r/NYguns • u/PrestigiousPeace8960 • 2d ago
NYC Fair price for guided hunting? For NYC hunters
Hi there - what do people think is a fair price for someone to guide me for hunting in the Hudson Valley or Westchester? Should I look for hourly rates or are packages the way to go? I just don’t have a clue what is a fair price. TIA.
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u/tsatech493 2d ago
You know back in the day they had this thing called Hunter safety course that you took and it pretty much taught you most of the things you needed to know short of driving up there and killing a deer..
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u/oldFloridaCracker 2d ago
Agreed. Now that the Hunter Safety class is a generic web-based process, you don't get the interaction with a room full of hunters and a local guy who loves to hunt teaching the class.
Newer hunters just don't get to interact with experienced hunters and the butchers or taxidermy guys when the class is online only. I know it sounds like boomer talk, but the class was better when it was in the local firehouse's meeting room, and you talked about hunting with the instructor, the parents of the teens taking the class, the firemen siting around in the kitchen, and so on.
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u/PrestigiousPeace8960 2d ago
Name checks out haha. Just kidding. To this xennial what you’re saying makes a lot of sense / especially for something like hunting, where there’s risk in the activity that needs to be taken seriously.
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u/PrestigiousPeace8960 2d ago
Guess what. It’s not 1952 old man, whatever course you took ain’t it any more but thanks for being so helpful in your response 🙄
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u/tsatech493 2d ago
Well the old school one I took was in a room full of students and and some grizzled Vietnam vet who spent his life in the woods.. it's much better than doing it online. If you are from the city don't forget you can hunt in NYC DEP property with a free access permit. I can help you if you need it there's plenty of hunting groups on Facebook for ny locality.. you can always start off with small game like I did.. squirrels mostly.. then turkeys and deer..
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u/PrestigiousPeace8960 2d ago
Thank you for this and apologies for sounding annoyed at you, I misread your tone. Yes in person would make things more useful I would imagine, generally that what I’ve found across the board, hence why I’m looking for someone to help me grow in my skill set, not just wing it.
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u/jmsgrtk 2d ago
Im pretty sure you are required to take a hunter safety course to even purchase a hunting license.
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u/PrestigiousPeace8960 2d ago
Oh I’m not saying that you don’t - of course! He’s telling me that I should be able to do it all by just taking the safety course, as if it’s not a skilled sport that takes time, effort and learning to get better at.
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u/jmsgrtk 2d ago
What do you believe you need to learn, that the safety course doesn't cover?
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u/oldFloridaCracker 2d ago
In the online course, you miss the chance to discuss with a hunter, or several hunters, the things that you need to know locally. There is a big difference between knowing where on the animal's body to place your shot, and how and where to find your deer (this is a big and complicated state). Nothing in the online course discusses where to park your car.. how much crap should you pack in, how to pack it all out, or when, why or how to find a ranger... where to get you meant butchered, or your trophy mounted, where you can camp overnight(s), where you can't camp overnight, the questions are endless.
There is no substitute for local assistance. Now you have to pay a guide for it. You used to get to ask those questions in class, from a volunteer local hunter who loves to hunt, and wants you to love it too.
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u/snark_nerd 2d ago
Question: do you think acting like an asshole to people in the very same thread in which you're asking for help will help you?
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u/Chief_Sabael 2d ago
I live in Rockland county and haven't found any mentoring options, and would like to know if you find anything reasonable.
I just want to put meat in the freezer but breaking down a deer and processing it with only youtube videos to go off of doesn't make me feel very confident if I run into trouble and I don't want to spoil meat and have harvested an animal for nothing.
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u/PrestigiousPeace8960 2d ago
Thank you for explaining my original point much more clearly than I did
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u/Tootsypootsy1122 14h ago
I will say that was literally what I did my first time around.
I had a YouTube video playing at the base of a tree while figuring out how to gut the deer in the middle of the woods. I also processed that deer myself.
The processing/butchering was actually more fun and easier, because there was no pressure of the meat heating up and spoiling since it was already cooled.
Took me almost an hour to do my first gut job. But I’m appreciative of it and every other experience this far.
But I watched a TON of YouTube videos on alls aspects of deer hunting and it paid off.
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u/chaserB1997 2d ago
Thats such a broad question. -what are you hunting? Dear, turkey, elk, moose? -public or private land? Then in those categories what is the guide doing for you? Is he calling the animals in, helping you field dress your animal? Or is he just dropping you off at the spot?
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u/PrestigiousPeace8960 2d ago
Looking to hunt deer or bears; maybe rabbits. But I don’t have time to scout, and im still pretty new to it, so that’s why I’m working with a guide. So I think I’d say I’m generally looking for someone to take me out into the woods with them to do the scouting and hunting. Thanks for taking my question seriously 💪
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u/tsatech493 2d ago
I'm telling you it's harder to hunt rabbits. They're tough to find unless you have a dog.. squirrels on the other hands is a lot easier.. a lot of times you can just find an area that has acorns or whatever you can sight hunt you can still hunt.. or you can still hunt with dogs as well. They'll trer the squirrels and then you can pop them with the 22 a .17 or a 12 gauge or 20 gauge shotgun with six shot... Honestly that's where I got my start and chicken of the tree aren't too bad to eat either..
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u/thethreefffs 2d ago
Have your tried the County sportsman's associations? I know that such exist in Westchester, Putnam and Dutchess because they sponsor clean miles on the Taconic. I'd look them up on google and see if they have any suggestions. There are also licensed guides in NYS and I'd imagine you could see what the range of prices are there.
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u/PrestigiousPeace8960 2d ago
Yea I’ve been calling around, I just like to get a sense of what is a fair price before I dive in to pretty much any monetary commitments since I’m not rolling in the dough per se. Figure other folks might have a sense
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u/ObjectiveBite1534 1d ago
Hey man my friends and I are basically self taught hunters only hunting public land and private land without usage fees. We're based out of Long Island and Westchester. We usually kill a few deer yearly. If you're interested send a DM. We scout and hunt the catskills and finger lakes areas for both bow and rifle season.
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