how to introduce hunting to a young person?

[skeet]

Well I was a guide for waterfowlers and deer hunters so my kids got accustomed to the hunting scene early. I was also a skeet shooter who taught that a little also. My daughter turned out to be a good shooter with a shotgun. Kilt her first goose after taking the huinters safety course at the age of 8(aced it too). She still hunts..as do my grandkids. Granddaughter is an excellent bow shooter. Missed one this year because of buck fever. Grandson got a couple. He shot his first goose at the age of 9. Pretty good shotgun pointer also. If you bring 'em up knowing that life isn't like Disney they usually understand the whole hunting experience. Of course it helped that they grew up on a farm with my wife and I. A little anecdote. My daughter went to visit a friend at the age of about 10. The kids mother made 'em toast with Smuckers Strawberry jam. Took a bite..spit it out and said that it was the worst stuff she ever put in her mouth. She was just a kid..who had never had boughten jam..almost always had game to eat cept hogs etc we grew. We grew almost all of our own foods..and things like cookies and cakes..were all homemade...and not from a box. Oh..we gave the kids mother some real homemade strawberry jam..told us she understood after she ate it. LOL Hunting IS a family affair for the most part

[Rapier]

You teach youngsters to shoot early. Shooting reactive targets is very important to the process. Shotgun shells, 22 ammo boxes, etc., make excellent targets for young folks. I started my son off at 5 as I was tought at 5 and had a very long time safety learning process before actually allowed to hunt.

The tag along process is very important as is the effect of the instructor upon the student. You get a monkey see, monkey do situation and must execute the process with utmost care, it must never evolve into a "do as I say, not do as I do," situation. This is a life lesson, not a do something dumb for 15 minutes and they will not remember situation, they will remember.

I took my son with me hunting, not allowing him to hunt, until he got his safety certificate from the state. This created a desire to participate. Our state minimum age for taking the class is 12, but my son was a junior competitive shooter and a state shooting champion by age 9, so I went to, and got an exemption from, the state F&G for him at age 9 and we took the course together.

When he graduated from the safety course we started with squirrels, coons and rabbits. By 12 he was hunting away from me, within my sight, and had taken his first buck with a 444 Marlin.
Ed