Sarley: Several animals are off my list when it comes to hunting

Last week I talked about purchasing your first shotgun and finding a mentor to help you learn the ins and outs of using it.

Knowing somebody who has ample land and will allow you to target shoot on their property is the ideal situation, but these opportunities are few. The best thing is to find a club to shoot at.

You’ve probably seen shooters targeting skeet and trap. Pretty basic stuff. Five-stand and sporting clays are two other disciplines that I find exceptionally challenging and a lot of fun. The targets are launched from everywhere. You’ve got to have fast reflexes and a keen eye. Clays and five-stand are a lot of fun in my book. I enjoy firing my weapon at targets and challenging myself.

Now that you have mastered shooting, you will probably be ready to tackle the sport of hunting. What to hunt? I have never shot any of God’s creatures that I did not plan on preparing for my family’s dinner table.

Illinois has a totally open season for coyotes. Not for me. They don’t bother me much, so I say leave them alone. I’ll try eating anything once, so I’ve had raccoon, but fox, opossum, crows, bobcat and woodchuck are off my list of targets. The idea of hunting skunks is totally reprehensible to me.

Rabbits are delicious and are difficult to hunt. They run very fast and zig and zag and are tough to hit. The problem is that you really need a good rabbit dog to chase rabbits. Beagles make the best rabbit dogs. These animals work tirelessly to hunt down rabbits. It is quite a sight to watch how hard the dogs work. Unfortunately, it’s hard to find a hunting partner that has such a talented canine.

It is probably best to begin your hunting career at a stocked pheasant farm. You can find economical pheasant clubs all over. These clubs are inhabited by shooters like me. I used to work for a guy who shot at a club that was totally out of my league. He’d shoot a few game birds and then have a brandy and a Cuban cigar while the help cleaned his birds. That’s not my style.

These pheasant operations buy birds and keep and feed them in cages until it is time to release them. You are supplied with a guide and dog or you can bring your own animal. Maybe this wasn’t what Teddy Roosevelt had in mind when he wrote his rules about fair chase. Me, I’d prefer to hunt for wild pheasants, but they just aren’t found in Northern Illinois anymore.

Out in Kendall County, you’ll find pheasants out in the wild, but they aren’t truly wild birds. They are escapees from pheasant hunting clubs.

You may have heard about an early Canada goose season in Illinois. It’s almost over. You can shoot geese Sept. 1-15, but hardly anybody does it. Why is that? Although you see Canada geese everywhere, the places you see them are the places where you are not allowed to shoot them.

You know they are everywhere because you are always seeing their little green leftovers at the neighborhood park or when you are trying to line up a putt at the local course. I’ll bet you’ve sworn at those honkers a time or too.

Well, you can’t shoot geese at most of the locations you see them. You’ll have to wait for the actual opening of goose season. We’ll talk about geese, ducks, quail, turkey and whitetail deer when we meet again next week.

• Daily Herald Outdoors columnist Steve Sarley can be reached at sarfishing@yahoo.com.