Pass on passing it on

[tommy]

I started a post asking if any of you have any stories about passing our tradition on and my topic went down like a duck on openning day! I hope it is that you are all to young to pass anything on, but I know some of you are.

If what is suggested by your lack of interest in the question. No wonder our sport is going down in numbers.

Maybe your to busy trying to find the best advice for your own hunt to get better or to busy to take the time to pass it on or maybe you just dont think it was that great of an experience, and if so thats pretty sad. I hope Im wrong and it was just over looked.

[timberwolf61]

I will start by saying that i am 45yrs young & I have a son (only son) that I want to take hunting ,but he doesnt` seem to want to take the hunters safety course (manditory in WV) even though he has served a 9month tour in IRAQ he still doesnt want to take the safety course. His excuse (why do I need to take a safety test when I was trained by the best in weapons handling the government can buy) well Im sorry but i agree with him but the state of wv still wont give him his hunting lisc without it ,& he wont give in to more gov BS so I guess I will not be handing down my hunting tech`s to him. I wish you luck

[Brent]

You should be able to talk him into taking a weekend class. They have classes that run about 8 hours on a Saturday. Heck thats only one day, not like his training. I know a couple kids that had never taken it outside of boy scouts training and they took it this summer, they are both over 23. Its just something you have to do.

[timberwolf61]

Yea ok Ill try to get him to do that , IF i can get him away from his friends. After IRAQ he doesnt want to leave his friends . He really wants` to go hunting with me but doesnt want to take the test . I will tell him I will take him to the test site myself if it will get him to go. thanks wolf

[Mark]

Tommy,
It's tough to pass this tradition on. My son and daughter both took the hunter safety course, and only go with Dad to the range or hunting when they have nothing else to do. They're just not interested.
Because of the expense involved, kids get hand me downs for equipment and it doesn't work well. The kids get discouraged. Taking a neighbors kid out is an invitation to be named in a liability suit.

Expense, crowded public land, posted private land, shortage of time, inclement weather, lawsuits, gasoline prices, negative media, small bag limits, these are some of the reasons our sport of hunting is dieing. How much of this can a sportsman control?

When I was a kid, I could come home from school, grab my shotgun, and head out pheasant hunting for a couple of hours. Today, this kind of opportunity only exists for a very few kids living in rural areas, and if these are farm kids, I'll bet as soon as their feet hit the ground, there's chores to do.
Mark

[tommy]

Wow! I thought I would generate happy stories, but here goes.

Timberwolf, I took my grandson and sat thru the 8 hr. course with him even though I passed mine in 1972. we made a day of it and talked at breaks and lunch. We even made plans to go to a hunt club the next day if he passed, my treat. Best money I ever spent.

I was in the Army too! the training is not just keep your weapon pointed down range and hit the target. Its about hunter safetey and state laws, rules and ethics. your explination of why he doesn't need it is like comparing apples to oranges.

Do him a favor and let him Know even a veteran hunter who knows alot learned a few things that day. Offer to pay for it! dont let him miss out on this wonderful sport.

In the service were trained to kill the enemy. At this class its about Hunting safley with or around other hunters and knowing the laws and rules that apply to the birds and animals you are hunting and so much more little tips.

Mark dont worry that they hardly have time to go with you. If my grandson only does 2 or 3 times a season thats his choice, but we will both remember those good times till were both dead and gone. When he is older his friends will be to busy for him he will get back into it and ask me to go! You still planted a very important seed for them later or when they are married and have there own kids and want them to have an option other than some of the crap kids are doing now a days. Keep asking and take them as often as they want to go.

This saterday I'll be in a duck blind with my two grandsons and if it was the only time we go It will all have been worth it, but I know there will be at least a few more, Good luck to all on the duck openner.

[timberwolf61]

yea I remember when my son & i first went squirrel hunting he took his 22 ranger rifle I bought him for his 10th bday he could kill pine cones at 30-50 yds no problem but killing squirrels was a diffrent story.they dont` sit still very long,& he was dissapointed that he couldnt hit his first tree rat that he found on his own. so with a lott of begging from him to use my 12 guage this 55lb boy shot his first tree rat & found that it carries a bigger load than his ranger & thus was telling me all about it while getting up from the forrest floor. He was so excited that he forgot all bout the tree rat he killed & decided rite then & there that a 12 was far better to kill with than his 22. But being the dad that i am i told him that after he killed 6 tree rats with his 22 he could graduate to a 410 till he grew up some. well he grew up some & now I have to find a new way to get him back into the woods. I will offer to go with him to class even take him & see if it will convince him to go hunting again. Those were the days werent they

[airborne]

Timberwolf, Offer to take the class again with him. I live in PA and have taken the test 3 times. Once when I was young again with my boys and again with my daughter. I just retired from the Army and all soldiers like a good challenge. Make him a bet and he might take you up on it if the prize is worth it. It may cost you alot now, but you will be the one who wins over your lifetime.

[OhioOutdoorsman]

I just took a hunter course with a friend for an out of state liscence after over 15+ years of hunting. I'm in a rare state that doesn't require it. We had a competition to see whole could score higher on the test. Although I got 100%, the test was tough and I learned a lot. My friend got 100%, too.

I take at least one non-hunter hunting a year and have introduced many more to fishing........

[beeell]

My brother spent 10+ years in the Navy, and I get the same story from him. But now he has asked me to take his step-sons hunting, so I told him that they all had to take the course in order for me to take them out. I think it's working, hes seems to be coming around to taking the course, for the boys sake anyway. I keep pluggin away, he'll eventually come around.

Sometimes I just don't understand the lack of enthusiasm for the outdoors. I guess some poeple just don't have it.

[tommy]

Im glad to hear all these positive conversations from you hunters, keep planting those seeds, Its all we can do!

P.S. My two grandsons and I were at our openning day for ducks yesterday and we got one gadwall and had the best time of our lives with my lab Boomer and we were even picked last for the refill(got picked last in the bucket out of twenty five groups), got out there at about the time it was all over, had the worst pond in the whole wildlife area and cant wait for next weekend. Good luck again to all of you!

P.S.S. a 12 is a little to shocking for a 10 year old, I got my 12 year old grandson a moss. 500 20gauge and he loves it. its reasonably priced too.

[prairiehunter]

Timberwolf-
As a responsible hunter your son should take the class to hunt. He was taught weapons handling and shooting not "gun safety." This class is not just more "government BS" there are things that everyone can learn and be reminded of in the class. There are also military people that teach the class so he can do it with people he knows. On our AFB they teach the class all the time. That may be an option that he would consider.

[tmrschessie]

I kind of went through the same mind set after Viet Nam, Several years passed before I even wanted to pick up a gun. A friend took me out squirrel hunting and we sat and talked for hours, did not kill any squirrels myself, he shot a couple. Had another friend a few years later take me dove hunting, it took him all summer to wake me up. After that first shot , it all came back to me. I went on to take the Hunter Education Class, become an instructor, and an instructor trainer. Later a big game guide. Now I hunt and trap for recreational purposes and self satisfaction. My point is it will take time, but keep at it. Take him to the local trap range, he will break targets. Then maybe to a skeet or sporting clays range. Then to the dove fields. If he just wants to hang out with his friends try more frequenty as that is a slippery slope he is on. Take Care. Tom

[haggis]

Some the best history in my life has been about hunting.
Going coon hunting with my grandad and sitting around those little fires listening to the dogs and hearing all the good natured lies and adventures.
Working your butt off chopping out a water hole for ducks to come in on,a coal bucket of shelled corn and a double barrel was duck hunting back then.
But that was when the flyways and bottom ground were black with thousands of ducks and geese.
Camo was a white sheet and a snow bank.How times have changed.
Hunter safety was supreme,I was almost always allowed to acompany Dad and Grandad on any hunt and it was a big day when I was allowed to carry a gun ,knowing that any mishandling would not be tolerated.
It was almost a promise to carry on the thrill of the hunt with my son and had no problem at all to get him into a hunter safety course,he was ready.And now with the grandkids the promise lives on.
But as a lot of old timers have said,my how times have changed.With major challenges in just finding a decent place to expose the youngsters,and keeping alive the spirit of a good hunt.
I guess hunting has taken on a different meaning to some,bragging rights,trophies and a macho profile.My son calls them catalog hunters.
BUT hunting is and should be a heritage that deserves to be passed on to the next generation,we can onley hope that they can adapt and enjoy just like us old guy's did and do.
I better quit before I fall off my soap box and hurt something gents.

[keb2739]

Timberwolf 61,

I'll go hunting with you "Dad"!! I feel your pain. I have two grown sons and a daughter, and none of them have much interest in hunting. Both the boys hunted with me when they were young, my oldest killing his first (and only) buck when he was 12 on a parent-child hunt in Georgia. It was a thrill for us both then, but it seems that life just gets in the way these days. I even bought them each a Thompson Omega .50 cal muzzleloader for Christmas a year ago, and other than shooting them on XMAS day, they haven't been fired again.

I guess it's like the old adage, "You can lead a horse to water, but you better be awful **** strong and determined if you are going to drown him!!" :)

My parents were from WV, Hinton (Mom) and Boomer, WV (Dad). Hey, maybe we are related, and we can go hunting???

Good luck with your quest,

Kyle

[MOhunter]

I just turn on Men's outdors and receration channel or the outdoor channel when your sons over, and say things like look at them ducks comming in or man what a buck.

I'm at the point were i have no one to pass it on to, and everyone i know allready hunts.

soon i will have a nephew or niece to pass it to. hunter numbers may be down but i see more women then ever before, and those will create hunting families and numbers will rise again.

[justhuntem]

I'm a Lucky guy I'd take it from reading these posts about passing it on, My Wife hunts with me I retook the hunting saftey course with her years ago, My boys fight over who gets to go in the woods with me after work, We also took the hunting saftey course together, You can never be too old or too educated when it comes to hunting safety whether it be as simple as wearing a saftey harness while sitting in a stand or what the shots are not to take on game reducing the risk of excessive tracking and just plain wounded animals. This sport of ours is dying in many places and there are many more against us, Its our job and duty to keep hunting respectable, It is far from just going out and killing something, It is much more about enjoying the woods and wildlife, At this point in my life (44) I can possibly ID most any songbird or small mammal that generally resides in my neck of the woods, And if I'm not 100 percent certain when I get home I pull out a petersons field guide this Along with doing our part in population control. Hunting is a privalege lets keep it.

[will79]

Offer to take the class with him. As for passing it on you can see my thoughts in my reply to Are There Any Trappers In Here.

[lawdog87]

Well I'll start off by saying I am only 25 and never really went hunting with my dad when I was younger. I went deer hunting in Wisconsin (where I am from) once with him when I was about 9 or 10 and being that young I didn't have the know how to sit and be quiet and according to my dad at the time I scared off a good buck and that was the last time he took me hunting. I went into the Marines after high school and got out in 04' and for the last two and a half years I have been learning about hunting on my own. Mainly threw guys that I have met at work and what not, and I slowly have been picking up great tips for all sorts of game hunting. I have even picked up a lot of knowledge from reading the post on this forum and I have been telling everyone about it sense. Well about a year ago I bought my first rifle a 30-30 lever action but it didn't really suit my needs so I sold it and got a 22-250 and sense then I've gotten a 12 gauge, a 223 and I just bought a 17 HMR. Well I have been talking on and off with my dad about the yote hunting I get to due on the ranch that I work on and he just told me that he wants to come out to California to visit me and to go yote hunting with me. In my 25 years on this world I haven't said more then a few words to my dad at any given time, thats the way he is and I have never really had any common ground with him until now. We have talked almost everday now for the last couple of weeks about what kind of yote gun he should get (and I mean hours at a time), which looks like he is going to get a Tikka T3 in 22-250 and for x-mas, with the help of my mom, we got him a Burris 3-9x40 scope and binos from Cabela's and he is planning to come out here as soon as he can. Now granted this topic is about passing down traditons and such but "hunting" has brought my dad and I closer then we ever have been and this is the stuff that I know I will pass on to my kids when I become a dad. I know I am young and I have a lot to learn from those who have "walked the trail before me" but this new found common ground with my dad is a step in the right direction so for me the sport of hunting is alive and well and I don't see it going anywhere for a long time.

[lawdog87]

I know I just posted but I have another short story to tell. Last year I got my first buck tag and I was pumped to go out and get one. I desided I wanted to take someone out with me for company so I asked a guy I work with on the ranch but he said no, well his youngest boy (16) was there so I asked if Cole could go with me and his dad said sure. So the next morning we went out bright and early and just our luck the first spot we stop at (on top of this hill over looking an orchard) Cole see's a buck walking in the orchard. It actually took me a second or two to located it but when I did I could tell it was a good size one. The buck was about 150yrds out and down wind from us so I told Cole we were going to follow the ridge of this hill and see if this buck would continue in the direction he was going. Well sure enough the buck kept walking slowly down the same row in the orchard until he was about 65 yards away from us. Well to finish this story...I let Cole take the shot and he dropped the buck in his tracks. It was a beautiful 8 point buck and Cole shot his first buck / deer ever !!! He has the rack mounted in his room.

[keb2739]

Lawdog87,

You probably just made a friend for life with young Cole. There is no telling what influence that small act could have on someones life. I enjoyed your story about connecting with your Dad, and how your love for the outdoors made that happen.

Good for you, good for him.

Hunt safe,

Kyle

[lawdog87]

Lawdog87,

You probably just made a friend for life with young Cole. There is no telling what influence that small act could have on someones life. I enjoyed your story about connecting with your Dad, and how your love for the outdoors made that happen.

Good for you, good for him.

Hunt safe,

Kyle


Thanks Kyle, you know you are so right. Infact Cole just called me the other day wanting to go out yote hunting with is new 243 he got for x-mas. So I took him out this morning, called for about 2 hours didn't see a thing and then on your way out in the truck sure enough a 100yrds out stands a yote. Cole dropped him, wasn't his first yote killed but it was his first with his 243.