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?

[Dean Romig]

Great topic Robin.

These days 'peer pressure' has a great deal to do with wether a young person takes up the sport of hunting. My nephew spent many happy times at our grouse and deer camp and participated in both kinds of hunting. Eventually he stopped coming to camp and when I asked him why he simply said that what his friends and other kids were saying about him made him 'feel badly'.
Peer pressure is very powerful and something we need to overcome with reason and compassionate guidance. Cussing out those who regard hunters as criminals or murderers is not the way to overcome the problem. It only makes us look like bullies. We need to take these young people under wing and get them involved with the rich traditions and honorable ways we hunt and spend time outdoors enjoying nature and all she has to offer. It is work. It doesn't come easy and it requires sacrifices of us, our time, and our energies - but it will be worth the effort. Everybody should mentor a kid who shows a spark of interest in hunting. I have four grandchildren who will very soon receive my full attention in keening their interest in what I do outdoors.

[Autumn Daze]

Robin,As Dean has stated this is a great topic and a continuation of your's and my conversation of yesterday. I think you both have pretty much nailed it. The combination of peer pressure and other diversions ie:electronic stuff etc.has taken the lure of the out-of -doors away from a lot of kids.

I can only offer what I know in my own life to be true.I have raised my son with one philosophy and that is that kids want your time.It really doesn't matter what you are doing with them they just want ya around.When Danny was real young we just went on adventures.Movies,parks museums,ball games ,fishing,hunting or just hikes in the woods,whatever. It just made the bond stronger.I feel that the more things young people are exposed to the better educated they are to make good choices.

When it was time for sports I supported him in any way I could from coaching till he was 14 or just being at his games once he got to Legion ball.Now to my suprise he is supporting me and my love of Parkers and the out- of -doors by activly taking part.

Don,t get me wrong he still love's his video games but if I tell him"road trip" he is outta here!

[Ben Yarian]

Great topic. The young are deffinetly our future when it comes to hunting and shooting. We loose inflewence in the government when our numbers dwindle, not to mention the quality of young men and women that develope from our sports. I like to take my kids hunting and shooting. Most of them are grown now, but I like to take there boy and girls friends to the skeet range and teach them to shoot. Its not just a good way further our sport but also a great way to get to know them and develope relationships with my kids friends. ie.... see what kind of people they are hanging out with.
My oldest daughter is 26 and married. She has returned to the shooting sports, now that she is out of college and has begun her adult life. She has brought her husband into the fold, and now they both shoot skeet with me. They have also located a skeet range near where they live and shoot on their own.
I also believe that the hunting and shooting sports, and the people associated with them, had something to do with my son becoming a marine.
Yes it is very hard to compeat with the inflewences young people have today, but very worth while.
Ben

[10 bore]

ben, say thank you from me to your son, scott

[J.B. Books]

As farms go so goes hunting.

As open land goes so goes hunting.

As hunting becomes more inconvenient, (as a youth I could walk to good hunting areas from my house) and longer drives needed, so goes hunting.

As guns are demonized in the media and schools aka Ft. Hood, VA Tech, Columbine etc. so goes sporting use of firearms and with it hunting.

As hunting license sales decline each year (fewer mentors available), so declines the number of youth participating. (In the last 30 years we have gone from over 10,000 duck hunters in NH to under 2000, yet population of NH is up 33%)

As hunting continues to be made more complex (and in some cases more expensive i.e non tox shot) by increasing regulations, so goes hunting.

As the number of single parents raising children increases, so goes hunting.

As wildlife agencies make chicken little announcements such as lead fragments in venison being possible threat to health (when later studies said no), so goes hunting.

As Walt Disney and others create talking animals with a full range of human emotions and portray hunters as evil, Bambi, Lion King etc, so goes hunting.

Thanks to ticks, Lyme disease, skeeters with West Nile Virus and EEE in the Northeast, the woods and fields are a less friendly playground.

An almost insurmountable witches stew ain't it?