Why take kids hunting?

[stanley]

Hi Everyone:

 

I know it's deer hunting season (for you lucky folks that got tags... ), but I was cleaning-out my files and found this. It's an article that I wrote last spring for the Deer Times, the ADA's quarterly publication. Obviously if you're an ADA member you may have already seen it. I thought I'd share it with the group on here as well though.

 

I know it's a long one (and it's not about deer), but seeing the recently posted deer hunting stories inspired me to post it anyway.

 

I'll be up on the Kiabab with my boy building more memories just like these next week!

 

S.

 

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Do you Have to Harvest an Animal to Have a Successful

Hunt? - A Junior Javelina Hunt

 

It was a cold February morning, and my 10 year old son Erik & I were just getting settled in behind the tripod to glass a wide desert ridge & wash area. Erik had been drawn for one of the many ?Youth Hunts? that the Arizona Game & Fish offers to the young hunters of our state. He had drawn a junior tag for the 36A/C javelina hunt. This was to be his first big game hunt, and we were both jumping with excitement that opening morning had finally arrived.

 

A Young Hunter?s Education

The road leading up to this hunt had been a long one, which started in October when Erik put his application in for one of the Youth Hunts in the southern part of the state. He was only 9 years old at the time, but would turn 10 prior to the hunt which would make him legal. At this point, we also started researching potential dates for him to take Hunters Education, which would complete the necessary requirements making him eligible to hunt. Well, by December he had his tag in hand, and we were scheduled for a Hunters Education class in January. We were all set?..

 

In early January, we began the 4 week Hunter Education course. We went to class two nights per week, which added quite a heavy load to Erik?s already busy home-work schedule. Finally the last night of the course arrived and he took the final exam with confidence, knowing that he had prepared himself thoroughly. The test was a success, and he passed with flying colors! One of the questions on the final test however, generated quite a lot of discussion prior to class being dismissed. The question was ?Do you have to harvest an animal to have a successful hunt??. We talked about it in class, with the instructors & participants agreeing that the answer was ?NO?, success should not necessarily depend on killing an animal. Hunting success was much broader than that, and should also be measured by quality time in the field with family & friends.

 

Animals Seen & Un-Seen

Now here we were, opening morning, enjoying the chill of the winter morning as the sun rose over the eastern flats behind us. We were glassing a large bowl that looked like prime javelina habitat. By 9:00AM on opening morning, we had glassed-up over 20 deer, a coyote, and numerous birds & other objects of interest, but no pigs. We knew we were in prime javelina habitat though, as evident by the many tracks & diggings in the area. We decided to still hunt our way back towards camp, where we were scheduled to meet my good friends Rich & Bert, who would be joining us for the rest of the weekend.

 

As we slowly worked our way back towards the truck, I heard a ruckus a couple of hundred yards below us in a brush choked draw. Thinking it sounded like feeding/digging javelina, we set-up and I began blowing furiously on a call that I had purchased for the occasion. While I had never called-in a pig myself, I had several friends tell me of success they had using this tactic so we thought we would give it a try. After 45 minutes or so, we didn?t get any pigs to come in so we decided to slowly hunt through the draw. We didn?t see any pigs, but found their fresh diggings which confirmed their presence and gave us a good location to start hunting after lunch.

 

After meeting up with Rich and getting a bit of an early afternoon rest, we headed back up to the area where the pigs were feeding for the evening hunt. We got set-up on a nice vantage point and spent the evening scanning the surrounding hills, ridges, and flats. As in the morning however, the pigs eluded our glasses and we called it a day.

 

The next two days were spent pretty much the same way; Glassing, calling, still-hunting?. We continued to see lots of deer & other sites, but no pig sightings. We had a couple of close calls, hearing & smelling pigs in some of the dense undergrowth we were hunting, but again with no confirmed sightings. We also mixed-in lots of other activities including a little trap shooting, some quail hunting, & plenty of good times around the camp fire. It was a joy to see Erik soak in all that his first big game hunt had to offer. He continued to quiz me throughout the weekend regarding javelina, deer, the desert, and life in general. It was a great weekend?..

 

Well, Sunday afternoon finally arrived, and it was time to break camp and head for home. Luck would have it however that as we were driving out of our camping area, a group of pigs ran across the road in front of us. I hit the brakes and asked Erik if he felt up to trying a stalk on these guys, and was answered with an enthusiastic YES! Although the pigs had run into a ravine to the side of the road & were already out of sight, looking at the lay of the land we took a gamble on where they would be heading and took-off for a knoll a ? mile away. Fifteen minutes later we were sitting on the hill, watching a flat area where I thought the pigs might cross. Sure enough, here they came. Erik got set-up with his shooting sticks and waited as the pigs came moving by. A big one stopped broad-side at about 40 yards, and Erik started to take a bead on it. The pig moved-off quickly however, and never stood still for a shot again. The rest of the pigs were very spooked at that point, and none of them offered a shot either. In hind-sight, the wind was wrong where we got set-up for the pigs, and they likely smelled us as we were trying to ambush them. It was a tough lesson for a young hunter, and Erik?s spirits were down as we again loaded-up into the truck for the ride home. I could tell he was frustrated at not closing the deal when he had the chance at the one pig that stood still, but I told him that I was very proud of him for not taking a ?low percentage? running shot.

 

A Proud Dad

The drive home was a long one, and Erik & I had lots of time to reminisce about the weekend. We talked about all of the sights we saw: Deer feeding in the early morning, numerous birds, coyotes, rabbits, etc. We talked about the good times laughing around the fire with our buddies, and we talked about how great it was to be out in the desert as opposed to back in the city. Towards the end of the ride home Erik said ?Dad, you know what? Now I know what they mean when they say you don?t need to harvest an animal to have a successful hunt. I think this was a very successful hunt?. I knew then that he had learned much more than ?gun safety? during the previous month?s Hunters Education course & subsequent hunt. It was a proud moment for me indeed, and I?m looking forward to many more ?successful? hunts with him and his younger brother & sister.

[COUESAZ]

Very good Stanley very Good. That goes right along with my post the other day about youth hunters.

[coueshunter]

Stanley, great job as usual. I couldnt agree with you, AZguide and others more, KIDS are the future and if we dont do something now, then we are screwed here in AZ. I am the proud father of a successful new ELK hunter, my oldest shot his first elk a couple weeks ago in unit 1. It is a monster cow and between the two of us, we couldnt have had a better time. I have pictures and memories that will last a lifetime..........I will try and figure out how to get them off the camera and post them here. I can tell you that for me, it was better than any other hunt and I was more nervous helping Travis out on a cow hunt than any other successful hunt I have helped out on big deer..........what a thrill..........Allen Taylor.............

[Lance]

We need to get everyone that we can to go to the G&F meetings this month on the price raises and put in a word for the children!!!

 

 

There must be more oppertunities and more afordable ones for children. Spicificly thoes kids from age 10 - 14 years. These are verry cridical years for kids and they cant even get drawn. Or we cant afford to put them all in for hunts!

 

Step up for our future, the children!

 

 

 

"Kids who hunt, trap and fish don't mug little old laidies"!

[Lance]

We need to get everyone that we can to go to the G&F meetings this month on the price raises and put in a word for the children!!!

 

 

There must be more oppertunities and more afordable ones for children. Spicificly thoes kids from age 10 - 14 years. These are verry cridical years for kids and they cant even get drawn. Or we cant afford to put them all in for hunts!

 

Step up for our future, the children!

 

 

 

"Kids who hunt, trap and fish don't mug little old laidies"!

[stanley]

Hey Allen, congrats to Travis on his elk! Erik had a 6A tag, but we couldn't close the deal. Lots of good memories though (kind of like this pig hunt...). Hopefully we'll have some luck up on the Kiabab doe hunt next weekend.

 

Have you been out after deer this fall yet? Colorado?

 

S.

[ultramag]

these kids nowadays its tough to get them to do anything let alone to get them to do something that requires some work,i have tried but to no avail, i need advise i dont know want to do.their lazy.

[coueshunter84]

Ultramag,

 

 

Just give them access to a stick bow....LOL... Then in the back of your mind you will forever be wondering what you got yourself into ... Man I had no idea shooting a stick bow would be so time consuming and a pain in the posterior..

 

But in the end its worth it. I started all my kids out with dove hunts. You can stay close to the truck, with the ice chest for drinks and other goodies right there. Along with staying warm, or whatever else you want to take with you. They are my official "bird dogs" . I always ask if they want to shoot. I usually take a 22 along also. Make it a family type day, - the wife. Just me and the kids. And aside from the oldest having to shoot a stick bow, its all working well for now. I generally get a question about every week throughout the year, wondering if dove season is coming up.

 

Good luck, Try adn get them out with you as much as they can handle. And find a way to let them participate. The more excited they get the better. My oldest was out chasing deer with me on an archery hunt when she was 8. I dont know other then that. keep plugging away at it. Good luck,

 

 

Shane

[coueshunter]

It is tough to keep kids interest so make it fun for them. Like coues84 said, take goodies, keep close to the truck and when they are done/tired out, go home even if you dont want to. They may want to chase lizards or look at rocks or whatever, but gear the hunt/outdoor event to what is fun for them. Glassing seems to really make it fun for my older son, I have a good set of bino's for him and a tripod and make sure he is comfortable/warm/fed etc.............now that he is a bit older he is more into the game, but now he has girls on his mind so I have to be realistic and not get my feelings hurt if he doesnt want to go quail hunting with me like last night...........LOL................keep taking the kids out and hopefully the AZGFD will figure out how to increase opportunities or our state will lose out..............Allen Taylor..............

[KGAINES]

I took my five year old out for the first time this weekend deer hunting, we hiked in saturday afternoon about a mile and a half, I carried the backpack and anything he might need, we were at our furthest point from camp when he asks whe are we going back, we took a little break and started to head toward camp, we came around a little turn in the trail and a doe was about twenty yards away, me and him took a knee and I started to look around for any other deer, apparently he had scanned it a lot quicker than me, after about a minute he says in a loud whisper I thought we were looking for daddy deer, where is the daddy deer, thats the mommy deer, where is the daddy deer, the doe took off and kept looking back, but it was funny, the concept of a mommy deer with no daddy deer had him baffled. I am looking forward to many years of this, with my son and daughters hopefully.

[hime]

I think you have to make it fun and get them interested as soon as possible. I started by getting my girl to think we were going out to look for cows, which I was pretty sure I could point out to her. We saw a few deer and then that got her attention. I also found a few small sheds that I gave to her and now she is real excited, even though she is only two. I hope to get her out next spring and plant some sheds so that she can find them. But as several have said, especially at this age, when they are done thats it. Don't force it. I look forward to many good memories with her and hopefully a few siblings.

 

JDH

[coueshunter84]

Definately need them to be having fun, And thats the barometer as to when its time to call it quits. When the kids arent having fun its tiem to go find something else to do. I only made the mistake once of hanging around when they were done. Took a while to get them to want to go out again. I had to wait for the second dove season that year. Was kind of lonely the rest of the first season after that foopah. I learned my lesson fast!! and wont make that mistake again.

 

 

 

Shane

[stanley]

My son killed his first deer on the Kiabab junior hunt this past weekend. Story to follow, but I can tell you that this was one of the most spectacular moments in my hunting life! Lots of hugs & high-fives....

 

S.