find some public trails and start taking some short hikes on them. bring binoculars and water and look for game. get the feel for the outdoors and you may even find you have more fun without the hunting part.

One good thing about Alabama, its almost always fishing weather. Caught a few one day last week

Alabama rigs are outlawed here.

MMmmmmmmm........ Looks Delicious!!

I'm looking into getting more into the wilderness lifestyle. I just moved to Chattanooga, TN last week and would like to start doing some fishing, hunting, hiking, and camping. I've never been hunting before nor do I own a rifle. I have shot a few and do own handguns and have done a bit of research on what I think I'd like. That said, can anyone lend an opinion on the Marlin XS7 in 308 Win caliber?

EDIT: I'd like to be able to hunt up to deer sized animals and possibly elk if I got the chance.

any good bolt action rifle with a good scope will do fine for you in that part of the woods. a 308 is wonderful for all the game you will ever see. dont get caught up in the rifle, caliber thing.

Yeah this. Really any .270, .308 or 30-06 and a Good Scope will do. Get a shotgun too, Remmington 870 12 gauge is probably the most common relatively inexpensive and reliable shotgun out there. I don't know about TN, but in Jefferson (what we call far northern CA and southern OR locally), deer hunting on the river with a shotgun and rifled slugs is fun times. Plus, you can go upland bird hunting after you bag your deer.

Agree with Ray and Crash. I tend to be a 30-06 kind of guy although my go to gun now is a Tikka 300WSM with stainless barrel and synthetic stock. If I wasn't reloading I would stay with a 30-06 though if for nothing else you can find ammo for sale just about anywhere with a ton of good choices. Nothing wrong with a 270 either, especially for deer.
Scope, I go middle of the road with a good Bushnell Elite 3200 or something like that. I usually end up in the $250 range give or take a bit. Not sure you can spend too much on a scope but you can spend too little.
I use a Benelli Nova shotgun and really like it but if I was also going to shoot slugs on a regular basis I would get a Remington 870 express Magnum (can shoot 3 1/2 inch shells) with two barrels, one smooth and the other a rifled barrel.
Best thing for hunting is going to be to find a mentor. Someone you can learn from. Not always an easy thing to do but will be worth it in the long run.

Thanks for the advice guys. If I went ahead and got a Remingtion 870, that would suffice for deer and/or bird game? There's a local rifle club around here that I was going to check out and hope to make some friends, I'll look into a few other options as well. A good mentor would definitely be awesome, but unfortunately I don't know anyone else in my personal circle of friends that is a seasoned hunter.

Shotgun is certainly fine and must be used for game birds. For deer you would need to use slugs and I would suggest using a 2nd barrel that is rifled and made for shooting slugs

If you are going to use a shotgun for both I would suggest the Remington Model 870 Express Super Magnum Deer Shotgun Combo. Has both barrels in the combo pack. Get the magnum no matter what because you can go up to a 3 1/2 shell in those which gives you more versatility in case you ever want to do goose or turkey hunting.

Other than that nothing beats a rifle (with a decent scope) for deer hunting as far as I am concerned. If you find you have areas to hunt that allow rifles get one. The options on that a huge and there is not "best" answer for a rifle.

Did not know this thread existed. Awesome. Tried to talk fishing with poggers. Didn't go well.

first time poster in this thread but feel like I have a good story to contribute..

I am a 28 year old guy living in Phoenix, Arizona and because of an outstanding father I have 21 years of experience of largemouth bass fishing in Mexico which is arguably the some of the best bass fishing in the world consistently.

I have fished the following lakes in Meixco...Lake Huites, Lake Bacarac, Novillo and Oviachic (Obregon)

Currently due to a little bit of dangerous conditions in Mexico we only exclusively fish Lake Oviachic (Obregon) in Cuidad Obregon Sonora Mexico.

Lake Oviachic is just about a 10 hour drive from Phoenix and we haul my dad's bass boat along with a group of usually 3-5 other boats.

We catch anywhere from 40-200 bass per day per boat with the average day being about 60-80 year round with the spring being the best.

See below for some pics from our most recent trip between Xmas and New Years. The big one in the first pic is my 3rd largest ever at 8.5 lbs.

The biggest bass anyone in our group has caught was 14.5 lbs at Lake Bacarac......and my dad has caught 6-7 over 10 lbs to my zero which is mind boggling to me but he's 62 so he has a few years on me!

cool bass. i havent seen that good of fishing for bass since about 40 years ago in the everglades of florida where i could go out and catch till my arm got tired.

Beautiful Pictures! Thanks for sharing. Fishing picture are always welcome and appreciated in here!
Sounds like a great place to go.

Awesome pics and looks like a very special place.

thanks guys, obviously there's no reason for me to come on here and exaggerate any of my post and it's truly that special for bass fishing due to the extreme lack of pressue imo.

Lake Oviachic is nearly 30 miles plus long including the river and we might see just 1-2 other bass boats for an entire 10 hour fishing day and it's the guys we came down there with...... Some days are better than others but the consistency is out of this world.

Also failed to mention that out of the seven 10+ lb bass my dad has caught in his life....FIVE OF THEM happened on the same day at lake bacarac in Mexico. I would be willing to bet there isn't 50 people in the world's history that have caught five 10lb+ bass in one day.....what do you guys think?

what do you guys use. where i fished and caught up to 8 pound bass the big ones were pretty much taken on 8 inch or longer shiners fishes under a float.

We have never used live bait down there ever...

We typically throw spinnerblades, plastic lizards/worms, crankbaits, top water plugs, etc. the best bait to use in our opinion is the spinnerblade because there's so much brush and it doesn't get hung up hardly ever so we can cover a bunch of water quickly.

I've always wanted to fish some of those lakes in Mexico. I used to make at least one trip a year down to Falcon. My buddies have talked about it but we've had such good trips on Falcon that we just didn't want to pack up and drive further south. Plus all that crap down there now. We've even had a couple uncomfortable situations on Falcon. I doubt I'd venture across the border at all now.

tell us about the situations in mexico.

Falcon lake is right on the border so I would consider that lake more dangerous than Oviachic. I have been going deep into Mexico for 21 years and never once felt uncomfortable. Obviously we don't venture off the beaten path and stay in a secure lodge that has been there for 50+ years with no issues

I haven't been down there for a while so I'm not up on current stuff.

But I'm sure you've read about the gang stuff down there. Lot's of turf wars. Well, a lot of it happens right around the lake. There's been more than one gun battle right on the lake on the Mexico side. Some stories of folks fishing in Mexico being shot at. A jet skier was killed there not long ago but I still suspect there's more to the story.

It's generally accepted now that as long as you stay on the American side you are OK.

But even before this there were issues. There was sort of a fishing regulation war going on. The mexican fishermen were netting on the american side and were having their nets cut and confiscated. So, in retaliation the Mexican authorities were checking a lot of boats on the American side. You have to have both a Mexican fishing license and a boat permit to fish there. For a time, if you got caught, they simply took your boat away. Pulled it right up on the shore and towed it away. It didn't happen to a lot of people but it did happen.

My personal experience. While I was fishing on the Mexican side, a boat with about 6 armed dudes was coming right for me and my buddy. I fired up the boat and got the hell out of there. We assumed they were federales but we didn't stick around to find out.

Just found this thread, very cool. I hunt & fish, don't have any pictures handy but was surprised the convo turned to the border lakes. I've been following this story a couple of years, supposedly they just arrested a suspect.

Cliffs are: couple was Sea-doing on the lake
* approached by "pirate" guys who start firing.
* Husband is hit, falls into water
* she takes off (probably smart, damn hard decision to make though)
* she had a lot of issues because they couldn't find the body, emotional and practical
* Mexico really is a crazy, crazy place right now

I don't have the original ways I read about this, but it wasn't from Fox, I think it was an LA Times piece and I can't find it, though the links above give some context.

A quick trip to the beach at low tide, first good clamming tide of the year. Events conspired against me, but I did manage three tasty clams:

Nice razor clams you got there. I think they are razors but I thought they weren't that far south where you are.
I might go out with the low tide but it falls in the dark, and clamming isn't fun in the dark.
But I can get soft shells nearby anytime and gapers and geoducks if I want to dig to China.