The more time you spend with your ear to the ground in the sportsmen’s industry, the clearer and clearer the concern becomes. How do we get more folks into outdoor sports?
If you care about hunting, you care about seeing more families get involved. For that to be possible, we need the kids in those families to be excited about what they’re doing.
My family is like any other. My kids get bored in the tree stand just like any other kid, and a lack of deer movement really puts a damper on the passion for the sport. What’s a parent to do?
Success is Key to Growing Kids’ Passion
As a bowhunter, I know the thrill of the hunt and the connection it provides to the world we live in. I just know if my kids have some success early on, they’ll get a taste of this passion and won’t miss out on this amazing connection we all share.
The fear, of course, is what if they don’t have that success?
You can sense it in them the next time you ask them to go, a little reservation, and then you don’t see anything again!!! I’ve been there.
Another Way to Create Success
Interestingly enough, it was my daughter who showed me another option. To be honest, I was reluctant at first until I researched it. But now the impact on our family, and I don’t just mean our immediate family, has been profound. Rabbit trapping.
I don’t know why it never hit me before but it makes so much sense. When our kids are little, we don’t start them fishing with a bait caster and a wacky worm rig. We put on a bobber and a nightcrawler and put a beat down on some panfish. We want them to taste some success, fall in love with the sport, and slowly work them up to a spin caster and lures, and then the bait caster.
Hunting should be no different. If we want kids to be passionate about hunting, start them out on the bobber version first.
There are so many perks to rabbit trapping, and as a passionate bowhunter, I’ve got to say that checking the rabbit line with my daughter is neck and neck with the thrill of bowhunting. Rabbit trapping is an adventure from start to finish.
How to Create Success in Rabbit Trapping
It all begins with scouting, just like in deer hunting. Grab the kiddos and look for rabbit sign, look for trails, poop, obvious openings in brush piles or near old farm junk.
Building a rabbit habitat is also easy, and when they feel safe, boy, can those things reproduce. Just make a few brush piles and leave some taller grass in between and the rabbits will do the rest.
Once you’re convinced that you have some rabbits, and almost everywhere does, head on over to the MN Trapline, Dakota Line, or Amazon websites and pick out your snares and equipment together. Rabbit snares are cheap… get a bunch.
After your snares show up, you get to boil them with some baking soda for a bit. It gets the oils and smells off and takes the shine out of the wire. The whole process of preparing the traps is loaded with anticipation because you did your scouting and you know the little buggers are there. Once the traps are cleaned and dried you’re ready for your second hike together.
Every solid snare set you put out is like tossing out that bobber and nightcrawler. If there are multiple trails in one area, snare them all. Take your time, talk through the process.
We can Help with the Details!
If you’re reading this post and you have no idea how to set a rabbit snare but you’d like to try, fear not. Mia has a free trapping guide for you to download. Just subscribe below and we’ll send you a link to download it free!
I’m telling you, Mia has the patience of a new puppy when it comes to hunting, and she wasn’t interested in the sport at all before we gave trapping a try.
After the snares are set, head back to the house. For us, this usually involves a shoving match to see who can get who to fall into the snow, or a race, or something. There’s no need to be quiet or stealthy, we simply enjoy one another’s company.
Mia can hardly fall asleep most nights she’s so stoked to check the snares the next day. Some days we have rabbits, sometimes they outsmart us and we have to adjust our strategy. Rabbit trapping is like a chess match, much like pursuing a big buck, but on a kid’s level.
Like I said before, Mia had almost lost all interest in deer hunting after her first really slow season, but trapping rabbits kept her fire for the sport alive.
This past year she shot her first deer ever with a bow, along with a squirrel, haha! She’s hooked. This might not have been the case if we had not taken a detour and slowed things down a bit.
What Makes Rabbit Trapping Effective?
It’s a bridge between where the child is, and where they need to be to understand and enjoy other types of hunting. They learn the need for scouting, strategy, and scent control without having to master the quiet, sitting-still-for-hours-on-end part. The snares do that for them.
Snaring helps to connect the dots that, while you’re not out there, nature is still doing its thing. This translates right into deer hunting. In deer hunting, you are the trap.
Just like bobber fishing, a rabbit trapline is simple to set up, and rabbits are fairly easy to catch. The kids aren’t required to do much more than hike out there to see if anything fell prey to the line and excitedly bring it home. Success!!!
It’s a simple, cheap, first step. After a few seasons as the parent, I can tell you it is not getting old. I have just as much fun figuring out how to outsmart our rabbits as Mia does. We have some pretty hysterical debates out there on the line, now that Mia’s been doing it enough to know a thing or two.
Let me paint a picture for you of what this sport has done to my daughter.
- She now owns more trapping books than any other book, and she reads them all…at 11-years-old!
- She spent her Christmas money this year on traps!
- She wakes me up in the morning telling me it is time to check the line.
If that isn’t hooked I don’t know what is. Watch S2:E1 of Kids Outdoors and see Mia set up her snareline this year.
The Extra Benefit of Rabbit Trapping
I almost forgot to mention, rabbit is delicious! My wife has been using her Instant Pot to cook up Mia’s catches and, I’m not kidding, it might be one of my favorite foods now!
I’ll never forget Mia’s first rabbit from a few years ago, she pulled it out of the snare and with the biggest smile on her face said, “Daddy, I’m feeding the family!” I couldn’t have been more proud and feed the family she has ever since!
Kids are the future of outdoor sports, the future of our nation. If bobber fishing is the gateway into fishing, from experience, I think rabbit trapping could be its equivalent into hunting.
The resources, land, and time that rabbit trapping requires make it a perfect solution for families who want to get their kids into hunting or trapping but so far the critters haven’t been cooperating. And even if you have had great hunting success… what’s wrong with a little more?
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