This thread brings me back to when I was a kid ... I always new when Dad was going hunting ... the anticipation at school of what would be in the garage when I got home was intense .... pheasant season would always greet me with birds ... bunnies and grouse ... and then deer season ... man, that was the best to come home and see a buck hanging in the garage ...had to get a picture of me with it, lol .... such sweet memories ...
My daughter Is 4 years old. She thinks she's the one who Is going to shoot a deer this year. lol! Just get them Involved. If It's their cup of tea they'll be along for the ride.
This thread make me, a guy who swares he'll never get married or have kids, really miss not having kids. I have to stay away from this thread, enjoy the memories men!
purebowhunting, I know other fellow bowhunters who've felt the same way... I'll tell you unequivocabally: my boys have been the biggest blessing in my life I could have ever IMAGINED, let alone hoped for. Hopefully, some lucky gal will help you experience the same at some point in your life.
Flashback from a previous life Brad? My kids are growing up with it. When I was guiding bear hunters, Wyatt would always come and see the bears and also watch me skin them sometimes. You just have to expose them to it.....the right way.
Thanks everyone for your insight and experiences. My daughter(2) has ate venison before and has no problem with it and last night had her first backstrap. She loved it only thing is she dipped it in BBQ sauce anyways. Looking forward to this year when I bring home the first harvest of the season to explain more and let her explore if she wishes. Do not want to pressure or force it upon her. Best of luck to each one of you this season.
Im 18 now and was introduced to the way of hunting at a young age. My dad has pictures of me riding on his dead deer before i could even walk, I remember running outside every year to see what he came home with i was probably more excited then my dad as a kid for opening day just to see what he got. My little brother and 2 sisters are the same day it was like a family bonding we loved to watch the whole process year after year so just tell your daughter its to keep people safe and get some meat
My daughter was born and I lived with my parents at the time so I put her crib under my deer head in my room. I told her as she grew up for the first 2 years that the deer would keep her safe and would watch over her. She would have to pet the deer before she went to sleep. As she got older she started to see me bring them home and I told her when I broke the news to her "Baby, daddy shoots the deer so that we can eat them. They are good and daddy also likes to take pictures of them alive so they are a lot of fun." She to this day has not bothered her at all. I now cut them up in the garage and she just looks at it like dad got another one. She is 10 and now sits with me in the stand but I have yet to shoot one with her in stand with me. I hope this is they year for that. She always tells me to kill a buck for her since I am allowed two bucks here in Illinois. I will be excited when she kills her own deer.
Tell them deer are evil monsters that are after little kids and if we kill them we will prevent it from happening. .....JK Just explain that animals were placed onto the earth to be eaten and it's a sport that everyone should learn to do.
One of my FAVORITE pictures ever, I shot it, SHE TRACKED it, and the excitement of her finding that deer was the best ever... She was 5 1/2 in this picture!!! And another of my favorites.... This was the evening she got to see Turkeys roost in the tree directly above us... And when they know this stuff is going to be the end result, they're all about it. I sent my 6yr old to school at least half a dozen days with homemade Trail Bologna sandwiches for her lunch.
Like Doug, I've enjoyed capturing moments along the way... Matthew's age 2 here helping me open up that year's order of BowTechs... Some of my favorites... My wife made real postage stamps out of this one and put them on our Christmas cards that year. I had to put him on my shoulders and wade across a 15-foot wide creek to recover this one. When we found her, he said "she was sleeping." Had his nose right inside her chest cavity on this one as I was gutting her. Only time I've ever seen him throw up. He turned, did his business, and stuck his nose right back in once again to get a closer look. This one's blown up and on my wall above me at my home office... As is this one: One of my favorites as well... we were shooting sparrows in a small strip of woods together. Fortunately, I'd shoved a broadhead in my jacket pocket just in case. We came up on this hen, he gave an AWESOME yelp to stop her, and I drilled her. It's not just killing things that excites us though; get them involved in ALL aspects of the outdoors: Us fishing the Jack's Fork in the Missouri Ozarks. We slaughtered the smallies that day. I believe that trapping is one of THE best ways to get your youngsters involved in the outdoors... FAR and AWAY one of the best: Bringing on the second one in big brother's footsteps... I think he got it. Now this one from last year hangs beside his big brother's pics of the same age...
Vito, long story maybe some day you can come up to our camp in the U.P. and Ill tell ya the whole thing. It doesnt matter what I do it could get high rating in reality show, I screw so much stuff up it would make anyone laugh their ass off.
Awsome pics Greg, beautiful deer and fish and grass and gardener snakes, and lil tiny lizards.lol. Good stuff.
Have my child even the results of hunting already as babies gently explained. From the first trip, in the stroller, when it was winter, I bed my child in fox skins. When it was bigger, I showed him how to fox my skin. Soon I took it hunting and I shot some foxes. I taught the order in reverse to the child and it understood why and why the hunting is good, also it saw my joy.
The first time my daughter saw a hog I had taken she was two years old; the amazement and excitement she had is something I won't forget. Ever since then I've tried to show her all of my kills and catches from deer, ducks, hogs, and fish. She is always amazed and fascinated she even watches me clean and process.
I have 2 boys ages 3 and 4. I have always taught them that wasn’t just a “hamburger” they were eating, it’s also cow and that bacon is also pig, the spaghetti is from daddy’s deer. Too many kids grow up watching talking animals and think that all their meat comes from the grocery store all packaged nice and pretty. As long as you teach them from and early age what they are really eating then there will be no shock factor when they realize that animals don’t talk and that we eat them. Basically just tell the truth.
Good thread, my daughter is 2 months old, I hope to remember this info along the way, Awesome pictures you guys are posting, makes me excited to get her involved in the outdoors
My oldest, now 7, saw me skin and butcher a deer in our garage when he was 2. He caught his first fish when he was 3. I took him to sit in the ground blind for the first time on Veteran's Day when he was 3. We had two does coming down a trail at about 50 yards. They would have come broadside at 20 yards if he hadn't jumped up, pointed, and yelled "Daddy deer!" They spooked and ran. It ruined that particular hunt, but it started a love of it for him. He has learned to sit quietly and begs to come along when I go. Since then, he and his younger brother have watched and helped with the last four deer I have killed. Last year I bought a crossbow, hoping he would get his first. It didn't work out, but, he is eager to try again this year. So is my middle son. My kids have grown up with mounts on the wall, they know when we eat venison, it is because daddy killed it. Saturday night we ate catfish that they had caught Saturday morning. Raise your kids on hunting and fishing; start as early as possible. When they grow up with it being normal, it is not a big deal. It is sad how many kids grow up disconnected from understanding where food comes from.
