In Parts 1 & 2 we established that hunting is a part of who we are and then in part 2, began to build on their knowledge of hunting. If you missed them, be sure to check out Raising a Lifelong Hunting Buddy to get caught up.
STEP 3: 6 Years old. By this time your child now knows how to conduct themselves in the woods, they’ve built up a longer tolerance to be in the woods, and they know the importance of deer hunting and its correlation to filling the freezer. That is why being able to go deer hunting with you is a big deal. They’ve had 2 seasons in the field to learn under you, so they should be on their best behavior. Your goal is still not to harvest a deer on the first hunt, but if you’ve done your part in teaching them (some) proper hunting etiquette, you stand a real chance to harvest a deer. Especially if you’ve elected to take them on a firearm hunt. Again, something to be said about not harvesting a deer on the first hunt or 2, just remember to keep the hunts shorter in nature. Maybe don’t get out to the spot until closer to golden hour.
At this point, we are still focusing on afternoon sits rather than early mornings. Its warmer, there is a finite end time (legal shooting time, express this to them at the beginning so they know when the hunt will be over), and you can get into the snacks early in the hunt! As in Part 2, this is your reminder yet again to bring plenty of snacks!
Now is when, if you haven’t already done so, to show them how to walk quietly. We’ve taught them how to be quiet, but walking quiet is a whole other world. My uncle Mark taught me how to walk quietly on my first deer hunt with him. The technique he showed me was starting with my heel touching first, then lower the outside of your foot, and then finish your step by rolling your foot inward with your toes landing last. I remember this vividly, because at the time it was clearly an important part of the hunt. He made it important by how he communicated it to me. Worth noting, I was around 13 years old at this time, so my understanding of the concept was higher than that of a 6 year old.
Teach them to walk this way every hunt, in and out of the woods, all hunt long, being purposeful with each step. If they do it long enough, they won’t even realize they are doing it. NOTE: My kids are now 15, 13, and 10 and still struggle with this so keep your expectations tempered, especially those first couple of years! Be persistent, but patient, as it will come over time.
Doesn’t really matter the time of year, bring a grunt call and maybe a rattle bag. If you wanted to set out any scent wicks, have them do it. Again, it’s about making them a part of the hunt, rather than just tagging along. If it’s a slow hunt, go through your gear bag and let them know what all you carry with you and what its used for. Talk about shot placement on a deer, talk about possible areas where a deer could come from. Bring a set of binos or a range finder for them to use. Keep their attention occupied with knowledge and excitement. Talk to them about golden hour and how deer tend to feed at dawn and dusk.
For me, my kids didn’t have tablets or phones at this age. I would strongly encourage you to not take their electronics with you on these hunts. Let them explore their imagination. Let them know its ok to sleep if they want, we just don’t want them to be reliant on electronics, we want them excited about hunting. We all know how boring deer hunting can be at times, and we are all too guilty of being on our phones, but this is about them and building a love for hunting. My son used to take little action figures to play with to keep his mind occupied. If it’s incredibly slow and all of the snacks are gone, it might be best to just pick up and head home rather can make deer hunting “boring” to them.
Make sure to pack them their own headlamp or flash light for the walk out. Remember the hand warmers but only pull them out if they really need them. This helps strengthen mental toughness to some degree. As a parent you should always be looking for opportunities to build mental toughness, it will suit them well in life. If you are using a firearm, remember to bring ear muffs, we use Walker’s electronic ear muffs and they are great because your kids DON’T HAVE TO YELL WHEN THEY TALK TO YOU. 😅
I remember Adam’s first hunt with me very well. It was my first time with my compound. I barely practiced with it (although I was deadly out to 30 yds), it wasn’t about killing a deer anyway, it was about sharing the moment with him. We had plenty of snacks, we set up our ground blind where I normally hunted and we waited. We didn’t see any deer that evening but his smile says it all. Definitely a great memory for the both of us!
Its also at 6 years old that they could already be shooting a bb gun. Check their eye dominance, not all righties are right eye dominate and vice versa. 2 of my 3 kids are right-handed, left eye dominate, it’s pretty common. So, they shoot and have always shot left-handed. It’s best to get them doing that at a young age. Get them familiar with sight picture. The ol’ Red Ryder is great for starting out. After they show interest and success shooting that they can start going to the range and shooting a .22 rifle. My kids had Cricket .22 rifles and eventually they upgraded to Ruger 10/22s like mine. Cricket .22s are great guns to get started on. The peep sight makes it tougher for younger kids, but around 6 they begin to have success shooting paper. Just remember to have patience with their understanding of sight picture, as they may struggle to pick that up. Its best to start about 20 yds away from your target and use a big paper target so you can hopefully see some success. If you need to build confidence, you can try firing at your target 😉😉 and place a randomly placed shot on theirs. This gives them some reassurance they are learning and will want to continue to get closer to the bullseye.
Something else to consider as they are maturing in the field and getting closer to the age when they will start hunting is to have them carry their bb gun in the field. The main goal here is to focus on muzzle control, knowing how to properly carry a firearm in the field or in the woods. The best carry in my opinion for kids is the 2-hand field carry. This is where they have the gun held by the stock handle and the other hand on the forearm, while point the gun up. Carrying a BB gun also prepares them to understand the weight of having to carry a firearm and gear. It’s starting to look and feel more like a real hunt. This is a test for them, they should know they are being “graded”. It’s not just about being out there with you, it’s about seeing if they are competent and mature enough to handle a firearm and be an ethical and safe hunter.
As mentioned in Part 1 of this series, the age for my “system” was for them to be 6 years old before they could come out into the deer woods with me. Well, there are always exceptions to the rule. It was late season in 2015, and my buddy Jeremy called me and asked if I had filled my tags yet, he had some does at his grandma’s farm that needed thinned out. It was Missouri antlerless season and I still had a tag, more importantly, I had taken Adam out on 4-5 deer hunts with me and we hadn’t seen a single deer…not one. Remember I mentioned needing to have success at some point early in their maturation process of the “steps”. While Jeremy couldn’t guarantee does would be in the field, he all but said there would be does in the field. 😊 I asked him if I could bring the boys along and he said most certainly. He had a tripod tower stand that was concealed and would be great for the boys.
I’ll never forget getting off the phone and walking into the living room to tell Adam the news. I told him we would be going deer hunting the next day and that we had a great chance to see some deer according to Jeremy. He was very excited to hunt out of a tower stand for the first time. I then asked him to guess who we were taking with us, and as I asked it, Wade, who was standing right beside him, dropped his head knowing he was only 5 years old and couldn’t come out with us. No sooner than he dropped his head, I said “Wade”! His head perked right up with a big ol smile! I said, yep, you’re coming with us buddy! He was only a few months past his 5th birthday, but was definitely quiet enough to join us. As a parent looking for those “wins” in the field, I couldn’t miss this opportunity to bend my rules in hopes of having a successful deer harvest with the boys.
So the next day, we start getting everything packed and ready, it was cold, but not too cold for early December. Jeremy had set it up for an afternoon hunt. He also had invited another friend who would be hunting on the other side of the property. The other hunter wanted to get out there early to give himself the best chance possible to fill his tag. I would have preferred to go out around 4pm, but being as I was a guest, I respectfully obliged, and we arrived at the farm around 2pm. I knew this would test the patience of the boys, as it would be nearly two hours before the last hour of the hunt. This was my first time taking both boys too, so who knows how that would go. I packed double the snacks and tried my best to prep the boys on how long the hunt was going to be if deer didn’t move early. It was going to be possibly a 3 hour hunt, easily the longest of either of their brief hunting careers.
The tower stand was really meant for just 2 hunters, we took a little tripod chair and stashed it behind the main bench, similar to that of the old S10 extended cab pickup that had the seat drop down from the side of the cab. Sure enough about an hour into the hunt, the snacks are all gone (should’ve brought triple the snacks…) and the boys start asking about when it’s time to go. At this point, its about 330p and I am pleading with the boys to give me just 30 more mins in hopes that is when the deer start to funnel into the cut corn field we are watching. I knew that once they laid eyes on deer, their patience would hold out for the remainder of the hunt.
Finally close to 4pm, a deer, only its about 300 yds away and I knew it wasn’t worth taking a shot of that distance given the chances of more deer coming out. The boys continue to ask when the hunt will be over and at this point, I know I am definitely on borrowed time. Finally, Adam says, “Dad, a buck.” I look way out there and didn’t see anything. I asked him where it was, he said “right here”, I looked right in front of us there stood a nice up and coming 2.5 year old buck, about 50yds away. It was antlerless season, so of course he was off limits, but we took the opportunity for the boys to each peek out the window and watch him for a second. It wasn’t long after that does followed suit and filed into the field. I didn’t wait long. I picked out a doe about 60 yds away, I asked the boys if they saw it and they did. I told them I was about to shoot it so sit back and plug your ears. (we didn’t have the Walker’s at that point).
I had shot a doe earlier in the year and put a shot slightly back on it (liver shot) and didn’t recover the deer until the next day. The rear hams had been devoured by coyotes and it was very disappointing. I did put a tag on it and salvaged the back straps and front shoulders. The reason the shot was back, was because I was getting “cute” about not wasting any meat on the shoulders. I told myself the next opportunity I get, I was going to centerpunch the heart.
As luck would have it, this doe was slightly quartered away and I remember thinking to myself, measure twice, cut once. I aim a little low directly at the heart, and slightly squeezed the trigger. BOOOM! As the smoke cleared, we watched the doe run into the brush and then come back out on the other side, running up onto the levy of the pond we had taken to get to the blind. She did a big kick and then dropped in sight! It was an emotional high for sure! I was very ecstatic, hooting and hollering and hugging the boys. They were very excited as well! Jeremy heard the shot and came over to help us recover the deer (aka take pictures). A super memorable moment for us! After taking pictures and talking to the boys about what it means to take of life of this magnitude, I invited them to watch me field dress the deer. It wasn’t very long before they ran off screaming and laughing at the site of the guts. 😆
When they turn 7 or nearly 8 years old, that is the time to be thinking about getting them a youth shotgun. All kids are different in size and shape. Make sure to “fit” the shotgun to them before purchasing. The best and easiest way to do this it to check their “length of pull”. Have them place their elbow at a 90deg angle with their finger point to the ceiling. Place the stock of the gun in their elbow and see if their trigger finger reaches the trigger or is very close. If it does you are good to go. If they are short of it that doesn’t mean they are too small, but you will want to see if they can mount the shotgun to their shoulder and reach the trigger easily. If they are short of the trigger, you will likely see them rest the butt of the shotgun on their arm, rather than the shoulder (as shown below). If your child is timid at all about the kick of a shotgun, having on their arm will only make things worse in most cases. Shooting a shotgun is as much mental as it is physical. As long as you’ve put in the leg work, they will do just fine, even if the gun is a bit long for them.
If you are starting later in this process and the kid is much taller, they may be ready for a full-size shotgun. You will know this if their pointer finger well exceeds the trigger.
I started all three of my kids out with Remington 870 youth model 20 gauges. Remington also makes a “junior” model which is slightly smaller than the standard youth model. Some parents elect to start their kids out with .410s. I started later in my youth so I started with a 20ga so that is what my kids started with. Plus, I didn’t have money to buy a .410 and then buy a 20ga later down the road. The pros to a .410 is that it is lighter and has less recoil. The cons are that often times the affordable ones are single shot hammer guns which are not always best for being in the field. They also have small shot density making it harder to kill birds in the air or even clays. This can cause a break in their confidence. Another con is that kids grow out of them quickly. I find it best to be patient as a parent and wait until they can safely handle a 20 ga. They will likely get 5-7 years out of it before they grow out of the youth model. Now a days, some models come with spacers so the stock can be adjusted as they grow which is great for families on a budget.
In part 4 the long anticipated wait has finally come, they get become hunters and carry a shotgun in the woods! Their excitement for the hunt is at an all time high. Make sure they day is about them and they it will be a day they never forget!
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