Confession .. from non hunter

patjohnw

patjohnw

CGN Regular
Rating - 100%
86   0   0
Location
West GTA Halton
Im in the High 30s
and have a five year old Son . I spend time with him fishing. Playing video games and I was thinking as he gets older what can we do together ?

Years ago my dad and I shot .22 at the range. We always had stressed conversations .... fun for a while but fizzled out ... Now I collect hand guns and rifles dads 70 something and I think hey we cound have spent the last 20 years doing stuff together here and there ...DAMIT ... anyways I work five days a week and afternoons and such ....

My point is ... im finally getting to what do you seasoned people think I should try get involved with. Rabbit ? bird hunting ? So If you can bare in mind Im new and trying to spend time with the little one also, some suggestion tips toughts would be nice. Maybe you know of a good website that you would recommend. ... I tryed , ended up on sites how to skin this and that ... I was like skin em? how do you find them !!!
 
Best advice I can give is find out where I am, and go the opposite direction, the animals are never where I am.:D

Our hunting forum is a plethora of information , ask specific questions and you will get information from some very informed and experienced hunters.
 
patjohnw said:
Im in the High 30s
and have a five year old Son . I spend time with him fishing. Playing video games and I was thinking as he gets older what can we do together ?

Years ago my dad and I shot .22 at the range. We always had stressed conversations .... fun for a while but fizzled out ... Now I collect hand guns and rifles dads 70 something and I think hey we cound have spent the last 20 years doing stuff together here and there ...DAMIT ... anyways I work five days a week and afternoons and such ....

My point is ... im finally getting to what do you seasoned people think I should try get involved with. Rabbit ? bird hunting ? So If you can bare in mind Im new and trying to spend time with the little one also, some suggestion tips toughts would be nice. Maybe you know of a good website that you would recommend. ... I tryed , ended up on sites how to skin this and that ... I was like skin em? how do you find them !!!
Click to expand...

You look inside the skins, and there they are.

Step one, you just did - ask. Hopefully that will lead to local connections, which is what you need.
 
Rabbits & upland birds are pretty much found in close proximity to each other, in wilderness areas or rural farm country interspersed with trees as windrows. This fall get your Ontario small game licence and beat the weeds to find ruffed grouse &/ or rabbits. Use a rimfire rifle or an open choked shotgun with small birdshot. Rabbits are often found in the thickest woodland cover & grouse are often found beside gravel roads or wilderness trails, where they pick up small gravel to help thier digestive system. Maybe near farmland eating grain & nesting in nearby edge cover.

Makes for a great day out in the woods!

Edit: As far as game preparation goes, youtube is a pretty darn good learning tool IMO. Beck's Outdoor series, Pathfinder School, TheNewsurvivalist, gunner17722 are not too bad at all, for this subject.
 
Last edited:
As for birds, I just got into it this past year and a technique that worked for us was we would find during the day where the geese/ducks were holding up (look for ponds etc) and in the evening they leave the resting areas to go to farmers fields to eat before bed. So we would drive as best we could following them and the fields that they would go to we would ask the farmers for permission to hunt their fields. Usually they are perfectly fine with it and we managed to have a fairly successful season with this technique!

You just have to commit to it and go do some scouting and ask around, one thing I learned is that generally people in the country are a lot more friendly than people in the cities.

Hope this helps!
 
Rabbits and upland birds are a great way to get into hunting.

Be sure to find a good wild game cookbook/recipes too. That way you can whet your appetite for more. :)
 
CV32 said:
Rabbits and upland birds are a great way to get into hunting.

Be sure to find a good wild game cookbook/recipes too. That way you can whet your appetite for more. :)
Click to expand...

The first critter I ever killed was a rabbit, the second was a ruffed grouse and the rest is history. Before I ever got into big game hunting I used to spend weekends in the fall chasing small game around with a single shot
16 ga. Cooey shoutgun. Find yourself a cheap 20 ga. or .410 shotgun, get your Hunter Safety and you're good to go. Joining your local Fish & Game Club is also a good way to meet people who can steer you in the right direction. Good luck!
 
Duck hunting is a fantastic way to introduce youngsters to hunting...there's always something happening, they dont have to be quiet, and the action can be fast and furious.

My son has been hunting with me since he was 6. I started out only taking him duck hunting just to make hunting exciting for him. Now he is always with me, and has grown to appreciate the hunt rather than the kill.

If you take your kid to the woods for a hunt and you dont see anything, they might find it boring and be turned off by it. Bring something else to entertain them. Collect rocks, climbing trees...its all about keeping them occupied and interested in the outdoors.
 
Have you tried contacting you local game and fish association. Here in Manitoba they run all kinds of events for people interested in hunting and fishing. You will make new friends and vital contacts in your hunting community.
 
Snaring rabbits (if allowed in your zone) is cool too, my little brother likes doing that. It demands a walk in the bush everyday too, and quite honestly puts more on the table than trying to shoot the sneaky things.
 
Small game is a great way to start off with a youngster, especially activities like rabbit, grouse, duck and now with the explosive poulation of them, Turkey hunting! If you have access to private farm lands you only need work bush/field edges kicking brush piles etc to get bunnies up and running to get shooting at them. Hunting along railway ditch bottoms can be good for bunnies too. Shooting gray and black squirrels in hardwoods is fun too and they are tasty despite their ratlike appearance when skinned, lol! Check the local reg's for conservation areas that allow hunting as well. These are crown owned generally and access isn't a problem like private lands. Often these areas have shallow water marshes as well and a set of waders and a half dozen decoys can serve you well and provide some good action at times that may keep a youngster interested in the game with a minimal of investment to get you started. As for skinning and cleaning game their is a ton of information out there on the web with instructional videos that would explain it you better and easier than a bunch of guy's on here trying to explain it but don't be intimidated, it is easy breezy. Once you try your hand at it you will say to yourself, man that was easy, I can't believe how easy it is. Good luck and I hope you find some great activities to do outdoors with your son.:)
 
I would look more seriously into water fowling over upland , simply because even a relatively poor wetland will probably give opportunity to get one or two birds every time your out, where as if your not in the right habitat in the uplands your not seeing anything. Good coverts yield lots of shooting , but not all coverts are good coverts.
 
Grouse. Low investment, (waterfowling is a bit of a money pit), Easy to clean (10 seconds), No need for the kid to be super quiet, your moving constantly with small pauses, you can get them anytime of the day ( as opposed to rabbits which are gonna be in the half dark). No need for a booming 12 bore any .410 or 22 will do. Grouse die well. EVERYBODY LOVES GROUSE MEAT.

If I was rich enough to buy organic meat by the ton I'd give up deer, moose, caribou, and elk hunting and spend everyday strolling for Ruff Grouse. (well maybe a few days in the goose blind but only if there was a wet spring and the grouse were thin on the ground)

If your kid can walk he is old enough to take grouse hunting and he will love it. Make sure you bring LOTS of treats/snacks/juice boxes etc. Hunting with kids is the 10 minutes inbetween 'setting up for eating'. My 10 year old can tell you what he had for snack on trips we took 6 years ago! "oh yeah that time we had KFC and orange juice and got 2 sharptails and a ruffy" " remember that time we ate all those birthday cupcakes and you missed that bird three times....." He has been on well over a 100 trips and as near as I can tell remembers every one. (or at least the snacks)

The crucial thing to keep in mind is that he will not care one bit how many birds you kill. If you hunt 10 days and get ONE bird it will the trophy of a lifetime for him and for you. Just wait till you guys come across a drumming ruff grouse and have your first super stealth stalk, it will be better then any bull elk you ever call in. Or the first time a Ruffie explodes at your feet and scares the crap out of both of you. It will be a better rush then Alaskan Brown Bear with Bow.
 
I started my son on grouse hunting when he was four years old... we walked old logging roads for miles... the first year, I carried him on my shoulders pretty much the entire way... the second year, I carried him half of the way, by the time he was six, he walked the whole trip himself, lugging around his Benji HB20 pistol (which has taken hundreds of grouse and rabbits)... by then he was a seasoned pro... we got alot of birds and bunnies... now that he is grown, he has taken many species of game and usually beats the old man in the trophy department... we have spent countless days together in the woods and on lakes and in blinds... just like I did with my dad, who started me when I was four also... with any luck, my son will start his own boy someday... I'd like to be around for that.
 
patjohnw said:
Im in the High 30s
and have a five year old Son . I spend time with him fishing. Playing video games and I was thinking as he gets older what can we do together ?
Click to expand...

Have you had your son out shooting yet? My son was about 6 when I let him shoot the pellet gun. I bought him his own when he was 8. For his 12th birthday, I got him a brand new CZ455LUX .22LR. He is 13.5 now and comes to the range and shoots my Robarms XCR, Beretta 92FS, Sig P226R, Ruger Mini-14, Tikka T3 in .223, Ruger Mark III, etc...

Love spending time with my best buddy!!:p
 
I have to agree with David Doyle here. Keeping a high energy boy/girl still in a goose/duck blind, could be an exercise in futility IMO. Maybe puddle jumping waterfowl could keep them moving and interested. Miles of walking woods trails equals exploring the world and a tired & sleepy child at the end of the day. For the most part, alot more calories are burned in the pursuit of pheasant, grouse & hares. But I also disagree partly with David here. Rabbits can be found any time of day in heavy cover. Yes, they could be more active at dusk. But Silverback, Trevj & myself have shot rabbits during all hours of the day many times.
You just have to be willing to push into the dense bush after them.
 
Last edited:
Yeah Brutus your right but those are Alberta rabbits, they put in an extra shift of OT everyday and are always hustling to keep up with the payments on big suburbian Calgary Warrens. LOL. Makes em easier to find then the eastern rabbits I grew up with, what with all the napping under logs and general laziness.

Just a little Dad FYI for anyone with Daughters, mourne not, as in my limited experience the girls take to hunting almost more enthusiastically then boys. Boys are happy to look for frogs and splash in ditches but girls get pretty focused on killing some protien.
.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom