IN PERSON
THE HUNTING SKILLS INTENSIVE
Note: We are not currently offering in-person hunting training. Please access our online Hunting With Heart course instead.
Learn hunting skills in a spiritually-grounded and heart-centered environment. We hunt to connect with nature, not to dominate it.
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We cover all the basic hunting skills: hunting laws, using a rifle, choosing gear, finding deer, field dressing, skinning, butchering, and a spirit-journey to connect with the Deer Spirit.
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Learn with like-minded hunting students, in a space designed specifically for queer, trans, non-binary, and female students.
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Do you feel the call of the hunt?
This workshop introduces you to all the skills & equipment you need to successfully hunt deer, with a focus on the spiritual meaning of the hunt.
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING
“It’s the only course I could find that taught me to capably hunt the way I want to hunt...with reverence, heart, and deep intentionality.”
KEVIN
HUNTING SKILLS INTENSIVE PARTICPANT
“The Hunting Skills Intensive created a holistic container for diving deeply into the question, ‘Am I called to hunt?’
The gravity of the choice to hunt, and the possibility of me actually hunting, have both come into sharper focus.”
LAUREN
HUNTING SKILLS INTENSIVE PARTICPANT
“If you can’t decided—just do it! It’s a great experience that you will remember for the rest of your life.”
C.L.
HUNTING SKILLS INTENSIVE PARTICPANT
THE DETAILS
- A comprehensive two-day workshop, with a hot lunch provided each day and a potluck Saturday night.
- This is a jam-packed weekend filled with all the skills you need to begin hunting deer.
- This class is for marginalized genders (women, trans people, and non-binary folks).
- The class is designed for adults, but teens with good focus may attend if accompanied by a parent or guardian.
What will I learn?
- How to navigate hunting laws in your state
- Choosing the right gear
- Handling firearms
- Finding deer in the landscape
- Ideas and philosophies for a sacred hunting practice
- Go on an early-morning mock hunt
- Prayerful slaughter of a goat, completed with humane tools amidst sacred song.
- Hands-on gutting, skinning, and quartering practice with the goat as our teacher
- Spirit-journey skills for creating reciprocal relationship with the spirit of our prey
Where is it?
Our hunting workshop is held at Mountainsong Expeditions in Worcester, VT. You can find directions here.
You need enough physical mobility to walk through the forest on rough terrain (less than one mile), and the stamina to sit outside in the cold for an hour.
When is it?
The next workshop will be held from from 9am-9pm on Oct 14 and 5am-5pm Oct 15, 2023. Most students camp on site, since we start our mock hunt well before dawn on Sunday.
How much is it?
The Hunting Skills Intensive is $325 per person. Pay in advance to reserve your spot.
Our Covid Policy
- Stay home if you are sick or have been directly exposed
- Masks are not required, but you are welcome to wear one if you choose. The program is 100% outdoors.
- We do not require vaccination, but we strongly encourage it.
“Everything was new to me. Everything was well organized and it seemed to me like Murphy had done this a trillion times. I felt both physically an emotionally safe.
Taking this class helped open my eyes to all that is involved with hunting—it's not just finding a deer and shooting. It is so much more and this was an incredible place and way to start my own hunting journey.”
—Diane, Hunting Skills Intensive Participant
“I particularly liked how hands-on it is, in so many ways. I really got a lot out of the mock hunt, being able to try skinning–to be given the tools, in a supportive environment, to ethically enter into hunting.
It was a deeply profound spiritual experience. An initiation, really. And also a practical course, grounded in the important knowledge needed to hunt.
I hope these courses grow and spread, and that many, many more people can experience them.”
—JoAnna, Hunting Skills Intensive Participant
YOUR GUIDE
Murphy Robinson
They/Them
Murphy Robinson is the founder of Mountainsong Expeditions and has been working in outdoor leadership since 2005.
Murphy was raised vegetarian, but felt a spiritual calling to the initiation of the hunt. They learned to hunt in 2010, and have been hunting ever since. Along the way, the have taught hunting skills to hundreds of students and guided many new hunters through the initiation of their first hunt.
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