How many squirrels do you think a kid will want to shoot after he tries to skin his first cold squirrel? How many parents will cook that squirrel and will the kid eat it even if they cook it?

bb is that out of the bluetwist book or the naysayers hand book ?

No, it is just the cold hard realities of life. Squirrels may be fun for a kid to shoot, but if they are not put to good use you are setting a very bad example for a young hunter. Would you take a young hunter dove hunting and leave the birds in the field because there wasn't enough meat to make it worth cleaning and that they have a rather distinct taste?

dog food wouldnt be letting go to waste skinning tree rat only takes a min and can be tasty to

So it you shot a doe and fed it to your dog ,I suppose you would consider that to be reason enough to kill a doe?

apples vs grapes (sour grapes) if the dog needs food its gotta eat too

Pick up roadkills to feed the dog.

only the best for mutts pedigree if you want to feed your dog roadkills have at it
point is small game and turks are great starters for children, seems ur just a sour grape
doesnt mean i think pgc deer managment is great just means i think you can still get kids into hunting
and small game is hunting

Perhaps if the mentor were at all outdoor knowledgeable he could show the youth just how easy it is to skin a cold squirrel or that it is even easier to carry a plastic bag and skin them in the field while they are still warm.
Perhaps a good mentor could also show the youth how to finish cleaning and then cooking the squirrel so that it is a fine tasting meal that the youth will want to eat more then once.

I know my mentor from way back almost five decades ago was able to teach me those things and much more about the joys of hunting, harvesting, caring for and eating many different species of game. I was able to teach those same things to my sons less then two decades ago. I doubt that today’s youth are less able to learn then the youth of the past if they really have a worthwhile mentor.

Of course I don’t ever remember my mentor complaining about having a rotten time while hunting even though there were many days nothing was harvested or darn little sighted.

Maybe having a worthwhile mentor that isn’t always complaining is the real difference between the past and today in young hunter satisfaction and retention?

R.S. Bodenhorn

The kids I started hunting didn't have that problem since we could always see enough deer to keep hunting interesting. None of them started with squirrels because their parents wouldn't eat them and there was no other small game available.

The simple fact is the demographics of our society hasn't changed significantly since 2004, but junior licenses sales are still declining despite all the youth mentored programs. You can't convince kids that hunting is fun when they go for days without seeing a deer no matter how many smiley faces you put on.