Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dirty" data-source="post: 329957" data-attributes="member: 6535">So much depends on the physical and especially mental maturity of the child, and a lot also depends on the maturity of the person teaching and taking the child. There should be no hard cutoff age for kids that says they should or should not be shooting or hunting. Some adults never reach the maturity level that I see in some pre-teens and that’s the God honest truth. My biggest fear about a particular child being too young and a parent pushing them too far too soon is that the kid gets turned off from hunting altogether. I’ve seen it happen. My other biggest fear is waiting too long and missing the opportunity to hook a youngster for life. I’ve seen that happen too. When I was a kid, I didn’t shoot a shotgun until 12 and rifle until 14. Didn’t matter. As much as I wanted to shoot my first goose or deer, I was so damn stoked just to be going with that there was no breaking me of the hunting bug. 40 years later I’m living, breathing proof that you can get hooked on hunting long before you do any killing. This should be left up to the (responsible) parent, as should most things. Unfortunately, some parents aren’t great at putting their child’s best interests ahead of their own. I would assume most on this site from what I’ve seen are damn good parents and also know some damn bad parents so you know what I mean. My oldest daughter started shooting at 9 1/2 years of age. She’s now 10 1/2 and still using the same little .410. She’s never shot anything other than that gun but she’s getting close to a jump up.  Next year she will be eligible for her first youth deer tag but I’m not so sure I will take that step yet. I will make that determination after she takes hunter safety and is another 6 months older. As of now, there is NO WAY she’s ready for it. With my other kids…it will also be completely dependent on their own individual physical and mental abilities and things may end up the same or different. We are all gonna have fun hunting until then and after that either way.This is an awesome thread. What a breath of fresh air!</blockquote>

Verification: What is the most common fish caught on this site?

Reply to thread

Recent Posts

Friends of NDA