A remarkably high proportion of kids express an interest in hunting. In 2003, Mark Duda and his associates at Responsive Management reviewed the research that has been done on young people and hunting in the United States. One of Duda's own surveys collected opinions from people 13 to 20 years old and found that 49 percent of the teens that responded expressed at least a minimal interest in hunting. A 1993 survey of Ohio residents from 12 to 17 years old found that 49 percent of the people who responded had either hunted or thought they might like to try it. Forty-seven percent of Wisconsin kids from 16 to 17 years old said they would be interested in hunting. The trouble is that fewer and fewer young people get a chance to try.

Time Constraints
There are powerful influences at work in American society, and it comes as no surprise that they have a particularly intense effect on young people. Some observers have attributed the decline in hunting among modern teens to the increase in the number of single-parent households. Most one-parent homes are run by single mothers--not only do they have little time to take their kids hunting or fishing, but according to this line of thinking, they often don't hunt or fish themselves.

A lack of time really is a critical barrier for would-be hunters. A study done for the National Shooting Sports Foundation found that 43 percent of the hunters who responded had trouble finding time to hunt. Access problems are often a variation on this theme.

Adolescents who want to hunt are caught in a double time bind. Like their parents, modern teens face huge demands on their time. The combination of the family's commitments at work, home and school makes it extremely difficult to take a day or several days for hunting. If every home had a marsh or a pheasant covert out back, the time crunch would disappear.

No Place To Hunt
A century ago, most families had that option. Game coverts, home, school and the workplace were sometimes no more than a few hundred yards apart. Hunting was a relaxed activity. If a father had other obligations, a son or daughter could pick up the .22 or 20-gauge and go out alone.

But times have changed. According to the most recent census, only 29 percent of us live in rural areas; the rest are in metro areas or their suburbs. The recent flight to the "exurbs" may give some kids more room to roam, but in this era of liability claims and gun paranoia, a landscape of 10-acre ranchettes probably won't give young hunters the space they need to pursue the sport close to home.

This is a part of the classic introduction to hunting that's often overlooked. After the father figure introduces the young hunter to firearms and the field, he has to go back to work. This was just as true on the farm in 1900 as it is in the suburbs of 2005. The difference is that the farm kid has a chance to hunt on his own. It should come as no surprise that a majority of young hunters live in the country, even though the overwhelming majority of Americans live in town.