Introducing children to hunting

[SWVA_Tim]

Good Thread guys .... sorry but had to throw in a few of my own ..... I absolutely love taking my boys out...it's always an "adventure"

Got pics fixed

 

[tuffcity]

This thread made me step back a few years! lol

I think my kids just saw it as "that's how it is", having been exposed to the food side of things since infancy, as well as the hides, horns, etc that inevitably litter your house. I had a deer hanging in my carport one day and my daughter, about 4 at the time, insisted that she needed to help me skin it. Ok... I gave her a butter knife and we had at it.

Both her and her younger brother started coming on day trips from the time they were about 5/6. Fortunately I had access to a private island with fallow deer and ducks and geese so we'd go over to "grocery store" island a few times every fall. About 2 sq miles of fairly flat ground and always guaranteed to at least see something. They loved that place and once they turned 10 (legal age to hunt in BC) they started packing a TC contender in 7-30 waters.

Hockey, soccer, swimming, etc took them away from the field for awhile but the interest never died, just got shelved for a while. Now in their early 20's they still talk about that place. I think early exposure is key to developing a life long interest in hunting.

Although my daughter never took an animal in those early years, despite coming very close, she has a goal of taking her first with a bow. Now that university is done and a regular job underway (she's an OR nurse) I'm hoping we can get that done this fall.

RC

 

[JollyRoger]

Growing up my dad did a great job of tailoring the hunts to me and my brother. Living in the midwest we did a ton of duck hunting as little guys and then pheasant hunting as we were older and able to keep up better. We had a blast even if we ended up frozen. I remember taking my lever action pop gun before I had a Red Ryder and jumping up to shoot the ducks as they came in. My boys are now playing with this same pop gun

With my sons now I try to do the same thing. Make it fun. I took my 4 year old out for a muzzle loader day hunt... I figured we wouldnt see anything or go very far, and we didnt, but he loved it and is ready to go again. We looked at the chipmunks, did a few cow calls and had a great time just sitting on a hillside. During the off season we sometimes watch elk in the rut videos... my 4 year old has a pretty good bugle, complete with chuckles and my 2 year old loves pointing out the deer mount on the wall and 'helping' me clean my guns. So far so good...

Pics from the day hunt with my son

 

[SWVA_Tim]

Good Thread guys .... sorry but had to throw in a few of my own ..... I absolutely love taking my boys out...it's always an "adventure"

Just to clarify two of the pictures ....my oldest son is picking flowers for his mama he found while we were turkey hunting ....and the other my youngest is dipping his graham cracker in the river because it was too crunchy


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[AK Troutbum]

This is me and my dad - circa 1968
He has been gone for a long time but his teachings and memory lives on with me and my kids as I have taught them about hunting as he taught me.

You definitely get out of them what you put in to them

It looks like you're doing something right, actually, maybe a lot of things right. Congratulations to both you and your son, I love seeing stuff like this.


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[Felix40]

Ive been packing my son around in the backpack like crazy. The hardest part is just realizing that you cant do things the way you used to. Ive taken up rifle, ml, and compound instead of just hunting with the recurve. I missed a buck this year with him on my back. That was super frustrating but we've been lucky enough to kill several public land hogs together.



One other thing Ive come to accept is that I cant get him up and fed and dressed early enough to get a morning hunt in. We start late in the day but thats the price you pay to have a partner like this. He will be two in a month.

 

[AK Troutbum]

That's super cool exposing him to hunting at such an early age. The only thing I would add is, make sure he's got adequate ear protection. Please don't be offended, I just want to see the little guy protected. Looks like you guys are making great memories together.


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[Felix40]

No doubt. He spends enough time with me just out shooting that he knows the routine. Got him a set of pink muffs for women because thats the smallest i could find.

 

[Antarctica]

I just did a google search on "Rokslide books kids", and this thread popped up. Its got such great pics of kids and family hunting that I thought it was worth a bump. Apologies if its older than dirt, but its good stuff. I'll try to put a few of mu kids this year.

 

[Hunt4lyf]

I've had my daughter out with me from the time she could walk catching bluegill, trout, shooting grouse and dove, she was with me when I shot a buck last year and a turkey a couple weeks ago.

Opening morning of 2nd rifle elk last year she called in a little bill elk with a hoochie momma, I gave that thing to her so she would feel like she was contributing to the hunt and not just tagging along never expecting her to call anything in. I was 1/2 second late in getting my rifle up to get a shot but she still talks about it all the time and is making sure we have a hoochie with us when we go elk hunting in a week. My favorite hunting/fishing memories are happening now.

 

[caesAR15]

I just did a google search on "Rokslide books kids", and this thread popped up. Its got such great pics of kids and family hunting that I thought it was worth a bump. Apologies if its older than dirt, but its good stuff. I'll try to put a few of mu kids this year.

I'm grateful you resurrected this thread. Within the last week and a half or so I realized my 5 y/o daughter is showing herself to be mature enough to learn to shoot and perhaps be ready to start tagging along on a few hunts next year. This is a great thread as I've been thinking a lot recently about how to ease her into everything.

 

[brsnow]

My 7 yr old I can tell will hunt, my 4 yr old will not, but ultimately they need to find their passions and enjoyment in nature. They are outside kids and I am sure they will stay that way.

 

[Hunt4lyf]

I'm grateful you resurrected this thread. Within the last week and a half or so I realized my 5 y/o daughter is showing herself to be mature enough to learn to shoot and perhaps be ready to start tagging along on a few hunts next year. This is a great thread as I've been thinking a lot recently about how to ease her into everything

Do it, I brought my daughter into it fairly slow, lots of easy fishing trips and day trips for birds, a couple of September family camping trips with smores and grouse/turkeys. When she was 5 I started taking here on day trip deer hunts, almost got a buck the first trip out and then last year she went with me elk hunting, she called in a bull that I couldn't shoot and then was at camp a couple weeks later when I shot a buck and she was there when I gutted it and we drug it out.

A couple things I learned, snacks, picnics and a thermos with hot cocoa or a stove to make hot cocoa on are a necessity. When she says she's done then it's time to go back to the truck and if you're in snow gaiters are a must, last year she got snow down her boots within 5 minutes and it was over, back to the truck we went.

She's getting a cricket and a kids bow for xmas this year and if she can pass the test she may be hunting turkeys next year with me. She’s 8 now and loves to go with me.

Have fun and take lots of pics, I look at ours all the time.

 

[WCB]

Daughter was strapped to my wife at 4 months fly fishing through MT, ID, CO. Watching us shoot trap with hearing protection on at just over a year. And just this fall went duck hunting with me at 16 months...she loved it. Of course she is with us 99% of the time and loves the outdoors even at here young age.

This is how my wife and I were both brought up. I shot my first duck at 4 with a .410. I have pictures on out of state trips to SD, ND, WY with my dad and grandpa. Remember being carried on my dads shoulders through a cattail slough , set down on a muskrat house and watching him shoot a Tundra Swan (4 or 5 years old). I also remember freezing my feet during a duck hunt and my dad putting his choppers on my feet with hand warmers in them (that is the day I shot my first duck).

I think everyone can judge their own kids and there is not a set age or way to do it. I do however believe earlier is better. Maybe not 16 mo or 4 years old, but I see guys asking "is my 12 year old at the right age to start shooting a gun? hunt?" To me it is an alien idea since I had 3 of y own guns by the time I was 12 and used to have a recurve or BB gun in my hands from sun up to sundown most days.

 

[Dexter Grayson]

The mancub didn’t have a choice, both his mother and I hunt so therefore he has to go. First waterfowl hunt around 5 months old.

I had a kodiak goat tag and mom wasn’t gonna let me go without her so it became a family trip. Btw I don’t suggest taking a baby goat hunting.

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[CJohnson]

Still trying to explain to my 4 year old that one person doesn’t hold the elk by the foot while another shoots it. No idea where he got that from.