It is super difficult and it's not just the cost. It is access to everything - access to land to hunt of course, access to places to shoot, access to licenses (either because of lottery or things like hunter-safety training, etc.).

I don't think single moms are really that big of a deal. Kids with single moms still have dads. I would say there is just a whole lot more competition for a kid's time and then there is pressure or at least a bias towards playing things like team sports and other organized things where there are mechanisms to get it started.

FWIW, in rural Iowa (and esp. semirural Iowa) schools the hottest sport in the last 5-10 years seems to be.... Trap shooting. No injury risk like football, no requirements for ridiculous training schedules like the big team sports, no equipment to speak of - a shotgun is easy and can even be shared or team-owned, and lots of kids that have been disenfranchised by the Friday Night Lights syndrome, so they shoot. Both boys and girls. Seems to be a lot of it going on, so much so that all my local trap ranges are running almost every night with one school or another borrowing the range for practice.

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BrentD, (Professor - just for Stan)

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