Young Hunters

[Bindlestiff]

I recently returned from hunting in the Pennsylvania woods of my youth. A lot has changed in the fifty years I have been hunting there and one of those things is the age of the hunters. When I started hunting the first three days of deer season emptied the high school and most camps had young hunters in attendance. It was normal to see a “boy” walking along the road either coming or going small game hunting after school.

It has been many years since I have seen young hunters in the woods; they are too busy with electronic machines, soccer, or whatever. Parents and their youngsters don’t seem to shoot or hunt together anymore.

Well, I was pleasantly surprised this year when I saw four new hunters under the age of fourteen in the Pennsylvania woods, all on the first day of deer season. There were two more in camps nearby as well. The four in the woods were all girls and of the two in camp, one was also a girl.
I hope this is a new trend; we need young people interested in shooting and hunting if our gun world is to survive.

Anybody else seeing an increase in young shooters and hunters?