Having your kid experience "hard" hunting or "easy" hunting?

[DEERSLAYER]

I think it doesn't matter one bit whether a kid gets a deer or not as long as they have a great time. If my dad didn't make sure the focus wasn't all about getting a deer I would have quit early on and may never have tried it again. It's all about the whole experience. Of course you want them to get a deer, but it shouldn't be everything IMO. I think that can be almost as big a mistake as making them feel pressured to live up to your expectations. Teach them what you can, don't spoil them, but don't hold them back. If possible camp out, set around the fire and relive the excitement of the day (or visit a friends camp). There are so many thing's that make the whole experience special. I wasn't spoiled as a kid by any stretch of the imagination so when it came time to go hunting I really looked forward to the little extra's I only got while hunting like running into a small town for some killer jerky or one of the best ice cream shops this side of Michigan, etc. Scouting, exploring new areas and learning with dad is special time for kids too. Teach them what it takes to be successful (good life lesson too). As long as a kid see's deer fairly regularly it will keep most kids interested, but of course some kids just plain won't care for it no matter what you do.

I really like your approach virginiashadow. I hear a lot of people complain that today's technology can make it tough for some, but to be honest that comes down to parenting. Fortunately there are still parents out there that do what my mom did. She only allowed me about 1 1/2 hrs a day to sit on my but watching TV, playing Atari or doing anything similar during the day. Other than that I had to find something constructive. Which for me meant getting out doors, building a tree house, riding my bike, making something with my dad in the garage or helping him rebuild a motorcycle, go to boy scouts, hunt birds and chipmunks, play little league base ball, play neighborhood football, etc, etc, etc.

[Tadmdad]

Some great advice....and a good topic.

My approach was similiar to JRM (good post by the way) let your kids tell you what they want, and make it a learning experience. Explain to them what you enjoy about being in the outdoors, being observant, aware of your surrondings,
make the experience about them. All good life lessons that pay dividends later on.

Raising 3 daughters to adulthood, all are grown and gone now, getting married and having their own kids. The time that we spent together in the outdoors have proven priceless. Our time was never about what we could shoot or catch, it was one on one time. Time for conversation and shared life experiences, any topic was open for discussion....marriage, relationships, sex, drugs, peer pressure. I was not just Dad, and never lectured them, but more explained similiar experiences that I had in life with issues they were dealing with.

When we hunted together, I never took a weapon, they were the hunters. So never really looked at the time that I was giving up something, and don't believe they felt they were a burden or just a tag a long. Focused on them and the experience of being a hunter, being decisive and aware, but understanding the consequences of there decision that hunting has a finality to the sport, they don't get another serve, a punt, another possesion. And once you make the decision to kill a animal, it's final, they have to be happy with the decision, no one else. Life lessons.

So when the question of hunting should be "hard" or "easy".....Think each individual should ask what they are looking for out of the sport. Now when my daughters call and want to ask dad his opinion on some issue, first question I'll ask " do we need a hunting conversation" and they know exactly what that means. Guess at the end of the day what our kids want from us is our time and our attention.

[BackWoodsHunter]

Some great advice....and a good topic.

My approach was similiar to JRM (good post by the way) let your kids tell you what they want, and make it a learning experience. Explain to them what you enjoy about being in the outdoors, being observant, aware of your surrondings,
make the experience about them. All good life lessons that pay dividends later on.

Raising 3 daughters to adulthood, all are grown and gone now, getting married and having their own kids. The time that we spent together in the outdoors have proven priceless. Our time was never about what we could shoot or catch, it was one on one time. Time for conversation and shared life experiences, any topic was open for discussion....marriage, relationships, sex, drugs, peer pressure. I was not just Dad, and never lectured them, but more explained similiar experiences that I had in life with issues they were dealing with.

When we hunted together, I never took a weapon, they were the hunters. So never really looked at the time that I was giving up something, and don't believe they felt they were a burden or just a tag a long. Focused on them and the experience of being a hunter, being decisive and aware, but understanding the consequences of there decision that hunting has a finality to the sport, they don't get another serve, a punt, another possesion. And once you make the decision to kill a animal, it's final, they have to be happy with the decision, no one else. Life lessons.

So when the question of hunting should be "hard" or "easy".....Think each individual should ask what they are looking for out of the sport. Now when my daughters call and want to ask dad his opinion on some issue, first question I'll ask " do we need a hunting conversation" and they know exactly what that means. Guess at the end of the day what our kids want from us is our time and our attention.

This man has it all figured out! I am only 21 so wasn't too long ago I started hunting. It was mainly by my own curiosity and desire but I know my grandpa played a similar role as Tad did with his kids. I think if I ever was on the fence about hunting this approach would have brought me over to the hunting side.

[JRM6868]

Some great advice....and a good topic.

My approach was similiar to JRM (good post by the way) let your kids tell you what they want, and make it a learning experience. Explain to them what you enjoy about being in the outdoors, being observant, aware of your surrondings,
make the experience about them. All good life lessons that pay dividends later on.

Raising 3 daughters to adulthood, all are grown and gone now, getting married and having their own kids. The time that we spent together in the outdoors have proven priceless. Our time was never about what we could shoot or catch, it was one on one time. Time for conversation and shared life experiences, any topic was open for discussion....marriage, relationships, sex, drugs, peer pressure. I was not just Dad, and never lectured them, but more explained similiar experiences that I had in life with issues they were dealing with.

When we hunted together, I never took a weapon, they were the hunters. So never really looked at the time that I was giving up something, and don't believe they felt they were a burden or just a tag a long. Focused on them and the experience of being a hunter, being decisive and aware, but understanding the consequences of there decision that hunting has a finality to the sport, they don't get another serve, a punt, another possesion. And once you make the decision to kill a animal, it's final, they have to be happy with the decision, no one else. Life lessons.

So when the question of hunting should be "hard" or "easy".....Think each individual should ask what they are looking for out of the sport. Now when my daughters call and want to ask dad his opinion on some issue, first question I'll ask " do we need a hunting conversation" and they know exactly what that means. Guess at the end of the day what our kids want from us is our time and our attention.

Great post and you also mentioned a few things I forgot to in my post. One thing I did also was.
never take a weapon and he asked me if I was taking one and I said no.
This is your hunt; did wonders for his attention span. It was all him do he focused more.
[ Post made via iPhone ]

[Tadmdad]

I believe we all reap what we sow in life.

For discussion....I'm going to use my oldest daughter (Jessica) as a example. When she was a baby, would take her with me in a backpack hunting. My buddies thought I was crazy, "never going to see anything with a kid with you". Maybe so, but that kid was full of wonderment every time we were in the woods, never a peep, just always looking around and watching. As she got older, we would go turkey hunting and duck hunting, and would let her play with the calls, and she probably scared every animal out of the woods, didn't matter, she was having a good time, but she had to leave the cell phone and game boy behind, told her it would scare the animals....probably more the noise she was making with those calls.

As she became of age to hunt, started leaving my weapons behind. She was a pretty good shot, taking several turkeys, pheasants, ducks. But when it came to deer hunting, she just couldn't do it, had quite a few opportunities, but it just wasn't in her. She would apoligize to me about it, " It's ok Jess, your the hunter and you don't have to worry about me, I'm good with your decision". Becomes a great way to build confidence and self esteem.

After graduating from high school, she decided to move to Jacksonville FL to go to college at the university of N. Florida. Was tough for my wife to let her go, told my wife a number of times " she's a adult, it's her decision and we have to let her go and rely on how she was raised, she'll do the right thing". She worked as a waitress for 5 years, and pretty much put herself through college. Although we helped when she needed it with tution, living expenses, car repairs and stuff. And can remeber Jess saying several times " Dad it can't pay you back for this", would just respond " it's ok Jess you will someday". Guess Jess just thought at some point we were going to cash in our chips or something.

Jess now is married to Jake (son in law) and they live in Savannah GA, she has 2 college degress that she earned. And they have a beautiful daughter (a little partial here) Sophia. Jake is from the Chicago area, and pretty much is a city boy.
They came up to visit over the Thanksgiving holiday to visit both sides of their family, and spent a couple of days here at the house. One afternoon was watching Jess and Jake fussing over our grand daughter, think my mind was wandering back to when she was a baby. Jess looked at me and said, " Dad why do you have that crappy grin on your face" told her " your paying us back". Recently my Dad passed away, and I flew Jess and her sister back for the services. We all spent some late nights talking about old times. And Jess asked me "if I would take their Sophia hunting sometime", replied "it would be my privledge to do that".

Have come to realize over time that we all learn to be parents, from the lessons we learn as kids. And hunting is one of the avenues we use to teach our kids those life lessons. Already looking forward to teaching our grand children. Should hunting be "hard" or "easy", I don't know, guess it's a matter of perspective and what your looking for.

[dan]

Great post Tad.

[Scot]

Some excellent posts! It is clear that there are some great dad's here. My wife and I have a daughter who has no interest in hunting,she is soon to be 16. She is a great kid and excels in area's of her life beyond any thing I personally could ever have imagined. I support her in every way I can and I never push her.
I believe the same holds true for introducing children to hunting. It has to be fun and interesting,it has to be a treat for some one on one dad time. Then the fire either becomes lit or it doesn't and either way is fine. The most important thing to them is that you care about them.

[UPbowhunter]

I have made some mistakes with my oldest son Tony he is 15 now. I could never slow down long enough for it to be about him, I have learned, and now with my 3.5 yr old Nick its about him, killin and seein deer is only cream on "their" hunts..... this was yesterday....[bbvideo=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cJjBeQ4oC8&context=C3f96caaADOEgsToPDskKjm2YFNkjUO16w1zX_OZfe[/bbvideo]

[virginiashadow]

Some really good posts guys. I really appreciate it. I started hunting on my own at 18. I am kind of the beginner of the hunting tradition in my family when it comes to hunting, so all of your advice really helps me out.

[Spysar]

http://www.deeranddeerhunting.com/how-t ... ve-hunting

[Schultzy]

Why a xbow? There's no reason why any youngster out there can't pull enough weight come 10 to 12 years old. I know for a fact I could at that age easily. Like anything In life, practice. Good luck Brett!

[snoman4]

Some excellent posts and good information here.

My own experience hunting in Florida started out like this and I think it made me a better hunter.

My dad started taking me on squirrel and rabbit hunts with the .22 and .410 at about 5 years old. I was successful pretty quick so it kept my attention. While hunting the small game I also learned how to scout for deer after the deer season was over. My dad turned the squirrel and rabbit hunting trips into deer scouting 101 for me. By 7-8 he was taking me to the tree stand with him with my .410 and a slug. I saw 2 deer total my first year hunting and could not shoot due to the shooting distance. At 9 I killed my first deer, an 8 point that was a big deer by Florida standards in 1982. This was a late season buck.

I think having your kids be successful in killing small game helps and should be how all kids are started into hunting. Killing squirrels and rabbits gives them success and confidence and teaches them to shoot as well. You can take your kids on rabbit and squirrel hunts after deer season is closed and give them some pointers on scouting deer while in the same woods that you deer hunt. I know we want our kids to be successful fast but if they are super successful right away they don't learn the number 1 rule in hunting which is patience. I think that we learn more in hunting by our failures than all our successes combined. You have to teach your kids that failure is okay and tell them that they will learn more from that failure than if they killed a monster deer the first time out. Kids that are brought up in small game hunting tend to stay in hunting for a lifetime compared to kids that are just brought up deer hunting. I think this because they have the success and confidence given to them killing the small game.

OP use whatever weapon your kid wants to use. Buy him the xbow and go ahead and get him a vertical bow too so that he can start building the shooting skills and strength to hunt legally in your state. Let him use the xbow until he shoots well enough and gains the confidence with his vertical bow. Don't force them into shooting a weapon because you think they should. I see too many parents buy a 10 year old kid a 3006 or 7mm mag and then wonder why the kid cant shoot the weapon accurately (recoil shyness causes flinching and jerking on the trigger). Let your kids learn at their own pace and try to build success into each learning session. Pre-locate a scrape or some rubs and then go "scout" that area and let your kid find it by gently nudging them in the right direction so that they find it and achieve that success.

[JV NC]

Tad:

WOW.....that's a powerful story. Thanks so much for sharing that.

Brett....no doubt in my mind you'll do the right thing. I probably erred on the "don't make it easy for them" side.

As an example....My son used to see my deer and ask where I'd taken him. I'd tell him "If you want to hunt clean; carry your climber in and go in ONLY when the time is right, I'll take you there and sit in the tree above you and film it (or, an adjacent tree and just watch). You have to understand we're not going to kill a good buck every time we go out....but, we're going to hunt the same way every time, regardless. If you think we can go in the afternoon to a ladder stand - close to the house; disregard the wind and kill good deer......you're in for a rude awakening. I'll take you there and you can kill a DEER."

Now....tell me what you want to do.

I'm not saying the people who take their 8yo's into box stands and let them shoot big deer are doing anything wrong (AT ALL!). It's just not the way we did it. If he'd wanted to, though.....we would have. I'm sure it gives them a fair appreciation for that type of hunting.

FTR...I took my son firearms hunting for the 1st time a few weeks ago (Thanksgiving morning). He'll be 20 in a couple months. I've offered to take him for years.....and he always wanted to bowhunt, only. I'd have gotten into firearms hunting years ago, if HE had wanted to.

[headgear]

Great posts everyone, learning a lot here.

[virginiashadow]

Great posts everyone, learning a lot here.

I agree, good stuff guys.

JV, you are turning into a really versatile hunter weapon wise...pretty soon you will be killing them with a pistol!