Two books. Everything a new hunter needs, from the licence office to the freezer. Most beginners learn how to take an animal long before anyone teaches them what to do with it afterwards. This set closes both halves of that gap, in six and a half hours.

Book One—The Simple Hunting Guide. From no experience to a first season. Hunter safety courses, licenses and tags. The gear that matters and the gear that does not. Rifles, shotguns and ammunition in plain language. Reading tracks, scat, rubs and beds. Scouting, wind and stand placement. Small game first—rabbit, squirrel, grouse and wild turkey. Shelter, fire, water, and getting yourself un-lost.

Book Two—Eat My Meat. Field dressing small game, step by step. Knives and sharpening. Skinning and gutting rabbit, squirrel and birds. Field hygiene, cooling, and the mistakes that ruin a carcass. Handling hide and fur. Ageing, portioning, wrapping and storage that actually keeps.

Pat Gatz is Algonquin, from Eagle Village First Nation—Kipawa. He took his first small game at six years old and has hunted the bush of Northern Ontario and Quebec for more than thirty years. He writes for people who never had anyone to take them out - no jargon, no assumed experience, and never without the ethics that come with taking an animal.

Both books, one listen, one season's worth of answers. Hunt to live. Live to hunt.