For many centuries bow hunting has been a great form of bonding between father and son. But, in order to keep your youth safe you should properly train them in the art of bow hunting. There are many different options for youth archery training:

*After school archery programs
*An adult skilled at archery
*Archery clubs
*Professional archery trainers
*Scout programs

There is not a specific age at which to begin training your youth to bow hunt. You, the parent, will know when your child is ready to accept the responsibility and discipline. If your child shows interest in learning to bow hunt, then you can begin to seek options for their training or oversee their training yourself. But always remember that youth should be supervised at all times.

When choosing a bow for your youth you will need to determine their 'draw weight' and 'draw length'. In general, a child of 70-100 pounds will be comfortable with a 'draw weight' of 15 - 25 pounds, children 100 - 130 pounds may be comfortable with 25 - 35 pounds, and an athletic older child may be capable of pulling 35- 45 pounds. Very small children, 55 - 70 pounds, might be comfortable with 10 - 15 pounds of pull. These are not exact weights for your youth, they are just estimates. You will need to try several different bows in order to find the 'draw weight' that best fits your individual youth.

When calculating the 'draw length' of your youth, you should follow this simple process. Take a yard stick and place it directly in the center of the chest bone. The youth should then reach out on it equally with the fingertips of BOTH hands. The inches mark where the fingertips touch will be their ultimate potential 'draw length'. It is important to remember that both the 'draw weight' and the 'draw length' will change as your child grows; and you will need to change bows accordingly.

You will also need to take into consideration your youth's eye dominance. This will tell you whether your youth is a right-handed shooter, or a left-handed shooter. To determine eye dominance, have your youth hold their hands out at arms length with both eyes open, and look through the hole formed in the hands at a distant object. Keeping the object in sight, have your youth slowly move their hands towards their face until the hands touch their face. The hole formed by their hands should be over one of their eyes, this is their dominant eye and will control their aiming. If it is the right eye, they are right-handed shooter, and vice versa for the left.

Now, the question you may be asking yourself is what do I need in order to begin training my youth for bow hunting? The basic necessities you will need are a bow, arrows, and a target. Other products you may want to invest in, as safety precautions, are a quiver to hold the arrows, an armguard to protect against string slap to the arm, and hand or finger protection to cushion against the bow string. Another safety precaution, if your youth is on the younger side, is to try suction cup arrows instead of the standard metal tip. This gives your youth the chance to really become comfortable with aiming, and shooting, their bow, before moving on to a sharper arrow.

Bow hunting for youth can be a great experience, and a lot of fun for all involved. Just remember to always make sure your youth has been properly trained, and their bow is fitted to them, before taking them on their first hunt. If you follow the guidelines above, you and your youth should have many great experiences with bow hunting together.