The key is to make it fun. Let them decide when they've had enough. When I first started taking my kids they were 3 or 4 years old. I have four kids and three are pretty active hunters. The fourth, my oldest daughter never had it in her. She was exposed to all the same opportunities as the other three, but she just never found it to be something she enjoyed. She is a "City" girl now that I have no idea how it evolved. Following is a story about my younger son's first deer. He had been hunting small game and waterfowl for years, but this was his first deer hunt. As you will see from the story, we made it fun! Take the time to invest your hunt into theirs. As you can see from the story I did not hunt. I really believe this to be of the utmost importance. Make the hunt for them and make the hunt fun. I know it is hard to do in these days when your cherished hunting time is so limited, but IT WILL pay off in the long run. I now have the best hunting partners you could ever imagine. I also agree with those above that realize the kids need to have success. I know we often preach it being about the hunt and not the kill, but look back at your own hunting evolution. I know I had periods in my hunting career when it was all about killing something. My two boys are my biggest hunting partners now and my younger daughter is pretty involved in being a girl right now (cheer leader, etc.) but I really believe she'll get interested again. Anyway, best of luck.
Dead Eye Ty
by
Terry Receveur
“Whoa!” That little exclamation came from my 10-year old son Tyler and immediately got my attention. Tyler then followed it up with “There’s a deer! It’s a buck!” Sure enough, he spotted the buck before I did. I did have to remind him to get ready and try to take a shot.
Friday evening Tyler, Jeffrey and I made our routine commute to our Sullivan County, Indiana cabin. We made the customary stop at a quick mart and the boys made their selection of a 2-liter soda and a bag of snacks. I’m still not totally certain the boys enjoy visiting the cabin with me or visiting the quick mart. Most of the Muskox Hunt Club regulars were already present and we were heartily greeted with snide comments and little insults. Mack, the senior statesman, of the group was the most vocal in teasing the youngsters. This was my boy’s 1st camp experience before the gun season opener and Mack, good friend Gene, and brother Tim, were going to make it memorable. The camp was experiencing quite a different flavor from years past. This was only the 2nd time the club had any youngsters on opening eve. Lil Gene was the 1st last year and the antics of the crew had been toned down a bit. Language was checked at the door and for the most part the old time club members behaved themselves reasonably well.
At 5:00 AM Saturday morning November 16, 2002 the alarm went off but the boys were already awake. Today was opening day of Indiana’s deer season and the excitement in the room was almost palpable, let alone extremely noisy. Our little cabin had turned from a 4 adult semi-civilized abode, to full-blown chaos with 4 very excited youngsters. The crew consisted of Lil Gene, Jeffrey, Tyler, and Sam. The strategy for the day would be for Lil Gene and Jeffrey to man their own stands and Tim and I would sit with Sam and Tyler respectively. At around 6:15 AM, Jeffrey, Tyler and I headed for the woods. We walked to Jeffrey’s ladder stand and got him all arranged, then Tyler and I headed across the levee to our ambush site. Tyler and I set up a blind, made up of camo netting and brush. We were all set and flush with anticipation as the first rays of dawn hit us. The morning was pretty brisk, with temperature in the low 30s. Tyler was bundled up pretty well and didn’t get cold at all. He didn’t even bother to put his gloves on. I kept asking him if his hands were cold, but he said they weren’t. I’m guessing the heart was pumping pretty good. The 1st hour of daylight was fairly slow with no deer sightings. We counted the number of shots were heard and were all the way to 107 when we were rudely interrupted by the deer mentioned above. A big old fox squirrel was scampering around and Tyler asked if he could shoot it. I told him he could if he wanted, but it would scare the deer off. He chose to wait for the deer.
At approximately 8:30 AM a squirrel chattered his alarm signal and I explained to Tyler that the squirrels would often let us know when deer were around. I told him to get ready and to look for a deer. Not two minutes later, when I was looking in another direction, the infamous “Whoa” was uttered.
The Hunt Continues…
After settling down and realizing he should take aim and shoot. Tyler took control of the situation and clicked his safety off, took aim, and prepared to fire. After watching the muzzle of his gun dance around more than Jennifer on a sugar high, I was pretty confident the deer was fairly safe. BOOOMMMM! I looked in amazement as the buck dropped in his tracks. We calmly approached the fallen buck and placed a coup de grace shot in his boiler room. The 1st shot was an absolutely perfectly centered shot in the bucks left eye! The bullet never even clipped an eyelash. I asked Tyler where he was aiming and he said the “heart.” When retelling the story to his wise Grandpa Joe, Grandpa offered the sage advice of aiming for the deer’s butt next time. At any rate, Tyler and I exchanged some high fives and I congratulated him on shooting a great buck. His big brother Jeffrey had walked over and offered up some hearty congratulations as well. Jeffrey was quick to point out that he had helped Tyler get the buck by scaring it over the levee. Seems the buck had came by Jeffrey and didn’t slow down enough to offer a good shot. He used his grunt tube to stop him, but Jeffrey let me know that since he wasn’t a big buck he was probably afraid of the call. Jeffrey showed absolutely amazing restraint and maturity in refraining from taking a questionable shot. I told him I was more proud of him for being responsible than if he had killed the buck. Jeffrey then went back to his stand and Tyler and I burnt up some camera film to savor the moment for years to come. We completed the field dressing and headed for the truck. We were met at the truck by Tim and Sam. Seems Sam wasn’t nearly as well bundled and had gotten cold. Tim took Tyler and Sam back to the cabin after which he was returning to finish off his morning hunt. I headed back to Jeffrey and asked him if he wanted me to sit with him or to get on the other side of the levee and scare any deer toward him. He elected to have me on the other side of the levee. Smart boy! After another hour or so Jeffrey had enough of the cold wind on the unprotected side of the levee. He did great hanging on as long as he did. There’s nothing like a cold wind to slip through your clothes and chill you to the bone. We headed to the truck and drove down to where Tyler’s buck was. I quickly dragged it up the levee and loaded it into the truck. Back at the cabin, Tyler was basking in the glory of his newfound fame. Grandpa Joe, Uncle Tim, Mack, Gene, Lil Gene, and Sam all soaked up the excitement of Tyler’s 1st deer. Needless to say, his Dad was pretty excited and proud of his young hunter!
Topic: Kids & Killing (Read 1304 times)
