Is he a natural climber that feels comfortable going up? As a kid I did a lot of tree climbing, and have always felt very comfortable (probably too much so) climbing anything. My kids did not have the luxury of growing up with good climbing trees, and this year when my 16 yr old finally expressed an interest in going hunting I sent him up a tree with some lone wolf climbing sticks. He was not comfortable at all. Even with the lifeline I almost had him just stay on the ground. My 19 year old did some work from a ladder this summer, and it was probably 3 weeks before he started feeling comfortable. It's hard to enjoy yourself if you are hanging on for dear life. You will know if your son is ready when you watch him go up, and it will be different for every kid.
no disrespect to you or your son. I believe there isn't an age to young to start the learning process, however in my opinion, as having been a hunter ed instructor and taught hundreds of children the basics I don't believe that any child under ten is a little too young to really get the understanding of whats going on. they like the idea of hunting but are reliant on you to get them in the stand , keep them safe, and let them harvest an animal . they don't practice like adults, or think like them . not saying there are plenty of dumb adults out there . let your son learn form your knowledge and that there is a bigger picture of hunting to learn. give him a couple more years . get him a hunter ed class and you will see there is an awful lot to learn for a six year old..
Well, I'm not a dad, but a g'mom with 4 of the 8 G'kids hunting with me. The 2 G'daughters shot their first deer in the buddy ladder stand with me (different times of course, lol). They were 13 and 15. The youngest g'son was 7 when he first went with me...sat in the buddy stand and did awesome....now he is 9 and we use both the ladder stand and ground blind....he has gotten 1 deer so far. The other one in a blind with me is my 14 yr old g'son, no deer yet, but this is his first season (finally got him away from the video games). I love that they want to be in the woods.
x2 on remmett70's ideas. Practice climbing the stand to see how he does. And absolutely he has to have his feet on the platform or a built up box. This is for safety. Comfort and keeping him still are important yes but secondary to his staying in the stand.
