Thought it might be fun to hear everyone's thoughts and experiences on when kids should shoot/hunt. A few posted regarding the turkey hunting incident in WI, but it's pertinent to waterfowl as well.
I've mentioned it before, my first time duck hunting was when I was right around four. We did not have deer or turkey hunting in the 60's in CT. Having been born in November, I may have still been three. No doubt my mother encouraged my father to take me since I guess I was a little devil. My wife says some things never change.
I was definitely permitted to whack a couple on the water, resting the gun on the front of the blind. The old timers got a kick out of watching me getting "kicked". According to my mother, my greatest achievement that first season was getting my hands frostbitten. My father and grandfather got big stinkeye from my mother and grandmother when I got home from the doctors office with bandages on both hands. The earliest I can recall shooting ducks flying was when I was six/seven, the first two species were coots (scoters) and teal. I'm not sure which was first.
We always shot a few clay targets, thrown by hand over our Christmas Tree farm. That was my intro to shotgun shooting, when I was too small to hold the gun alone. I got a lot of practice at starlings, pigeons and the like on my buddy's family farm down the street to the tune of many thousands of shells each year by the time I was around ten. The farmer welcomed anybody who would rid him of the birds, as there were vast flocks gobbling up the silage stored in a large open pit. He also fed his pigs donuts from two local stores, once they were twenty four hours old he bought them for a couple bucks per flour sack. We loved that, we could sit on a sack and eat donuts while we shot. There were four of us, same age, who shot as a group at the farm until our early twenties. We never did anything reckless or did any damage or hurt anybody. It was a different time, those opportunities don't exist anymore. What I cringe about is that none of us wore shooting glasses or hearing protection, I'm getting pretty hard of hearing in my old age.
I'm not saying everybody should turn single digit aged kids loose, just that it is possible to do in some cases. Agreed that every kid matures at his/her own pace, I know some 16 year olds I wouldn't trust with my BB gun. In large measure IMO those knuckle heads are the kids whose parents never do outdoor stuff with them, they just "shoot" on the couch in a video game. Over the years I've taking a few such kids under my wing and straightened 'em out, as best an old miscreant can.
Based on my observations, I think people wait way too long to get kids started. I think 12 is too old. Once they pick up some other hobby, or start looking for dates, it's harder to get them hooked. They say the family that plays together stays together, which I think we all agree is a good thing.
What I hope doesn't happen as a result of the WI thing is some do-gooder proposing that young kids can't hunt. It is totally on the parent, as somebody else said the parent must have had a hand on the gun if not complete control. Far better to get kids in the woods then looking at four walls and a computer screen.
Just the ramblings and opinions of an old fart who had every opportunity in the world as a kid.
I've mentioned it before, my first time duck hunting was when I was right around four. We did not have deer or turkey hunting in the 60's in CT. Having been born in November, I may have still been three. No doubt my mother encouraged my father to take me since I guess I was a little devil. My wife says some things never change.
I was definitely permitted to whack a couple on the water, resting the gun on the front of the blind. The old timers got a kick out of watching me getting "kicked". According to my mother, my greatest achievement that first season was getting my hands frostbitten. My father and grandfather got big stinkeye from my mother and grandmother when I got home from the doctors office with bandages on both hands. The earliest I can recall shooting ducks flying was when I was six/seven, the first two species were coots (scoters) and teal. I'm not sure which was first.We always shot a few clay targets, thrown by hand over our Christmas Tree farm. That was my intro to shotgun shooting, when I was too small to hold the gun alone. I got a lot of practice at starlings, pigeons and the like on my buddy's family farm down the street to the tune of many thousands of shells each year by the time I was around ten. The farmer welcomed anybody who would rid him of the birds, as there were vast flocks gobbling up the silage stored in a large open pit. He also fed his pigs donuts from two local stores, once they were twenty four hours old he bought them for a couple bucks per flour sack. We loved that, we could sit on a sack and eat donuts while we shot. There were four of us, same age, who shot as a group at the farm until our early twenties. We never did anything reckless or did any damage or hurt anybody. It was a different time, those opportunities don't exist anymore. What I cringe about is that none of us wore shooting glasses or hearing protection, I'm getting pretty hard of hearing in my old age.
I'm not saying everybody should turn single digit aged kids loose, just that it is possible to do in some cases. Agreed that every kid matures at his/her own pace, I know some 16 year olds I wouldn't trust with my BB gun. In large measure IMO those knuckle heads are the kids whose parents never do outdoor stuff with them, they just "shoot" on the couch in a video game. Over the years I've taking a few such kids under my wing and straightened 'em out, as best an old miscreant can.
Based on my observations, I think people wait way too long to get kids started. I think 12 is too old. Once they pick up some other hobby, or start looking for dates, it's harder to get them hooked. They say the family that plays together stays together, which I think we all agree is a good thing.What I hope doesn't happen as a result of the WI thing is some do-gooder proposing that young kids can't hunt. It is totally on the parent, as somebody else said the parent must have had a hand on the gun if not complete control. Far better to get kids in the woods then looking at four walls and a computer screen.
Just the ramblings and opinions of an old fart who had every opportunity in the world as a kid.
