how old were you or your child the first time you went deer hunting.

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - how old were you or your child the first time you went deer hunting.

Posted: 10/28/2010 9:07:40 AM EDT

Just wanted to now what you all think the right age is to go deer hunting or hunting in general.

Posted: 10/28/2010 9:11:32 AM EDT

[#1]

12 is when I first went, the earliest legally allowed in the state of Pennsylvania.

Posted: 10/28/2010 9:13:12 AM EDT

[#2]

I'm hoping 39... (next year)...

My boy will be 14... we're both way overdue...

Posted: 10/28/2010 9:14:27 AM EDT

[#3]

Dad didn't hunt, so a friend took me out when I was 23.

Posted: 10/28/2010 9:16:46 AM EDT

[#4]

5 years old. I carried a gun while hunting at 11, although had carried a gun squirrel hunting a bit younger than that.

Posted: 10/28/2010 9:18:55 AM EDT

[#5]

11, not old enough to carry a gun, but old enough to tag along with my dad and learn the ways of "the cabin".

Posted: 10/28/2010 9:18:57 AM EDT

[#6]

I was about 8 when I first went quail hunting and my job was to mark birds down, pick them up, and watch the covey so we would now where they went. I shot my first quail at about 12. I went deer hunting for the first time a year or so after that. My oldest three kids all went hunting the first time and made their first kills at 6. The youngest has a birthday in January so she'll probably go the first time just before her 6th birthday.

Every kid is different and they should go when they are ready and want to and can shoot well enough and can put up with the weather and hunting conditions. Having a place where you can to the blind and drop them off allows them to start hunting at an earlier age than if you have to walk 2 miles through heavy brush in the dark to get to the game.

Posted: 10/28/2010 9:19:32 AM EDT

[#7]

I was 4- me and my dad...it was cute.

Posted: 10/28/2010 9:19:48 AM EDT

[#8]

I was 14, and took my son with me when he was 7. He got his 1st when he was 11, the 1st weekend he could hunt.

I got my 1st when I was 26.

Posted: 10/28/2010 9:20:35 AM EDT

[#9]

First time out was 7. Got a nice little doe too.

Posted: 10/28/2010 9:22:19 AM EDT

[#10]

About 6 with dad, I believe 8 or 9 when I went out alone.

Posted: 10/28/2010 9:24:29 AM EDT

[#11]

I was 5 when I started going out with my grandpa. I killed my first when I was 10 and this year is my sons first year and he is 3. He carries his red ryder with us.

Posted: 10/28/2010 9:25:24 AM EDT

[#12]

I was allowed to be in the stand with my dad wehn I was 8 and I did not take a deer until I was 16 per the NYS game laws.

Posted: 10/28/2010 9:26:43 AM EDT

[#13]

I was ten years old the first time I went out. I have been taking my daughter out scouting and youth hunting since she was 6.

Posted: 10/28/2010 9:32:12 AM EDT

[#14]

I was 4 the first time I went out with Dad, I didn't hunt myself until I was 12.

Posted: 10/28/2010 9:33:39 AM EDT

[#15]

I was four. The opener of deer season is a big deal in my family like the rest of rural Pennsylvania. There was never a question whether I would hunt or not, it is what my family does. My dad has the old Super 8 movies of me all bundled up and waist deep in snow, opener of PA deer season 1975. I vaguely remember, most of it is caught in pictures like a photo in my mind. I tagged along every year until I was old enough to carry a gun and havent stopped since.

There is never an age too early to introduce kids to the outdoors. I have not met a child, boy or girl, that is not enthralled by catching a bluegill or catching a frog. I cannot remember the first time I fired a gun, it was before I formed any coherent memories I guess. I do remember having a BB gun when I was in Kindergarten. I had a pocket knife too, I brought it for show and tell along with some live 30-06 rounds and a sling shot my grandfather made for me.

Posted: 10/28/2010 9:34:15 AM EDT

[#16]

No children.

I was 12 the first time I deer hunted. Used my H&R 20ga with slugs. In fact, I used that gun for 5 years until I got my .270.

Never got one with the 20ga.

Posted: 10/28/2010 9:37:26 AM EDT

[#17]

first time out with a gun was at 12, I tagged along before that as designated bird carrier

Posted: 10/28/2010 9:42:14 AM EDT

[#18]

I was supposed to go this weekend and take my 8 year-old son for his first hunting experience.
Wife put the kaibash on the trip. That freed me up to take an instructor course my boss wants all his staff instructors to take.
Now she's pissed about that. I can't win unless I become a housewife and, somehow, pay all of the bills while staying home to do most of the housework.
Sorry for the hijack...

Posted: 10/28/2010 9:42:51 AM EDT

[#19]

Quoted:
I was four. The opener of deer season is a big deal in my family like the rest of rural Pennsylvania. There was never a question whether I would hunt or not, it is what my family does. My dad has the old Super 8 movies of me all bundled up and waist deep in snow, opener of PA deer season 1975. I vaguely remember, most of it is caught in pictures like a photo in my mind. I tagged along every year until I was old enough to carry a gun and havent stopped since.

There is never an age too early to introduce kids to the outdoors. I have not met a child, boy or girl, that is not enthralled by catching a bluegill or catching a frog. I cannot remember the first time I fired a gun, it was before I formed any coherent memories I guess. I do remember having a BB gun when I was in Kindergarten. I had a pocket knife too, I brought it for show and tell along with some live 30-06 rounds and a sling shot my grandfather made for me.

Same here, I have pics of me at age 2 shooting a Nylon 66 on my great grandfather's (who I am named for) lap as he holds it. I also have a picture at age 6 I think all bundled up with my Red Ryder standing next to the buck my dad shot that year. I never got into sports at school but spent more then a few truant days rambling around the woods shooting squirrels or fishing in the creek.

Posted: 10/28/2010 9:49:22 AM EDT

[#20]

12 first time on my own stand. Fox Savage 20 ga side by side.

Posted: 10/28/2010 9:51:56 AM EDT

[#21]

My son went with me at 8, killed his first at 9.

Posted: 10/28/2010 9:53:55 AM EDT

[#22]

I didn't go until I was 19. Nobody in my immediate family hunted. I had some cousins and stuff that did and thought it looked fun. My daughter is just a baby right now, but if she wants to I think maybe when she is around 10 with me present.

Posted: 10/28/2010 9:57:28 AM EDT

[#23]

I was 40, I had been on Antelope hunts but my first Deer hunt wasn't until I was 40. I didn't get one but I had a wonderful time. Finding bucks are very hard in AZ. There are no doe hunts.

Posted: 10/28/2010 9:59:14 AM EDT

[#24]

12 after completing hunter safety. Before that I had tagged along for some goose hunts.

Posted: 10/28/2010 10:02:10 AM EDT

[#25]

I started out with a bb gun (maybe 7/8 or so?), killed my first deer at 13.

Posted: 10/28/2010 10:02:12 AM EDT

[#26]

5 YO.

Posted: 10/28/2010 10:05:55 AM EDT

[#27]

I was sitting alone in a stand with a single shot .410 and some slugs when I was 8, didn't get a deer that year though. The next season when I was 9 I could handle a Winchester 30-30, killed a 4 point and spike that year. Before that though when I was 6 or 7 dad would let me sit alone in a stand with my BB gun and pretend to hunt deer and plink at squirrels, I would also sit with him and watch him shoot 'em. My son killed his first at 11, has a single shot .243 he's been using for a few years.

Posted: 10/28/2010 10:07:00 AM EDT

[#28]

16 years old

Posted: 10/28/2010 10:31:42 AM EDT

[#29]

Both of my sons killed their first deer at 8, they had been "going hunting" since they could walk......They were not the first ones in their respective classes to kill a deer. We start them young here in Texas.

Posted: 10/28/2010 10:35:55 AM EDT

[#30]

first deer...24

But I started walking the fields with dad at 6, shot my first pheasant at 8 and by 12 had shot nearly every game bird in AK including Sand Hill Cranes. Man those were the days. 2 weeks of upland and waterfowl in AK and then down to the states for 2-5 week pheasant/upland/waterfowl trips from WA/OR all the way to MN.

Posted: 10/28/2010 10:38:31 AM EDT

[#31]

My daughter was 10 last year when she killed her first.

Posted: 10/28/2010 10:40:49 AM EDT

[#32]

I was 8 the first time I went out and sit by myself with a gun deer hunting.

At age 4 I got to tag along in the woods with dad and brothers.

Posted: 10/28/2010 10:42:58 AM EDT

[#33]

Killed my first deer at 14

Posted: 10/28/2010 10:43:09 AM EDT

[#34]

Was 5 or 6 when dad took me out.
Might have gone as a baby though.

Both my girls have been out when they were babys when we went for a cruise in the boats.

Posted: 10/28/2010 10:47:01 AM EDT

[#35]

I've never been. Plan on going this year. 37 here.

ETA: A friend took me quail hunting last year and I made a STUPID mistake. I will not elaborate in GD but I know how Cheney could shoot someone.

No didn't shoot anyone.

Posted: 10/28/2010 10:48:15 AM EDT

[#36]

11 or so, without gun.

Posted: 10/28/2010 10:52:15 AM EDT

[#37]

I didn't start hunting deer until I was 23 (3 years ago).

However, I used to hide in the bushes next to our fields when I was a kid and watch the deer eat all the leftovers from the freshly harvested crops (corn, soybeans, etc.) I could've killed many, many trophy deer if I'd had a rifle, lol. I was borderline tree hugger back in the day.

Posted: 10/28/2010 10:53:13 AM EDT

[#38]

I was 10 the first time my dad took me. Proud to say I made a perfect 150 yard free hand standing heart shot on a 4 pointer that morning. Didn't know it was a buck until we got to it. It is a very precious memory to me.

Posted: 10/28/2010 10:55:33 AM EDT

[#39]

I can't remember an age where I didn't go hunting. At a few weeks of age I went to the family hunt and we camped as usual. Been hunting ever since. The first time I actually remember hunting with dad was probably 4 or 5. Been hunting alone since about age 9.

Posted: 10/28/2010 11:00:24 AM EDT

[#40]

Came from a family of non-hunters, lots of uncles who did not hunt either.

Started learning to deer hunt after moving out on my own and after I could afford to buy a rifle. I was probably around 23 or 24 and was probably around 35 when I finally shot my first deer.

My daughter was six when she shot her first deer. I was sitting right next to her in the stand but she did the shooting all by herself.

Twelve years later.

Fifteen years later.

Posted: 10/28/2010 11:33:16 AM EDT

[#41]

First deer hunting with a bow at 11
First deer taken with a bow at 13
First deer hunt with a gun at 19
First deer taken with a gun at 19

First hunting at 6, rabbits with a shotgun
First non hunting, er hunting (black birds) at 4 with a Red Ryder

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - how old were you or your child the first time you went deer hunting.

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