Spuds, I think as a high school coach you may have half the battle won by maybe being able to find private land to hunt. Lots of farm kids’ parents will return a favor to you by letting you hunt while they deny others.
I’d say start reading hunting pages and magazines that have articles on deer more specific to your area….Minnesota = white-tails. Idaho = mule deer. Take late evening drives with binocs along so you can determine where deer concentrate during or just after deer season.
Pick out a couple of guns you’ll be using the next year and buy the slugs or ammunition you’ll need and start hitting the range on Saturdays or Sundays so the both of you get intimately aware of your guns and where they are shooting at a given range, say 100 yards. Now practice at random distances inside that 100 yards. Shoot a lot so when you pull the trigger on a deer its second nature to you.
Late winter is a great time to start looking for an actual place to hunt by simply stopping by and introducing yourself and your son if the people don’t already know you. Having a plat book can be a great aide too. Be neat looking, no smells of alcohol or smoke….you’re there to sell yourself. Once you’ve landed some permission make sure its ok for the two of you to hike in and scout around looking for deer sign from earlier in the fall, rubs are usually very visible and advertise that bucks are around. The more you become familiar with any property the more adaptable you can be in creating stand sites and adjusting your hunting to wind conditions each day.
Eyes on pages is good for learning terminology and getting some basic ideas in place but so much of what’s written has an underlying advertisement attached to it and one needs to be able to filter that crap out. Nothing will beat feet on the ground, as in walking the property and finding the travel corridors and secondary trails. Bedding locations can be viewed easily when there’s some snow. Having a topographical map of the area is a huge bonus to sit down to at night and study what you’ve seen first hand. Pick some stand areas, clean some lanes to shoot in. And one thing….once you know where the bedding area is and the trails that come and go from it, never go back into it. Ever. You’ll already know what you need from outside of it.
Then its hunt. Reading can help out a lot but nothing will replace or be better than first hand, on the spot, experience. Expect mistakes and learn from them, but most of all stay open in mind and have fun at it. You won’t learn everything in a season and will likely be learning for years to come but learning together can be a super good way to hold on to the boy for years down the road if this becomes tradition. When you’re gone, your son will have everything he needs to pass this tradition down to his children…hopefully.
Good luck at this!
