I was very pleasantly surprised at how well my daughter took to it. Technically, she turns 8 on Saturday and this is her first season. She's been super quiet, patient, and attentive every time seh's gone out with me. As expected, hunting with dad doesn't outrank her best friend's birthday party but still....she's been ready to go, even for the morning hunts.
The deal is that this season she had to sit with me patiently and earn her way toward being able to shoot next year...and I think she has at this point. She really seems to 'get it' and for that, I'm very lucky. Her 5 year old sister isn't so inclined and the one time she got to go with me, made all kinds of noise and was bored all evening long. Oh well, maybe in a few years.
For myself, I have hunted for the past 20 years but have taken the last few off. We have had a lease out by Hondo, TX for all that time and I am sitting in my office looking at my best buck from there hanging on the wall. There owner of the land passed away a few years ago and the division of his estate led to a few family members carving off their portion to build homes or section off as they saw fit and my pasture was part of that.
That said, for about 15 years we've owned 830 acres just west of San Antonio. We had already been established out in Hondo and there were alot of deer and plenty of room for everyone to hunt. We've had feeders going out on our place and have seen alot of deer but no one has ever hunted it very seriously.
Well, as it turns out, its 8 miles from my house and there are some GOOD bucks out there. The bad news is that they are all depressingly nocturnal. I'm not giving up but the new stand I set up for this season has alot of issues that need to be resolved...probably by completely relocating to another part of the ranch.
The bottom line is that I'm excited again about hunting and I spend alot of my time sitting in my blind daydreaming about how I'm going to be so much more prepared I'm going to be for next season. Its been fun and therapudic, even if I'm only seeing a few deer (but a ton on the game cam)