Taking my daughter

[Airborneguy]

So for two weeks I was planning to take my 6yo daughter hunting tomorrow until last night when she stubbed her toe and started cryiny at the sight of blood, whereupon her mother asked her what she would do if we shot a deer.

Needless to say, she decided, adamantly, that hunting was not for her.

Fast forward to today. When I picked them up, the 6yo remained steadfast, but suddenly my 4yo demanded to go because she didn't want me going alone. I explained that I wouldn't go if Alessa didn't want to and that we'd cut down a Christmas tree instead, but she insisted. So... I'm taking my 4yo Vienna to Wurtsboro tomorrow and hoping for the best. I really hope this works out. It will be the bestday of my life hands down if she enjoys herself.

 

[MilesTeg]

Good luck and enjoy. My kid is only a year and a half and I can't wait for the day he asks to go hunting with me.

 

[Blimey]

Good luck My kids have expressed a minimal interest but I am concerned they would be pretty bored.

 

[Celt]

Thats awesome, ill be looking to get my little guys out with me too. Good luck man.

 

[kev74]

Nice! It doesn't matter if you shoot anything or even see a deer. Its the quality time and appreciation of nature that matters. Good luck and have fun!

 

[eagleridge357]

What are you doing taking a young child hunting with you???

 

[Airborneguy]

What are you doing taking a young child hunting with you???

She chickened out, so I'm sitting here awake drinking coffee, but what is your concern? You can scan the internet for countless examples of children who regularly hunt with their parents, safely. My daughter initially expressed interest because a girl in her class has been going with her own father. I have a friend from the Army who used to tell us all the time that he was hunting by himself by the age of 6 to help feed the family. Now admittedly I don't need my daughter to help fill the fridge, but that doesn't change the safety, morality or ethicality of the situation.

 

[Criticalt]

I wish I started earlier with hunting.
My family were not hunters so I was 16 when a friends dad showed us the ropes. I dropped an 8 point buck 10 minutes into opening day. Damn this is easy I thought.....I thought wrong.

 

[misunderestimated]

Yes whats a matter with you getting a child out of its safe spot,

Well I have to say as a young,I mean YOUNG child I always went with my Father and my older brother hunting, I loved it sneaking around in the woods just before dawn,The smell,the taste ,the feeling of a COLD fall NY morning. Learning that you actually can see in the dark once your eyes adjust.Just sitting in our special spot listening to the sounds of the woods,until you hear the snapping of the twigs ,the crunching of the snow,the wrestling of the leaves , and you realize something is coming your way. Is it a person,A bear,a dear,A Buck! then you get your gun ready starting to breathe a little heavy . Looking making sure your seeing what you think your seeing.Waiting for it to get in the perfect spot so you know your shot is going to humanly harvest the animal. CRACK ! you take your shot and the dear takes off. Now you wonder did I hit it? Did I hit it in a good spot? I hope I didn't just wound it. You sit there just waiting for what seams like a day, with the adrenaline just racing thru your body like you just got in a fist fight or just got off a roller coaster ride. You get up and head to the spot you ingrained in your head as the spot it was in when you hit it, you get to it hoping to find a good blood trail and there it is , you follow it and there is your trophy Buck bed down with a nice shot in the vitals. Now you pay your respects to the animals, and work on dressing the animal out and hiking it out. this is what hunting is about . Its a great family sport and it stimulates allot of sense we all need to encounter in our life to allow us to mature. I loved to go hunting but as I got older I did not enjoy killing things and I stopped hunting. Hunting is an important part of keeping nature in balance. in a perfect world nature can keep it self in balance, since we have taken away habitat, we have taken away the predators and we need to keep the dear population in balance. Every child should learn to hunt and go out and hunt to feel smell and taste the difference between life and death .

Great job trying to get the kids out there with you. Next season get them out there earlier to find you spots, nothing is better then walking thru the quiet woods of NY to find your special spot,

 

[Criticalt]

Kind of random but......
The other day I was at Walmart, yeah I know, anyways, there was two trucks full of youngins in the parkinglot, 9 of them, in the 18-20 year old range.
They all in hunting cloths. I asked where they were headed. They said they were going to state lands to push the deer. I said good luck and be safe.
I just thought it was great to see 9 young men interested in hunting.

 

[Mosinitis]

Take her to the range. She will enjoy more taking a few shots with a smallbore rifle or air rifle.

 

[Phauxtoe]

I always think it's good to start hunting small game and no Disney characters if that's possible these days
My dad took us crow and groundhog hunting to start
Shooting Bambi on the first time out and all the blood might not be the best example of hunting

 

[Airborneguy]

Take her to the range. She will enjoy more taking a few shots with a smallbore rifle or air rifle.

I took my older one last year to shoot a .22. She loved it. I'll take the younger one in the Spring and see if maybe that jogs her interest. I also plan on scouting state parks in NJ near my mother's summer house where hunting is allowed. I'm going to start hunting NJ again next year. I'll take them along for the scouting during the summer since we are down there all the time anyway. Hopefully that will get them interested. I think the problem this year is that I only talked about it, never really tried working them in slowly. I'll work on that next year so that hopefully by hunting season they really want to go.

I was hunting regularly with my father by 8, but he took me a few times before that, probably starting around 4. My sister came at least once that I remember when she was no older than 4 herself. There's absolutely nothing wrong with taking children hunting as long as safety principles are followed and taught, which should be a given even with adults.

 

[Mosinitis]

As long as they enjoy it and it doesn't get boring for them, kids don't usually have as much patience.

 

[eagleridge357]

Yeah I was just trying to stir the conversation pot.....I take my toddler hunting too, it's a great time to teach him to jump over logs, stretch out his new camo outfit, and learn wild bird calls and such. Oh, and the fresh air and Nature. Yeah, so good to be growing up...

 

[Arjuna]

 

[Gunner57]

Way to go Lilly, LIKE A BOSS!

Little girl’s priceless reaction to shooting first deer goes viral | New York Post

 

[Patriot]

Way to go Lilly, LIKE A BOSS!

Little girl’s priceless reaction to shooting first deer goes viral | New York Post

She nailed it. Incredible patience and composure for a 7 year old girl. Can't wait to get my boys in a tree stand and blind with me.

 

[Gunner57]

OK, I take it back Lilly. Now I'm just jealous!

 

[pjzwtl]

She chickened out, so I'm sitting here awake drinking coffee, but what is your concern? You can scan the internet for countless examples of children who regularly hunt with their parents, safely. My daughter initially expressed interest because a girl in her class has been going with her own father. I have a friend from the Army who used to tell us all the time that he was hunting by himself by the age of 6 to help feed the family. Now admittedly I don't need my daughter to help fill the fridge, but that doesn't change the safety, morality or ethicality of the situation.

Give it time hunting is no less safe then just going for a hike in the woods. BTW if your hunting the state land above Wurtsboro you right in my neighborhood

 

[Airborneguy]

Off Firehouse Road. I used to own a piece there.

 

[pjzwtl]

Off Firehouse Road. I used to own a piece there.

Yup your close right up and over the hill from me. I am hoping to see grouse on that ridge in a few after that fire burned through last year

 

[1911guy]

Never could get my daughters or wife interested in hunting. I can understand wife as her brother was killed in a hunting accident at the age of 14. She was 18. Wife and daughters won't even eat my harvest. But I do have many lasting friendships from hunting and shooting.

 

[Airborneguy]

Yup your close right up and over the hill from me. I am hoping to see grouse on that ridge in a few after that fire burned through last year

I owned an almost 3 acre piece backing up to the state land for about 6 years that I sold in 2005. I couldn't afford the taxes and the idiot buying offered 6 times what I paid for it. IT's still vacant and a mess. lol

I've never stopped hunting there though, it's my main bow hunting spot. I'm hoping to get up there Thursday if I get the day off I requested.

 

[redtail]

Had my kid help me gut the first one at 8.
Pretended to be interested til 16 ish.
No interest at 18 at all.

Keep them off the video games , this is where I went wrong.
High honor roll kid. Video game junkee.

 

[Acer-m14]

If you want to kill a night or weekend watch the videos of Triple Mag on youtube .. MadDog the little one and Mom and older sis .. sometimes Dad is in the vids ..

 

[Blimey]

Had my kid help me gut the first one at 8.
Pretended to be interested til 16 ish.
No interest at 18 at all.

Keep them off the video games , this is where I went wrong.
High honor roll kid. Video game junkee.

Might make you feel better to say it may not be the video games necessarily. I played them a ton as a kid. Still as an adult I'll play them hard on and off--like a few weeks into them, then take months off, so I always go back. But as a teenager I wouldn't have had a great deal of interest in spending hours in the woods doing nothing but getting cold and staring at squirrels. I can get into that now because as an adult I just have patience I didn't have then.

 

[Darth]

Taken you say?


But when the auction starts, can we have a lower price? My mom only lets me spend so much on frivolous expenses.

 

[camper4lyfe]

My 3 year old wants to hunt with me. He was PISSED that I went without him the weekend before last. I'm currently trying to figure out the best way to get him started. I'll probably wander the woods behind my parents' house looking for squirrels, though he always calls them his squirrel friends (we have a bunch running around the house that he's "friended") so I'm not sure how that'll go.

 

[NirvanaFan]

Had my kid help me gut the first one at 8.
Pretended to be interested til 16 ish.
No interest at 18 at all.

Keep them off the video games , this is where I went wrong.
High honor roll kid. Video game junkee.

It's very possible that he'll get back into it. I didn't care much from ages 16-22 or so. I was too busy playing sports, hanging out with friends, and partying. His interests could/will change as he gets older.