Benefits of Taking a Kid Hunting
By : Bobby Cole, Western Kansas Program Coordinator
Benefits of taking a kid hunting!
I have been working for Outdoors Mentors going on three years now. In that time, I had the privilege of seeing hundreds of kids get outdoors. Being a part of these hunts has been one of the most rewarding things I have done. But why is it rewarding? Why is it important? To explain that
We will have to rewind twenty-plus years to when I first started hunting.
I grew up in a family of avid outdoorsmen. My family was full of them, hunting and fishing is in our blood. I was the youngest son and the youngest grandson. I grew up watching as all the other members of my family got to go hunting with Grandpa and Dad, patiently waiting for it to be my turn! When that day came it was everything I expected and more.
My first real hunt was a dove hunt when I was around 10 years old. I remember being so excited that I barely slept the night before. We got up and drove to a farm, Dad set me up on a watering hole, gave me a
few boxes of shells, and then sat back and watched the madness. I shot at dove until my shoulder was black and blue! I walked away with maybe a handful of birds. It was the greatest day of my life, or at least I thought it was, until I went elk hunting...
Every new hunting trip became the next greatest day, and it's still like that. Honestly, the day I married my beautiful wife and saw my kids for the first time would be the only other events that have been more impactful than my experiences outdoors. As you can see hunting and fishing have made me into the person I am today, and I hope it can impact others the way it has impacted me. I hope that my experience can have a positive impact on the next generation.
There are many benefits to taking a kid hunting. It teaches patience, discipline, acceptance, confidence, and work ethic. It teaches kids how nature works, and it promotes a healthy lifestyle. Let's look at each of these a little closer.
Patience:
Patience is one of the most important skills you can learn in hunting and fishing. This is a skill that I still haven't mastered because I'm just a little squirrely at times. Patience really pays off in deer hunting, Turkey hunting, and certain forms of fishing. Sometimes, when hunting or fishing, you must sit for hours or even days on end without seeing a thing! It sounds boring, but with a little patience, you just may get that big buck or monster fish! Then you get to feed your family and brag a little while you're at it!
Discipline:
Discipline is the quality of being able to behave and work in a controlled way, which involves obeying rules or standards and the ability to keep working at something difficult. If you aren't disciplined in the outdoors all kinds of things could go wrong. You could break a law, you could make a bad shot, and you could even end up shooting the wrong animal. As an outdoorsman, you are expected to behave and conduct yourself in a controlled way according to the regulations of the state and federal government. If you lack the discipline to wake up early and, go the extra mile and continue to do the difficult things, you will have little to no success. The hunter with this kind of discipline will always see more success than the guy or gal who gets up late and only walks 100 yards from the road.
Acceptance:
Hunting and fishing, without a doubt, helps teach a kid how to accept the more difficult things in life. Nothing hurts more outdoors than when you take a bad shot on an animal and never find it. Sometimes, you will spend hours looking for it but eventually accept that it's gone and that your decision caused that animal's suffering. It's a hard lesson to learn, but every outdoorsman will experience it at least once. That lesson is one that will stick with you for a long time. Another kind of acceptance is when you have to accept that you didn't set up in the right spot on a particular day and will go home empty-handed. It's not as harsh, but it's still a hard pill to swallow.
Confidence:
I have witnessed firsthand how hunting can build confidence. During the COVID lockdowns, I witnessed my oldest daughter lose most of her confidence. I started taking her out with my buddies when we went duck hunting. At first, she would sit on a bucket and watch, but it didn't take long for her to wear a pair of waders, run through the marsh, set up decoys, and help Murph retrieve birds. Her teachers noticed a change and asked me what we were doing differently. It was simple: I put her in a situation that required her to learn something new and adapt. By doing that she regained her confidence. The more competent she becomes outdoors, the more confident she becomes as a person. I have also witnessed a similar change with many youths in our program!
Work Ethic:
This goes hand in hand with discipline. Getting up early and going the extra mile will build a strong work ethic. Some of the hardest working people I know are waterfowl hunters. As a waterfowl hunter, you have to scout nonstop. Then wake up early, drive to the best spot you
found, drag all your gear to the "X" and spend significant time setting up your decoys and brushing in your blinds. If you are lucky and do all the above right, you will spend between fifteen minutes and an hour shooting, then turn around and pack everything up to head home. This is just one example of the demanding work it takes to be a successful outdoorsman or woman. Every type of hunting takes arduous work and will build a strong Work Ethic!
Love and understanding for nature:
Few people have a deeper understanding and love of the natural world than those of us that hunt and fish. To be a successful outdoorsman, you must understand how nature works and what makes the game we pursue tick. It takes time to learn what kind of habitat the game uses and how they use it, how those change throughout the year. When studying the movements of animals, we grow a love for them. A love that goes beyond just harvesting an animal, not a love for an individual animal but a love for the population as a whole. Sure, we love to hunt, kill and eat them, but we also grow an appreciation for having these animals on the landscape. Most hunters I know would give up pursuing a specific animal if it was the only way they could continue seeing them on the landscape.
Promotes a healthy lifestyle:
Finally, hunting and fishing promote a healthy lifestyle. The obvious part of this is that the pursuit of wild game yields lean, healthy, and sustainable protein at an affordable cost. As I have said many times, if you go the extra mile, you will usually have more success. Well, to go that extra mile, you have to be physically capable. An excellent example of this is upland hunting; on average, I will walk between 5 and 13 miles a day in rough country during an upland hunt. I have had many people quit one of my hunts before seeing a single bird because they aren't in good enough shape to go a mile.
Another example is waterfowl hunting. In Kansas, some of the best hunting is on public grounds, and to get to the best spots, you may have to drag all your gear up to three miles through rough country and a marsh. I have seen people quit because they aren't capable of walking 100 yards in the marsh. I understand that some people have physical conditions that won't allow them to do these things, and I'm not trying to shame anyone. The point is that the better shape you're in, the better you will do.
The above list is just a few examples of the benefits that come with taking a kid hunting and fishing. I have had the pleasure of seeing many young men and women benefit from Outdoor Mentors' work. Because of our volunteers and sponsors, we positively impact hundreds of youth every year! If you have children, I strongly encourage you to take those kids outdoors. If you don't know what to do, find someone that does! If you don't have kids but want to see one benefit from your knowledge in the outdoors, reach out to me, and I'll help set that up!