The future of hunting faces a pretty stout wall of obstacles. You all mentioned a bunch of them last week on Sitka Gear’s Facebook page: everything from diminishing land access and tag scarcity to higher costs, the politics of management, and a few misguided folks ruining the image of our sport.

But more than any of that, commenters talked about the dearth of kids taking up hunting. It’s a big, sticky issue, one with all sorts of complex societal and familial causes -- like single parents and busy working parents and kids getting hooked on tech gadgets. The swelling trends seem impossible to overcome, so I decided to call in an expert who doesn't mess around when it comes to the future of hunting. 

That expert is Sitka Ambassador and Colorado Mountain Adventures outfitter, Dan Harrison. As a mentor, he has given more than 300 kids their first experiences in the field, and many of them now hunt avidly on their own.

Dan and one of his mentees on a Colorado pronghorn hunt.

But then a flood of excuses roared through my head:

Seriously? I don’t have kids yet. And being all of 24 years old, that’s just fine. Maybe I should just wait a decade or so until my own younguns come along. I mean, It’s not like you can rent a kid. Or can you...? Nope, that was a Leslie Nielsen movie.

OK, say I could find a kid to introduce to hunting... I’m not exactly the most dangerous weapon in the woods. No one's ever seen my grinning face, tucked punily between trophy-class antlers on the pages of a magazine. The poor youngster... it’s not like I have the skills to take him from zero to Jeff Simpson in 8.2 hours.

Hold the phone... Am I nutters? Do I really want some whippersnapper slowing me down or walking too loud or somehow diminishing my coveted time in the woods?

I didn’t tell Dan any of that. I didn’t want him to think I was crazy, or worse, selfish. But as we talked, I got the sense that none of my excuses mattered. He said he actually gets more out of hunting when he takes a kid along, and he offered five tips to make me think, despite my lack of trophy-taking prowess, I might have a positive impact. Here they are:

1.) DON’T WAIT AROUND, FIND A KID! If you have children, don’t limit your influence to family only. Offer to bring their friends along. When your kids get older, and you're too...wise...to keep up with them, they’ll really appreciate having hunting buddies. If you don’t have kids, try running an ad in the classifieds of your local newspaper offering to bring adolescents and their parents out in the woods to safely learn about wildlife and hunting. Offer to help church groups, or call up your state’s Division of Wildlife to let them know you’re available.

2.) GET YOUR KID OUT IN THE WOODS. Take them with you when you’re scouting. Show them what you know, and don’t worry about what you don’t know. Take them shed hunting. Show them how to find animal sign and teach them how to follow tracks. Teach them how to glass. The pre-hunt is more important than hunting because it builds the anticipation. As you teach, you’ll have to think through your actions, which will reinforce your best practices and make you a better hunter.

3.) GO SHOOTING. When they're ready, and with their parents’ permission, teach them firearm and bow safety. Help them learn how to shoot. If you’re not the hottest shot on the range, teaching someone else will cause you to practice and read more about it, and you’ll likely improve.

4.) TAKE THEM HUNTING. Maybe they’ll get something, maybe they won’t, but don’t stress out about it too much. If you enjoy a day of hunting without a harvest, chances are they will too.

5.) KEEP IN TOUCH. If you’re not their parent, you sort of fall into the realm of a big brother or sister. When these kids are down and out, they may come to you, and you might have a very positive impact on their lives just by being there and showing that you care.

Of course, Dan’s list can’t be comprehensive. If teaching a kid to hunt could be done in 5 easy steps, we’d all be experts.

But I'm no expert. So before I go try to find a kid to mentor, I need your help. Have you ever taught an adolescent to hunt? What do you recommend I do?