Kids today compared to when I first started hunting in 99

Discuss deer hunting tactics, Deer behavior. Post your Hunting Stories, Pictures, and Questions/Answers.
  • Advertisement

HB Store


User avatar
rbuckleyjr1
500 Club
Posts: 763
Joined: Thu Jan 24, 2013 5:56 pm
Location: W MI
Status: Offline

Re: Kids today compared to when I first started hunting in 99

Unread postby rbuckleyjr1 » Thu Oct 05, 2017 10:59 pm

This is a really great post, Mike! Hits the nail on the head for sure. This sort of thing goes for every aspect of life. The more time we invest in teaching our young the better prepared they will be. Having young kids at home I really love these types of intuitive posts. Definitely helps to think about this stuff before we are caught in the moment and miss out on some great opportunities to really connect with our kids. :clap:


User avatar
headgear
500 Club
Posts: 11625
Joined: Wed Sep 08, 2010 7:21 am
Location: Northern Minnesota
Status: Offline

Re: Kids today compared to when I first started hunting in 99

Unread postby headgear » Thu Oct 05, 2017 11:37 pm

I was lucky to have my dad bring my with him just about everywhere from 5 on, I do that with my kids as well and they love it. Have to include them and they will carry on the tradition. I know a lot of my friends didn't get to go hunting until they were older and they all seemed to have lost interest, that time with dad is important and carries on the rest of your life. Great post!
User avatar
bowmike
500 Club
Posts: 698
Joined: Tue Oct 02, 2012 7:13 am
Location: SOUTHWESTERN PA
Status: Offline

Re: Kids today compared to when I first started hunting in 99

Unread postby bowmike » Fri Oct 06, 2017 12:43 am

Thanks for the kind words guys. I just wanted to shed some light on some of the things that work for me, and some of the things that didn't. There is no real sure fire way to go about introducing your kids to the outdoors. I'd say over all you just have to keep them entertained. I don't think you have to have them kill every time they go out to keep them interested. If you see them losing interest take a few days off, or switch it up. Even go out and try to learn something together. LOL I bought a recurve bow, and Corbin and I were shooting bows. He was loving it as he was hitting better than I was with my new bow. LOL

LOL it was pretty crazy though. I came in from work, peeked my head in the living room and my son was laying on the floor while his little sister was decking him. LOL he must have really wanted to go because typically they would be scrapping. I asked him if he wanted to go and he was pumped. But his little sister beat him out of the living room, and flew past me to get her hunting boots. Boy she was upset that she didn't get to go.

THe twins are only 2.5 and their birthday is in March so they kind of are getting the shaft this year on actually going out. I tried to take all three fishing this summer and that was an epic fail. LOL I did get a chance to take one of the twins out fly fishing with me and she loved it. Well the first fish was bout a 10" rainbow and that was fine. The next was a 20" bow, that cleared the water and came right at here. Scared the daylights out of her.

The one thing about PA and the mentored youth program is that the mentor will have to transfer their own tag to the child until the age of 8 I believe. So it looks like my buck tag may be used on the first buck that has antlers over 3" on his head for the next few years. That is fine by me. The main challenge will be to get them all in the woods. It will have to be a cycle as you can only have one mentor at a time with you.

I just hope that they continue to enjoy the outdoors. I try to expose them all to it in different ways. Since Corbin is a little older, I focus more on teaching him some of those foundation things, that I was never really taught. Kind of beat the wind idea into his head, as it was never even mentioned with me and my dad. I just shutter to think though as he will be a beast style hunter by the time he is 16. LOL IF ONLY I HAD THE BEAST WHEN I WAS IN MY TEENS AND EARLY 20's. LOL
NEXT YEAR I' HOLDING OUT FOR A BIG ONE!!
User avatar
The Runt
Posts: 138
Joined: Fri Sep 20, 2013 7:21 am
Status: Offline

Re: Kids today compared to when I first started hunting in 99

Unread postby The Runt » Fri Oct 06, 2017 4:14 am

Good post! Also a good reminder for me personally.
Primetime41
Posts: 451
Joined: Tue Sep 25, 2012 2:15 pm
Location: SE WI
Status: Offline

Re: Kids today compared to when I first started hunting in 99

Unread postby Primetime41 » Fri Oct 06, 2017 7:15 am

bowmike wrote:One one thing about PA and the mentored youth program is that the mentor will have to transfer their own tag to the child until the age of 8 I believe. So it looks like my buck tag may be used on the first buck that has antlers over 3" on his head for the next few years. That is fine by me. The main challenge will be to get them all in the woods. It will have to be a cycle as you can only have one mentor at a time with you.


If I can be honest, between this thread and others you've made in the past, you seem obsessed with your kids' hunting future. I think you should focus on your hunting present. YOur kids are young, there will be plenty of time for them to shoot deer when they are older. I would keep your buck tag for yourself. To each their own though.
User avatar
elk yinzer
500 Club
Posts: 1229
Joined: Sat Jul 29, 2017 5:39 am
Location: Central PA
Status: Offline

Re: Kids today compared to when I first started hunting in 99

Unread postby elk yinzer » Fri Oct 06, 2017 7:37 am

Primetime41 wrote:
bowmike wrote:One one thing about PA and the mentored youth program is that the mentor will have to transfer their own tag to the child until the age of 8 I believe. So it looks like my buck tag may be used on the first buck that has antlers over 3" on his head for the next few years. That is fine by me. The main challenge will be to get them all in the woods. It will have to be a cycle as you can only have one mentor at a time with you.


If I can be honest, between this thread and others you've made in the past, you seem obsessed with your kids' hunting future. I think you should focus on your hunting present. YOur kids are young, there will be plenty of time for them to shoot deer when they are older. I would keep your buck tag for yourself. To each their own though.


I agree with this to a large extent. I started in 2000 here in PA so that puts me a year younger than you. My daughter is barely a year old, but already I am working out plans in my head. I have some similar and some different thoughts, and that is the great thing about parenting, we all get to do it our own way. To each their own.

I had a similar experience my first couple years hunting. My dad would make sure I was set up safely in my climber then go set up about 100 yards away. I believe at the time the law said you had to maintain “vocal contact” and he reasoned that I could yell 100 yards if I was in a pinch. After that he gradually gave me a longer leash until I was striking out own 16 or so (ok maybe 15, we may not have always followed the law to a T there).

I will back up though. By the time I turned 12, I had a burning desire to hunt. Aced my hunter safety course no problem. Maybe I hunted groundhogs for a few years before it was legal too. Anyway, it was a done deal before I ever drew back on my first deer. I had waited for years with unbridled anticipation to clear that barrier and be able to go hunting. So what fostered that if I wasn’t picking off deer at the age of 7 with a crossbow?

What lit the flame in the first place? I think it all boils down to two things: the “cool” factor, and simply immersion. When I was a tiny tot, Dad was of course just the coolest cat to roam the earth and I wanted to do everything he did. Seeing a little buck he shot with a bow is one of my earliest memories. Thought it was the coolest thing ever. He would take me out on Sunday scouting missions. Let us hang out at camp with the guys after he tagged out. My grandpap was always around too and he took no greater pleasure than hanging out with my brother and I. Really, I just grew up immersed in hunting, living the entire experience except for the hunt itself.

Did he take me out and make me wait for hours on a deer? No. He made me yearn for it. Made me wait in anticipation of him getting home so I could pester him for every detail of the hunt. No crossbow shortcuts, I had to practice with my bow for years and years on end shooting the 3D target just waiting for the day when I was 12 I could shoot a few deer.

He never introduced the actual hunting scenarios until later. Little kids just don’t have the patience. I feel bad for these little kids out there shooting food plot deer before the age of 10. They are ruined for life. With few exceptions they will never learn how to actually hunt and enjoy the process as opposed to just the result. Their parents are projecting their desires for everything to come easy for their kids, and it’s ruining them. Make those little chits earn it! It will stick with them that way.

When I was 6 or 7 I am pretty sure I was still sitting on the stairs (my pretend treestand) shooting my little brother (pretending to be a deer) with rubber bands (our pretend bow). I don’t think it takes a child psychologist to deduce from that the vast majority of kids of that age are not ready to kill something. But I was all-in wanting to emulate my Dad and Pap, and they did plenty to foster that without sticking me out there before I was ready.

Just some of my thoughts but there is no better way to grow a young hunter than just for you to be the hunter you want them to be, and they will want to emulate you. Get them started when they are 10 or so, when some emotional maturity starts to take root but before other activities start eating up all their time.
Treasurer, United Bowhunters of PA
https://ubofpa.org/membership-3
Whitetailaddict
500 Club
Posts: 623
Joined: Sun Jan 19, 2014 8:27 am
Status: Offline

Re: Kids today compared to when I first started hunting in 99

Unread postby Whitetailaddict » Fri Oct 06, 2017 7:49 am

:clap: :clap: :clap:
Great and things to keep in mind when i take my kids someday.
User avatar
bowmike
500 Club
Posts: 698
Joined: Tue Oct 02, 2012 7:13 am
Location: SOUTHWESTERN PA
Status: Offline

Re: Kids today compared to when I first started hunting in 99

Unread postby bowmike » Fri Oct 06, 2017 3:13 pm

I wouldn't say I'm obsessed with his hunting future as I am just obsessed with spending time with him. Believe me he doesn't want to use a crossbow but a fiberglass bow won't kill a deer. Lol

He asked me why he has to use one. He just flat out loves anything outdoors. Fly tying, fishing, everything. There is just a lot of things I feel could start to take away from that in the up coming years.

I'm not a good plot type hunter or anything like that. I hunt some of the highest pressure public land there is and will bring him up hunting the same way.

I almost feel guilty if I leave him at home. I'm a weird breed though. I enjoy seeing others have success more than having it my own. Wether it's calling in turkeys for someone or teaching someone to fly fish I'd rather have someone else hook the fish or shoot the turkey I put them on. Seeing someone have success as a direct result of your instruction is probably my favorite feeling in the out doors.

To me it would be more exciting to see my boy shoot a buck I would pass with a crossbow, than me shooting a 130" buck or better on the public lan areas I hunt. That is my ultimate hunting goal.

I know we will have time later on in life, but being a good dad takes precedence over all of my obsessions.
NEXT YEAR I' HOLDING OUT FOR A BIG ONE!!


  • Advertisement

Return to “Deer Hunting”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Google Adsense [Bot], Trout and 92 guests