Youths hunting by themselves
Pennsylvania
Touchy subject.
Most here know how I feel about the whole Jr/Sr/ML thing during bowseason. Not a fan. But, it is what it is. If done properly with good adult supervision there should not be a problem. Little Jr Hunter may be a good kid but really should not be left alone to make judgement calls involving firearms.
So what is good adult supervision? I've seen "adults" that should never have a gun in their hands. And, there are those mentoring types who will guide a young hunter responsibly.
During the early gun season I have been way too close to the action a few times and was honestly afraid for my life. My orange vest, hat, and tree band went unseen in the fall foliage.
Now I stay clear of areas where I may share the woods with rifle and inline hunters.
The mentored youth program is ridiculous and here is why, in my opinion. This is just one scenario; 5 year old, Johnny, and his family are having dinner the night before a mentored gun deer hunt. Little Johnny is having steak, but because he is only 5 mom or dad has to cut his steak because little Johnny can't have a sharp steak knife, because first who gives a 5 year old a sharp knife, and 2nd a average 5 year old does not have the developed motor skills to cut his/her own steak. So let's March little Johnny into the woods, have him climb 15' into a double tree stand, place a scoped rifle in his arms and tell him put the crosshairs on the deer's shoulder and squeeze the trigger? Are you 100% sure where the crosshairs are when Johnny squeezes that trigger? Keep them on the range until they are 12!!!!
I have 5 and 7 year old boys I take them with me checking cameras and walks in the woods but they will not be hunting with weapons until I feel they are responsible enough to hunt. I have many friends who kids have killed deer at 7 years old, the story goes they sat in a blind while the kid either slept or played video games, the deer comes out dad gets all the shooting sticks and such lined up and the kid pulls the trigger, that's not hunting in my book that's just killing, I want my kids to hunt and only if and when they want to. And I want to be at their side until they are legal age and responsible enough to hunt on their own.
Mike
Having a high-powered rifle in your hands and having a 40-pound bow with a max range of 20 yards are two very different worlds. We don't hunt with guns, so I can't really comment. I am 100% confident my kids can identify a target and safely shoot a deer within 20 yards.
Herd, you don't say how old your kids are, but they are capable of shooting a deer. Are they capable of taking a knife and gutting a deer, are they capable of dragging the animal out of the woods. Every 12 year farm boy who drives farm tractors and trucks around the farm are also capable of driving a truck on the roads and highways, but the law says not until 16. Treerat is doing it right, take those young kids out and teach them how to hunt just don't hand them a BOW or gun. If these kids truly enjoy hunting and the outdoors they will be just as excited sitting next to you, WHEN YOU Let that arrow fly or squeeze that trigger, and if they are not......they are not there because THEY WANT to be.
Beastmaster,I have a 10 year old that's been hunting since he was 7.This past Saturday,he just killed his 12th deer.Not a single deer has been taken out of a blind or within several miles of a foodplot.Let me tell you how this past weekend went.My daughter had a state 4H horse show in Harrisburg this past Friday.We had to leave by 7:00AM Friday morning and I promised him we'd hunt thurs afternoon.He's good with a compound and shooting 40lbs but only has a 17.5" draw length so I have him using a crossbow.We were heading in to where I saw a big buck last sunday.Just as we were approaching our stand,he whispered that he saw a big buck.That buck and a small buck were chasing a couple does.As soon as they left,we inched forward.They came back,ran away so we moved within range of the stand.The smaller of the two came back and he shot it at 40 yards from the ground with no assistance from me,other than telling him the range.Saturday we headed out around 2:00 to still hunt with a .308.That's the way we rifle hunt.Less than an hour into sneaking along a barrow clearcut,he whispered for the rifle.A big doe was bedded behind a log and all he could see was the head.I never did see the deer until he shot and all I saw was a white tail flicker on the ground.I believe that was the fifth deer he's killed in it's bed.That was his last tag for the season as he killed a dmap doe on the first day with a crossbow.I can tell you this,he's as proficient with both a rifle and shotgun as the vast majority of adults.He knows when to shoot and understands anatomy better than most.When we hunt,we go in before daylight and come out after dark most of the time.He refuses to even go back to the truck for lunch.Not once has he ever complained about being bored or cold and we're not hunting areas with high deer densities.
Kids are capable of doing a lot more than many adults realize.I can tell you that the mentor program has been the best thing ever for us.It's changed his life and it's changed mine even more.
herdmanager,my kid passes way more shots every year than he actually takes and I don't have to tell him what shots to take.
first day this year.It was a liver hit and we recovered it in the morning
It was a 3:00am recovery so it's the best I could do.
This is one of my favorites.Jordan was 8 years old and my buddy Mike Foust sat with him a nd drove the buck to him.
My daughter is 16 and had killed 3 deer with a bow.
Son is 14, and just killed his first deer, with a bow.
They have both been going in the woods and in trees with me since they were 4 or 5. Youth SOP harnesses.
This was the next week.We killed a double during a vicious snow storm
First day 2014.Dmap doe on Boone mountain where there's no deer.
2014 buck.He killed the buck in it's bed at 2:30 after hunting all day in the puring rain.He insisted that we stay out and I killed one an hour later
Last day 2014 doe.Another miserable day but he stuck it out
This past spring.Again no blind or decoys.
Some of you guys don't give kids enough credit.They don't need blinds,games,snacks,foodplots or to see dozens of deer.They need time in the woods all year long so they learn to appreciate what the outdoors is all about.The harvest is ultimately great but the journey getting there is the best part.Doing it together as a team is even better.
Stick,it should be up to the parent,period.I bought my son a pellet gun for his 6th birthday.He couldn't even hold it.I honestly started to think the MY program was a joke.That Christmas he asked for a .22 so I bought him a youth Marline.To my surprise he did well with that.He wanted to hunt and asked for a .243 for his bd in June when he turned 7.I bought him a youth model 7 and loaded it down.He shot over 2k rounds of rimfire that year and 200 rounds of the .243 at deer targets.I honestly though we'd just be taking a gun for a walk but he surprised me with his patience and alertness,if that's even a word.I'm not sure if it was in his DNA or he was just glad to be included but he couldn't get enough of it.
By the way,if anyone needs any youth hunting cloths,let me know.About every year he outgrows his old cloths and we'd gladly donate them to a kid that just getting started.
dougell, sounds like you are doing something right.
Responsible parents raise responsible young hunters.
You haven't met my 17 year old daughter lol.
The problem with MY hunting that that all you see on TV is kids shooting deer from a shack over a foodplot.Take them out and teach them how fun it is to be a part of the outdoors.When they're ready to hunt,make them hunt.My kid would go nuts if you stuck him in a blind.Teach them about every animal,the habitat,how deer impact it,how to play the wind and read sign.When they're involved and you let them call some of the shots,success is that much sweeter.Young kids are capable.
I've seen fathers teaching 12 year olds how to load and shoot the night before the first day of deer season.Those kids can legally carry their own weapon the next day.Now that's scary.By the time these my's are able to carry their own weapon,most will have several years worth of experience.I know for a fact that right now,my son is light years a head of where I was when I was 12.Quite honestly if it were legal,I'd have no issue letting my son sit by himself as long as I were within yelling distance.Since we can only carry one weapon and I don't care to kill anything,there's no point in doing that.There's nothing special about him either.He's just a regular kid that's been given the chance to live this kind of a life style.I can't even remember the last time I had to correct him on any type of safety issue.
Sticn n string, here's how I see your "Messed up" hunt:
You were hunting legally, the 14 year old wasn't. Therefore, your legal hunt was more important than the kid's illegal activity. If the kid is old enough to be licensed, he's old emough to know he is breaking the law. The warden should be notified so that he may be able to bust this kid this coming rifle season if he out alone as well shooting into a safety zone.
The kid is being taught to be an outlaw, he needs to stopped.
Dougell, Seems you are raising a fine young man there, and I know how proud you must be. It is evident that he has the right skills and mindset, and being a hunter is definitely in his DNA. Very cool and generous of you to donate his outgrown hunting clothing, too....i'm sure they will get put to great use by someone here.
I recently obtained permission to hunt a property, but the landowner was totally against letting my 13 year old son hunt. When I inquired as to why, she told me that she had recently had a bad experience with youth hunters on her land. She explained that a father, whom she had given permission to hunt, would drop his 9 year old son, and 11 year old daughter off at their stands, during rifle season. He would then go off and hunt his stand. When she confronted the father about her concerns with the childrens safety, he explained the mentored youth hunting program to her. He told her that he only had to be on the same property as his children, and all was good. She was smart enough to do a little research, and called him on his bs. She later told him to get his kids and his stands off the property, and never return, or she would call a game warden. She has agreed to let my son hunt with me, but only as long as I never leave his side.
I agree that the decision on when to allow children to hunt should be left up to the parents, but more times than not, it seems the parents don't make the right decisions for themselves or their kids. The legal age for any youth to hunt by themselves is 16. That is the law. I know an 8 year old that can drive the wheels off of a go-kart, but that doesn't mean I should just toss him the keys to my truck and tell him he can drive down the turnpike. The mentored youth program is benefecial to most who take advantage of it, but I also feel it gets abused just as much.
I agree and disagree.I only know a handful of people taking MY's out and the ones I know,do it right.It's a lot of work and preparation to get a kid ready to hunt.If you don't do it right,it would be nothing but a hassle.That's why I really don't see it being abused very much.Those who would most likely abuse it also most likely wouldn't be bothered in the first place.
Every kid is different.I have a 17 year old daughter and a 10 year old son.They're both polar opposites of each other.We have a small horse farm and my kids are expected to do quite a bit of potentially dangerous stuff unsupervised at this point.I like to believe I schooled them the right way when they were young so I have to trust them.MY son can run a tractor with a bucket without my assistance.He can feed,water and lead horses in and out of the barn when my daughter and I are away at rodeos.He's been doing that since he was 7 because my wife is scared to death of them.My daughter breaks and trains horses but I wouldn't have let her do the things he did at such a young age.He gets things.She doesn't.She's had her driver's license for a year and a half now.I bought her a jeep wrangler over the summer and she took her first solo flight this past weekend because I didn't feel she was ready to drive by herself.All kids are different but with proper supervision,they're extremely capable to do things that many people wouldn't believe.
I just don't see the abuse.In fact,I don't hardly see anybody taking advantage of it.We live in rural Clearfield county with a deep hunting heritage.My son doesn't have one friend in school who hunts,even though mnay of their fathers do.It's sad actually.I actually feel sorry for people who never get a chance to experience it.
