I was just reading the various posts around for the youth hunt and it depressed me...

My little girl was suppose to hunt the Indiana youth hunt this year, she is 7. I went out and bought her a little 410 last month, took her to the range, signed her up for hunter safety (I have no doubts she can pass it, she's a smart little bugger, reading at 6th grade level in 2nd grade)... well, hubby (her stepdaddy) and I took her out two weeks ago for a final sighting in at the range and she wouldn't shoot. She said it hurt too bad. [&o] She had never said anything before, so I wondered if something happened to change her mind (like her real dad [:'(]) or if maybe she had shot it off of her collarbone at some point or her bicep??? I dunno, all I know is hubby and I were so depressed, and we couldn't let her know it either.

She was so worried that we would be mad at her, and we had to reassure her over and over and over that it was her decision and that if she never wanted to hunt that would be alright with us... she finally decided she was going to wait another year and try it again. One week away from her first season and mommy and daddy were sooooo depressed.

I know she's still really young... sometimes I wonder if we were jumping the gun, but she's the one who said she wanted to hunt this year... so we just went with it. She likes to shoot the .22, she wanted to hunt deer with that and we had to explain that a .22 wouldn't work for those purposes.

Anyone else had this experience?