If you’ve ever walked into a hunting store and felt intimidated by all the Hunting Terms, words and lingo, you’re not alone. Understanding hunting slang meanings is an integral part of the learning journey when you are starting.
The terms listed below are here to help!
Being able to “talk the talk” will not only help you fit in a little bit more, but it will also increase your learning curve significantly and bring you closer to your first successful harvest. As someone not raised in a hunting family, I know how overwhelming and intimidating getting started in hunting can be.
This post intends to make the world of hunting a more welcoming space for anyone who wishes to learn to hunt and experience this empowering way of connecting with the land and harvesting sustainable food for your family.
Below are a few essential hunting terms and words that will hopefully help you feel a little more comfortable during your next conversation about hunting.
10 Important Hunting Terms for Beginners
1. Bag Limit: A regulated amount of any specific species that a hunter can take in a single day of hunting. Mostly used when discussing small game and migratory game birds.
2. Bedding Area: a recurring or popular place for one or more animals to rest.
3. Blind: A hiding position for a hunter (ex: Ground Blind, Brush Blind, etc.) These may be store-bought, built from natural material, or occur naturally on the landscape.
4. Brushing In: The art of blending a blind into the landscape to make it invisible to the intended prey.
5. Furbearer: A mammal whose fur is often considered valuable and may require special licences to keep, process or sell. Trappers focus on Furbearer species. Some of them do not have a hunting season, only a trapping season.
6. Glassing: Using binoculars, spotting scopes, or other optics to find game animals or potential game animal habitat.
7. Game: The definition of animals that are legal to be hunted. Often referred to as game animals.
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8. On-The-Wing: Used by hunters to describe a bird being in flight. Most commonly referenced in waterfowl hunting.
9. Spread: Refers to the pattern at which spread shot spread away from each other and hit a target at varying distances.
10. Quarter: To section a large animal into primal cuts to make carrying out of the woods easier. Often done with moose and elk, but can also be done with deer or any other large game animal.
Hunting Slang Meanings
It’s also helpful to know some of the slang often used in hunt talk, so we made this fun video to introduce you a few you may hear "out in the bush."
Where to Learn More Hunting Terms, Slang & Lingo
See our other posts {Coming Soon} on hunting terminology every beginner should know specific to different species:
• Deer Hunting Terms
• Bird & Duck Hunting Terms
• Turkey Hunting Terms
• Bow Hunting Terms
