Hey, kids, let's go traipse around in this field all day toting shotguns. And all that money you raised at your summer job, go buy a box of shotgun shells. Now, I'm gonna tell you right up front, that you're not gonna see any birds, cause there ain't no birds around here. But you're gonna work your ass off for nothing, cause that's a reward in and of itself.
Or,
Hey, the state released a couple thousand pheasants down at the wildlife area. What say we go see if we can flush a bird or two?
Which is more likely to get a kid to want to go hunting? Do you think the kid cares that the birds are inferior?
So if you've got no pheasants around, don't take them pheasant hunting duh. Take them to the hardwood ridge for squirrels. There's certainly no shortage of those, the woods are crawling with them. Or take them to that overgrown brush lot for cottontails. And what about waterfowl ? Plenty of ducks and geese around. For god sakes you act like there's nothing to hunt if you don't have any pheasants. A kid that has the drive to hunt isn't going to need much coaxing and will gladly hunt whatever's around to hunt. My little nephew started out on squirrels and is already a deer hunting fanatic with 3 bucks to his credit in his first two seasons. The kid lives and breathes to hunt and hasn't pulled the trigger on a pheasant yet.
