Pope94/IA

Old enough to take a hunter satefty course of some sort. Ive been bow hunting for deer since I was 9 but I dont think I shotgun hunted with the group until I was 12 or 13. I've grown up shooting guns though. I killed my first animal at the age of 7. It was a little ground squirrel with the .22.

claydee

Depends on the maturity of the youth and most important the I.Q. of the parent. I see alot of adults I question the use of a firearm!

125py

I shot my first deer when I was 9 with a 20 gague. It really depends on how mature the kid is.

Patrick Eubanks

My 10-Year old daughter hunts with me from a stand. Shes old enough for the .243 with 100 grain bullets. I would not even begin to consider letting her sit in a stand by herself with a rifle. She takes instruction well and shoots like a professional. She is very safety conscious and probably has more respect for the animals than me. She is shaping up into a fine hunter. I would encourage others to take thier kids hunting. the excitement on thier faces is the greatest thing in the world.

kswild

Totally agree 100%! There should be no age limit. Only the PARENT knows when the child is ready!
Live it up! Doug

Nauticstar

I agree with its up to the parent. My son has hunted with me since he was 4 or so. Not every day or every hunt, but good weather days and short hunts making sure it was fun to him. Started him out with a BB gun sometime after that totally supervised. He got very efficient with it and was able to shoot targets, cans, and even a few dove out of trees during some hunts. I graduated him to a Cricket .22 for his 5th birthday and he did the same with it. Could hit perfect bullseye from bench, then started hammering squirrels so I decided to buy him an H & R .223. this Christmas and he is 6. Fit him well and he practiced with it until he could prove he was ready. I finally decided it was time and we tried about 5-6 times before he took a shot. He was so meticulous about the shot and had so many opportunities that he passed. I was so proud of him a few days ago when he watched three mature does more than 20 minutes before squeezing off a perfect broadside shot and dropping the deer to my surprise. He was excited as was I. If you spend the time and teach them the right things to do and they prove they can handle it, by all means let them do it. Just my take. Here is a pic of him with his Buck Commander paint. He just had to have it on. I laughed but agreed to put it on him.

Terasec

i would disagree,
while most agree different kids grow, and are ready to hunt at different ages,
many times i wouldnt trust the parent to make that determination,
every parent swears their kid is an outstanding honor student,
when when that kid is in Juvi.
age limit is to protect every one out there,
many times i see kids walking the trails with an adult(guessing parent), and they are walking the trail with gun pointed directly in front of them, and hand on the trigger,
or even see kids right in the parking area pick up the gun and look through the sights at things around.

law cant determine when every kid is ready,
but tries to keep us safe from majority of kids,

Master Chief

I agree with you on this post.

Another thing is, usually if the child is immature... it's because the parent is irresponsible. And if the parent is irresponsible they won't care what the kid does and will let him/her hunt whenever they want to.

Terasec

do think there are better ways for states to let kids hunt, then current regs,
some ideas,
states with no sunday hunting like pa,
dedicate sundays to youth hunts,

have different stage of licence,
like small and big game license,
small game at certain age, big game at another age,
example small game at 10, big game at 12, just as an example dont get mad kids are ready at 9 -11,

since most kids dont stay out all day, maybe dedicate morning or afternoon of certain days to youth,

also allow younger age kids to hunt on private lands where they are not a threat to others,

Allen Denton

My son just finished his 4th year of shotgun hunting for deer and he is 11. He has been shooting competitively for 3 years and has taken the gun safety class as well as the hunter safety class. He went with me for a year without a gun and then started the next season with an empty gun and went through the motions of waiting and switching the safety off and then pulling the trigger. We did this for the first two weeks and had 3 or 4 encounters where the deer were in range and he did everything right. The first day he had a loaded gun he killed a doe and a 5 point during the same hunt. Since he has killed 3 other deer and is doing very well. I think that it is up to the parent who sees the child on a daily basis and knows how mature they are.