I have a 9 year old daughter that has no interest in hunting. I've never forced it onto her, but always encourage and try to bribe her into going with me. She just has no interest in going. Which really is fine with me, she does like to fish with me and I am hoping she will shoot clays with me once she is a little older.

My dad was not a hunter or fisherman. He played sports in HS and college and played golf when I was younger. My earliest memories where always wanting to hunt and fish. I could have cared less about playing sports while in school. Thankfully my parents fully supported my hunting and fishing.

I follow many of the big social media folks and there are few images of their kids hunting with them. Most their kids are tied up with varies sports. Which as you probably know school sports are seriously time consuming requiring significant dedication with little free time. Hate to say it but I'd be willing to bet most these kids will never have the passion for hunting that their parents have.

So just curios how many of yalls kids love to hunt as much as you do? How many just go from time to time, and how many have no interest in it.

My son used to love to hunt, he would go with me every trip, and just lost interest around 16 years old. My daughter never wanted to hunt, she loved to shoot, still does, but she does not want kill animals, she has no issue with me doing it, but she just does not want to. She has been talking and showing interest lately about going camping and hunting with me, but she does not want to shoot birds. I took her to shoot clay several times this summer.

My son is a junior and plays football and baseball. Summer's consist of morning workouts, work, and basically traveling out of town every weekend for a tourney. Aug through December is football as his HS is making another deep run. We'll see tomorrow if it continues. For the past two weekends, we've been getting up at 3am to drive out to the deer lease which is 3hrs away. We want a Saturday morning sit and leaving at 12am after he gets home Friday nights is no bueno. So I would say he likes it. We did the same for teal and the south opener for ducks. Sometimes I wish he wasn't so active, but I am huge fan of team sports and the lessons they can teach you if you're willing to learn them. I wouldn't trade the time I have with him while hunting. He gets out any time he can. We had a good weekend last weekend - https://texashuntingforum.com/forum...anch-time-is-moving-too-fast#Post8740956

Now my daughter has stated and held firm she wants no part of shooting a mammal. She is open to wing shooting and has even water swatted a couple. The nice thing about her is she does like to go sit in the blind and hang out. We typically don't shoot anything because we're talking, but I really don't care. The time spent out there with little to get in the way is priceless IMO.

My oldest goes. She just turned 9. She mostly goes because she is a people pleaser and knows that I want her to go…. Which is sweet but I know that her interest level is not real high. My wife and I used to hunt together more before we had kids as the girls get older we will go out as a family more and hope them seeing mom shoot ducks will make them like it more.

Competitive sports never had an impact on my interest in hunting whether it was in junior high, highschool or college. In highschool, we would drive out to the ranch after Saturday practice and get the two hunts in. Between college and my first couple years out I lived in Virginia but found time to travel back or found ways to hunt up there. I love to hunt so I made it a priority. People all have different interests and different drives to do what they love. Doesn’t make it right or wrong.

I’ve always thought if you want your kid to love hunting you need to have them have constant and repeated success. The “work” aspect or repeated failures is what turns a kid off so I think that should be taught/experienced after that passion has been built and can sustain it.

I am much like the OP, my dad took me duck hunting once when I was in 4th grade and I knew I was hooked. Bugged and bugged him to take me, always told me no. It wasn't until I was 17 and dating a girl in high school when her dad was late to a dinner one evening. Being a house full of girls, he was getting the cold shoulder pretty bad. Asked why he was late and he said he was on a duck hunt of his life and that he didn't want to leave. I finally got to go again and boy did it the sport bite me again. Even though I had 30 scholarships for sports out of high school, I turned them all down, quit all sports and bought a lab on my 18th birthday. Training that first pup was one of the best life experiences I had. 17 years later and I don't dare count the dollars invested in the sport.

I don't have any kids of my own but my hunting partner of 10 years has 2 little girls. His youngest has the bug bad, and we get her out any time she wants to go. I truly love watching her hunt and shoot. Not any good at it yet, but she will be and I have more fun sometimes not picking up the shotgun, letting her pull the trigger and hoping my lab gets to go retrieve one for her. In so many ways, I wish my pops would of taken me more at that age.

My son has hunted with me since he was 5. He loves it. Started him fishing a year ago. Not sure why I didn’t start him fishing sooner, but he has gotten into it as well. Love taking that kid everywhere to go hunt. Now the hunt is all about him. I will shoot every now and then, but I get more joy watching him take an animal. He has become a pretty good little dove hunter these days as well.

Have 2 boys. One wants to go every day and the other wants nothing to do with it.

My boys do. Well, one of them at least. Spent Thanksgiving break letting him shoot a few.

The boys are 22 / 19 / 11 - they've been to MT, ND, SD, KS, NM, OK, CO, AR, AZ and TX hunting over the years. My wife used to hunt A LOT too. Our daughter (13) doesn't hunt, but loves to fish. She's going to field trial a dog in the spring, but won't shoot birds yet.

We are also a family who chases sports. Oldest two play (ed) college baseball. Youngest two are in multiple sports. Hard to fit it all in at times.

I used to love youth season, this is an old video of my son 12 years ago. He just turned 11 and started shouting a 12 ga, he could smack them good.. That was a layout blind season.

Great Video Guy. Love that!

All my kids and grand kids hunt, that makes me happy

I was fortunate that my dad took me hunting and fishing all of the time. It was instilled into me to pass it on.

My boys both go almost every time, 16yo and 7yo. They are both eat up with bird hunting, but the youngest isn't shooting just yet. The oldest has branched out on his own a little and scouted out and received permission for a couple spots this year that have produced some good hunts for us.

They are the main reason I go as hard as we do chasing them. If not for them, I would probably become more of a country club hunter like my dad has now. He has a nice cush camp in Louisiana and hunts pit blinds that you can drive right up to. They don't kill quite as many birds as we do, but it's easy hunting and always a good time at camp.

My oldest will bird hunt. He’s like me and not much on deer hunting in a blind. The youngest will hunt anything. He told me the other morning after I’d stayed in the blind until my obligatory 9 o’clock how nice it will be when he can sit in the blind all day when he’s older.

He killed his first dove limit over this tank wearing his Fisher county camouflage:

Great vid Guy.

Told my youngest he needs to buy his own license and stamp. I'd swing for everything else. I know he's pretty much broke trying to make it on his own but I need to see how bad he wants it. It's a huge chunk of his pay. Kind of like buying new waders for me, but I'll keep reminding. He brought it up and I said I'd take him if he did his part.

I think if he decides to he'll get more out of his hunts.

OP; good post, I think “hunting” for kids and everyone else will continue to decline. Costs, IPhones, Laziness, Sports,
Dads who don’t hunt(your case), Dads who do hunt(but got old and lost their “fire”), I have personally seen so many rules by Texas Regulations turn off want to be hunters-like antler rule(do you really think a kid getting to go on his first deer hunts wants to pass on shooting a buck, Hunter Education, etc. I think, it’s following the quail trend.

I grew up hunting and fishing and fell in love with everything outdoors. I took my girls dove hunting when they were really young, about 5-6 years old. They liked it ok but more so because I took them to the gas station before and let pick out whatever snack and drink they wanted.

I think dove hunting is a good introduction. It’s warm and you don’t have to be too quiet or still.

Now they are 11 and 13 and the younger one likes to go but the older one could take it or leave it. Neither really have any interest in shooting a deer. My younger I could see maybe wanting to shoot birds.

If I had a boy I would be much more inclined to push him more into it I think.

Yes, the whole family hunts, but the boy is the only one who seems to like it as much as I do. That's to be expected. The avid deer hunting women I know are all trophy buck only and none are as serious as their male counterparts.

Since you said daughter and clays, I will comment on mine. She is not at all interested in recoil more than 223. She is a crack shot. She's actually a surer shot than her younger brother and he tends to win at 5m BB matches. Point being, be careful with introducing the shotgun shooting lest you ruin a shooter.

Strongly recommend 5m BB for something you and your daughter can take up together. In fact, if you've never tried to kit a clay with a BB gun let me tell you it is possible and a great training aid even when you're already a good shotgunner. Start with them not thrown and when thrown be very close to the flight path. Take the sights off, of course.

The reason my girl wanted to kill was because some of her favorite meals require it. The freezer gets a little thin about the time youth deer opens and beef meatloaf is disgusting compared to venison. You want meatloaf? Bust that doe. First was several years ago at 8yo. This is a kid who eats meals where almost all ingredients come from a garden she helps tend and game she shot or fish she caught. My wife is in the kitchen grinding deer right now. And there's one my daughter killed aging in a cooler outside.

The reason they like hunting is we make it fun, not serious/hardcore. We put them in situations where success comes quickly. Hunting is hard for a 9yo girl. They're not strong, they have short legs and get cold easily. You have to take them on their terms and enjoy it as they do. If your hunt turns into playing in the creek, don't pass that up. Go pull vines and beat on trees to get a squirrel to run out. Possum hunt! That's what keeps the tradition alive.

None of my 4 were really into it, but I made them go opening of the KS youth bird season, every year. I like to run dogs and those dumb youth season birds were a good workout.

The only bird my 3rd oldest ever shot was a hen pheasant. I was like...hen! hen! ...Bang! I made him carry it out.

I have 4 kids, 3 girls (2 biological, and 1 step) and 1 boy. They are 29,28,26, and 15 (guess which is the stepkid?lol). All of my Biological kids occasionally hunted, the problem was their mother discouraged it especially with the boy. Once he turned 18, and she couldn't stop he started to hunt semi regular, the 2 girls haven't hunted in years, altho my oldest is a competitive 3 gun shooter.
Step daughter however (who I am only designating stepdaughter for this post, as I have had her since she was 3 and ask her she will tell you she is my kid) loves to go hunting, she just doesn't want to hunt. She will spend all day in the blond, fill feeders, skin and butcher anything, just has no desire to shoot. She is a pretty good shot with a bow, but only target shoots. So yeah hows that for an f'ed up family hunting dynamic?