by Dee Dee Dockins

Stoddard County, Missouri - As an Outdoor Skills Specialist, one of the questions most asked is how to start kids out hunting.  Easy, focus on your child.  As simple as it may seem, most parents think that if they don’t harvest an animal, their child won’t enjoy the hunt.  Hunting with mom or dad in the field and having fun is your ultimate goal. 

Keeping focused on the total hunting “experience” will help ensure a successful hunt with your child.  The first key to starting kids out hunting is to build interest and anticipation prior to heading to the field.  Parents who skip this step are doomed from the start.  One of my favorite experiences with my son is scouting for deer or turkey.  He finds the signs of animals and then helps decide where to set our blind. We then set up the blind and watch for game before opening day.   Sometimes that lasts 10 minutes and sometimes 2 hours, it depends on his attention span. You could also cook a wild game dinner with your child to help them form the connection between the hunter and the harvest.   

Any successful hunter will plan their trip prior to the hunt.  Well laid plans ensure that each step of the experience will be positive and spark interest in the hunt.  Allowing your child to help make plans for the hunt gives him or her ownership in the experience.  

Here are few more pointers:

1.     Make sure your children are comfortable, dressed in layers. You can purchase rain gear but keep in mind that your child probably doesn’t want to hunt in the rain. 

2.    Leave your firearm at home.  Concentrate on your child during the hunt. The only thing you should shoot during their hunt is a camera.  YOU can hunt another day.

3.    Take your child hunting as soon as he or she can quietly sit in the blind.  They don’t have to have a firearm to hunt.

4.    If they are going to shoot, find a firearm that fits them and can be shot comfortably, no exceptions.

5.    Teach conservation all the time.  Make certain your child understands why you’re planning to hunt in a certain location and the importance of good habitat.  Ask them to tell you why this is a good place to hunt and continue the education while waiting in the blind.

6.    Practice what you preach.  Demonstrate safe, responsible and ethical behavior at all times.  Your children will mimic your behavior.

7.    Bring a set of binoculars for your child.  One of the easiest ways to keep a child occupied is the use of binoculars.

8.    Ground blinds are very forgiving.  These blinds can hide most all movements of fidgety hunters and even provide an area to sleep during those slow morning hunts.   

9.     Keep the hunt short.  When they are ready to go home, GO HOME.  Remember, you are hunting for them.  If you hunt for 10 minutes today but 20 minutes tomorrow you are still making an improvement.

If you build the experience step by step you will be rewarded tenfold.  Continued congratulations on successes and positive encouragement about missed opportunities lift spirits.

Compliments about his or her shooting abilities, keen eye, ability to identify animals, etc. will be imprinted on their brain forever.  Make sure your child knows how much fun it was being with them afield—that’s the trophy. 

The countless hours you and your child spend afield creates memories that bond one generation to another.  Regardless of how many hunting videos you both watch, how many other hunters he talks to, the child will look to up to you the rest of their life. You will be the one who EXPERIENCED the each step of this grand adventure with them. You will be the one who taught them the joy of hunting.