RE: How old to hunt?
I own my own hunting land and was born and raised on the farm which I still own. That said, you teach your kids to obey the law regardless of who owns the land. Waiting until you are legal age to hunt just sweetens the pot and teaches patients and restraint. If you teach your kids that some laws are not to be obeyed you are asking for trouble down the road. None of us like all of the laws but they are there for a reason. Most of the reason is that people can't be trusted to the honor system therefore laws are passed to put teeth in regulations. If the honor system worked then most laws would not be needed. Its easy to see here that many think its ok to say screw the laws, they are made for other people. If people come on your posted land and shoot deer, you would raise hell and think that they should obey your law. well it works both directions. Those of us who own the land do not own the animals, they belong to all the people of the state. Some kids like me started driving on the farm when we were big enough to see over the dash. That does not mean we should have been out on the hiway driving. there are legal ages for most everything and for good reason judgement comes partly with age and expierience. 12 may not be a perfect age but I think we should have the age limit and thats a good starting point. I am all for youngsters going along with their parents and starting young in this respect but if the legal age in your state is 12 or whatever, you are doing your kids no favor by teaching them to ignore the regulations. Like it or not Regulations are part of hunting and part of life.