Sports - The big question

That is, why is New York State the only state in the union that does not allow 14-year-old boys and girls to hunt big game?

Timmy Baker. For the past four or five years, Jack Baker has brought his grandson, Tim, to our camp every hunting season. Here’s a relationship I greatly admire and hold Jack in very high regard because of the way he has taken Tim in hand.

Tim’s dad, Jeff, owns and operates Winslow’s Restaurant on Route 9 in Saratoga and as a result of the operating hours, can’t spend the time with his son that I know he really wants to. So, up steps Grandpa Jack.

Derrick Bull. Like Tim, “D”, who is a year or two younger than Tim, has been in camp every hunting season since he was old enough to keep up the pace with this dad, Curt.

I can still see in my mind’s eye this little guy all curled up in a bunk with his dad trying to keep warm in the middle of the winter.

He’s now taller than I am. I can also see him bushwhacking across the Adirondacks and crawling under downed trees his dad would easily step over.

In addition to grandpa and dad taking these two young men to camp, the other members of our club - all of the other members of our club - have accepted and adopted them as belonging there with us.

They eat, sleep, hunt and “pound the woods” on drives right next to us just like any other member. I have watched both of them mature and grow physically and emotionally over the past few years.

I have totally enjoyed and gotten a kick out of getting to know them, being a part of their growth, hunting with them and to spending time sharing my experiences with them.

I consider each as an equal to any other of the guys who participate in our hunts. Except for one thing… neither has been able to carry a rifle and hunt with us.

Why is that? Why can young people their age hunt in every other state in this vast country of ours except New York?

Some would say it’s because the New York City politicians dominate the state’s government and we are subjected to their views of guns. Maybe that’s part of the problem. But, does liberal Los Angeles or San Francisco block the issues in California?

No! Does big city, Chicago, block the issue in Illinois? No! Does ultra liberal Boston, of all places, block the issue in Massachusetts? No! So then what is it or who is it?

Statistics will support in all of those states that permit 12 and 14 year olds to carry a rifle or shotgun that these young hunters are the safest hunters.

So let’s take the age issue out of the mix and I fully believe that this is true, at least in part, because of the hunter safety courses now required in 49 of our 50 states.

The training is fresh in the minds of these young people and when “the old guys” like me pound safety, safety, safety into their heads for 10 hours, it sticks with them.

In addition, they haven’t yet reached that know-it-all age when bodily fluids and beer lubricate the brain.

So, therefore, isn’t it logical, doesn’t it make sense, that the younger we get these kids into the hands of the “old guys” the better off they and we would all be?

We teach them sex education in grade school, but we can’t teach them about the outdoors until they’re 16 years old!

Shouldn’t we facilitate and promote our young people getting out in the woods with their parents and grandparents and the extended family that a hunt club always becomes instead of delaying this activity for no supportable reason?

Wouldn’t we be better off to teach them when they are drinking chocolate milk instead of dark beer?

I have been very careful to refer to these young people without naming a gender. Why? Because at least 25 to 40 percent of our yearly Hunter Safety training course’s attendees are young women, often accompanied by their mothers. Hunting is not an all boys’ club anymore.

I asked the question WHY a bit earlier and indicated that I didn’t know…and I don’t. However, there are two words I use in this article that should give you a hint.

I asked “isn’t it logical” and then I asked “doesn’t it make sense”. That should have tipped you off. Sense and logic!

When have you ever seen either of these applied by government, upstate or down.

Let’s present the question of age and hunting to those of us who participate in the activity and see how the results turn out.

I recently read that one of the outdoor groups was trying to promote the issue on the basis of money. Can you believe this? Now they are trying to appeal to the financial needs of the conservationists as justification to lower the hunting age to 14.

More licenses, more money. How about we promote it on the basis of being a good family activity?

How about we promote it as a way for fathers and sons, as well as mothers and daughters, to spend time together surrounded by nature, fresh air, sparkling waters, brilliant snow falls, rainbows of fall colors and quiet like you have never heard before?

Who could logically not approve of that? See you outdoors!