One Obstacle in Getting Kids Started Hunting

[Mike Belt]

I don't ever remember seeing anything like this posted and don't really know why it popped into my head since I no longer have kids hunting but...

One of the hardest things to do when getting kids started hunting and particularly during rifle season when it's really cold outside is providing them with the clothing they need to keep them warm and dry. Sure they make and sell boots and clothing that will fit them and do the job but generally speaking it's only good for a year. By the following season they've outgrown them. That can get really expensive especially if you don't have multiple kids that can grow into those outgrown by their siblings. I've never known of any outdoor store (Bass Pro, Academy sports, Cabelas, etc.) that offer what I'm thinking of which is renting hunting clothes. Rent a pair of boots, rent a set of bibs and a parka, rent raingear. Rent by the day or multiple days, rent by the week, rent by the season. Of course any place that might offer this would have to make enough renting their attire to cover the cost of whatever you were getting and for the maintenance and cleaning. In fact it might be cheaper to buy what you're looking at rather than rent for the season but then you're back to it only lasting one season and the store needs some type of incentive to carry out this type of program. Almost any sporting goods store caters to hunters and this seems like it would be a great way to promote hunting to the youths. As an afterthought, it might not be such a bad idea if some place like Tndeer set up a swap forum specifically for exchanging youth clothing that didn't have much wear on it and was still reasonably adequate for hunting purposes. This would serve as a member benefit that could save people money as well as promote kids hitting the woods.

 

[huntintn]

Almost broke me, 4 boys. Every year 1 or 2 out growing clothing. Boots sometimes twice a year. They learned quick to take care of their stuff.

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[TX300mag]

Thrift stores and hand me downs. I've got six that either hunt themselves or go to the deer stand.

I'll say this-those little guys can take the cold a lot better than me and I'm not cold natured. I've seen them tough it out in the 20s in cowboy boots, blue jeans, and a hoodie. I guess they can suit themselves...literally.


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[pass-thru]

You can recoup a lot of cost on gently used selling on ebay and craigslist. Also, kids can get by fine without camo, so the clothing need not be just for hunting. My boys are 5 and 7 and I took them both out over Thanksgiving. Needed to buy warm socks for the older one and the only suitable ones I could find in the store were $20. Feet are one of the first things to get cold though. Lucky we got them because it was 25 degrees the morning we took him out. After 2 hours he was getting cold...I said 15 more minutes, he said OK, 10 minutes later a 7 pointer stepped out, I shot it and he was completely thrilled...forgot all about being cold.

 

[Shooter77]

Cost of clothes is crazy! I've seen kids hunting boots 49-109. Heck it's 30-60 for some outwear stuff and rarely goes on sale much. No way would I pay that for one season. What I've been doing is buying my 7 y/o stuff over the last few years after season. I got him a bunch of stuff at academy sports for very little over the past few years. Winter camo jacket was like 12.00 reg 49.99. Got him pants, t shirt, hoodie and the jacket around $30. 2 weeks ago I bought him a pair of Cabela's instinct fleece line pants (wish I had a pair), says 59.99 on tag, paid 11.49 + tax for them. One thing, I know most kids have under armour or similar where they play ball. My son uses his UA cold gear from ball that we bought him for hunting base. Works great, just need to get him some boots for next year. tennis shoes don't cut it.

 

[DRSJ35]

What ever happened to the blue jeans and a red and black flannel shirts.wish i would have thought to invent camo. its everywhere these day's.lol

 

[Winchester]

Been there and done that with 2 boys myself. For gun hunting, especially from a ladder stand or ground blind, a good ol sleeping bag will solve most of your cold problems with the kids.

 

[infoman jr.]

Some of my most vivid memories of growing up hunting were freezing my butt off and wearing over-sized clothes. Maybe that's why I'm so obsessive about hunting clothes now.

 

[Ridgewalker1]

I'm lucky I have 3 kids all 3 yrs apart so I can buy some decent clothes then hand them down

 

[rem270]

Great idea Mike.

 

[Pic IN the Casa]

Thrift store is a good place as mentioned. Also, Me and my 13 y/o still pack sleeping bags to slip in if it gets crazy cold in a stand. Even brought buddy heater to stand.

As for renting clothing. I always thought about stuff like this. ESPECIALLY bridesmaid dressed. I bet my wife spent a grand on those things. A guy can rent a tux but a girl has to buy their dress???

 

[JeepKuntry]

Getting ready to go through this with my oldest. She will be 7 in March. Already in a girls size 8. Hoping to find some things at Goodwill. Wonder if Carhart has some smaller sizes?

 

[Biggun4214]

My youngest son's shoe size and age was the same from 8-16.

 

[Poleaxe]

Everybody wants to always scrounge on their kids gear(like my brown carhart coveralls when I was a kid. To keep kids interested and driven to want to keep going out there they need to be comfortable. Always in first of December tons of places have their kids cloths warm/and cold weather gear marked down to nothing. Just last weekend scent blocker had their three piece parka/ jacket 80% off marked down to & 30 normally 125. Their bibs normally $200 down to $50. If they wear a youth medium this year go ahead and get a large for next. My 7yr old sat up in the stand two weeks ago for 4 & 1/2hrs and never complained. Cause he has good gear.

 

[infoman jr.]

I keep an eye on Cabelas' bargain cave, specifically the "rock bottom deals" for some good sales. They have a couple of youth items in there now. I've scored some unbelievable deals out of there.

http://www.cabelas.com/catalog/browse/_/N-1105963?CQ_page=0&CQ_view=list&CQ_ztype=GNP

 

[bamarp]

I have 3 that love to hunt with me. My oldest is 16 and he is 6"7 and 300 lbs and wears size 16 boot. He is bigger than me so hand me downs are out of the question. Heak I get his hand me downs. lol I need to get him some warm boots now but have yall priced a good pair of hunting boots for cold weather in a size 16 lately? lol

 

[TheLBLman]

Mike, while I agree with you that the clothing issue is an "obstacle" in getting kids started hunting,
kids today have never had it so good when it comes to hunting clothing. Their hunting activities are extremely "pampered" compared to how kids started hunting a couple generations or so back.

Some of my most vivid memories of growing up hunting were freezing my butt off and wearing over-sized clothes. Maybe that's why I'm so obsessive about hunting clothes now.

x 2
Except my "hunting" clothes growing up were as often too small as too large.

When I was growing up, "hunting" was more about a wide variety of game and fowl, with deer being little more than just another thing we hunted.

I had but a single set of "hunting" clothes, which consisted of a vest, a coat, and a pair of pants, all of which were brown heavy cotton. When it was colder, other "work" clothes and/or long johns were layered under these "hunting" clothes.

During "deer" season, around mid-morning we quit deer hunting, then started hunting something else, which usually meant rabbits or quail. Late afternoon, we would get back on a deer stand. Never changing clothes. Used the same shotgun, too. I killed a ton of deer with my Browning Sweet 16, and a ton more other stuff.

Also, back then, here in TN we had either a 1 or a 2-buck limit when I was young, archery season was truly "primitive", and there was no muzzleloader season. The archery season segment ended on October 31st, and there was no deer hunting period thereafter until the "gun" season opened a few days before Thanksgiving. If we didn't hunt something besides deer, we wouldn't get to hunt so much annually, as the deer season was also closed most of December as well.

Back then, the idea of a pre-season "juvenile" hunt had not yet been conceived. In fact, there were many years when deer season did not open on a Saturday, and most juveniles such as myself were not allowed to miss school, such as when deer season opened the Monday before Thanksgiving.

Interestingly, most of those with whom I grew up (and are still alive & kickin') became lifetime hunters, and still hunt a variety of game today. I really believe the focus on a variety of hunting experiences helped make us into lifetime hunters.

 

[TheLBLman]

With all the above posts & thoughts in mind,
imo, we would do better getting more youth into HUNTING if we eliminated the January "juvenile" hunt.
(Please note I'm "all for" the early juvenile hunt which precedes all other gun deer hunting annually.)

I say this mainly because of what's been stated above, while believing if this late winter hunt didn't exist,
more juveniles would be out stomping for rabbits or hunting other small game instead,
which seems a more productive cold-weather activity in producing LIFETIME HUNTERS.

Farther note that juvenile hunter participation is relatively low on this January date,
but it's existence actually prevents perhaps a larger number of juveniles from hunting other game.

 

[Mike Belt]

LBL... Agreed on the juvi hunts. I can see the pre-season hunt because it gives them a shot before the mass pressure. I just don't see the benefit of the post season hunt. Once the regular season opens they can go as often as any other hunter.

Clothing... I need to go back and look for some pics of my kids when I first took them hunting. They're almost comical. Older clothing several sizes too big with some of it home made cut down and stitched back up to accommodate the fit better.

 

[Poleaxe]

I would love to see the late juvi closed and give them that whole entire week of the end of October instead that Saturday and Sunday. Your right about the lack of participation in January. So many years I've planned on taking kids and gearing them up to have the weather keep us from going or only giving us one setting. So by the time gun opens up 3 weeks later they've already been educated. If they had those 7 days thats possibly 5 more after school evening chances they could have. The participation would really be the same adding those 5 vs the numbers in January.

 

[GRIT]

I would love to see the late juvi closed and give them that whole entire week of the end of October instead that Saturday and Sunday. Your right about the lack of participation in January. So many years I've planned on taking kids and gearing them up to have the weather keep us from going or only giving us one setting. So by the time gun opens up 3 weeks later they've already been educated. If they had those 7 days thats possibly 5 more after school evening chances they could have. The participation would really be the same adding those 5 vs the numbers in January.

That would be great except one thing.
There are a lot of men that use there kids as a prop to get out there and kill the deer instead of letting the kids kill them.So giving them 7 straight days at the end of October.Have you ever noticed during the first juvy how many 5 year old little girls and boys kill really nice bucks at 150 yards.

 

[Poleaxe]

I would love to see the late juvi closed and give them that whole entire week of the end of October instead that Saturday and Sunday. Your right about the lack of participation in January. So many years I've planned on taking kids and gearing them up to have the weather keep us from going or only giving us one setting. So by the time gun opens up 3 weeks later they've already been educated. If they had those 7 days thats possibly 5 more after school evening chances they could have. The participation would really be the same adding those 5 vs the numbers in January.

That would be great except one thing.
There are a lot of men that use there kids as a prop to get out there and kill the deer instead of letting the kids kill them.So giving them 7 straight days at the end of October.Have you ever noticed during the first juvy how many 5 year old little girls and boys kill really nice bucks at 150 yards.

Your right but it's gonna happen regardless. They'll be in school during the day so they couldn't use them til the evening if they were sorry enough to attempt that. I think the shots we hear during bow season far outweigh the dad's your talking about during juvi

 

[MickThompson]

Another thing to consider- unless you're on eastern time, it will be very hard for a parent to get off work and get to the woods with any amount of hunting light during the week. I think the juvenile hunt is about right, especially realizing that kids can hunt the entire season as well.


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[TheLBLman]

Mike started this thread about "one obstacle",
and he did say "hunting", not just deer hunting.
But truth is there are many, many obstacles, possibly including "too much of a good thing" so to speak.
Perhaps we have too much focus on just deer hunting?
At least in terms of helping kids become lifetime hunters?

Each generation tends to want to make things "easier" on their children,
parents want their kids to have everything "easier" than did they.
But sometimes our loving efforts can be counter-productive.

As to any of us who want to get a child into hunting,
generally speaking, there has never before been so much "opportunity" for that,
and that would be the case even if we didn't have any special "juvenile" hunt.

True, most of us don't have the "walk out the front door" convenient opportunities of prior generations,
but that may be more than off-set by the long seasons, and ample public lands. Plus, we now have much more effective weapons for our children than those of yesteryear. My 1st deer kill was with a 20-gauge shotgun, at age 12; my first bow killed deer was with a 40-lb simple recurve bow at age 13. Never even went deer hunting with a rifle before I was 20 years old. All I had was a shotgun (and a primitive bow by today's standards).

Today, young children have scoped rifles and scoped crossbows.
Some even have scoped muzzleloaders, for which a muzzleloader season segment didn't exist prior to the 1980's.
And deer season is open more days in a single year than it was in a 3 to 5-yr-period when I was a child.
Heck, most TN counties didn't have a deer season period back then.

But I was "hooked" on hunting, long before I killed my first deer at age 12,
which was long before anyone even conceived of a "juvenile" deer season weekend.
Wasn't just me, either, as most kids my age were also "in to" hunting.

But today, we're discussing the kids having hunting clothes less comfortable (today) than the clothing of most their parents.

 

[TheLBLman]

Speaking of those public lands, there is currently more WMA acreage open to deer (and turkey) hunting now in TN than when I was a teenager, and believe it not, fewer hunters hunting those lands than a few decades ago. Just saying, the quality of most public land hunting (and private, too) is better today than it was in the past, at least for many species, such as deer, turkey, squirrel, and rabbit. It's also better for geese, possibly as good or better for ducks. Only quail hunting has truly deteriorated (on public lands). Raccoon hunting opportunities have deteriorated on private lands (despite more raccoons than ever) due to mindset changes, but even raccoon hunting may be about as good as ever on most public lands.

But where did most "kids" get their start into hunting in times past?
P.S. It wasn't with deer, nor with turkeys, nor does it need be today.

I'll try not to get too side-tracked here, but it wasn't that long ago that the most popular hunting activity in TN was squirrel hunting. Almost every kid went and enjoyed it. Ironically, very few adult hunters, much less juveniles, squirrel hunt today. Even more ironic, there is tremendous opportunity for almost anyone with the desire to find good squirrel hunting places, close to their homes, and often all to themselves, so unlike when I was growing up. We had the close-by woods, but the squirrel-hunting pressure was then higher on private land than it is today on public lands! Heck, even the deer hunting pressure on the private land I was privy to hunt was much more intense then than the public lands I occasionally hunt today!

Bottom line remains, more lifetime hunters have come to be by first becoming small-game hunters.
That opportunity for what was once Tennessee's most popular small-game animal, squirrels, remains fantastic.
It may be we adults who have more obstacles than our kids.