(Dad’s should read this too)
The future of hunting is hanging in the balance as we stampede into the 21st Century. More and more people are trying to tell us that hunting is wrong, and killing animals is morally reprehensible.
In order to countermand these unscientific and emotional agendas that many people have, we need to make sure that our children continue on the hunting path. Many fathers take their sons hunting; in some states and many cultures; this is a rite of passage into manhood. A young boy never seems prouder than when he is posing with the first deer or turkey or even a squirrel that he has stalked and taken.
But what of our daughters? Do we teach them to hunt as well, or do we teach them to wait at home and when their fathers and, later, their husbands bring home the venison, cook it or do we teach them to bring home their own trophies?
I was lucky. I was the older of two girls born into a ranching family, and I was a tomboy from the word GO! I still am. My father and my bachelor uncle treated me like the son neither of them had. I grew up riding horses, shooting guns and branding cattle.
I started shooting tin cans and graduated to prairie dogs, varmints, (Kind of like rats with short, furry tails). Then on to bigger things, such as mule deer and pronghorn antelope. It was a real coup for me that I could outshoot most of my boy cousins and all of the young kids that came from back east with their parents when their dads came out to hunt.
Just like sons, I think daughters should have a chance and an opportunity to learn the skills of hunting from a young age. I don’t advocate forcing anyone, boy or girl, to hunt, but many times girls show an interest in hunting, only to be told it is a man’s sport. Wrong, wrong, wrong! If a guy goes to an all-male hunting camp, and doesn’t want to expose his daughter to that environment, he should make time to take her separately. What better family time than taking Dad, Mom, son and daughter to the hunting camp? Maybe it will be a family bonding experience.
My ex-husband, who does have a lot of good qualities, took me hunting with him a lot. Two of the best memories I have of our marriage was when the four of us, Richard, (my husband), Paul, (son) and Sabrina (daughter) went to the Wyoming Red Desert pronghorn hunting and to England hunting. In England, Richard and Paul hunted, while Sabrina and I just did the sightseeing bit, (I had hunted in England before, and Sabrina wasn’t really interested, or maybe she was too young. Whatever.)
Sabrina, while not as avid a hunter as her older brother, has taken pronghorn and prairie dogs and she loves to shoot turtles in our ranch pond. She is my #1 guide during the fall, when we operate an outfitting business. She does very well at getting game for her hunters. In fact, one year her hunters brought in bigger bucks than mine did. Maybe I taught her too well!
So, if you are a woman hunter, by all means take your daughter hunting. Start them young, kids like to imitate parents, and they like to come along. If she is into photography, have her follow along in the field taking photos. If she likes to write, encourage her write a poem or a short story about the experience. Start her young on gun safety and gun handling, even if she doesn’t hunt, it is a valuable skill, and helps to give women confidence and to eliminate some of the fear that guns often inspire. Even if she never hunts, a gun-toting gal is less likely to be assaulted and raped.
Some caveats:
If you want to get your daughter interested, here are a few things that you should try to avoid:
When they first start shooting, make sure to instill gun safety, but don’t be too critical of her shooting skills. Make sure she practices in a safe environment, and help her to sight and to aim correctly, but don’t make too much of her first misses. Make sure to be proud of her accomplishments. If you live in a rural area, many 4-H clubs have gun programs; this might be a fun way to start. Archery, too, is a skill that many girls excel in. Archery makes a good family activity, and can be done in a smaller area than guns. Sporting clays are also enjoyable, and can lead to hunting ducks and geese.
When she masters gun skills, start her on small game, varmint style. In Wyoming, prairie dogs are a good skill builder, even for adult shooters. They are great for kids. Check with your local game laws to find which animals are considered varmints. Rabbit hunting is also good, unless she has a pet rabbit, then this is better left to someone else!
One thing that I think is more important for girls than for young boys is to emphasize a quick, humane kill. Nothing would turn a young girl off as fast as seeing an animal suffer. Face it; we have more empathy for the game than men usually do. We don’t like to see things suffer.
Don’t lecture, but make sure when you’re in the woods to point out that hunters are a part of nature, and a part of keeping the herds in control so the animals won’t eat themselves out of house and home. Emphasize the beauty of nature, and how we, as humans, should respect our prey. Let them see, also, that hunting is not just killing. It is a combination of stalking skills, woodsmanship, studying the animals’ habits and habitats, and that the kill is only a small part of the overall hunting experience. If she misses the deer, don’t tease her or criticize her about it. It’s all a part of the hunt. After all, haven’t YOU missed a shot or two?
I was once asked by a friend to take him and his wife hunting. Fine, good, except that he was always correcting her and making her nervous. I finally left him to get his antelope, took the wife out without him and we got an antelope. So, take it easy, you are letting her learn to have fun. It is not a life-or-death matter if she gets a deer this year or next year. Lighten up.
The one problem that girls face more than boys is peer pressure to conform, and hunting is not politically correct any more. She will face ridicule and teasing from her girl friends, so be sure to give her the tools to overcome this. Find some like-minded people with daughters and take all the girls hunting. If not hunting, at least camping. Two or three against the crowd is not as lonely. Find a gun club or an archery club and enter her in competitions. With a few trophies, both gold colored and shoulder mounts, under her belt, teasing won’t matter as much. Make sure that she had opportunities to go places her girlfriends don’t. If you book a hunting trip in Wyoming, take her along as a non-hunter. Can you imagine anyone teasing a girl whose parents took her, not to Disney world, but on an African Safari?
If we all teach our daughters to hunt, or at least appreciate the fact that hunters are a part of nature’s plan for controlling the populations, they will, in turn, be encouraging when their husbands go hunting. Then they will encourage sons and daughters to take up the sport. Every woman who embraces hunting, either doing it actively or supporting her husband in his sport, is another vote for keeping hunting alive and well in our country.
If all families hunted, and learned to enjoy nature and outdoors as a family, I believe that the families would find better health, create stronger family bonds, and have a heritage to pass on to future generations. Like the YMCA slogan says, we ‘build strong kids, strong families, and strong communities.” Strong kids and families create strong communities, which in turn helps our nation and our world. Hunting, and an appreciation of the natural world, can be a start.
Take your daughter hunting, and open a new world for her. Who knows, she may become a game biologist or an educator that gives other youngsters a true picture of hunting, and she may lead others into her sport. At least when she knows and appreciates what hunters do for the environment and animal habitat, she will be less likely to vote against gun ownership and hunting when she gets older, giving hunters one more vote in this crazy world.
