So, my oldest just got his deer license in the mail - I am kind of taking a backseat for the next couple of years to get him out of the chute correctly. I am pretty nervous, I have had him out with me since he was 7 or 8 and have always tried to emphasize safety and respect for both the sport and the animal - now it will be time to see if he has picked up on these traits. I am not sure who will be more excited if he is successful - him or me!!!!!!

Happy hunting and GOOD LUCK to both of you!!

I got my daughters hunting for a while now.
They have now developed their own quirk in handling the rifles and stalking the prey.

The first time they succeeded in a hunt they insisted that they gut, skin, butcher and cook the rabbits them self.
Then poor excited dad have to sit down and eat them .l..
All Chewy lot of them..
Wouldn't miss it for anything in the world

That awsomsone! My som is now 17 (going on 40). It is realy a great feeling to see the kids be sucsessfull on the hunt. You will be surprised your son just might have been payiing attention to ol' dad when you didn't think he was.
T he best of luck. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Im sure you will have taught them right. I took my 8 and 11 year olds out on sunday walked 3km as crow flies and climbed 500m according to google that was enough for them and the "old man" managed to connect with a wallaby so they had something to carry back. good luck with your younguns .

Good luck with your son's first hunting and keep your head down and sure you have plenty of orange.

I can still remember my dads excitement when I killed my first deer !!!

Good Luck !!!

I know how excited he gets when I get one in the truck - I am already wringing my hands in anticipation - if during the hunt at any time he looks over at me and says "Shhh, you're making too much noise!", I am pretty sure it would make my season.

My daughter is about 4 years behind my boy, but between all of you and me...... (she is the better tracker out of the two) - must be the Sioux bloodline from her momma's side or the fact that she was born in Minnesota...not sure which..

Thanks for the well wishes and votes of confidence....Here we go...

Treasure the time you have with them. My oldest daughter was the only one of my kids who was interested in hunting (though the other two love to shoot). She got her fist (and only) deer at 13 and was pretty excited. Unfortunately, at 14 she discovered that boys weren't "yucky" anymore and I lost a good hunting companion.

I have that fear as well.....already lining out my gun cleaning equipment so when the boys come over they can take a moment to consider their options.

Good luck with your boy Wiley. Remember mate...the hunts starts the minute you walk out the door, so enjoy the entire experience mate...and make sure that you boy does also.

Have a great hunt mate....regardless of whether or not you actually get anything.

Cheers, Vince

Okay, so now there is a turn of events that isn't good. So the boy and I went out to the range to get him sighted in a little better - he refused to shoot - said the gun was too loud and didn't want to have anything to do with it. Now, I am kind of scratching my head in wonder as I provide him with both disposable ear plugs and also a set of muffs to over them. I explained to him that if we did not get him sighted in than I could not responsibly allow him to go hunting nor could I accept making an exception or shortcutting my standards. No budge.

So here I sit wondering if in fact the hunting season will go down at all this year - I do not want to push him as I do not want to scare him away from the sport, but neither will I allow him to go out into the field untested and not sighted in. I purposely did not purchase hunting tags for myself this year as I wanted to put all of my attention into supporting his first hunt and essentially put all of the attention on him. I will try and nudge him again this weekend to see if he would be willing to fire a couple rounds, but I am thinking that this year may be a bust altogether and maybe he just needs another year or two until he is ready. This is very difficult for me to understand as I remember not being able to wait until I could shoot or go hunting. I can still get an over the counter bull tag - might try that.

Wiley, I've been in that same boat with my daughter refusing to fire a shot after asking to go shoot. As you did, I had her wearing ear plugs, muffs and shooting glasses. She was afraid of what the gun MIGHT do, i.e. noise, recoil, etc. I finally MADE her fire one shot, promising that we'd go home as soon as she did, if she still wanted to. It took a while, we both got mad and she was in tears by the time she pulled the trigger. After that first shot she grinned and was good to go from then on. It was hard to make her do it but I knew that, once she'd tried it, she'd be OK. Now she's willing to try any gun that I shoot first, at least once.

EDIT>> I should have noted that we started with .22 rimfires!

Thats a tough spot Wiley . I hope he changes his mind . I have some great memories as a kid hunting with my father

joe

Wiley,
Both my daughters took after their mom, they are very small and skinny (quite a bit less than 100 pounds soaking wet).
At first I also have similar problem like yours, gun shy child at the beginning of the training for bigger game shooting.

So after scratching my head for a while, I get a 45 LC single shot H&R and some reduced loads for them.
I found that the gunfire sounds are a lot less sharp in larger caliber target loads than smaller caliber centerfires such as .222 or .223
And it is mainly the noises that scares them.

The recoil are not there if you are using reduced loads.

All you then got to do is to show them on where to put the pellet for the best effective result.

Mind you a slow moving 45 caliber would carry as much or more energy down range than a 30-30 with a lot less recoil and noise.

Now even my 12 years old 80 pounds girl is getting pigs and goats at regular basis..

When I first started shooting- I was nervous about recoil but now the Poirier clan decided its ''manly ''to have a hard hitting at both ends gun .If he is in the field ,could you look at getting some of the electric hearing plugs if they aren't to much?They amplify quiet sound but drown out loud noises .