TPWD~9, 10 & 11 year olds Will Be Able to Hunt Alone

[Bullrdr82]

I have been thinkning about this alot here lately.

I guess I am against most of the people who have already posted. I can not get "a warm fuzzy" feeling with giving a hunter that young free reign to go out into the woods and carry a firearm around. Now before everyone jumps on me, let me explain....

While I know that most of the people around here have engrained the safety of hunting to their children. If you take the numbers from TPWD, bowhunters are a very small percentage of total hunters. I have met a bunch of people ( and these were grown men) who I did not trust to walk around with a loaded firearm. I think the majority of hunters that young will not understand all the repercusions of not handling a firearm correctly.

I hope this makes sense. I am in no way against getting younger people involved in this great sport, but there should be some boundries. I would not be against lowering the age to take hunters ed, but I do not agree with letting them hunt alone.

This is just my opinion.....

Brandon

[Hot4huntin]

I think many of us that frequent the websights are in the minority. We are the parents that will see to it that our children follow the law, wait until they are ready to hunt, etc. But there is a whole other world out there.

I guess I see or hear too much of the other side of the story, kids hunting WITH their parents with illegal or unsafe equipment, poaching, no hunting license, out of season, etc. Some of it is unbelievable! We have the youth season that was implemented because many parents refused to give up their time to hunt in order to take their children hunting. I see people cutting costs and buying inferior or improper equipment and not familiarizing themselves with the laws or equipment selection. These are the people that concern me. I too hunted by myself when I was younger, but it was done with a BB or Pellet gun. I'm all for getting more kids out in the field, but I would like to see it done in a safe manner for the general population.

Many of today's children have such a hard time focusing on the task at hand. It has to be explained, reexplained, etc. Will one hunters ed class be enough for a child that has a hard time concentrating and comes from a split household where one parent is not interested in hunting?

I think there are children out there that are ready to hunt at 9, 10 or 11 years old, but I think the majority are not. More often than not, the 9, 10 and 11 year olds that are mature enough to hunt alone are the ones that their parents take the time to instruct them properly, follow the law and will continue to hunt with them until they are able to hunt alone.