ARE WE MAKING THINGS TOO EASY FOR YOUTH HUNTERS?

By Tony J. Peterson / MEATEATER

Just a shade over thirty years ago, I started bowhunting whitetails as a clueless 12-year-old. We didn’t have youth seasons then. Or pop-up blinds. Or, trail cameras of any style, let alone models that would beam deer recon via satellites right to a device in our pockets. We didn’t have the type of good gear that keeps you warm, quiet, and safe. There were some box blinds on the landscape, but they were mostly concentrated in the Lone Star State. Crossbows weren’t much of a thing, either.

Today’s world of youth hunting is drastically different. At the risk of sounding like I’m in a ratty bathrobe on my lawn, shaking my fist at the sky and screaming for the neighborhood kids to get off my lawn, I find myself wondering if we are making things too easy for young hunters.

My twin eleven-year-old daughters have killed seven deer, and seven turkeys, between the two of them. At that age, I wasn’t even legally allowed to hunt turkeys or deer in my home state of Minnesota.

I wrestle with the reality that I’ve set my girls up for nearly assured success, and that bothers me. It also bothers me when I watch outdoor television and see young hunters passing 130-inch bucks while waiting on a real hitlister, all while spouting the same inane platitudes they’ve picked up from their parents (and the broader trophy-hunting crowd).

The question is, why should any of this bother me, or any of us? CLICK HERE TO READ FULL POST