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Wisconsin is about to eliminate minimum age for hunting!!

A quality mentor eliminates anything that distracts from focusing on the mentee, including carrying a gun. Imo
 
A kid should learn more from their mentor out in the field than any hunters Ed will ever teach them.

The apprentice program had started a year or so before my son was old enough to take hunter's safety. I chose for him to wait and sit through 3 long days of hunter's ed. Why? Well for one, he is very much an academic kid so a classroom type format was beneficial for him. Also the information outside of just pulling the trigger (which I'm afraid is probably about as much as some mentors would even cover with a young hunter) including habitat, conservation, etc is as important as knowing how to pull the trigger.

I do agree with Tony regarding the utilization of a public resource, which I don't think can be discounted. ToT, you are also absolutely right that a kid with some knucklehead mentor is going to make knuckleheaded decisions, hunter's safety or not. Perhaps young hunter's participating in a mentor type program rather than hunter's safety should be required to show what they know after their mentorship is over? If they fail, the mentor loses their hunting privileges.

I'm only half joking..;)
 
A quality mentor eliminates anything that distracts from focusing on the mentee, including carrying a gun. Imo
IMO, a quality mentor can do both and if they can't probably they don't may not deserve the quality adjective...
 

Actually, the difference made by our current political regime and the political appointees at the head of the WDNR have made quite a negative difference. To say otherwise is ignorance in my opinion, so I would say that you are way off base with the question "what difference has it made?". As far as public land, we have plenty of it in the north, a lot of which is pretty underutilized in the north because of the fear of the big bad wolf and the fact that everyone wants to hunt in the southern portion of the state where it is a lot easier. This is all perfectly fine by me.

As far as the bill is concerned, I am fine with it. Not sure why the mentor should be allowed to carry a gun, but honestly I don't feel that strongly about it. We have a lot bigger fish to fry than this
 
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I took my son deer hunting last year and it was a great experience for us. He was 6 and I had a doe tag that we filled in short order. I think it's a slippery slope as my goal is to get him interested in hunting so that we can share my passion in the years to come. We had a long talk about safety and why we do the things we do to keep us safe. My estimation is that he was old enough and mature enough to enjoy the adventure. It was the perfect scenario, weather was warm and we filled the tag before he could get bored. My hope is he'll remember it for years to come and be inspired to follow me into the woods in the future. I thought it was a great experience and would do it again in the right situation... such as a MN or WI deer hunt.
 
Honestly I think this ^^^ is a prime example of why laws unfortunately need to be created for the lowest common denominator of people, there are always a-holes that screw up every well intentioned system. I'd like to think I and most of my for that matter are mature enough to drink a beer while operating a motor vehicle, i.e. I think that a large majority of people are mature enough to have one beer while driving out of the mountains after a long hike, hunt, etc. BUT there a ton of idiots out there and clearly this would be the worst idea ever.

Seems like we are already seeing why not having a minimum age is just one more thing our society isn't mature enough to handle.
 
Did anyone actually read the article? They specifically stated that none of the hunters involved were part of the mentor program.

Like I said the hunting culture in WI is different. I spent a weekend there and I had a blast just hanging but there are a lot of things I am not a fan of and they are my own family members doing them.
 
The problem as I see it is that there is a lack of quality mentors. Having taught firearm safety for a lot of years, I see the parents. Some are good, many are not. Of the many that are not, some are really, really bad. But they don't think they are! Oh no, they think they are expert hunters. Thus laws for the lowest common denominator. I have failed some of these kids and the resulting conversations with their know-it-all parents are .....interesting. again, it is hard enough to get a 12 year old to understand many of the concepts in any quality firearm safety course, let alone have a 10 year old understand it without being taught.

10 infants. that cracks me up.

I will say this, those with a strong opinion either way.....have you volunteered your time? If not, please do. Get involved.
 

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