If you’re an avid hunter and a parent, it only makes sense that you’d want to join these two loves in your life by taking your kids hunting with you. However, because hunting can be a challenging and potentially dangerous experience that not all kids will enjoy, you’ll want to be conscious about how you introduce hunting to your kids and what you show and teach them when they’re young. Visit https://www.ilearntohunt.com/ to take an online hunter safety course with your kids.
To help you in navigating this, here are three tips for teaching your kids how to hunt with you.
Just Bring Them Along At First
According to Will Brantley and Michael Pendley, contributors to Field and Stream, the best way to help your kids get their feet wet when it comes to hunting with you is to simply bring them along when you go out hunting.
Generally, it’s best to start out with just a couple hours at a time during the day rather than going on a big hunting trip as their first experience. Not only will this help you give your kids a good feel for what hunting entails, but it will also keep you from investing too much of your own time or effort into a hunting trip that may get cut short due to issues with your kids.
Do Some Target Practice
As your child gets more and more comfortable with the idea of hunting and expresses an interest to play more of an active role, you’ll want to ensure that you teach proper firearms safety before allowing them to actually hunt.
As part of this, you’ll likely want to do quite a bit of target practice with whatever firearm they plan to use when hunting. To make this practice a little more fun, Steve Pollick, a contributor to OutdoorNews.com, shares that it can be helpful to give your kid some kind of incentive for getting more accurate and comfortable with their firearm. Things like going on a longer trip or getting the first shot at anything you see while hunting can be great encouragement for your kid to really focus on improving.
Don’t Forget To Educate On Conservation
Teaching your kids about the mechanics of hunting shouldn’t be the only thing you educate your children about when imparting your knowledge onto them.
According to Carly Brasseux, a contributor to SheKnows.com, teaching your kids to hunt should also be about teaching your kids about conservation, wildlife, the land you’re using, and other environmental issues. By sharing this information along with how to be a good hunter, you’ll help your children be more well-rounded and knowledgeable about all aspects of hunting.
If you’re wanting to take your kids hunting with you at some point, consider using the tips mentioned above as you prepare for this.
