Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 562: Foundations - Taking Kids and Newbies Hunting, Part 1

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Ep. 562: Foundations - Taking Kids and Newbies Hunting, Part 1 · Wired To Hunt Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide
0:05
Speaker 1: to the fundamentals of better deer hunting, and now your host,
0:11
Speaker 1: Tony Peterson. Hey, everyone, welcome to the Wire to Hunt
0:15
Speaker 1: Foundations podcast, which is brought to you by First Light.
0:18
Speaker 1: Today's episode is all about hunting with kids and hunting
0:21
Speaker 1: with newbies and what you have to think about to
0:24
Speaker 1: make it a success. It's crazy how fast a decade
0:38
Speaker 1: goes when you have kids. When my wife convinced me
0:41
Speaker 1: that we should pull a goalie and add to the
0:43
Speaker 1: world's population, I was mostly just a selfish outdoor writer
0:46
Speaker 1: who was pretty used to having tons of time to hunt.
0:48
Speaker 1: In fact, I was on an access hunt when she
0:50
Speaker 1: called me to say she was pregnant, and I was
0:52
Speaker 1: on a muleteer hunt when she called me to say
0:54
Speaker 1: we were having two girls. Maybe that makes me sound
0:57
Speaker 1: like a bad husband, but this will be worse, and
1:00
Speaker 1: I'm almost ashamed to admit it, but I was terrified
1:03
Speaker 1: of missing out on hunting opportunities once those of the
1:05
Speaker 1: girls were born. I thought about that a lot. Man.
1:08
Speaker 1: I was so wrong on so many things then, and
1:11
Speaker 1: that's what I want to talk about today, because those
1:13
Speaker 1: babies are now preteen sass monsters who love to hunt.
1:17
Speaker 1: And I gotta tell you something this episode and the
1:19
Speaker 1: next one, because this is gonna be a two partter.
1:21
Speaker 1: Here it applies to everybody who might take a new
1:24
Speaker 1: hunter out. It's not just if you're gonna take kids out,
1:27
Speaker 1: it's also you take your cowork or your buddy, your
1:29
Speaker 1: brother in law, whoever. And there's a lot of good
1:32
Speaker 1: information in these next two that are going to make
1:34
Speaker 1: you a better hunter if you find yourself in any
1:37
Speaker 1: of those situations. The first ah ha moment I had
1:51
Speaker 1: with kids and the outdoors happened while I was going
1:54
Speaker 1: a little insane with a pair of three year olds
1:56
Speaker 1: at home. We needed an excuse to go outside and
1:59
Speaker 1: to do something besides playing at the neighborhood parks, so
2:02
Speaker 1: we took a trip to Cabella's. I bought a cheap
2:05
Speaker 1: pink fishing rod with an equally cheap and pink spinning reel,
2:09
Speaker 1: and I started talking about fishing. Where I live in Minnesota,
2:13
Speaker 1: finding water really isn't a problem. My buddies who live
2:16
Speaker 1: out West always talk about wet years and dry years
2:18
Speaker 1: and what the elker meal deer feed looks like and
2:21
Speaker 1: how that should translate to bigger bowls and bucks or not.
2:25
Speaker 1: Here in the Upper Midwest, we don't really have that problem.
2:28
Speaker 1: Our dry years are still pretty wet and we've got
2:30
Speaker 1: water to spare. How the downside is, at least where
2:34
Speaker 1: I live, finding water that isn't covered in people doing
2:36
Speaker 1: summertime water things. That's tough. Bear with me here. But
2:41
Speaker 1: it was a bathroom break at a local tar j
2:43
Speaker 1: that brought me to the perfect water for my girls.
2:47
Speaker 1: The pond kind of one of those ornamental drainage ponds,
2:50
Speaker 1: located smack dab in a strip mall parking lot. It's
2:53
Speaker 1: not really the ideal setting for fishing. The old saying
2:56
Speaker 1: about beggars and choosers comes to mind, And I'll tell
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Speaker 1: you something. When I walked my non bathroom emergency daughter
3:02
Speaker 1: down to that pond while killing time and waiting for
3:04
Speaker 1: my wife to wrap things up in Target, I spotted
3:07
Speaker 1: about a million dinky sunfish. I also saw a school
3:11
Speaker 1: of feral goldfish, which cost my attention. I've never caught
3:14
Speaker 1: a goldfish and these were pretty good sized. The problem was,
3:17
Speaker 1: I don't know if you could legally fish the pond.
3:20
Speaker 1: I didn't really know who to call. I'm also, I
3:23
Speaker 1: don't know, at least on paper kind of a journalist.
3:25
Speaker 1: And I say that in the roughest, loosest sense of
3:28
Speaker 1: the word. But that led me to some research, which
3:31
Speaker 1: culminated with a phone call to a very nice lady
3:34
Speaker 1: from the city department who told me, yeah, you can
3:37
Speaker 1: fish there with your daughters, but no, you're not gonna
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Speaker 1: catch anything. She said that pond is empty. Well I
3:43
Speaker 1: thanked her, and I loaded up a small tackle box
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Speaker 1: with some jigs and random plastics, and then loaded up
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Speaker 1: the girls. We caught fish there, tiny sunfish, tiny crop ease,
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Speaker 1: but unfortunately no goldfish. But it did make me realize
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Speaker 1: two things. I might be able to get the fishing
3:58
Speaker 1: bug to stick with the girl and the rod I
4:01
Speaker 1: bought was marketed toward little girls who want to fish
4:03
Speaker 1: with their dads but not up to the task of
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Speaker 1: anything big. It was a forehead slapping moment for me.
4:10
Speaker 1: I'm a quality fishing gear addict. I just them comes
4:13
Speaker 1: from my tournament days. I love good stuff. I appreciate
4:17
Speaker 1: high end rods, high end reels, and the experience that
4:19
Speaker 1: comes with him. Now I know people who will say
4:22
Speaker 1: you can fish just as well with a twenty dollar
4:24
Speaker 1: combo from Wally World. But they are wrong. They're free
4:27
Speaker 1: to fish with whatever they want. Go ahead, go nuts,
4:29
Speaker 1: you do you, but they're wrong about that one. The
4:32
Speaker 1: backbone of a rod, the sensitivity of it, the grip, design,
4:35
Speaker 1: everything plays into the experience, and people who fish for
4:38
Speaker 1: a living truly understand that. But it's not just that
4:41
Speaker 1: small group of folks who can benefit from a good rod.
4:44
Speaker 1: Kids can too. If they want to cast well, they
4:47
Speaker 1: want to be able to set the hook with some
4:48
Speaker 1: level of gir and fight fish. Cheapy rods are a
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Speaker 1: liability and not really an asset. That lesson stuck with me,
4:56
Speaker 1: and it hit home when I was thinking about getting
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Speaker 1: the girls into hunting now. In my home state of Minnesota,
5:02
Speaker 1: getting them into hunting meant taking them gun hunting when
5:04
Speaker 1: they turned ten, or waiting for them to be twelve
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Speaker 1: and then they can bow hunt. But I didn't want
5:10
Speaker 1: to wait, and neither did they. That meant Wisconsin, with
5:13
Speaker 1: its no minimum age rules and cross bowl legalization. It's
5:17
Speaker 1: pretty obvious choice, but also kind of a weird choice
5:20
Speaker 1: for me. I don't really know much about crossbows. They
5:23
Speaker 1: don't interest me. I'm not totally adamantly opposed to them.
5:27
Speaker 1: Like some bow hunters, I'm just not really interested in them,
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Speaker 1: kind of like I'm not as interested in as gun
5:32
Speaker 1: hunting for deer as I am bow hunting for them.
5:34
Speaker 1: Just my thing. I don't enjoy shooting crossbows, and I
5:37
Speaker 1: don't have much of a desire to hunt with one,
5:39
Speaker 1: unless for some reason I couldn't draw a vertical boat. Anyway,
5:43
Speaker 1: a cross boat was the obvious choice for the girls,
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Speaker 1: and so I bought kind of this youth woman's model
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Speaker 1: and set them up with a good tripod. We started
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Speaker 1: practicing on a three D target. And let me tell
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Speaker 1: you something. If anyone tells you that crossbows and vertical
5:55
Speaker 1: bows are the same thing, they either have the mental
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Speaker 1: horsepower of an ice cube or they are intentionally being deceitful.
6:02
Speaker 1: Those little girls could hit the vitals and a deer
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Speaker 1: target at twenty yards right out of the gate, and
6:07
Speaker 1: they could do it over and over and over again.
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Speaker 1: It was impressive, it was fun, and it also made
6:12
Speaker 1: me feel better about taking my then nine year olds hunting.
6:17
Speaker 1: My biggest fear was that they'd spine one or have
6:21
Speaker 1: just a really terrible shot that would go south and
6:23
Speaker 1: taint the whole experience. I wanted to make sure that
6:26
Speaker 1: if they got a shot, it would go really well
6:29
Speaker 1: and result in short blood trail. But of course you
6:32
Speaker 1: can't guarantee anything like that when you're dealing with wild
6:34
Speaker 1: animals and kids. To be fair, I couldn't guarantee anything
6:37
Speaker 1: like that. You know, with adults either or myself. We
6:42
Speaker 1: practice a lot. I set the crossbow up with heavier
6:45
Speaker 1: bolts and solid one piece fixed blade heads as the
6:48
Speaker 1: season drew closer. After shooting it myself several times when
6:51
Speaker 1: they're actually hunting AMMO, I was pretty confident that if
6:55
Speaker 1: I got a deer within that magic sixty ft range,
6:57
Speaker 1: it was gonna go pretty well and I would During
7:00
Speaker 1: all of this, we also drove over to Wisconsin a
7:02
Speaker 1: few separate times to hang cameras and set up blinds,
7:06
Speaker 1: glass dear, eat candy, trout, fish, eat more candy, and
7:09
Speaker 1: really get the preseason work finished. It was fun and
7:12
Speaker 1: a huge part of the process. Still, I was nervous.
7:17
Speaker 1: Not only did I have my girls shooting a weapon
7:18
Speaker 1: that is undoubtedly a big advantage over a vertical bowl,
7:21
Speaker 1: I had put in a lot of work to ensure
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Speaker 1: that we had set ups that would put a few
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Speaker 1: deer right in our laps, and I wondered, did did
7:29
Speaker 1: the advantage I provided there was that like a too great?
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Speaker 1: Was it too much? Was it going to be too
7:33
Speaker 1: easy for them? Now? I think I'm just getting old,
7:37
Speaker 1: but I really worried about making it too easy for
7:39
Speaker 1: my daughters, and I worry about their generation having it
7:43
Speaker 1: too easy now. I've coached them in t ball and
7:46
Speaker 1: softball and basketball for a few years now, and I've
7:49
Speaker 1: seen that everyone gets a trophy thing play out, it
7:52
Speaker 1: doesn't do much for them, sets them back. I think
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Speaker 1: it's crazy, crazy, how a little competitiveness in a sport
8:00
Speaker 1: can spark real enthusiasm, Whereas when they couldn't win because
8:03
Speaker 1: there were no winners, it was boring and they didn't care.
8:07
Speaker 1: So even at six, they responded so well to a
8:10
Speaker 1: challenge in the prospect of winning. I think it's innate
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Speaker 1: in us. I believe it. I think we need challenges,
8:16
Speaker 1: and I think it's more important now than it ever
8:18
Speaker 1: has been in our history as humans. It wasn't that
8:21
Speaker 1: long ago when we were hunter gatherers and the challenge
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Speaker 1: of finding enough protein to fill our stomachs was a
8:27
Speaker 1: big one, you know, but a lot changes in ten
8:30
Speaker 1: or twenty thou years, and today we've got it pretty
8:32
Speaker 1: damn good, so good that we even invent drama so
8:36
Speaker 1: we have something to fight about. That's a weird spot
8:38
Speaker 1: to be in. Too easy, it's not so great, and
8:41
Speaker 1: it's one of the main reasons why you and I
8:43
Speaker 1: are probably so drawn to white tail hunting. We need
8:46
Speaker 1: a challenge, and hunting deer is a pretty good way
8:49
Speaker 1: to get that fixed. That's part of the reason the
8:52
Speaker 1: public land thing is so appealing to so many people.
8:54
Speaker 1: No one goes into that process thinking it's going to
8:57
Speaker 1: be easy, but the idea of the reward that come
9:00
Speaker 1: from public land hunting there's a lot of gravity to it.
9:03
Speaker 1: And to be fair, a lot of people seem to
9:05
Speaker 1: go into public land white till hunting, you know, thinking
9:08
Speaker 1: that it will be easier than it is. That's a
9:10
Speaker 1: different topic anyway. I wrestled with this as a parent.
9:15
Speaker 1: I think we're all struggling to find that balance between
9:18
Speaker 1: giving our children as good of a head start as possible,
9:21
Speaker 1: but without making things so easy that they become ship
9:24
Speaker 1: head adults who can't handle life. In this case, I
9:27
Speaker 1: wanted to give my daughters a great head start on
9:29
Speaker 1: deer hunting, but not make it so easy that they
9:31
Speaker 1: wouldn't appreciate it. Part of that stems from the exposure
9:35
Speaker 1: to hunting that I've seen on so many hunting shows.
9:38
Speaker 1: I can get pretty judge when I'm somewhere that has
9:41
Speaker 1: I don't know the Sports was channel of the Outdoor Channel,
9:43
Speaker 1: and I catch an episode with a twelve year old
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Speaker 1: sitting over a food plot passing to shoot a one
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Speaker 1: seventy that I know the kid didn't work for and
9:52
Speaker 1: probably won't fully understand the gravity of. But why should
9:56
Speaker 1: I care? I honestly shouldn't. It's just an easy thing
9:59
Speaker 1: to be a prick about. It's my own kids and
10:02
Speaker 1: their experience that I should focus on. And I can
10:05
Speaker 1: tell you the thing I wrestled with the most was
10:07
Speaker 1: that balance between easy and fun and challenging and rewarding
10:11
Speaker 1: and all the things we'd also like to get out
10:13
Speaker 1: of all of our hunts that in the spine shot,
10:17
Speaker 1: the ugly death thing was dominated my thoughts. I knew
10:21
Speaker 1: we had a hedge in one way because where we
10:23
Speaker 1: put our blinds in north central Wisconsin, it wasn't like
10:26
Speaker 1: we were going to be covered in deer. The visibility
10:29
Speaker 1: would be limited due to the blinds and their locations,
10:32
Speaker 1: but we'd also be hunting around a pretty sparse deer population.
10:35
Speaker 1: I thought that would produce some dead hours and dead
10:38
Speaker 1: sits and make it really special when any deer walked in.
10:42
Speaker 1: That's weird how we justify our actions in hunting and life,
10:44
Speaker 1: isn't it. I have no doubt there was a time
10:48
Speaker 1: in my life before I had kids where if someone
10:51
Speaker 1: said they were going to have their nine year old
10:53
Speaker 1: shoot across but out of a blind, where I would
10:55
Speaker 1: have been like, m I don't think those kids are
10:58
Speaker 1: ever gonna understand why I do this. But how things change.
11:01
Speaker 1: My friends, perhaps you're dealing with this yourself as your
11:05
Speaker 1: kids come of age to hunt, or maybe you're taking
11:07
Speaker 1: somebody else out who's a newbie. It's a weird situation
11:11
Speaker 1: now because it wasn't that long ago when you couldn't
11:14
Speaker 1: find a youth season in any state. It wasn't that
11:17
Speaker 1: long ago where most states required kids to be twelve
11:19
Speaker 1: to hunt and have earned their firearm safety certification to
11:23
Speaker 1: do it. Now there are quite a few states where
11:26
Speaker 1: under twelve year old kids can hunt, and quite a
11:28
Speaker 1: few of them you know, they offer unique youth only
11:32
Speaker 1: seasons for deer and ducks and turkeys and whatever else.
11:36
Speaker 1: And they'll also sell you a ridiculously cheap tag for that.
11:39
Speaker 1: I'm talking like one dollar tags and in some cases
11:42
Speaker 1: six or seven dollar tags for nonresident hunting. Isn't that wild?
11:47
Speaker 1: I think it is, But I'm also not complaining. I
11:50
Speaker 1: feel like the window in which I can get my
11:52
Speaker 1: daughters somewhat hooked on hunting it's pretty short one. They
11:56
Speaker 1: already have sports all year round, they have jim naw sticks,
12:00
Speaker 1: They have unlimited opportunities to do things that aren't in
12:03
Speaker 1: the woods or on the water, and the gravity for
12:06
Speaker 1: those activities is huge, and it gets even stronger if
12:10
Speaker 1: you're happy to live where I live, and hunting isn't
12:13
Speaker 1: quite as important to the average person as the you know,
12:16
Speaker 1: I don't keep up with the Jones lifestyle that ropes
12:19
Speaker 1: all family members in and keeps them doing what the
12:21
Speaker 1: neighbors are doing. I knew this as my daughters were
12:25
Speaker 1: growing up, but I didn't really know it, if that
12:28
Speaker 1: makes sense. It's kind of like when you first get
12:31
Speaker 1: married and people with a little gray in their sideburns
12:33
Speaker 1: and their beard they warn you that the honeymoon will
12:36
Speaker 1: end and things will get We'll call it less fun.
12:42
Speaker 1: You might think, not me, man, I'm different, My marriage
12:45
Speaker 1: is going to be different. Well, I got news for you.
12:47
Speaker 1: You probably aren't different. They are like eight billion of us.
12:50
Speaker 1: We aren't that special and we aren't that different. We
12:54
Speaker 1: just think we are. And that led me to believe
12:56
Speaker 1: that I'd be able to take my daughter's hunting and
12:58
Speaker 1: fishing all the time, and that they shun the activities
13:01
Speaker 1: my wife wants them to be in. I can almost
13:04
Speaker 1: hear the middle aged and upcrowd laughing at that, and
13:06
Speaker 1: I fully admit it. I got it way wrong. But
13:11
Speaker 1: there is a good fight to be fought, and I
13:13
Speaker 1: think it starts with getting your kids hunting, or getting
13:16
Speaker 1: newbies and hunting. I figured I might have a few
13:19
Speaker 1: more seasons to really get this to stick with my daughters,
13:23
Speaker 1: and that's what I'm trying to do. I know not
13:25
Speaker 1: everyone has that fight, because there are some youngsters out
13:28
Speaker 1: there who are fully wired for the outdoors. A lot
13:31
Speaker 1: of them aren't, though at least totally and needed a
13:34
Speaker 1: little bump in the right direction. That's the spot I'm
13:37
Speaker 1: at with the girls. The clock to teenage dumb it's ticking.
13:41
Speaker 1: I've been worn plenty on that, but it's inevitable and
13:44
Speaker 1: I don't care. What I care about is their experience
13:47
Speaker 1: now and how I can plant some seeds that might
13:51
Speaker 1: take root. That's what deer hunting offers, and my job
13:55
Speaker 1: is to try to get them into it as best
13:57
Speaker 1: I can. That's your job too, if you've got some
14:01
Speaker 1: young ones at home and they're thinking about the days
14:04
Speaker 1: when you'll be able to go afield with them, or
14:05
Speaker 1: you've got that co worker who you like who keeps
14:07
Speaker 1: hinting that he'd like to try deer hunting, or like
14:10
Speaker 1: I said earlier, maybe you marry into a family and
14:12
Speaker 1: the brother in law or the sister in law or
14:14
Speaker 1: the father in law or somebody it's like, you know what,
14:16
Speaker 1: I like venison and I've never tried hunting. We're all there,
14:20
Speaker 1: we all have someone like that, and so I guess,
14:24
Speaker 1: I guess what I'll say to tie a bow on
14:26
Speaker 1: all of this is what I've learned the last two
14:28
Speaker 1: seasons with my daughters. The process is more important than
14:33
Speaker 1: a dead deer. We often think about taking new hunters
14:37
Speaker 1: out and focus so much on getting them a filled
14:40
Speaker 1: tag that we gloss over what is really important about
14:43
Speaker 1: this stuff that we do. I catch myself in this
14:46
Speaker 1: trap a lot, and I have to remind myself that
14:50
Speaker 1: a few dear will probably show up if we do
14:52
Speaker 1: everything right. But it's the doing everything right part that
14:55
Speaker 1: matters the most. The time walking field edges and through
14:59
Speaker 1: the woods for sign and answering a million questions, that's
15:03
Speaker 1: real important. The trail camera card polls, they're fun and
15:08
Speaker 1: they're important too. The time spent glassing with a kid
15:12
Speaker 1: or a nubie so important because they get to see
15:15
Speaker 1: deer and other critters doing what other critters do. The
15:20
Speaker 1: gear prep as much as they'll be involved, that's really
15:23
Speaker 1: important too. Talking about it, asking them what they are
15:27
Speaker 1: excited for. All of that stuff feeds into a love
15:30
Speaker 1: of the game. I think, No, no, I believe making
15:35
Speaker 1: them a real part of it instead of a I
15:37
Speaker 1: don't know, like a pampered guest who is divorced from
15:39
Speaker 1: what it takes to actually be a hunter. That's kind
15:42
Speaker 1: of what I'm getting at, I guess, And I don't know.
15:44
Speaker 1: Maybe that sounds too preachy. I don't really care. I
15:47
Speaker 1: think it's worth acknowledging, and it actually extends way beyond
15:50
Speaker 1: the typical take a kid out for the first season
15:53
Speaker 1: type of thing. It's actually a pretty solid blueprint for
15:56
Speaker 1: getting anyone out to hunt and to develop a real
15:59
Speaker 1: appreciation for the whole thing. It just also happens to
16:02
Speaker 1: work for kids really well too. At least that's the
16:05
Speaker 1: route I've taken. And if I've made it too easy
16:07
Speaker 1: for them, I have plans to make it harder. While
16:10
Speaker 1: they've hunted out of ground blinds only so far, with
16:13
Speaker 1: a nice tripod to set their crossbow in and as
16:16
Speaker 1: good at locations as I can get them too, this
16:19
Speaker 1: coming season, they'll start to hunt from ladder stands. They'll
16:22
Speaker 1: start to shoot a vertical bow I bought for them too,
16:24
Speaker 1: even though they're not gonna hunt with it yet now
16:27
Speaker 1: they know I won't force it. But by the time
16:30
Speaker 1: they're like twelve, they might be expected to hunt with
16:33
Speaker 1: a bow that does not have a scope on it.
16:35
Speaker 1: They will have to learn how to time their draw
16:38
Speaker 1: and how to hunt like I hunt, and if I'm
16:40
Speaker 1: being honest, and I am, but they won't be forced
16:44
Speaker 1: to do it. I hope, just like with training dogs,
16:48
Speaker 1: that I can develop a positive message around this stuff
16:50
Speaker 1: that translates directly into embracing the challenges and a love
16:54
Speaker 1: of the game. I'll ask my rant on the topic
16:57
Speaker 1: of getting kids started or newby started any away your
17:01
Speaker 1: path will look different. But I do plan on keeping
17:04
Speaker 1: this train of thought going for next week's episode because
17:07
Speaker 1: I really want to talk about what I actually learned
17:09
Speaker 1: about while hunting with the girls and how that really
17:12
Speaker 1: feeds into the planning and the process. It's also a
17:15
Speaker 1: good lesson, as I just mentioned, for anyone who is
17:18
Speaker 1: looking to take out a newcomer, so the next one
17:21
Speaker 1: has a lot of information about how you can make
17:23
Speaker 1: it a better experience for them and how you're going
17:26
Speaker 1: to grow as a hunter for doing just that. That's
17:31
Speaker 1: it for this week, my dear obsessed amigoes. I'm Tony
17:34
Speaker 1: Peterson and this has been the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast,
17:36
Speaker 1: which has brought to you by First Light. As I
17:38
Speaker 1: always thank you so much for listening, all of us
17:41
Speaker 1: here at Meteators truly appreciate it. If you need a
17:43
Speaker 1: little bit more white tail wisdom, feel free to head
17:46
Speaker 1: on over to our Wired to Hunt YouTube channel or
17:48
Speaker 1: to visit the metator dot com slash Wired. At both places,
17:52
Speaker 1: you're gonna see videos or articles on all kinds of
17:56
Speaker 1: deer hunting strategies, tactics, whatever you name it, so check
18:00
Speaker 1: them out.