Hi, I saw your story and it warmed my heart. I have a 5 year old son and 2.5 year old daughter. My son has been interested in my hunting endeavors since he was able to crawl. I would bring home a deer in the trunk of my rusted out Ford Escape and he would want to go into the trunk with it. I bought him a reed based elk call and took him on hikes showing him scrapes, rubs, deer poop vs moose and really hyped it all up. This year he repeatedly asked to go hunting with me mid october. I decided to take him to a Rec Area with the .22 and go for grouse. We found a feather or two and thats it, but we walked, drank hot chocolate and had a great time. He really wanted to go again, so this time I took him for a real grouse hunt and brought the shot gun. When we got there, I gave him a set of ear protectors and let him practice putting them on quickly and when I said to. We bush wacked and followed game trails and he did impressively well. We flushed a grouse and a rabbit, but I was too nervous about shooting the shot gun with him right there, even with the ear muffs on. Hahaha. Later on in the hunt, we saw another grouse and as I knew he has the ears on, I took a shot at it. It went down and he was super happy. It took me a bit, but I overcame the nervousness that the bang would be too much and he wouldn't want to go again. Now for my daughter....shes just learning to talk, and she also keeps asking to go hunting too. Maybe next year.
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