I'm learning to hunt as an adult, and am looking for some advice that I probably should have gotten from my dad when I was a boy.

I recently taught myself to fish, and it's been incredibly rewarding. I mostly do catch and release, but I'm learning to clean them and eat them now. A large part of my motivation for hunting and fishing is to better understand where my food comes from. I am attempting to break the mental block I have to being "grossed out" by certain types of meat, etc.

I worked at a farm briefly and slaughtered and butchered a couple sheep with a friend. This was rather intense, but I realized this is part of what it means to be a man, and to be a human.

I went to an American university and as such am somewhat soft. I'm trying to rectify this. I don't want to go into the woods and start doing unethical shit, but I need to learn and get over this mental block on my own somehow.

What are the first things you hunted? What are the most regrettable things you have done while hunting? Did you find it was a more emotional experience than you expected?

I feel like squirrels and birds are a good place to begin, but if I do not plan to consume them, is this wrong? 4chan should not be my moral compass, however I am looking for some genuine input from others who have improved themselves and their attitudes toward their lives by hunting animals. A part of me feels that I have skipped a rite of passage at great cost. It seems difficult to work up to finding, shooting, and processing a deer or other large game animal in the field. How did you you anons work up to a lifestyle that includes hunting and eating game meat on a regular basis?