Old enough to hunt

[Sandman]

http://www.madison.com/tct/news/266773

At first glance, I read this article thinking... why is there an age limit at all? If a kid can pass the hunter safety course, let 'em go.

But this... letting kids under the age of 12 hunt with no certification or safety course?

I don't know how the laws are in other states, but in California, I couldn't get my  license and tags before completing the safety course, even as an adult.



...oh and try to be nice. This subject is about guns and parenting.

[lutrel]

Times have changed; I got my first 22 rifle at age 6 and was hunting alone by age 7. I was bringing home squirrel and rabbits for the dinner table.  Pretty much by age 10 we knew how to hunt, fish, and plant and grow a garden.  In the mountains of Arkansas during the late 60’s and early 70’s these skills were considered core survival skills.  I don’t remember having to take any hunter safety course either.

[Sandman]

Originally posted by lutrel
Times have changed; I got my first 22 rifle at age 6 and was hunting alone by age 7. I was bringing home squirrel and rabbits for the dinner table.  Pretty much by age 10 we knew how to hunt, fish, and plant and grow a garden.  In the mountains of Arkansas during the late 60’s and early 70’s these skills were considered core survival skills.  I don’t remember having to take any hunter safety course either.

FWIW, I think safety courses came as a result of recreational hunters being ignorant ****sticks.

[red26]

I was born in 1980 the great state of Texas made me take a HSC before I could hunt at all. I scored a 100% on the test and it took me 3 months past deer season to get my permit. Go fig LOL well I started hunting with my father at around 9 so I was too taught at an early age the basic's of life.

[Ripsnort]

Originally posted by Sandman
FWIW, I think safety courses came as a result of recreational hunters being ignorant ****sticks.

Actually, it was the growth in popularity of sport hunting that created the Hunters Ed courses starting back in the 1950's according to my Step Father, who had 32 years in the field as a game warden.  The baby boomer gen began dumping masses of hunters in the field in the mid-to-late 50's. Naturally accident rates went up. The government reaction was Hunter Safety.  It was not so much preserving the game as it was keeping people safe (We have 10 times as many Elk and deer in the U.S. today as we did 150 years ago...bet you didn't know that..)

I started hunting at age 8 with a .410. Had my first "hunter safety" course with dad at that time as well.  I took the official "State" hunter safety course at age 11 when I wanted to buy a deer license (slug) and it was a hell of alot easier than my Dad's course!

[Sandman]

Originally posted by Ripsnort
(We have 10 times as many Elk and deer in the U.S. today as we did 150 years ago...bet you didn't know that..)

No sir, I did not... but I believe it. I think game hunting is a good thing.


The thing that baffles me most though is... why is there a hunting season for ringed neck pheasant and chukkar in California? These birds are not even indigenous.

[Banshee7]

Originally posted by Sandman

I don't know how the laws are in other states, but in California, I couldn't get my  license and tags before completing the safety course, even as an adult.

Same in Tennessee.. But if you were born b4 some time in 1967 you are grandfathered in..so you don't have to have Hunter Safety.  Otherwise...you can't get a license if you don't have Hunter Safety

#S#

Banshee7

[Banshee7]

Originally posted by Sandman
No sir, I did not... but I believe it. I think game hunting is a good thing.


The thing that baffles me most though is... why is there a hunting season for ringed neck pheasant and chukkar in California? These birds are not even indigenous.

I am a BIG duck hunter...Deer on the side.  

Have you ever tasted a Ring-Necked Pheasant??  My dad used to go to South Dakota to pheasant hunt.  He brought some back and MAN!!!  They're DELICIOUS!!!

#S#

Banshee7

[Maverick]

After reading the proposal it does require the immediate presence of an adult at all times for the kid to hunt. That's similar to the situation in AZ. AFAIK. The last time I checked, a 10 year old could go hunting but had to be under constant supervision during the hunt. In effect the adult becomes the hunter safety course for the kid until the kid reaches the age to hunt on their own and take the course as an adult.

[Leslie]

In most hunting clubs I've seen or been a member of, the kids were very well behaved and their dad made sure of gun safety.  This is as it should be, and a hunter safety course reinforces the idea of safety.  You really can't go wrong hearing it over and over again.

Accidents happen when guns and alcohol are combined.  That has more to do with hunting accidents than most anything else, imo.   Last year a drunk showed off his fast draw in the hunting camp trailer and shot (accidentally) through two rooms at head level with his .44 Wesson revolver.  LOL this guy had a pair of them in holsters.  Fortunately the camp was empty and no one was in the way.  I wasn't there at the time and would go up there as a guest when I did go, but someone could get killed with that kind of CS going on.  

That was the worst I've seen, but I've hunted with people who seriously needed a gun safety course because they were just plain stupid the way they handled firearms, and they weren't even drinking.  Example: Standing there talking to you with the rifle muzzle not pointing away from you.  Completely oblivious.   He didn't grow up hunting and didn't know better.  Everyone that grows up hunting learns that first.

You've got to really watch public ranges for folks not handling pistols correctly, turning to talk with the pistol not continuing to point down range.  Most ranges have safety watchers, but you need to watch too.  It's good to take a minute and observe who's shooting and how they manage basic gun protocol.




Les

[Ripsnort]

Originally posted by Sandman
No sir, I did not... but I believe it. I think game hunting is a good thing.


The thing that baffles me most though is... why is there a hunting season for ringed neck pheasant and chukkar in California? These birds are not even indigenous.

Yeah, mid 1800's there was something like less than 100.000 elk (down from 10 million in the pre-colonial times)  Now the North American Continent is up around 2 million.


Pheasant is one of the best tasting game birds out there.  I can't say the same for chukkar as I've never eaten one.  I love quail meat though.

[LePaul]

I took hunter safety up here in Maine back when i was 11.  It was an excellent course, followed up by doing some .22 shooting, 12 guage skeet shooting and listening to the wardens talking about survival if you are lost.  

The only pain in the rear is now if you go to get your license renewed, you have to dig that cert up.  If havent hunted for several years, I beleive they make you go again.

Up here, people frequently write and complain to the newspaper if a picture is posted of someone's deer or moose hunt.  The limp wristed feel its mean to show a dead bambi.  Yet the newspaper inserts have tons of photos of raw beef, poultry, fish, etc...    

I'm all for hunting, this state is a sportsman's paradise.  And take all the moose you want, because those fellas have taken out a lot of cars and motorcycles as of late.  Unless you have an infrared camera system in your car (like some Cadillacs do), you can not see a 2000 pound moose sitting on the side of the road, heading across.  I was a few minutes behind a moose and 18-wheeler collision, it looked like a missile hit that truck.

[Reschke]

I think it is 1977 as the cut off here in Alabama. I am currently in the process of teaching my oldest son (11) in the ways according to his grandfather. Much stricter on the rules of firearm safety than any course designed out there. It is the same course that I took from him before he gave me my .410 and .22LR single shot Marlin that he bought from the Firestone store in town. I think both weapons might have cost $50 back in the late 70's when he gave them to me.

However most kids under 10 don't need to do it alone for the first year.

[Jackal1]

Originally posted by Banshee7
Have you ever tasted a Ring-Necked Pheasant??  
 

At one time I raised Chinese Ringnecks. Ended up with around 200 at any given time. Had a large flight pen, etc.

I got my "Hunter Education" and gun safety course from my Granddad and Dad.

[Toad]

Originally posted by Sandman
The thing that baffles me most though is... why is there a hunting season for ringed neck pheasant and chukkar in California? These birds are not even indigenous.

Factoid: The ringneck is not indigenous to any state in the US.

The ringneck pheasant is not native to this continent. It was first introduced from China to the Willamette Valley of Oregon in 1881. Since that time nearly all states have attempted to establish ringnecks.

California has managed to establish a breeding population. However, I've read that birds taken in the wild are outnumbered by birds taken in California pay to shoot operations by about 2 to 1.

My boys took and passed the Kansas Hunter's Safety course when they were respectively 8 years old. They already had the fundamentals down, the Kansas course merely verified that they had already learned what they needed to know.Between 8-10, they could come along but could not walk with a gun. They could block with an adult family member standing next to them and 1 shell in a youth 20 gauge.  They hunted pheasant in small groups with the family dogs at age 10. After 10 years old, they started participating in the drives but they were alway bracketed in line with adult family members who was there to help, explain and caution as necessary.  It worked out well; they're both good hunters.