Pretty insightful crowd here, not that I'm surprised. This is something that I've been noodling-over for some time as I've watched him grow up. His world and mine (at his age) were very different. I was chomping at the bit to go hunting when I was 12 (not 13!) and I lived for every moment of it. We didn't have many distractions then in rural Pennsylvania. I believe we had three TV channels to choose from (in black & white, of course), a party line phone, and a daily trip to the Post Office (our only real interaction with any form of the Federal Government). Almost all recreation took place outside unless it wasn't safe (ie. either too-cold or too-wet, or both). Contrast that with today's potpourri of distractions for younger folks and I understand why he hasn't truly felt the need until fairly recently. He still doesn't have a cellphone (Catholic School has helped with this somewhat) but I suppose that is coming shortly as he will be 14 this Christmas.
The idea of a single shot is very appealing for all the reasons already discussed, but the really good ones aren't inexpensive. What I want for him is what I discovered when I picked up my first real bird-gun. I was probably 18 when my father came home with a featherweight LC Smith 16 (that a friend had recently inherited, and since he didn't hunt....) and it was like the light coming on for the first time. That gun has cost me plenty of time and money over the years (hmmm...) but it has also has given me many gifts. I'd like his first hunting experience to have at-least a component of that "a-hah" moment. I had to carry a lot of real dogs before that time, and if I hadn't gotten to handle a real birdgun, even that late, I might have never gone down the path that I ultimately did.
Last edited by Lloyd3; 09/12/17 05:34 PM.
