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The Easiest Animals to Hunt for Beginners
Everybody tells a new hunter to start with deer. For a lot of people that is the wrong answer, and the right one costs a tenth as much.
What is the easiest animal to hunt for beginners? Squirrel, by a wide margin. Seasons are long, licenses are cheap, tags are rarely required, public land is plentiful and under-hunted, the gear is a .22 rifle or a small-gauge shotgun, and the skills — moving quietly, sitting still, seeing an animal before it sees you — are the same skills every other hunt requires.
That answer surprises people, because the entire hunting industry is built around deer. Deer is where the gear money is, so deer is what beginners are pointed at. It is a fine first quarry and we have a full guide to it. But it is not the easiest, and starting with the animal that best matches your access, budget and available time is a far better predictor of whether you are still hunting in three years.
What "easy" actually means
"Easy" is doing a lot of work in this question, so let us break it into the four things that genuinely decide whether a beginner succeeds:
- Access. Can you legally hunt this animal near where you live without a lease, a draw, or a boat? This is the number one thing that stops new hunters, and it has nothing to do with skill.
- Opportunity. How many days is the season, and how many animals will you realistically see? A season with 60 chances teaches you faster than one with 6.
- Gear floor. What is the minimum you must own before your first outing? This ranges from about $200 to well over $1,500 depending on the animal.
- Skill ceiling. How good do you have to be to succeed once you are out there? Shooting a stationary squirrel at 25 yards and shooting a crossing dove at 30 are not the same problem.
A hunt that scores well on all four is a hunt where you will get repetitions, and repetitions are the entire mechanism by which anyone learns to hunt.
The honest ranking
| Animal | Access | Season length | Gear floor | Skill required | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Squirrel | Excellent — public land everywhere, rarely pressured | Very long, often months | Lowest — a .22 or a .410 | Low | The best true beginner hunt in North America. |
| Rabbit | Very good — field edges, brush, public ground | Long | Low — a 20-gauge | Low to moderate | Nearly as good as squirrel, and better eating. |
| Dove | Good — public fields, often managed for it | Short, concentrated segments | Low — a shotgun and a stool | Moderate to high | Cheap and social, but genuinely hard shooting. |
| Turkey (spring) | Good — public land turkey is often under-hunted | Short, a few weeks | Moderate — shotgun, calls, vest | Moderate | Excellent first big-ish hunt if you can sit still. |
| Whitetail deer | Moderate — tags easy, good access harder | Long in most states | Moderate to high | Moderate | The default first hunt, and a good one, but not the easiest. |
| Waterfowl | Harder — needs water access, often a draw | Split seasons, federally framed | High — waders, decoys, non-toxic shot | High | Save it, or go with someone experienced. |
| Elk / western big game | Hard — draws, tags, travel, remote country | Short | Very high | High | Not a first hunt. Year three, minimum. |
Why squirrel and rabbit win
Small game gets dismissed because it is not glamorous, and that dismissal costs new hunters more than anything else in the sport. Consider what a squirrel season gives you that a deer season does not.
Repetition. On a good morning you will see a dozen animals. In a deer season you might see a dozen deer in three months. Every one of those squirrel encounters teaches you the same lessons — how loudly you move, how well you see, how your shooting holds up when your heart is going — at a rate that deer hunting simply cannot match.
Cost. The gear floor is a .22 rifle, a small-game license, and boots you probably own. There are no treestands, no decoys, no scent control, no rangefinder. Total entry cost is often under $300 including the rifle, versus roughly $800 to $1,500 for a realistic deer setup — a number we break down in what a first setup really costs.
Access. Squirrel is the least-pressured hunting in America. National forest and state land that is packed with orange in November is empty in September and January. You will not be competing for a spot, which removes the single most demoralizing part of public land deer hunting for a first-timer.
Low stakes. A wounded and lost squirrel is a bad day. A wounded and lost deer is something that will genuinely bother you for years and is far more likely when your first shot at an animal is also your first experience of buck fever. Learning to manage the adrenaline on small game is real preparation.
Rabbit is squirrel's better-eating cousin
Where deer actually fits
Deer is the right first hunt for a specific person: someone whose main constraint is time rather than money, who can access reasonable ground, and who wants a freezer's worth of meat from a single success. One whitetail yields roughly 40 to 70 pounds of meat. That is a genuinely different value proposition from a limit of squirrels, and it is the honest reason deer is worth the extra cost and difficulty.
Deer also has the longest seasons of any big game and over-the-counter tags in most states, so the access barrier is real but surmountable. What makes it harder than small game is not the animal — a deer is a large, close target — but everything around it: finding ground, playing the wind, sitting for hours without moving, and handling 150 pounds of animal after the shot.
Our recommendation for most people is not "deer or small game" but both, in the same year. Hunt squirrels in September to learn the woods and get comfortable moving through them, then hunt deer in November having already made your beginner mistakes on animals where those mistakes cost nothing.
The hunts to save for later
Waterfowl is the one beginners most often reach for too early, usually because a friend does it. The gear floor is high (waders, a dozen decoys, non-toxic shot, often a boat), the legal stack adds federal requirements, wingshooting is a genuine skill, and the conditions are cold and wet. It is wonderful, and it is much easier as your second or third hunt — or your first, if you have someone experienced to go with. Our duck hunting guide is honest about the entry cost.
Western big game — elk, mule deer, antelope — is not a beginner hunt at all, despite dominating hunting media. Tags are draw-allocated with multi-year point systems, the country is physically punishing, the gear is expensive, and success rates are low even for experienced hunters. It is a goal to build toward, not a starting point.
Dove is the interesting outlier. Access and cost are excellent, seasons are social and welcoming, and it is a fine first hunt in that respect — but the shooting is genuinely difficult. A dove is small, fast and erratic, and a hit rate of one bird per four or five shells is normal for a competent shooter. If you enjoy shooting and do not mind missing, it is a great start. If missing repeatedly would discourage you, start on something stationary.
How to choose in five minutes
Answer these in order and stop at the first yes:
- Do you have an experienced hunter willing to take you? Then hunt whatever they hunt. A mentor outweighs every factor on this page. Learning waterfowl from someone with a spread and a dog is easier than learning squirrel alone.
- Is your budget under a few hundred dollars? Squirrel or rabbit. It is the only honest answer, and it is a good one.
- Is meat in the freezer the main goal? Deer. Nothing else comes close on yield per successful hunt.
- Do you have limited days off, all in spring? Turkey. It is the best hunt in the spring calendar and the gear list is short.
- Do you want to bow hunt specifically? Then deer, and start with our how to start bow hunting roadmap — the bow decision changes the timeline more than the animal does.
Whatever you pick, the sequence before opening day is the same: get licensed and legal, confirm the season and bag limits for your specific zone, buy the short list on the beginner gear checklist, and practice with whatever you are shooting until you are genuinely confident at realistic distances. And read what not to buy before you spend anything — the money most beginners waste would have covered a second season.
Frequently asked questions
What is the easiest animal to hunt for beginners?
Squirrel. Seasons are long, licenses are cheap, tags are usually not required, public land is plentiful and under-hunted, and the gear floor is a .22 rifle or a small-gauge shotgun. It also teaches the same core skills - moving quietly, seeing game first, shooting calmly - that every other hunt needs.
Should a beginner start with deer hunting?
Deer is a good first hunt but not the easiest one. It makes most sense if your main constraint is time rather than money and a freezer of meat is the goal, since one deer yields roughly 40 to 70 pounds. Many beginners do best hunting small game early in the season and deer later in the same year.
Is duck hunting hard for a first-time hunter?
Yes, relative to the alternatives. Waterfowl has a high gear floor (waders, decoys, non-toxic shot, often water access), an extra federal layer of licensing, and wingshooting is a real skill. It is far more approachable with an experienced hunter to go with than as a solo first hunt.
What is the cheapest hunting to get into?
Small game - squirrel and rabbit. A .22 rifle or a used 20-gauge, a small-game license, and boots you likely already own will typically put you in the field for a few hundred dollars total, compared with roughly $800 to $1,500 for a realistic first deer setup.
Sources
Keep reading
Not sure where to start?
The beginner gear checklist walks you through exactly what a first-season hunter needs — essentials first, nice-to-haves later, with one safe-default pick per category.