Under Wisconsin law a kid does NOT need to take hunters safety while hunting under mentored hunting which means has an adult within arms reach and only 1 firearm/bow between them. Kids 10-11 can only hunt under the mentored law but can take hunters safety if they choose. When a kid turns 12 he has to take hunters safety if you don't want to be within arms reach but still have to be able to see the kid and you can have multiple weapons. So the question is, in your opinion would you have your kid take hunters safety at 9-10 years old to learn everything he can now and get everything pounded in his head from day 1 or would you wait until he is almost 12 and let me teach him the rules myself to start? I see both sides and can't decide if its worth it to wait and maybe he would retain more info in two years or would I rather him go through the class now to pound all safety and hunting skills including marksmanship now.
Teach hunter safety every day. Teach them yourself but check the state mandated check box as required. Only a parent can know and each kid is different but you cant expose them early enough and often enough to weapons and hunter safety.
I should of probably included my kid has been shooting a bow since he was 4. Been shooting and around guns just as long. He has been taught about safety. But going to a structured class with a test will certainly expose him to a lot more topics he has not learned about yet because hunters safety is more than just how to handle a fire arm.
I waited with my daughter she shot a deer a year before she set foot inside a hunter safety class. I think she got more out of the class with the first hand knowledge she had. The real answer will come from your wife if she has an opinion on the matter.
I wouldn't allow him or her to take until it was requirement. I would rather retain as much influence as possible while they are the most impressionable. With all due respect to some of the hunter safety instructors and participants in classes I have witnessed I think there are better venues available without all the misinformation they( the child) would be exposed to in the class.
Interesting. What makes you say that she got more out of it after she already shot a deer? So she shot a deer at 10 and took hunters safety at 11?
Here is the book you will get. It says for instructor use only (but thats you, not somebody else for just 18 hours just to check a state req'd box). http://dnr.wi.gov/files/pdf/pubs/le/LEH104.pdf You can teach the course yourself and then have your kid go through the required 18 hours well prepared. There is also a bowhunter safety course Safety education - Wisconsin DNR No I see they even offer a string gun safety course. LOL
I think waiting until he is older is probably better, most young boys don't have a great attention span and a lot of the info might just be lost on him. I think my daughter was 11 when she took hers.
I believe 12 to be the right age as well (I do not have kids). I took it when I was 12 and I had been around bows/guns my entire life as well.
I took mine at 12. I think here the just have to have it before 16. Probably in the next few years for my oldest.
Agree on all points. Some states have other programs (apprentice hunter, youth hunts or even youth draw hunts) which are also good entry points for new hunters. Check your states regs and requirements to see if hunter safety is a pre-req even for something like accompanying you on a hunt. I was probably 3 or 4 on my first hunts with my father, but got the hunter safety around 12 or 13. License at 16.
She understood the terminology and what a lot of the stuff in the handbook meant already because she lived it and didn't have to try and "memorize" it for the test. She smoked the test 100%. She shot her first deer at 10 and think she was 12 when she took hunter safety looking back at it. Her birthday is in May so she wouldn't have had to take it until September of that year. She did shoot a buck that year on the youth hunt, that was awesome until I realized she broke her nose on the scope.
Which ever age they are when you decide they are ready to hunt on their own. Up until that point us as parents should try to teach them everything, so when they take the class, they are not learning anything new, they are just reinforcing what you already taught them.
I grew up hunting and learning from family long before I took the hunter safety course at 12 but 12 was the perfect age for me personally. I was able to comprehend everything and I took it alone. Still pissed I got a 97% on the test, I can't even remember what questions I got wrong but I was mad.
Sort of repeating what everyone else said, but when I was coming of age, there was something really special about turning 12 and FINALLY getting to hunt. Was I mature enough at a younger age to hunt sooner? Yes, but it created a desire for me to know as much as I could beforehand. I would say it definitely depends on the individual kids, and up to the parents to decide IF the kid is mature enough and ready for that responsibility. My biggest gripe with have the age set so young is that parents may push their kids into it, even if the child isn't prepared for it.
I took the class when I was 11 and got 100% on the test. I also had a brother and a father that teach hunter safety. My brothers daughter shot a deer at 10 and 11 because here in MN it is legal while hunting with a parent. Both deer she dropped in their tracks after roughly 10 minutes of aiming each I understand these are special circumstances but I think many kids that are taught properly by their parents are probably ready before 12, while there are many kids that aren't ready at 18... Its one of those things that is almost impossible to put one age across it all...
I have a son who has MD and I made him wait until he was 11(12) because he needs to learn what the other guys have to say.. He is very continuous and knows where to point the gun/ bow.... but it's a little different and more focused when it's not coming from daddy.. ya know? ha ha
