Their First Hunting Trip

I can remember my dad packing clothes, buying extra groceries, having late night meetings with family members and then the day came when he was leaving. Some of the men from the family were there and all the gear they had been collecting sat by the front door. Then dad took a gun from the cabinet before heading out the door. When I asked my mother where he was going, she said, He is going hunting. I didn’t ever really know what “hunting” was but it looked important.
One day when I wasn’t expecting it, dad asked me if I would like to go hunting with him. Certainly I must have become a man, only the men went hunting. It was funny because I had never been but all of a sudden things seemed very exciting to me, the anticipation built right up to the day we arrived at camp. That was a day I’ll never forget.

When my son was born, hunting was far from my mind but it didn’t take long however, before I knew I wanted to share it with him as well. Then one September day the weather was mild and I was headed to a nearby farm to bow hunt over a bean field I had been seeing deer in. As I was getting my stuff ready just as my dad had done, he asked if he could go. I think he was about six years old at the time and started to cry when I said no. The tears were all it took and I broke down and said ok, if you get your clothes changed fast enough you can go. I think he was in the truck before I was.
Now listen up, if you are considering taking your child hunting for the first time, learn from what I have to say. The way I learned was on my own and it was the hard way. Children going hunting with mom or dad just want to have fun and experience the adventure they have been missing out on. They want to be with you and be apart of what you do.

If you plan on taking a six year old in the woods with you, don’t plan on it being a serious hunt. They do not have the patience you do or the skill required to be the hunter you might be expecting. Yes, I’m the guy that thought he would take his young son out and teach him what it was to shoot a big whitetail deer. Don’t let this be you. It wasn’t even getting a deer he was most interested in and dad missed the whole point. It should have been a time for fun, a time for experiencing new things, a time for enjoying each other and making an impression on this young life. It was a time that dad had to keep telling him to be quiet, watch where you step, don’t do this and don’t do that. Dad even got upset what the little guy had to go pee after only twenty minutes on stand. Worse yet, not a word was said on the ride home. Yeah, I missed the point. Boy did I miss it. After that trip, he probably didn’t want to go again. He did go again and we still had a few rough spots but dad learned not to take the hunt seriously and not to even expect to see deer.

The time was much better spent teaching and learning, me doing a little of both. Sharing a few hugs a few laughs and being dad the father not dad the hunter. I still remember like it was yesterday, the first time we had a buck walk into our set up and he yells dad there he is. I sat and watched, as the whitetail buck ran for cover, all the time with a smile on my face. Yes, I had come along ways.

He is fourteen now and fortunately I learned from my mistakes in time. He loves to hunt and still wants to go every time I do. The learning curve helped me ease his twelve and ten year old sisters into it better and my four-year-old son now wants to do what we do. My kids love to hunt and we spend allot of time doing it together. I sometimes wonder how it might have turned out if I didn’t get my act together though.

I bet when you started reading this, you thought it was going to be one of those warm and fuzzy stories you read so much about. I just hope after reading it, you will have your own warm and fuzzy stories to tell. When you take your child out for the first time, just remember to have allot of patience, allot of love and a little understanding of why they wanted to go with you in the first place.