Sometime relatively soon (month or two), my father and I are going to go squirrel hunting. If that goes well I'd like to also try rabbit hunting and quite possibly coyotes, too. I don't plan on hunting deer or anything larger.

I've never gone hunting before. My father has, but it's been a decade or two. Since this world is all new to me, I have a few questions I'd like to toss out there.

1. What all do I need to bring along?

2. What should I NOT have?

3. Would the supplies I need, generally speaking, be similar between the three things I would wind up hunting?

4. Depending on how much there is to carry, would an inexpensive 'vest' be a good idea?

5. Would some oldschool non-digital military surplus camouflage (shirt & pants) be sufficient?

- - -Relating specifically to Coyotes- - -

6. My rifle of choice would be a home-build AR15A1, called Project Vietnam with iron sights. Would this be suitable, or would a more modern AR15A4 20" with some kind of optic (that I don't have yet) be worth the extra weight and cost?

7. Referring to ammunition, I would suspect either a hollowpoint or a soft point would be better than straight up FMJ, or M193 ball. If my assumption is correct, are there any good quality loads that are popular?

8. After the coyote goes down, what do you do with it? It seems that people don't eat them as I hear they're "garbage eaters" and thus taste awful, and their hides aren't particularly valuable it seems.

9. At some point I do want to get an optic, specifically a Trijicon 4x32 ACOG. Would something like this be good for Coyote hunting?

10. In regards to hearing protection, obviously an AR15 would murder my hearing. Would earplugs / earmuffs still allow me to hear what needs to be heard, or would some electronic solution fair better?

Its squirrel hunting. Go find a spot, sit for a while and rub two quarters together (it sounds like them eating nuts draws them out), one calls and one shoots em. Swap out.

Or walk around and look for them.. don't need camo or fancy stuff.
A gun with a 4x scope
A lil knife
Some water
Some snacks
A cooler with ice and gallon bags.

I wouldnt worry about coyote hunting right away.

As far as squirrels go, what are you going to use? . Most use shotgun (20ga is best or .22lr) Most hunters use .22 for numerous reasons, fine tune their shooting skills for when it comes to bigger game and not to destroy the squirrel or spend all your time picking lil shot out of it.

Is this public hunting or private property ? If public hunting, find the rules and regulations and if you need to wear orange (squirrel season usual coincides with bow hunters, so you want to be seen).

Dont go crazy with gear. If your hiking, take a day pack with food, water and enough stuff to stay over nite (survival bag), small first aid kit, fire starter, water purify, tarp for shelter and extra clothing.

Wear Layers, if your hiking, youll get hot, dont get sweaty or over heated, animals can smell ya and not good for you in the long run.

Jus wear some comfy cargo pants , good socks and hiking boots, and layers for up top (t shirt, long sleeve shirt, light jacket and then outer water proof layer), beanie hat and some gloves. Have a good knife, something small for gutting animals, dont need a bowie knife, 99% of the time, most use a folding pocket knife.

There are some tricks to shoot squirrels. One of them is, dont shoot them at a fork in the tree, the odds are they might have a hole there or get stuck in the tree, good bait for the birds, but if you want to keep it, wait til they are going up or down the tree or out on a limb. IF the squirrels are making all kinds of racket (and youll know when you hear it), the jig is up and they know your there and warning others, either sit down and wait til they settle (they may or may not) or move.

While the above poster was short and sweet with his reply, lol. He is right. Squirrel hunting is usually the first season ppl get in the fall to get out in the woods, most dont care if they shoot one, alot of times, its pre-cursor to deer hunting and they are actually scouting deer and popping squirrels along the way.

The above replies are spot on.  No need to over do with a bunch of stuff you don't/won't need.  Squirrel and rabbit hunting can be done with a minimal amount of gear.  Usually a .410 or .20 ga. shotgun for when there is still follage on and a .22 after the leaves mostly fall from the trees.  Comfortable, warm clothes ans some kind of waterproof boots are always good.  As for coyote hunting, that will require another set of skills and yes your AR would be ideal for that.  The ACOG 4x32 would be kind of an over kill for the application whereas a 4x or a variable optic would probably do just fine.  Just get out with your Dad and have fun.

My gun of choice for squirrels/rabbits is going to be my Henry Frontier in 22LR. The land we'll most likely be on is public, I believe under southern Indiana's DNR. I think I said that right. New set of nomenclature to learn. I'll be reading up on their rules and regs later tonight after work.

My biggest problem, no matter what it is I'm doing, is that I have a bad habit of overthinking things.

By my understanding, we'd leave in the morning and come back that evening.

Well, your just excited about it, most of us were doing this at young ages and even then it was exciting too.

Just adhere to what we said, wear comfy boots (water proof), cargo pants and some layers. Also take a garage bag or similar to put the dead squirrels in. Cant jus stuff em in your pockets, lol. we actually carried a "game bag" for squirrels, birds etc. But its not necessary.

If your on public land, just pay attention to where your shooting, we grew up carrying and learning topo maps.

In fact, I had a topo map of my AO hanging on my wall as a kid and had trails marked out on it, etc. Was fun learning this stuff.

Seems a lot less complicated than I anticipated. Well, it's good to know that I don't need a ton of expensive gear.

Indiana's laws (as far as firearms and hunting go) are pretty lax, which I appreciate immensely. As far as squirrel hunting goes, there seems to be only two rules to be followed: wear hunter orange, and hunt during squirrel season. Didn't know there was a squirrel season.

EDIT: It appears the rules to follow are more complicated than the hunting itself. You are required to wear at least one article of hunter orange (cap, vest, etc), but ONLY from November 1st to January 31st. Outside of that date it seems you don't have to wear orange.

I get the idea of orange, but honestly, it seems counter-intuitive to say the least. But, that's just me thinking "Well that guy over there can see me, but now that deer/squirrel/rabbit/whatever over there can, too."

Squirrels are dumb as hell. They don't understand what a gun is and know you cant shimmy up a tree and grab them. They will stand and bark at you until you drop them.  Last deer season I shot a squirrel on opening weekend out of my stand with a suppressed 22 rifle and ate that sucker for lunch.
WEAR ORANGE, I don't care what the law says I wear orange hat, gloves and vest when out hunting because hunters will shoot at movement.

I planned on wearing orange as well. I don't feel like getting shot in the back with a 30-06. *Insert Dick Chaney joke*

Now you're catching on, they are the King's squirrels
The devil is in the fine print, I need a computer to track the duck regs

aside from the regulations, which you had better understand and follow, a lonely patch of woods with feed (acorn or beech would be nice, hickory) , box of 22 long rifle, and a gun you can hit with
Settle in, and be very still and quiet and snipe them as you see them.  Pick a nice day so you don't freeze out, you may need to wait some

I suggest a scoped rifle, because it will sharpen your skills.

I might attach a scope to it. I'm pretty comfortable with irons though, at least on my AR-15s. I ordered a wheeler brass and nylon punch kit from midwayusa last night, so when that comes in I'll head to my local range and drift that front sight over. ATM the Henry is shooting to the right of where I'm aiming no matter what ammo I use, so I've got to fix that.

I've run Browning, Remington, Federal, CCI, and winchester super x (both solid and hollow point), and they all hit in the same place, pretty much. I'll have to figure out which I hold the best group with and go from there, but I'm thinking I'll wind up with some of the super x hollow points as we've got a few hundred rounds of those already on hand. In any case, once I get it tuned in for me, I'm confident it'll be quite the tack driver.

Every state is different.  But make sure you know what the seasons are.  In our state, there is a season for Rabbits and squirrels.  And they have both already ended.  A couple of months ago.....

Our state might be kind of weird, but just make sure.  Coyotes used to be all year round though.  Unprotected.

The information I haven't gotten straight from the DNR is coming from http://www.eregulations.com/. Seems like a good source for info.