5 Best Books for Hunters

Unless you want something specific, you won’t find the best books about deer hunting on many best-hunting books list . It is far better to compile a list of useful books that span a range of hunting adventures and how to use the skills you’ll learn.

Hunting, fishing books should last for years and remain relevant regardless of the technology and advancements. Hunting and fishing have been around since the dawn of time, and things will not change any time soon.

So, it doesn’t matter if you need to purchase something to read for the hunting and fishing expert in the family or new hunters seeking inspiration; for every American Hunter, we have picked the top 5 how-to-hunt book options there are. (Read How to Get Started Hunting)

Each has been taken as it has proven far more informative and worthy of reading than any hunting novels. None of these are hunting story books and are packed with useful tips and information on how you can be a better hunter during the season and what to do with your kill once you have it.

By the end, you’ll see which books can teach you skills that are handy in all areas and what you can’t find in the best deer hunting books alone.

The Complete Guide to Hunting Butchering and Cooking Wild Game Volume 1 Big Game

The Complete Guide to Hunting, Butchering, and Cooking Wild Game: Volume 1: Big Game

There’s no better way to end a successful hunt than with a sumptuous home-cooked meal prepared with the spoils of your hunt. Wild game might earn a poor rap if hunters don’t treat or cook their meat properly.

Steven Rinella is one of those writers who knows what they are doing. He has done a fantastic job in this book of offering step-by-step directions on how to break down and cook the most common species of North American game and fish, like his enormously successful guides to hunting wild game collection covered previously. (Read Mini Crossbow Legality)

While this book is geared toward new hunters, it has a wealth of information that even seasoned bowhunting experts would appreciate.

With over four hundred full-color images published, including work by famous outdoor photographer John Hafner, this comprehensive big-game hunting book is ideal for hunters ranging from first-time novices to seasoned specialists.

Steven Rinella grew up in a hunting family and has spent his entire life pursuing wild game. He is the host of the renowned hunting show MeatEater, and shows his own skills, as well as ideas and tactics from many of the most experienced hunters in the United States.

In this first-ever entire guide to hunting, it betters the best bow hunting books by far as it covers everything from hunting the animal, slaughtering the bucks, and cooking them.

Information found in this good hunting book include:

  • Equipment recommendations: What you need and what you can do without. Clothing, camping gear, gun, and bow to camping gear you need in the wilderness.
  • Hunting Strategies: He covers basic to advanced hunting techniques such as spot-and-stalk hunting, ambush hunting, still hunting, drive hunting, and backpack hunting
  • Decoys: Rinella details how to best use decoys and calling the big game
  • Location: Here, you can learn how to find hunting locations around the country, on public lands and private land; you can also see how to locate areas other hunters aren’t using
  • Scouting: Hunting Elk in the high country is about knowledge. Rinella teaches you how to scout hunting locations for maximum effectiveness.
  • Tagging: Here, you can learn basic information about getting hunting tags, including limited entry “draw” tags
  • Hunting Quarry: Using a species-by-species section, you can learn more about big-game animals, and covers mating rituals, their chosen habitats to the best hunting techniques that use gun or bow and arrow for each species
  • Taking Meat Home: Here are instructions on breaking down any large game animal so it can be transported home from the hunting site.
  • Cooking Big Game: Knowing how to butcher big-game animals is vital when you want the proper cuts for sausages, roasts, and steaks. You can learn this and all the best cooking techniques for outdoor and indoor preparation of wild game.

Compiled from many hunting stories and years of exploits, you can find the information in this book useful for any species. It ranks as the number one best hunting book for a good reason.

The pages can be read and re-read, and that is what you’d expect to do from the first volume of one of the best hunting books of all time.

The MeatEater Guide to Wilderness Skills and Survival

The MeatEater Guide to Wilderness Skills and Survival

Coming from the New York Times bestseller, you find an important guide to surviving everything that nature can throw at you. It may not be in the realms of the best whitetail hunting books, but the information here could help you on your hunt and help save your life if you find yourself stranded in the great outdoors.

You could be on a novel multi-day wilderness expedition. or just a day-long boat trip, but with expert writing in his collection of published books. Steven Rinella packs in a collection of tips on what to do when you are stuck in any of these situations.

The MeatEater Guide to Wilderness Skills and Survival is the appropriate alternative to the sensationalism of the modern survival genre for anyone planning to spend time outside.

Its pages are packed with tried-and-true advice, novel tactics, and gear recommendations, all based on the real-life experiences of famous outdoorsman Steven Rinella.

Every reader can learn how to use old-school navigation methods and the uses of newer satellite equipment. (Read About Cleaning Trout)

Besides this, once things are tough, you’ll see how to make a basic first-aid kit, apply tourniquets, and filter and purify water effectively using ancient ways to innovative technologies.

Rinella’s own experiences and blunders, as well as those of his trusted crew of experienced hunters, anglers, doctors, paddlers, and wilderness guides, among many others, have all helped the writer and editor produce another trophy book that could last you years.

The writing covers four hundred plus pages over seven chapters to cover:

  1. What to pack and wear
  2. Water
  3. Food
  4. Things that bite, maul, sting, or make you sick
  5. Shelter and warmth
  6. Navigation and wilderness travel
  7. medical and Safety

If you are hunting, fishing, and on the trail of Elk or deer, you’ll find the tips here valuable to help save you regardless of the condition you find yourself in. It is from this that you can create your own great hunt stories to pass down the generations.

Bushcraft 101 A Field Guide to the Art of Wilderness Survival

Bushcraft 101: A Field Guide to the Art of Wilderness Survival

Coming from the hand of the absolute best sports and travel writer, it’s a New York Times Best Seller and is the definitive guide to getting out in the backcountry that can help you get on anywhere in the world.

Dave Canterbury’s treasure vault of world-renowned wisdom and experience comes to life within these pages, with advice on not just getting along but truly reconnecting with the great outdoors.

Survivalist expert Dave Canterbury writes bushcraft 101 stories and experiences as he prepares you for your next backcountry excursion armed with tips on making the most of your time outdoors.

This invaluable book bases its information on the concept of the 5Cs of Survivability:

  • Cutting tools
  • Covering
  • Combustion devices
  • Containers
  • Cordages

Hunter, fishing, or traveling around the field, stream, or up mountains. There is plenty of fair chase hunting tips on offer that make up the essential survival skills.

You can learn how to use the resources available to you, too, so you can safely experience the beauty and thrill of the outdoors. You’ll also find comprehensive information on:

You’ll not only be prepared for any climate or condition with Canterbury’s help, but you’ll also learn how to use bushcraft to reconnect with nature in ways you never imagined, and your skills can be used in any part of the world.

The MeatEater Fish and Game Cookbook Recipes and Techniques for Every Hunter and Angler

The MeatEater Fish and Game Cookbook: Recipes and Techniques for Every Hunter and Angler

Meat Eater tells the story of Steven Rinella’s growth and development as a hunter in a straightforward and down-to-earth manner that most readers will appreciate.

Steven Rinella is a prominent voice in the new generation of hunters, and Meat Eater captures the essence of his development and growth as a hunter in a straightforward and down-to-earth manner that so many readers will enjoy.

The writing is fantastic in this hunting book with facts from history, gripping stories, and thought-provoking arguments on hunting ethics that is well worth your time.

  • Big Game: Techniques and techniques for butchering and cooking many types of big game, including whitetail deer, Buffalo, moose, wild hogs, and black bear, as well as dishes for shanks to tongue.
  • Small Game: Using typical small game species like squirrels and rabbits and lesser-known culinary delicacies like muskrat and beaver, learn how to make appetizers and main dishes.
  • Waterfowl: How to get the most out of the available waterfowl, including anything from mallards and wood ducks to more difficult birds like wild geese and diving ducks.
  • Upland Birds: A range of butchering methods and recipes for all upland birds, including Thanksgiving wild turkey, grilled grouse, and a new twist on jalapeño poppers prepared with mourning dove.
  • Freshwater Fish: Cleaning and cooking techniques for trout, bass, catfish, walleye, suckers, northern pike, eels, carp, and salmon, as well as other freshwater fish .
  • Saltwater Fish: Techniques and recipes for handling common and uncommon saltwater fish species encountered by anglers across America from Maine to the Bahamas, Northern British Columbia all the way to Southern California.

The long-awaited ultimate book on cooking wild game, including fish and birds, from the host of the television series and podcast MeatEater, with more than 100 new recipes.

Fans frequently request more dishes from Steven Rinella’s MeatEater show and podcast. Rinella is an experienced wild game cook and one of America’s most famous and popular hunters. He presents recipes here that range from his twists on classic dishes to more unusual and exotic fare.

This cookbook will be an important reference for newcomer and expert chefs, whether cooking outdoors or in the kitchen, over a campfire, or on the grill.

Long Range Shooting Handbook The Complete Beginner's Guide to Precision Rifle Shooting

Long Range Shooting Handbook: The Complete Beginner’s Guide to Precision Rifle Shooting

This book is a thorough beginner’s introduction to long-range shooting written in easy-to-understand everyday language. Personal suggestions and best advice from my years of special operations sniper training and experience, as well as a sniper instructor, are included.

If you’re a seasoned shooter, this handbook will serve as a useful resource for learning the fundamentals and theory of long-range shooting.

This is the first book in a series that will help you learn essential concepts like MOA versus Mils and external ballistics and will serve as a reliable resource at the range.

Long-range shooting isn’t difficult to master. You can start mastering your technique after you understand the fundamentals, and you’ll be hitting targets in no time. (Read Small Game Bow Hunting)

The author has a series of online instructional films noted for their ability to break down difficult aspects of long-range shooting into easy-to-understand chunks.

This book will lead you through the basics, assist you in making selections about rifles, optics, and gear, and provide you with a solid foundation that will give you confidence as a new long-range shooter. This guide will serve as a resource and reference for long-range shooting principles and theory if you’re a seasoned shooter.

The handbook is broken down into three main categories:

  1. What it is/How it works
  2. Fundamentals
  3. How to use it

Though it isn’t strictly a hunting book that covers anything to do with fishing or has stories related to hunting or the gear you need, the Long-Range Shooting Handbook does a fantastic job of explaining the fundamentals of long-range shooting straightforwardly and understandably.

Ryan Cleckner is a former US Army Ranger with vast overseas combat experience, and in this book, he provides a wealth of hard-won wisdom.

Ryan is also a fantastic instructor, so you can easily understand his teachings in this book, regardless of your shooting or hunting experience.

Before long, you’ll see you can take your marksmanship to the next level. Regardless of skill, you can take the advice, and it will change your life and help you improve your shooting abilities on the range or when hunting in the land that is the great outdoors with your dog at your side.

So, for any hunter who has the quiet time or has gone fishing and needs something to read between bites, you could easily tuck this in your pocket and improve your shooting skills for hunting.

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