Opinion post:what age do you take kids to introduce them to take game with firearm?

Kyle

Kyle

Member
Hi all, I've been on here for quite a while and i don't post much on here but do cruise around here and look at posts a lot i sure enjoy all the pictures of carvings and stories of hunting etc.

My question for you guys today is when should you/do you take your youngster out hunting? or what age have you taken your youngster/grand kids hunting to pursue game for them?

I have a 7 yo girl i have started introducing the shooting sports to,just a BB gun at paper targets with me holding the gun etc...but nothing as far as a firearm yet and i have taken her along for hunting outings with my bow for deer just for fun. Just curious as to what age others have taken their kids on this fun journey?
 
My son started going at 8, shooting at 12.
That said, depends on the child. If she's into it, keep at it. But you have to adjust your expectations & length of the trips to their attention level & patience.
We did just duck hunting, when he started going, he brought along books, his DS and other stuff to "play with" to keep from getting bored. And a sleeping bag.
As he got older it went from just being along for the ride to taking more responsibility with the blind, decoys, etc, until he was expected to help with everything.
Worked well until teenageritis arrived and sleep became more important than hunting.
 
Here in jersey kids can not get their license until the age of 10 which is when I first started carrying a gun afield in pursuit of game. I started shooting a .22 and a .410 at the age of 6 and tagged along for my first duck hunt with my dad at the age of 3. I think the earlier you can introduce your children the better. However as far as actually letting them shoot at game shouldn't occur until they can proficiently us their gun on game. Nothing will deter a youngster from the sport faster than wounding and losing game or consistently not being able to hit anything at all. Remember at that age most kids define their success by their harvest not as much the experience.
 
My kids started with the.22 at 7, but didn't starting hunting tol later. My daughter was 12, my son 10. All depends on the kid. A nieghbors son I mentor started at 13, but was ready much earlier .
 
My dad started taking me on boat rides in his sneakbox when I was pretty young and took me along on an early season hunt when I was around 8 or 9. I got my license when I was 10 per NJ's rules and haven't looked back since.

It's all based on your child's interest and comfort levels. There were many, many hunts early on when I got my license that I wasn't allowed to go on due to weather and other factors.
 
I think it all has to do with the kid. My son has been tagging along as possible since about 3. He started taking advantage of some limited mentored youth hunts here in PA at 6 years old. At 10 he started hunting NJ as a full participant and hasn't looked back. Now at 13 I trust him more than almost all adults both on his safety judgment and hunting set up decisions. I feel he is the exception rather than the rule. I started tagging along at 10 and hunting at 12 years old. That worked well for me.
 
Nurturing their interest is more important than age imo. A BB gun is fine to start with, then a .22, then a shotgun. A .410 with 2.5 " shells is good for introducing a youngster to recoil on stationary targets.
Don't expect them to hit flying clay birds with the .410, move them up to a 20 ga. on straight away birds , breaking a few will really boost their confidence.
If they show interest get them into a hunter safety course as soon as possible. Build their interest.
 
My cousin and I began with BB guns, under my uncles strict supervision at age 7. Then to pellet guns, .22 and .410, also under strict supervision and education, and I do mean strict. Any errors, especially with gun handling and muzzle, as in ALL GUNS ARE LOADED brought swift repercussions.

At age 9 we shot our first pheasants with the .410, at a game farm, with my uncle and his best friend's watchful eyes. At 13 we began waterfowling with them, and a new world opened up to us.

Age 12 and 13 we graduated to rifles, 243 & 257 Roberts, at the range and groundhog hunting 5-6 evenings a week in summer with my uncle and his best friend. Hit or miss all shots were walked off and checked. All groundhogs field dressed and cooled. Bad hits were not taken lightly, and a clean miss was more acceptable. Both were well discussed.

Then came deer rifle hunting at 13, also under supervision. My uncle and his buddy never carried guns while supervising us. At 16 we were allowed to hunt unsupervised, but kept a eye on while the men hunted.

My uncle just turned 90 and his best buddy died 5 years ago. The unselfishness and dedication of these two men I will never forget, and will be forever thankful for. God Bless them both.

I have tried my best to emulate them, but these are different times.

To all those that DO mentor youngsters. THANK YOU!
 
Kyle,


I'll answer your question with a question. At what age did you (generic "you", not you specifically) did you introduce your child to the circle of life in regards to game taken/shot?


As for myself, both of my daughters were shown and taught how to properly take care of all the fish and game which I brought home. This occurred over time but was started when they were very young. Then when they were a bit older I started teaching them about firearms. Specifically what they were, how they were built, how they worked and how to safely handle them.


Once I felt that my daughters had an understanding of both the safe usage of a firearm and the understanding/respect of the taking of the life of a game animal, then they were allowed to participate with a firearm in the hunt. Several times before that we would go out in the field and just observe and enjoy nature. I wanted to teach them that the enjoyment of the hunt was in the doing not the taking.


To go back and answer your original question; I believe my daughters were around 11 or 12 when they first killed a game animal. They had been handling and shooting firearms for many years before that. When my youngest daughter married, I think her husband was surprised she could outshoot him with both gun and bow. (made me proud) :>) :>)
 
Really depends on the individual child. They first must have the attention span to learn firearm safety and a parent/mentor willing to teach them correctly. Good to start them with a bb gun as this usually can be done safely in a back yard. When proficient and safe with that move up to 22 then youth 20 guage shotgun . Use the lightest payload 20 guage shell available. Basically a 28 guage load , 3/4 oz. shot. Remember its all about fun for parent and child. Once you start developing the interest in the child and they gain skill you,ll know when they are actually ready to hunt. Up untill then, if they,re interested take them along on some hunts that they won,t get to cold or bored on.I,ve started 3 sons ,a grandson and a granddaughter like this and am proud to share the blind or deer stand with all of them. By the way don,t be supprised if they do a lot of napping when things are slow in the early morning! Next up for me to bring in to the sport of waterfowl is a grandaughter who just this past fall got her first rifle deer at age 12.
 
At 7 I brought my son with me to retrieve geese out of a field. At 10 he started hunting. He took ducks, but when we went deer hunting we had 4 deer in front of him that I gave him the green light on, but he did not shoot. when walking out he told me he did not want to shoot a deer. At 12 he was ready and took his first deer.
I think you can start them very early IF they have full control of if they are ready to harvest game.
 
Don't wait . . . . I took my daughter on her first dove hunt at 14mo, first pheasant hunt at 16 mo, and first goose hunt at 18 mo. They were short trips with plenty of snacks and comforts. Dove hunt was for 30 minutes, played with the dog, shot 2 doves, let her hold the dead birds, and went home. She started shooting balloons in the backyard with a shortened Red Ryder at 3, ground sluiced a pigeon with a .410 at 4, got a hunting license at 8 and shot her first duck. She's been in the dove fields and duck blind with me every year since 14 mo. My advise is to take them YOUNG, take them often, make it more about fun in the beginning and gradually increase the difficulty and intensity of the hunt as they get older.
 
I started going with when I was 3, started shooting at ducks when I was 10... with a lot of BB gun bbs expended in between. there was also plenty of duck-related excitement in our family throughout the year that I could be involved in.

There's a certain knack to blending the ideas of "catering to youth" and "old enough to hunt". There were cold days, prior to the age of 10, when I chose to stay home. But we also hunted a place where it wasn't a problem to go for a walk in the woods to warm up or relieve boredom during slow days. Or even go sit in the truck with the heater on to thaw out. Long hunts in boats where a kid can't burn off energy could be problematic. Same with relieving bowel or bladder from a boat. Snacks, books, binocs, and electronic distractions are good for a kid to go back and forth between "kid mode" and "hunter mode"

One thing I think is important, and it's difficult to articulate this smoothly, is that hunting can put kids and adults on level ground for a bit and that is an awesome opportunity for a kid to mature, handle responsibilities such as a loaded firearm or handling a boat, and deal with adversity such as poor shooting, plans that fail, and lack of birds or uncooperative birds. I cringe when adults make major concessions to make a youth hunter feel better about him or herself. Kinda like participation ribbons... kids really don't benefit from unearned "achievements"
 
Love to watch the youth 3 gun. Shooting 22 pistols before their teens, [NY, you can't handle a hand gun till 21 and with a permit]. Parents taking their family to the range.
 
Most of my experience, opinions have been mentioned above. I have a little different scenario in that I grew up on a farm. I knew all about the birds and bees and the circle of life/death long before a lot if my friends. I don't remember exactly what age I was when I started shooting, but my dad always told me it was around 5. .22 for a few years, then onto a .44 mag rifle, and eventually a 30-30. I got an old 12 GA Iverson single shot from my Grandfather when I was 12 and started bunting with it then. Unfortunately, while my father was an avid outdoorsman when I was younger, he quit hunting by the time I was old enough, so I had to make due with friends and family. Here in Ohio, "legally" a young person cannot hunt alone until he/she is 16. I know I was a lot younger than that. But then again, I grew up on a big plot of land with no one around. I shot my first ducks, a pair of Greenwings, over a pair of carved decoys, when I was 13 with my father's Marlin 12 GA pumpgun. He soon after sold me that gun where it remained my go-to until I was well into adulthood. Never looked back since.

My kids grew up in the country too, where we had rabbits, chickens, ducks, (I used to have a Federal Propogator permit and raised Mallards, Wood Ducks, Teal, Pintail and others). They new at an early age about life and death. They both started shooting around 5. .22 in the back yard. My daughter was only casually interested, she's a "Daddy's" girl, so was interested in anything I was. She since has since given up most of her interest, although her husband shoots a bit.

My son got his first gun for his ninth birthday, a single shot Marlin .22. He started hunting at 10. Squirrels and woodchucks. At 11 we bought him a youth 20 ga. for his birthday. He started hunting with it that fall. Doves rabbits, ducks and geese. He shot his first deer with it at 12. He's been hunting ever since. Now he lives in SW South Dakota where waterfowling opportunitis are scarce, but big game abounds. His goal is a big Mountain Lion.

I believe a lot depends on the individual. Both of my kids were mature for their ages. Not all kids are, and that is something that certainly has to be taken into consideration. While my kids started early, we have friends with older kids who are not yet "ready" to take on the responsibilities of shooting and hunting yet.

Jon
 
i started my daughter scouting at 3 for deer , duck hunting at our private swamp at 5 where she would run the jerk line & shaker call. And would send the dogs to fallen birds.
First 22 at 5 when she could understand safe handling , 28 gauge at 8.

First deer hunt 8, she was the tracker/still hunt. I lagged back about 20 yards. Great memories
 
My daughter asked to hunt with me at age 8. I informed her deer permit application period was over. I hoped by next year she would have other interests. Wrong, she asked again next year. I informed her she needed a hunter safety course and FOID card. These are required in Illinois. Even a minor who is not under direct control of an adult card holder (DNR defines direct control as "at arms length") requires one. This stalled another year, with the same hopes as the previous year. At 10 we had our safety course, our personal FOID and our .410 shotgun. We started hunting that fall.


My daughter was very proud of hunter safety training. She was the youngest in the class, was the only female and had a perfect score on the testing. I was concerned she didn't fully grasp what a firearm was capable of. We took some milk jugs filled with water to the range. I snuck a deer slug into her .410 and asked to shot a jug 10ft away. The jug opened up "flat" and we were soaked. She now had total understanding of a firearm's capability and the magnitude of gun safety. it's not like the video games.
 
~thanks to all for the replies, you definitely have contributed to my thought process even more, a good friend of mine just had his 9 yo daughter out turkey hunting yesterday and she got her first turkey, he told me it was a very proud moment,

can't wait to show my little ones the great joy in hunting but with also the great respect/discipline of firearms.
 
I have a 4 and a 6 year old and so far, it has not gone well.
They can't handle the cold and the grass is just high enough to poke them in the face etc. I take them for walks later in the season to just familiarize them with the concept and they love it. But the pellet gun? That's another story. They love it and are good. We go through all the preliminary steps of gun safety etc. One step at at time...
 
Take them pan fishing first in the Spring at a very young age. They are outdoors, having fun and learning about nature/wildlife with dad.

One of my fondest memories of my 3 year old daughter, was of her dropping the fishing rod to go investigate a Canada goose nearby sitting on a nest. I got there just in time...

The child learns to respect nature and the outdoor experience while it's still warm. Then move on to firearms, and cooler to cold temps.

Bad experiences at first can dampen a child's desire and enthusiasm, which can take years to repair.
 
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