How are you guys hunting with youths? I'm a ridge runner myself when I'm hunting solo or with a buddy but I will be taking my son next week and I'm afraid he won't be able to sit still. Is pretty much everyone throwing up a blind and staying in one spot? I was think of staying with my run and gun style and just throwing some of the burlap blind material around him, he'll be sitting in my lap if we're ground hunting.
Gotta throw in a pic of his gun. He's pumped about it, maybe as much as me!
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First pic didn't work
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It's really hard to beat a blind for taking kids out. It allows them to do things they usually wouldn't be able to get away with and that makes it much more enjoyable. Just my thoughts
That was my thinking also, prob would be best to just go with the blind.
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I know if I had been taught from a blind I would probably have lost interest. I learned pretty quick to sit still. I'm glad I have memories of slip-assin around with my Dad instead of sitting in a tent. I enjoyed sleeping in one but when it was time to go turkey hunting I wanted to hunt and not sit.
I'd ask your son which he would like to do and go that route. Good luck whichever y'all decide on.
Google mad Max blind.. just big enough to hide a kid behind pretty easy to collapse and carry. and a built in shooting rest with some 3D camo material. I don't like full enclosed blind but will use this with especially fidgety kids.
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Couple of really nice looking guns...If he's old enough to keep up I would think your burlap idea would work. For my son we've had good luck with setting up a couple blinds in different areas and if one doesn't pan out after awhile than we head to a different one. It's a ritual for us. He gets a Friday out of school to travel to where we hunt stopping along the way at one of our favorite places to eat..Check into our hotel,set up a couple blinds,fish for awhile, etc anxiously awaiting Saturday..Alot of good memories...Good luck and know matter what you decide you cant go wrong your bonding and making memories..
Depends on his age. My son took his first bird behind a little ground screen. Gave me confidence that he would not spook a bird up close by moving hands. His second bird, which was a gobbler better than any I have ever killed, was without a blind. Called him to us on a foggy day. Gobbling his head off and knew he was only 75 yards away, but could not see him. He just appeared out of the mist. Most exciting hunt I have ever had for pure tension because I wanted him to kill a gobbler so bad. He is now a grown man and killing them on his own.
I like the thought of asking him.
Solid advice. I knew I stopped lurking and joined for a reason. I'm just gonna ask him this evening when I get home from work. Went scouting yesterday. Heard at least 10 different birds and saw 6 gooduns with a bunch of hens. Hopefully they'll be there next weekend
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I try and have birds nailed down for them. Meaning fairly short walks and a good chance of some action. Occasionally I will use a single hen decoy to help them with where the shot will occur more than drawing in a bird.
No blinds or shooting sticks ect. If they wanna kill one then they have to do things right on their end. I am not big on coddling to much. I am not going to walk them to death but I am not gonna make the bird a gimme either. That and I pack lots of snacks.
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14 year old daughter will be going on her 2nd youth hunt this year. She can sit like an absolute rock but.....getting up at 3 am she tends to nod off occasionally so a blind helps me in hiding my movement of gentle elbow to wake her up lol. She's a petite little thing so she utilizes shooting sticks too. I second the lots of snacks . Been taking her out scouting pre season for 10 plus years. She loves the woods . Good luck to you and your son.
Been thinking of this topic as well. I'm going to take my daughter out on her first hunt and going to use a blind....never owned one so going out today to see what I can find. My question is what age did you get your kids out to hunt for the first time? My daughter is 6-1/2...little young but figured I'd get her out for a couple hours just to see her reaction to hunting. She's been begging to go for the last two years.
Why not have the best of both worlds, take a blind and fix it up in a nice area for a resting spot on up in the morning. That way he or she can have a rest and snacks and your still hunting. With a blind it's a great time to relax and teach calling skills with the kids. Put out a hen decoy and see if you can call a gobbler or a hen. Hens are exciting also to hear and learn from. If it's a little cool with wind blowing you have a place to get out of the weather and both of you can still enjoy the hunt. I feel it necessary in helping kids. I want kids to have interest in what dad does on his turkey hunts. For a kid walking around with dad for hour is like you hunting for 1/2 day. Most kids it's hard to find good walking shoes and adequate attire. So get a blind for those resting times and in helping him or her keep enthusiasm while hunting. Yes kids need to earn what they do or kill but a little help goes a long way. They have the rest of there life to grow up and learn form mistakes. Enjoying times with dad and enjoying stories and nature this day and time is life lessons..
Quote from: JK Spurs on March 25, 2017, 01:43:03 PM
Been thinking of this topic as well. I'm going to take my daughter out on her first hunt and going to use a blind....never owned one so going out today to see what I can find. My question is what age did you get your kids out to hunt for the first time? My daughter is 6-1/2...little young but figured I'd get her out for a couple hours just to see her reaction to hunting. She's been begging to go for the last two years.
I think my Son was almost 7...he was also interested a couple years beforehand. I didn't expect much,but he did get a nice Bird.I let him dictate how long we hunted and kinda watched to make sure he was having fun and didn't get burned out.
I start mine at 8.
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I hunt w lots ok kids. I roost birds if possible the night before so we have guaranteed action. From there a blind early on if that doesn't pan out we run n gun pre scouted areas
I have done a lot of youth and even adult newbie hunts, I have a couple of stories on this... So Hunter (boys name) started with me at 10 years of age, at that time new to the turkey game and his first bird was out of a blind with decoys and proud to say he killed his first bird with me and his Dad right by his side. Year #2, We make a set and no luck after a few hours and decide to head to another spot, we were in the blind that morning. As we make our way off the ridge I hear a hen and a jake gobble back, I tell Hunter Here we go, I'm going to have you sit right here with me and see what we can do, We set down next to the tree and I get him in position, tell him to get the gun up and not to move unless I say when. I start talking to the hen and Jake hits my calling, again and it's multiple Jakes, I see them coming down off the neighboring ridge in the timber and tell Hunter to get ready... Yup bird #2. So we have done this a few times and he has learned it both ways.
I can't figure out why they think if you "use" a blind somehow you are stuck in it. There are plenty of time we have left the blind behind and went after a bird, sometimes that is the game plan.
Had a similar last year with another "Youth Hunt" and had another mess up our spot (another story) but we did a run & gun and killed a bird with-in minutes of striking him... It all goes by what does the situation call for, I have had adults in a blind because they do the "Hunters Hokey Pokey" and would have never had much of a chance to kill a bird and then I talk about how still you need to be...
Don't give using a blind a second thought, kids can learn both styles of hunting. Big thing to me here is he is out hunting!!
Use some decoys bring them birds in close and let him squeeze a trigger on one, as he gains experience then start talking to him about, now were going to learn how to do this on a gobblers terms :)
Hope you have a great hunt with your boy & good luck to you!
MK M GOBL
I first took my son when he was 9 and we never turkey hunted out of a blind. Instead, I sat down with my back against a tree with him sitting between my legs on a fold up turkey seat. This put him about 4 inches off the ground and our heads were at about the same level. I could give him verbal instructions and a play by play of what was happening in front of us. We also had the gun up on a shooting stick for stability. He has killed several birds set up with me that way. The first, when he was 9, came over a little rise in a field in full strut 100 yards away. I'll never forget him saying out loud "oh, what a beautiful sight"....still makes me laugh to think about that. The bird came slowly down the field in full strut and it seemed like it took and hour for that bird to close the distance. I could tell my boy was getting excited as he was breathing fast and loud, keeping pace with me ;). At 25 yards, I clucked and the gobbler stuck his head up and my son made a perfect shot.
The next year we were set up in the same positions and we witnessed a highly entertaining interaction between 6 longbeards, a hen, a sneaky jake and my DSD hen. Long story short, my son was able to get on a nice gobbler in the circus that was happening 25 yards in front of us and make a clean shot all the while I was saying shoot...don't shoot....now...no wait....ok....BOOM!
I think it was important that we were on the ground together, where I could see from his perspective, to let him know what was happening before our eyes. By the time he was 12, he no longer wanted to sit between my legs. Instead, we sat side by side so I could still instruct him as to what was going on. When he was 14, we had our first double.
My son killed his first two deer at 5. Went on his first turkey hunt at 6 at the end of the season when I borrowed a gun from a friend. Just killed his first bird today. You have to do all that's possible to make them comfortable. Spend the extra on a cabelas youth vest with a thick pad, Comfortable boots, and snacks. I like to run and gun myself but when he's with me I usually start off in a blind I keep up around where the birds normally roost. If they want to play great if not we grab our crap and our mobile blind and head after em. I sharpened and wire tied two wooden dowl rods to the leafy blind material and roll it up. Get where we're going and set it up in seconds. He's a good hunter but they ain't one on earth that stays there stone cold solid not moving anything but their eyes at that age. Never hurts to ask but that's what's worked for us. Good luck.
Make it as easy as possible for him so it is enjoyable for him. Don't get to gunho about you have to shoot a turkey. Put the time in right to make it the best time between you and him. If he catches the bug for turkey hunting you have a hunting buddy for life and it won't be long before he is showing you a thing or to.
My son was 10 when he did his first turkey hunt and was probably the best turkey hunt I have ever had. We used a little cover in front of us and he sat pretty well. I also talked him up alot about sitting still and what to expect and watched a bunch of turkey hunting shows before we ever went out hunting. So he had idea what might happen during the hunt.
Sounds obvious but remember this is his hunt not yours. My son went hunting with me for years and I only took him when I had zero ambitions of getting a shot. He didn't like the lack of visibility from a blind so we sat in the woods. Carrying around dekes was also a hassle so we started leaving them at home. Sat is a relative term because he could not sit still. He would remain against a tree but moved all over the place. Feet swung around, he picked up his hands to see his watch, wiggled around, etc. He would call with whatever he felt was good at the moment and most likely chased off every bird within 100 miles of where we were at the time. After spending a bunch of time scouting and locating it frustrated me to no end when he'd do something very un-turkey-hunter like and scare the birds away.
He likes to stalk birds in the fall and eventually became pretty good at it. He figured out how to end run a moving flock and his woodscraft is pretty good. His ambition to go after birds a long way off was unmatched but we went after them.
Eventually he figured it all out and has taken birds with shotgun and by bow. He is now 13 and a savvy hunter.
Point being is do your best to make the entire process of hunting enjoyable. Most hunts end without a filled tag and become filled if the hunter follows the process. Have fun with him and best of luck on all accounts.
Another thing I like to do is take my kids out and we turkey hunt without a gun. We have a flock behind my house that I know pretty well. I don't hunt them but they are great for training kids. Just yesterday they were tearing it up behind the house so I grabbed a call and my 6 year old and off we went. I got them to gobble and had him pinpoint them and away we went. We closed the distance and got a response 200 yards out. I explained the terrain features and what we wanted to do if we were really hunting them. He picked out a slight rise in the terrain for us to slide up behind and we proceeded to call in two toms ad a hen with a third tom closing from our left. A coughing fit put and end to our lesson but it was priceless. In another two years he will be ready.
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We use HS strut portable ground blinds they rolls up and fit right in your vest and can be setup in seconds, we also put out some fixed blinds in known turkey hangouts for midday hunting.
Quote from: sparky153 on March 25, 2017, 11:30:50 AM
It's really hard to beat a blind for taking kids out. It allows them to do things they usually wouldn't be able to get away with and that makes it much more enjoyable. Just my thoughts
:agreed: Also lets you bring snacks, sleeping bag, etc. to keep them from getting bored.
As most have mentioned do a little homework before and get an idea of where you want need to get to. When I have a kiddo with me I like to get in before daylight especially if they are young and get settled in and let things quiet back down. I keep clippers in my vest and just cut some some brush when we are walking in. We have several cedars by where we park and Ill steal a couple of limbs walking in just to break up outlines a bit.
It's hard to beat the ground blind that's what I started my son out with. You can just get away with so much more movement with a young kid.