[fabsroman]

I think the key of it all is to make it fun. My daughter is 3 1/2 years old right now. She found my goose calls and asked what they are for, so I explained it to her, blew them a little, and then she started blowing them. She started on the duck calls too and my 1 1/2 year old son decided to join in too. In October I took our family out to a farm I hunt and we were just playing around. She asked to blow the calls that I had in the truck, so I let her. After blowing on them, she turned to me and asked "Daddy, why aren't the geese coming here yet?" Try explaining that to a kid her age. In November, after we got back from the park, I had her sitting in the back of my truck and there were geese flying around our house everywhere. She asked to blow the call so I let her. What happened next was incredible. A group of 4 flew by not 20 yards from us and she started blowing the call. They all turned their head to look at her as they flew by. She and I were both excited by that. Went pheasant hunting in December and brough one entire male bird home (used male because I think this chatboard would turn the proper name to ****) to show both kids. At first they were a little hesitant, but when I showed them the colors on the bird and how the feathers came off, my daughter started asking for purple, green, and the red ones around the eyes. Obviously, she didn't get any red ones. Both kids had a great time with the tail feathers.

Ultimately, I think it is all about them having fun at first. My plan is to introduce them to the animals separately from the gun and to introduce the gun to them separately from the animals. Then, as things progress I will take them hunting. Probably something like early season goose and dove hunting when things are still warm out there.

I am really interested in what anybody else has to say because I have been dicussing this with a couple friends of mine and how they got their kids started hunting. I have one buddy with 5 kids and all 5 of his kids love to hunt. I hope I am that lucky and that all my kids love to hunt, fish, shoot, and ride bikes, but something tells me that will not be the case.

What ages did everybody get their kid into hunting and/or guns? That is something I would like to know. My daughter wants a pink pellet gun, so I will probably get it for her next Christmas.