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Into the Outdoors: Hunting with a Kid During Their First Deer Season

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A state legislator has proposed the idea of having a mentored youth buck season a week before the regular deer season. I consider that a very bad idea. Personally, I consider the whole mentored youth program a bad idea, for reasons I have stated a number of times. I think it does little or nothing to promote hunting in future generations.  What was wrong with waiting until you were twelve? Often, waiting for something for a while makes it sweeter when you get it. On the more practical side, if the goal of antler restrictions is to preserve young bucks, why allow kids to kill even more of them?

Since it’s not very long until the first day of the regular deer season, it seems like the perfect opportunity to look at the idea of hunting with a kid during their first deer season.   I am referring to a twelve year old who has completed the requirements and gotten their first hunting license.  I won’t bother with the mentored youth program, as I view it as pretty much of a farce.  It doesn’t matter if the kid is male or female, the same rules apply. What can we, as adults, do to make sure that the first deer season creates a lifelong hunter?

Many years ago, during my first year of teaching, the Game Commission put on an assembly about deer hunting.  The assembly featured a movie called “The Whitetail Buck.”  On reflection, I realize that the film showed almost everything a father could do wrong while hunting with a kid during the kid’s first hunting season. First of all, it was bitter cold, and the dad put the kid on a stand and told him to just stay there. When the kid finally got cold and bored, and moved about, he was berated by his father, who came within an inch of taking him home and hunting with his buddies. In the end, the kid did bag a buck, but the trophy would have had to have been bittersweet at best.

On another occasion, I read a magazine article advising a young, first time hunter to serve as “camp dog” (that was the actual expression used) on his first trip, in the hope that he would be invited to bring his gun the next year. Now, come on.  Is that any way to make a lifetime hunter out of someone?  I don’t think so.

Having spent many years as a teacher, I think that, when you are dealing with youngsters, a bit of kindness can go a long way toward achieving the desired goal.  If you hunt with a kid, don’t act like Gunnery Sargent Hartman in “Full Metal Jacket.” If the kid messes up, a gentle reprimand is in order. You must keep their age in mind, and remember that your role is that of teacher and mentor.

If your youthful companion gets a deer, it’s time to pitch in and help.  Don’t just say, “You shot it, now you can clean it.”  Even after many years and many deer, I still find the task of field dressing to be formidable. When I was twelve years old, I could not have even thought of doing it by myself.

Be sure to make a sufficient, but not overdone, fuss if the kid is successful.  It is amazing what a compliment from someone you respect can do.

Don’t forget daughters when it comes to hunting. Each year, more and more women and girls join the ranks of hunters. I know a couple of guys who took their little girls hunting, and still hunt with them today, even though they are married with kids of their own.  This is a prime example of carrying on the outdoor traditions we love.

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