How young is too young?

How young should I start my kids or grandkids hunting? That’s a question I hear quite often. I always answer the same way. Start right away! The reason I say that is because teaching a kid about hunting and enjoying the outdoors is lot more involved than just teaching them the skills to bring down game. That’s actually the easy part. As a child matures and is shown how to use various weapons, how to sit still and how to dress game, they will pick it up rather quickly. However, teaching them the desire to hunt or fish has to start way before that and just seeing Dad or Granddad leave them behind to go hunting or fishing doesn’t create desire.

Now, I’m not saying you should take them hunting when they are very little but there is a lot of other ways to build desire. For example, when I came home with a doe I took last year with my bow, I carried my 1 year old granddaughter out to the truck and let her look at and pet the deer. At first she was a little scared of it but after seeing Paw Paw pet it, she had to do it. After that, every deer I brought home had to be inspected and approved by her. She looked forward to it.

I recently took another step with my granddaughter in her road to a hunting lifestyle. We took her on her first trip to Bass Pro Shop. I did need a few things for me but this is not why we went. We went strictly for Katie so that she could get that experience. We let her shop and pick out some stuff for her. She got to see a lot more mounted game animals than she would ever see at my house and her little mind just absorbed it all. One more step for her to learn about hunting. One more step closer to taking her first hunt.

Another thing we do is watch hunting shows together. Of course, at 2 years old, her attention span is pretty short but we interrupt things by pointing at some of the mounted deer and birds in our house and asking what they are and who killed them. I love hearing her say “Paw Paw killed that deer” or Uncle Jesse killed that deer". This may sound like just a game but it is serious training. One of the hardest obstacles to get past, when training a kid to hunt, is the actual taking of a life. Many kids are thrown right into that part before ever getting any other training. I have friends who made their kid’s first ever hunting experience be the pulling of the trigger. That should be the last part of a long term training regiment, not the first. If that experience is a bad one for the child, you may just end their desire to ever hunt again. In other words, there is no room for failure and that’s a hard path to choose when working with kids. The last thing a parent wants to hear is their son or daughter telling them they don’t want to go hunting anymore because they don’t like it. However, if you start them very young, getting them used to the idea of hunting, shooting, and yes, killing game, then you have more room to get past failure.

It has to become a normal part of their life from very young, not something new they get thrown into at 10 years old. Hunting should not be something they decide they like or don’t like based on a few trips. If they have been involved in the whole process since they were born, it will just seem like a normal part of their lives. In other words, it wont be like trying out for a sport and discovering you don’t like it. It will already be so much a part of who they are that they will easily move from one phase to another.

There may be people who consider this brainwashing or something. This could not be any further from the truth. Let’s look at a farmer.. A farmer raises his kids up on a farm. He doesn’t wait until they are 10 and then give them their first taste of farming by sticking him or her on a tractor for 12 hours. They would quickly decide they hate farming. Anyone would with an experience like that. What he does is he starts them at birth showing them the wonders of farming in all its stages. By the time they are 10, they are dying to get on that tractor because it’s the only thing they haven’t mastered yet. Do you see the difference?

I learned a lot about what not to do when I raised my own children. Now that I am a “Paw Paw” I am being a little more careful and a little more calculated about how and when to introduce my grandchildren to my favorite sport. I intend on showing them all aspects of hunting way before any actual hunting time occurs. Now some of you are still a little lost but hang on and let me show you.

You may be asking “What more can I do than take them hunting?” The answer is very easy. Don’t you do a lot more than just go hunting? Don’t you shop for gear and hunting items? Don’t you clean your weapons? Don’t you practice shooting your bow or gun? Don’t you try on and pick out hunting clothes? Don’t you plant food plots? Don’t you scout? Do you see where I am going with this? Hunting actually entails a whole lot of other tasks and activities that make up the whole experience. In fact, I would bet that most of us spend a lot more time in the preparations to hunt than we do the hunting itself. Just like there is a lot more to do on a farm besides running a tractor, there is a lot more to hunting than sitting in a stand or shooting game and your kids and grandkids can enjoy all of it.

It's up to you to make hunting and other outdoor activities a part of their life and not just an activity you sometimes do. It takes time, sacrifice and a lot of patience but it's all worth it. Katie had a great time at the Bass Pro Shop and so did we. She also left there with a lot more than just a bag of goodies. She left with a little more understanding of what hunting is really about. She left with good memories and is starting to associate Paw Paws hunting with more than just a deer or a turkey in the back of the truck. She left with a new way of life but she doesnt realize that yet.

It's our little secret.....