First gun and bow stories

I am trying to do what I can to facilitate a love of hunting in my 5 year old daughter. I feel that so-many meaningless activities already compete with our kids.

I live is SLC and the outdoors are more and more distant the closer you live to a lot of people. Nevertheless, any chance we get we are outside.

I have yet to get her a BB gun or a bow. Still teaching her to shoot fake ones. I am thinking about buying her a Red Ryder sometime this year. I got my first one when I was 6. I then got a pellet gun at 8, .22 at 12 and .243 for my first deer hunt at 14.

What are some fun ideas of gettting them and keeping them involved. My friend started with balloons on the target with his kids and their BB guns. The balloons popping will explode and help keep them interested. This "immediate gratification" is good to keep them interested. He then graduated his daughter to shooting high powered rifles in time at milk jugs full of water to watch them explode. She got her first deer this year on his mentor tag. What has worked for you?

Just keep her appetite wet, don't drown her.

Dawg: I agree with DW do not drown her....all kids that age have limited attention spans they think like kids not adults like your thoughts....remember that.....for me we were more concerned with the overall experience not just hunting and shooting....we blend a combo of shooting short times at that age with an education of the outdoors.....take them camping, shooting, and teach them about nature and the enviornment....teach them to identify trees, bushes, things in streams, fish, and why water flows down hill, gravity.....lots in the outdoors besides just hunting and shooting a rifle or a bow.....give your child the whole picture of the outdoors....it will give them a better overall understanding over time and keep them connected to the outdoors IMO....hunting and shooting need to be fun not forced on them with false gods or balloons if you need to to that then you are pushing them to hard IMO.....
When you take them Camping or for a day trip to the mountains....take their favorite toys so when they loose your focus of what you want them to do they reconnect with their age of thought and play and have fun.....you always need to keep it fun for them.....and not push to hard or you risk pushing them away from what your trying to accomplish.....you have to remember a little childs thought process.....and keep it fun for them from that prospective not an adult prospective.....in time exposure to the outdoors, shooting, as they grow they will either want to be envolved or not...every child is different....do your best to keep it fun and not drive them away....remember a five year olds attention span might be 30min. before you need to do something else.....again keep it fun....good luck..

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I think fishing is a good precursor. When you hunt, animals die. Seeing fish die gets them accustomed to the life cyle. Get them touching the fish and have them watch you clean it. Later let them help you clean them.

I recommend a little single shot.22 rimfire ( I grew up on and have a chipmunk) and a whole field full of gophers!