I take my daughter on public land hunts, she hasn't got one in years. but we still hit the woods hard. I tell her after every empty hunt that if she wanted it easy we would just dump a bag of corn on the ground. she said that would ruin hunting for her. unforntally the dcnr and alot of adults think they are entitled to participation trophy's.

uh oh hit the post button twice. good video Gomor I enjoyed watching that one

You can say that again

All parents, grandparents are different with different backgrounds and skill levels. All situations and hunting chances are different. Ain't no one size fits all.

My situation was different from a lot. My dad raised us hunting and fishing. He didn't deer hunt but a friends dad did and took us deer hunting mid teens. I have hunted and been outdoors all my life, prolly more than 95% folks on here even. I have killed an 18 wheeler load of deer and turkey. My daughters all hunted to different degrees.

My grandson by my youngest daughter lived with us when he was young. He went with us from when he was too small to walk, carried him on my shoulders. Wife carried him turkey hunting when he was still in diapers...and let him call some on a slate. He had a small wooden gun with a scope and "shot" deer with it. Was taught, and learned, gun/hunting safety from day one in diapers. He just absorbed everything we did in the woods and would get mad if left at home. I guess you could say I "sacrificed" a lot of quality hunting to carry him, but I didn't, and don't, see it that way.

He could outshoot his momma with an iron sighted .22 when he was three. Shot a deer with my youth 243 when he was just under four. Has killed a deer almost every year since then. Last year at 15 he killed three. One at 225 yards and another on foot stalking thru the woods on his own. He can live age deer near as good as I can. Shoots sub inch groups with his 6.5 Creedmore rifle at 100 yards.

it's all about teaching, and real experiences in the woods. Different strokes for different folks.

Just my way of doing it and it has, and still does, work for me and the child hunters I have carried and trained....and enjoyed.

I’m with this guy. I am bringing up my boys the same way I was. If they shoot a big buck I’m beyond happy for them.

Unfortunately it's like everything else in this world.depends on how much money you got how big the deer are your killing.

Not much "hunting" going on anymore. Today its mostly sitting at a feed source and waiting to shoot, I guess that is a form of "hunting."

To each their own I guess. If your child is 4 and you want to take him/her out and let them kill a deer, that's your choice, however, that's not going to make them a better hunter in the long run and it doesn't make them any more special than any other child. I enjoy hunting and fishing, my children were involved with both sports from toddlers on up and now none of them hunt or fish.

Lots of the videos the OP referred to are situations where the parent was far more interested in the child being involved than the child was interested in being involved. It's kind of like the armchair quarterback that never played sports but insists that his child will play and play travel ball and thinks he's raising the next Tom Brady.

I'm all for introducing kids to the outdoors but I'm not going to bribe them to go. I want them to have the desire and want to go and want to learn.

At what age is it socially acceptable for kids to start playing sports?? Mine started soccer when he was 3 (we are short and quick, we know what we are good at). Isn’t the greatest teacher for most things experience?? Last thing I want to do is let him experience a sport too quickly and excel at it. We practice in the backyard nearly every day. He is truly talented and I want to do everything I can to make him be the best he can be at anything in life. He 100% understands that practice put into anything makes you better. In 2 seasons , he will have more than 100 goals. Where will he be in 5 years if he stays on this trajectory??

So back to hunting, every hunt he learns something. A lesson on a animal or plant, how to walk, gun safety, and just us 2 hanging out with no distractions and 100% focus on each other.


And a question for the OP, how old were you when you harvested you first animal. How many years did you go before being being the shooter.

Alabama hunting is a product of what you have.
You need good land, with low pressure and/or TIME.

1. Good property with low pressure
2. TIME to hunt - meaning, not just going on Saturday at the club
3. Disposable income 'MONEY' to create food or apply bait.
4. Camera time to monitor when to use the Time in Point 2 to hunt.

If you have these 4 things, yeah it's easy, and easier than it was in the past. For me, it's harder. I don't have great land, and don't have many days to hunt.. The land I hunt gets pressured to death, and every club I've been in for the last 20 years does. There are about 1/3 of the deer there were 20 years ago too, so it's harder to find deer on any property I've been on, whereas 20 years ago, you could climb any good looking spot and see deer.

Bottom line is it's all about what you have access to as to how easy it is. I know some guys who don't work, run cameras, have money for feed, and have some awesome land with maybe 1 hunter for every 500 acres. So, they have good land, they can feed and plant, they can run cameras to time when the deer will be there, and they have TIME to be there when the deer walks by.
That's the key to it being easy. Anybody can kill a decent deer every year that has these 4 ingredients, anybody could do it.

I don't know why everyone talks about baiting like its an etched in stone way to kill a deer. I have had a feeder out in an area I fed deer last year, and no deer has come to it since. But we have a bumper crop of acorns this year so.... go figure.

Many years ago, there were less people hunting. You could get easier access to private land. I remember in college the first year we put in a green field, dang you could sit on that thing and see deer every day. Now.... they only come out right at dark. Why? Because you can shoot a doe a day. Go back to doe season and I bet deer sightings go up.

The last time I was in Auburn, you know what I saw? Subdivisions where hunting clubs used to be. There are houses out to Waverly where I used to go hunting. And I remember when someone out there got the wise idea to open a hunting camp and these "people" from atlanta started coming in. You would hear them coming on their ATV's. It's getting like that everywhere. And I hate it.

We hunt for fun, entertainment, memories, meat and the occasional wall paper. You go out and hunt the way you want to, I’ll go out and hunt the way I want to, same for everybody on here. Why in the world would you gripe about how someone else hunts?? I’m being serious. What happened to just going and having fun?? Why does it have to be my way or your way??

I personally do it different throughout the year. Might go sit in a nice shooting house with a heater and a feeder on the field one day then hit public land the following week to do something totally different. I might sit a feeder till 8am then still hunt a large pine plantation the next 2-3 hours. I hunt, how I want that day depending on what I feel like. There’s no right or wrong. Just go, BE SAFE, and have fun.

Ive never understood the shooting house thing. Heck, I could juat shoot deer out the window of my house in my underwear if I want to hunt out of a room.

I might understand it for old people that get too cold, but just go park a truck and roll the window down if you want to shoot stuff.

There is a difference in hunting and shooting deer. Ive done both and will continue to but I feel like many dont underatand the difference.

^^ T H I S

Do what makes you individually happy. My personal opinion is that woodsmanship and outdoorsmanship are going away as more and more are people sitting on food plots. And that wasn't producing the desired outcome fast enough so then came the corn feeders. Again, do what makes you happy. It's not for me to tell anybody how to hunt or judge them. But I talk to alot of "hunters" who couldn't find a deer on public land if their life depended on it. They have no clue as how to scout or read the sign if they run across it. And then you have the whole "is he old enough or is he big enough". Most people don't have the land or money to actually have any control over if that deer lives another year if they pass on it. Again, do what makes you happy. I went back to hunting public land a handful of years ago and I'm hunting hard but having fun. I went back to actual hunting and I shoot whatever is legal. No shame or remorse. So to answer the question, it hasn't gotten easier for me personally but for some I'm sure it has. Just go hunt, make memories, have fun and be safe.

Baiting dang sure didn’t make it easier. I haven’t noticed it make deer nocturnal, but it’s for dang sure made deer hunting more competitive than it already was. It’s a fight and game plan trying to get bait out to pull deer into a spot if 5 other people are feeding around it or across the property line. Man it’s stressful and physically tiring trying to find time to move a feeder or keep one filled up on top of finding time to actually sit in a stand.

I was 7-8 years old when I started to tote a real gun hunting, squirrel and rabbit mainly. Dad had beagles growing up. I was 12 when I killed my first deer, I was by myself and dad was 100 yards or so down the holler. But I hunted on the farm by myself when I was 10 or 11. Just walk off behind the house and sit a while, always had a dog with me usually. But I was taught saftey mainly as well what sign to look for and so forth. I guess I touched a nerve with some folks, that wasn’t my intention just was making a observation mainly. My last few sentences seems to gotten skipped over I think. 😁😁

We were about the same. I was a squirrel and rabbit killing machine from about 9+. Though I was 13 when I was allowed to deer hunt. Our rule has been nobody under 16 deer hunts outside of youth season. And I dont allow anyone under 10 youth deer hunt. I never sat with my dad until he got cancer and needed some help 30+ years after that 1st time he let me deer hunt. Though I drove deer from about 8 yrs old and learned a lot about deer doung that.

Now I was in the woods and water since I could walk. I killed all kind of critter with a crossman 760 pump master. Lol. Dad took me out a lot of times when I’m sure he didn’t want to. Hunting and fishing was all I cared about and still about the same. 😁😁

I'm not judging anyone by saying this but just stating a matter of fact........but all deer hunting is now is sitting over a pile of corn and rice bran......For better or worse that's what it is now......I dont recall the last time I tracked a deer that wasnt shot over a feeder or bait pile