Are we missing a trick? Should we push the outdoor side more?

[Daniel HTREP]

I am always amazed to see how good the outdoors is to grow kids. Hunters have to be right up there in terms of understanding the outdoors. Would there be room to push the outdoors to long kids by focusing first on the great adventure of the great outdoors? Then hunting can take over later. Or am I missing different worlds... Just thinking.

 

[Trial153]

I think there needs to be balance. I just don't see any negatives to covering both sides of the equation

 

[dirtclod Az.]

Being outdoors is an education,education leads to conservation that in turn
leads to hunting and fishing.Introduce them to the outdoors and let nature take it's course. 〽

 

[2ski]

You can appreciate the outdoors without being a hunter. Harder to be a hunter and not appreciate the outdoors. I would say outdoors first is the way to go. But that depends on the individual teaching.

 

[Red Fox]

I have just always taken my kid with me. When he is we just don't go as far and take our time walking around. I if you haven't seen how a kids eyes light up when catching their first fish then you are missing something.

 

[Ben Long]

Get kids outside. I think the first "hunting" trips that I took my son on was when he was maybe 2. We hunted bugs in the back yard. Heck, maybe he led me, rather than the other way around. Even in diapers he camped, canoed, hiked because it was the only game in town. If he was going to be in our family, he was going to get dragged along. Hunting is just a seasonal part of whole.

 

[TOGIE]

i seem to know a lot of hunters that don't appreciate the outdoors

and i seem to know a lot of "outdoorsy" people that don't really understand the outdoors - that may be a very colorado specific issue though...

gotta nurture either one properly and help them navigate the BS to get a good result i'd think. do what ya can i guess

 

[Deleted member 28227]

Everyone is going to answer based on their own experience, here's mine.

My parents were not hunters, my first experience with hunting and firearms and hunting occurred after college.

I was raised outdoors, probably more than most kids in my generation. Backpack camping in diapers, canoe trips, pack trips, tent camping everywhere, I'd been to most of our national parks by age 10, cross country skied/ snowshoe/ alpine skied all winter. My parents were both educators and previous outdoor science teachers, so learning all about the flora and fauna wherever you were was just par for the course. My dad read was reading me Aldo Leopold, and talking to me about John Muir and John Wesley Powell when I was 7 or 8.

This up bringing, was a bit in contrast to my personality... I was a geeky kid and loved video games, trading cards and D&D, I probably wouldn't have spent much time outside when I was young if I had my druthers, but my mom didn't allow video games in the house and spending time outside was non-negotiable.

My in-laws exposed me to hunting... essentially gave me a little push in the right direction and I dove in head first.

I'm not going to pretend to have any advice on raising kids, but I was taught to love the outdoors and I found hunting on my own.

 

[TOGIE]

Everyone is going to answer based on their own experience, here's mine.

My parents were not hunters, my first experience with hunting and firearms and hunting occurred after college.

I was raised outdoors, probably more than most kids in my generation. Backpack camping in diapers, canoe trips, pack trips, tent camping everywhere, I'd been to most of our national parks by age 10, cross country skied/ snowshoe/ alpine skied all winter. My parents were both educators and previous outdoor science teachers, so learning all about the flora and fauna wherever you were was just par for the course. My dad read was reading me Aldo Leopold, and talking to me about John Muir and John Wesley Powell when I was 7 or 8.

This up bringing, was a bit in contrast to my personality... I was a geeky kid and loved video games, trading cards and D&D, I probably wouldn't have spent much time outside when I was young if I had my druthers, but my mom didn't allow video games in the house and spending time outside was non-negotiable.

My in-laws exposed me to hunting... essentially gave me a little push in the right direction and I dove in head first.

I'm not going to pretend to have any advice on raising kids, but I was taught to love the outdoors and I found hunting on my own.

i also started hunting after college. my push came from hunting friends i made in college in combination with other friends that didn't hunt who wanted to.

but i begged my non hunting parents to get me hunters safety when i was 13, my dad obliged, did it with me and bought me a .22 afterwards. why i had a desire to hunt in a non hunting family at that age i couldn't tell you, or remember, but it was there. he later explained to me that he made a decision to let me find hunting on my own later in life, than to have him fumbling around out there not knowing what to do just giving me bad experiences that might ruin it for me. he seemed pretty confident i would find it based on what he saw.

we spent a lot of time trout fishing and backpacking growing up. so the base was there. but my outdoorsy fire was really more lit by surrounding myself with friends in college who also liked doing stuff outside.

it seems from my perspective who you become and what you stick with is just as dependent on who you surround yourself with once you're out of the nest as it is what your parents try to expose you to.

i went through plenty of phases between the beginning of college and now - competitive road cycling, smoking cigarettes, trail running, rock climbing and bouldering, peak bagging, chewing tobacco, settlers of catan, the elder scrolls, cowboy boots, country dancing, gun shootin, hunting

i still do a number of those, some i had done for a long time, some i don't do anymore. some of my passions stayed consistent all along, though intensity seemed to cycle up and down at times, the outdoors was that, peak baggin and back packing never went away.

though, really my only point here, is it seems that a lot of those passions were more a product of the people i hung out with the most and were closest to at the time.

i don't doubt that huntin is here to stay though

 

[pre6422hornet]

Just like the two gents above, I grew up in a fishing family on Lake Erie. My gramps had a boat and I had my own at 16. I always wanted to hunt but my parents were anti firearm so I bought an old Bear 76er bow and took archery in the summer school program.

In college I played baseball and a fellow freshman on the team was from rural Ohio and when I mentioned I had always wanted to hunt he basically took me under his wing and that fall I sat in my first tree with my bow, and the first night two does walked right underneath me and I was flat out hooked..... Never looked back.

Now my 4 daughters ( 12, 10, 7, 4) have all been raised outdoors. My two oldest started going on hunting trips when they were 4 or 5 ( usually just out to sit in the blind for an hour). They have always went on shed hunting or mushroom hunting trips. They all learned how to fish as soon as they could walk and we have a two acre lake in our backyard now filled with bass and bluegill and during the summer we fish 4-6 nights a week. Now both the 12 and 10 year old have officially hunted with their own rifles or crossbows and my 10 year old took her first deer back in December!

start em young, keep em interested, don't let them get bored.

 

[MNElkNut]

We (meaning a committee that I chair) put on a Youth Outdoor Activity Day that draws over 2,000 kids annually and features over 40 outdoor related activities. Hunting, shooting and fishing are in there, but so are mountain biking, rock climbing, and ATVing, etc. I believe we have a model that could be shared with other groups across the country to gets kids to experience the first three stages of the Participation Classification System (Awareness, Interest, and Trial). For those interested in what our event is like, look at our youtube video:

I would be more than willing to talk to groups who have an interest in putting on an event like this and help them get started. They can use our model and tweak it to meet their needs.

 

[KipCarson]

I’m not sure that it matters much what comes first as long as there is as much exposure to the outdoors as possible. My personal opinion is that we don’t necessarily need more hunters, we need more allies. If people just want to backpack and camp I am OK with that, as long as they understand that my preferred outdoor activities have a place. I know there are plenty of outdoor types that fill the hiking trails in every mountain range across the west that are not friendly towards hunters, but I would assume when it comes to indoctrinating new people exposure to the outdoors is better for our cause than complete ignorance.

 

[Deleted member 28227]

I’m not sure that it matters much what comes first as long as there is as much exposure to the outdoors as possible. My personal opinion is that we don’t necessarily need more hunters, we need more allies. If people just want to backpack and camp I am OK with that, as long as they understand that my preferred outdoor activities have a place. I know there are plenty of outdoor types that fill the hiking trails in every mountain range across the west that are not friendly towards hunters, but I would assume when it comes to indoctrinating new people exposure to the outdoors is better for our cause than complete ignorance.

I killed a critter behind a posh mt town this year and walked down a busy hiking trail mid day on a Saturday with it on my back. Got stopped a half dozen times with people asking questions... honestly universal positive response. People loved the fact that I was doing a backpack style hunt, I honestly think that 90% of non-hunters have this image of deer feeders in their minds and when you show them that's not how everyone hunts, the are pleasantly surprised and very supportive.

 

[Daniel HTREP]

OK, I pulled back and saw the conversation took fire and I think that Kip Carson probably said it best with: "My personal opinion is that we don’t necessarily need more hunters, we need more allies".

Allies can choose to hunt or not, they might choose to go climbing. Or anything else. But these allies, these ambassadors for the outdoors will come from our kids and then we are back with Kip, MNElkNut and Pre6422Hornet when they are talking about exposure.

And then we need to expose education leaders to the same world so that they can drive this throughout the system they run...

So we're talking about investing in Education. Anyone knows about a huge National Association which, for example, deals with Rifles and has the financial muscle and political noose to link outdoor education, the environment and choice which would enable them to be, for once, on the moral high ground? Too far fetched? Just an idea.

Or maybe this is already happening and we need to shout more about it? Anyone a member with an insight on this?

Daniel

 

[Arctic_Snow_Seeker]

Agree with all the above. On the flip side I think one of the worst things a dad can do is take his young kid on death hikes, sitting in a freezing blind etc to try to maintain his style of hunting but “introduce” his kid to hunting. I’ve seen many avid hunters wonder why their kids didn’t take to hunting. They show a picture of their kid half ass smiling when they were 6 3 miles from the truck in the snow as evidence of “trying” to get them into hunting.

Keeping it fun is always the top priority of every outdoor adventure. It ends up mirroring my life because it never goes as planned. Go on a fishing trip but end up catching crawdads all day, go shooting and start looking for fossils etc etc

 

[Europe]

Just like the two gents above, I grew up in a fishing family on Lake Erie. My gramps had a boat and I had my own at 16. I always wanted to hunt but my parents were anti firearm so I bought an old Bear 76er bow and took archery in the summer school program.

In college I played baseball and a fellow freshman on the team was from rural Ohio and when I mentioned I had always wanted to hunt he basically took me under his wing and that fall I sat in my first tree with my bow, and the first night two does walked right underneath me and I was flat out hooked..... Never looked back.

Now my 4 daughters ( 12, 10, 7, 4) have all been raised outdoors. My two oldest started going on hunting trips when they were 4 or 5 ( usually just out to sit in the blind for an hour). They have always went on shed hunting or mushroom hunting trips. They all learned how to fish as soon as they could walk and we have a two acre lake in our backyard now filled with bass and bluegill and during the summer we fish 4-6 nights a week. Now both the 12 and 10 year old have officially hunted with their own rifles or crossbows and my 10 year old took her first deer back in December!

start em young, keep em interested, don't let them get bored.

Pat is being modest. He takes his daughters "everywhere" with him. Individually as much as possible so that he can spend one on one time with each girl, which is as it should be, since each girl will have her own personality and interest. If a daughter doesn't want to hunt or fish that is o.k., as long as you are outside with them or even inside, painting a picture ( maybe one is into art ) or a piano ( maybe one is into music ) or------whatever their interest is AND keep a balance of their interest and the interest of another daughter. Take each one individually AND take them together so that they will appreciate what others like to do, even if it is not their favorite thing to do. And Pat does this which is not easy with four daughters, plus a wife--5 females in the house --ouch! (-:

I was raised on a farm, so the outdoors was all I knew, but our daughter loved the outdoors, hunting, fishing, horses, ( especially horses ) but our son liked sports, every sport and since football is in the fall, it was a balancing act to give each time where they wanted to be and sometimes we had to split up, my husband taking one and myself the other,

Outdoors and firearms in todays world is literally two different subjects. I do agree with Arctic-snow-seeker.--introduce them to firearms with a B/B or pellet gun, no recoil or loud noise, no death hikes ( using Articsnowseekers words ) , freezing blinds, etc--as he said, make it fun. Have snowball fights, sledding, my children loved being pulled in a sled behind the truck or tractor ( dont even know if thats legal anymore ), snowmobiling , etc --PLUS blind hunting or ice fishing. Obviously what you do depends on the interest of the child, which is why Pat tries to spend time with each one separately, or maybe he does it just to get away from that much estrogen in the confines of his home . Better to deal with one crazy female than 5, and he isn't even into their teenage years yet--(-:

Every post made on this thread above has good advise,

Mnelknut, how cool is that !!!!

wilm1313--amen.

 

[PA deer hunter]

I have 3 kids. My oldest daughter is a huntress. My youngest daughter is a natural shooter, absolutely loves to shoot, but doesn’t hunt. My stepson enjoys hiking. All were raised outdoors , exposed to hunting and fishing from the time they could walk. They all took different paths as far as enjoying the outdoors, but at least they got out there enough in their formative years to lay the foundation. My only regret is that my stepson didn’t take to hunting, high school sports took all his time, then college. I could use his brawn to help me get my deer outta the mountains as I get older !

 

[Panda Bear]

Its always interesting to see what interests a child or young adult. We do involve all the children in a village in as many outdoor activities as possible. Probably more fishing than hunting but also things like, dog sledding, igloo building, using animal by products, abut also hunting. Like April said we find children like to do different things and we support that. Hunting is one of them, but not the only outdoor activity taught or enjoyed. But yes, try to get them outside as much a possible, even if it is only

My guess is it is harder down south to take a group of children from your neighbor hood to go camping, fishing hunting than here. But probably it also depend son the size of the town you live in and where your geographically located

April, many things that one could do at the turn of the century when you were a child is not possible now

 

[Pucky Freak]

It’s hard to view the subject outside my own experience. My parents were taking me camping, hiking, and fishing all over CO long before I’d ever remember doing any of these things. When my mom finally let me tag along with my uncle to go pheasant hunting at age 8 it was just another part of the outdoor continuum, except it was even more fun than the other stuff we did.

 

[Northwoods Labs]

My dad hunts, but as a kid I did spend more time outside, rather than simply hunting. We spent tons of time digging frog ponds, catching frogs, snakes, salamanders, and building forts and teepees in the summer. I've camped at the same campground in northeast Wisconsin every year of my life. In the winter dad would plow huge snow banks and we would build forts. Later on, we would ride our BMX bikes in gravel pits and fish the quarry ponds for bass and crappies. In my teenage years snowboarding became a huge thing for me. Dogs have always been a big part of my life. The outdoors have always been a place I have been for fun, and a lot of it was/is spent on interacting with fish and wildlife. I guess it's natural that I love hunting and fishing so much.

Now kids sit on their phones for fun...……...