed to ask for it or don’t know how to go about getting it.” A chance to learn
Balboa and Ealy have an idea of how to begin addressing those issues.
They have put together a day-long, hands-on event aimed at giving new and novice deer and feral hogs hunters a crash course in much of the basic knowledge and skills required to hunt those game animals, how to handle them after they are taken and how to make best use of the wonderful meat those animals provide.
That event — New Hunter Workshop-A Field to Table Introduction to Big Game Hunting in Texas — is set for Oct. 15 at the 3,700-acre Nannie Stringfellow Wildlife Management Area off County Road 317 near Brazoria. Hours are 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
The workshop, cooperatively put together by Texas AgriLife Extension and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, will have volunteer instructors and mentors offering insights, knowledge and skills focused on big-game hunting in Texas.
Topics covered will include information on Texas’ public hunting programs and insights into hunting those areas, hunting clothing and equipment, hunting regulations and firearms and ammunition selection for different game animals.
The firearms portion of the workshop will include a look at the different calibers and actions of rifles for big-game hunting in Texas and basic instruction in marksmanship and firearms and hunting safety. Staff from TPWD’s hunter education program will have .22-caliber rifles for the safe-gun handling and marksmanship training, with participants having the opportunity to fire as many as 50 rounds during that part of the workshop. Hands-on approach
Those participating in the workshop will get some serious hands-on practice at one of the most important skills a hunter needs — handling game after the shot. The workshop will include information on selecting knives and other tools for field-dressing, skinning and quartering game and include a live demonstration of basic field-dressing game using a recently taken feral hog or deer.
Then the participants will be divided into small groups and get hands-on practice in skinning and quartering feral hogs or deer provided by the workshop.
Susan Ebert, hunter and author of “The Field to Table Cookbook,” will present a session on handling and preparing feral hog and venison.
The workshop is limited to 30 participants. There is a registration fee of $50 to cover costs, which includes lunch. For more information or to register for the workshop, contact Bill Balboa at bill.balboa@ag.tamu.edu or call 979245-4100.
“We realize we’re going to be able to only scratch the surface on some of these things; there’s so much to hunting that it’s impossible to learn it all in a lifetime,” Ealy said. “But we’re going to give people good, basic, useful information that can get them started — make them feel more comfortable and competent.”