I have got to ask..........................?

[msudawg8087]

I'm glad you chimed in Johnny. It depends on the kid. I was duck hunting with a red ryder BB gun at age 4 with my dad. I know some 18 year olds that shouldn't be hunting.

Lawdawg I can too remember deer hunting with my dad at 4 years old and taking my bb gun. A many of birds , fish etc etc got shot at. Deer hunting wasn't so serious back then and I wish my dad was around now to see me taking my 4 year old lil girl. It will be a several more years before she holds a gun and pulls the trigger but she ask me to take her every time I come home from the camp. So warmer days I am going to try to do that. I took her once last year and once so far this year.

peewee.....you werent at mahannah last friday with your little girl were ya?

[DUCK-HUNT]

Started deer hunting with my dad around age 4... shot a nice spike that year with my BB gun as I recall and he was running too .. next year graduated to 410 never got to shoot at anything for real but practiced alot.. you know pull hammer back and squeeze trigger.. the next summer at age 6 I got a winchester 30-30.. steppin in high cotton now I killed my first deer on doe day that year and it turned out to be a little spike. My dad was with me through all of this and did not hunt by myself till I was 8... I say it's all about how you raise your kids... some do it right and some are better off not being parents at all.. did the same exact thing with my younger brother and it is amazing at the difference between someone brought up hunting respecting everything about it and those that start later in life... and I agree with LawDawg there are some 18 year olds that should not be hunting, 28 year olds, and so forth

[rustypjr]

Mine will go when he asks and his able to. He will shoot when I think he is ready. I was like many have said raised in hunting. We were given BB guns at a early age and killed more birds than I care to remeber. i got my first real gun at age 6. A 410 pump. I was only allowed to put one in it. So I would learn to make a good shot. I killed my first deer sitting by a tree with me dad and grandpa at age 7. At age 8 daddy would drop me off at the stand and come pick me up. At age 12 i got a 30 30. I also got a bow that year and took my first with a bow. I also remember daddy toting me through the sloughs and setting me and my 410 on a stump to shoot ducks ( i was peobably 8 or 9). I think alot of has to do with how you were raised. I was raised around guns and loaded guns in the corners of the house. I was also raised that if i touched i could die or either wish i was dead from the booty whooping i got. My son who is only 1 1/2 will walk in my closet with me and piont at a gun and say "gun" then he will say "no,no" cause he knows he aint supposed to touch it. I still have that old 410 that have been on many of hunting trips. It will be his one day and I hope he has as many memries with it as I do.

[dukhunter]

I started going with my dad at 3, carring a gun at 8, and killed a deer on the stand by myself @9 I followed the same with my son. he shot his first deer this year ( no we didn't recover it but that was my fault as much as his) he has since passed on does and two bucks on his own that I wanted him to take, every child is different, I'm lucky my is bigger for his age and fairly mature, but hes been around guns and hunting all his life he knows that guns aren't to be played with. He just turned 9 so he still sits with me and next year he and I will make the call on him sitting a stand by himself, I'm in no hurry I kinda like having my hunting buddy right there for me to see, he has made hunting fun for me again...............

[Mark K]

Guys I agree with each child is different. My 11yr old has been duck hunting with me since age 3. He started shooting two years ago and took his first limit last year during the youth waterfowl season. He started early this past summer asking about deer hunting. Well we practised shooting, watched hundreds of hunting shows (with him with a pencil pointing on TV where to shoot and when.) Well the first of our season we sat together and I got to watch him take his first deer, a nice little 7pt. This past Saturday we split up (about 100yds apart) and he took his first deer by himself. Before the rifle quit echoing my phone was vibrating. His words were "Daddy, safety on, I put it right on her shoulder, squeezed the trigger and saw the blood squirting out through the scope." The safety on is what's required everytime he shoots when we're in the duck blind. I guess he's so used to it, thats the first thing he told when he called.

[Seymore]

I don't think you can set an age to it. Everyone matures differently. I remember my brother in law wanting to go hunting with me when I first got married. He was 20 and had never been hunting before. He had never been exposed to hunting before but borrowed a shotgun and went dove hunting with me. I'll never forget what happened that morning. I wing one which landed closed by him. I asked him to go get that bird and "take care of it". He walks out there and from a distance of 6 inches shoots the winged bird. There was nothing left but feathers floating around him. Others in the field looked at him in total shock and confusion. I got up, walked over, took the gun away, unloaded it, put it back in the case, and told him he was sitting beside me the rest of the day. He got all pissed and bitched to his mother and my wife about what I did. They got on me until I told them what really happened. He's never gone back since. I reckon the moral of that story is it was to late for him but no one around him hunted while he was growing up. It also shows that age alone doesn't make one responsible enough to be let loose.