Frankly I resent your comments. My daughter got two youth doe tags before spending 18 days hunting for her buck when she turned 14. She chose the days we hunted, it wasn't me. Did we spend time in a blind, yes we did. We also spent plenty of days scouting, glassing, and sitting on hill tops out in the elements and finding natural deer trails which payed of with a nice 140 class 5x5 whitetail (would've been 150 short of some busted tips) on the last Saturday of the season. Lots of father daughter time that year and it was great. 4 years later as a senior in highschool we still talk about that year and deer hunt.
My son has had a slight bit more experience taking advantage of 3 youth doe tags, although those aren't much of a challenge where we hunt. He currently has his once in a life time youth buck tag and we busted our a$$'s this weekend down on the bluffs of Sioux County, seen deer every day, could of shot a buck every day with a couple being ok 4x4 muley's, but HE chose to pass to hunt for something more significant which was 100% his choice, not mine. That didn't stop us from spotting, stalking, and getting within range to get a good look at those animals or enjoying a great weekend in the outdoors.
Getting that once in a lifetime youth "Any" tag is something kids look forward to, many times after 1, 2, or 3 years of hunting does. It is a big deal to kids.
Even though I'm a supporter of youth tags, Frankly, G&F has there head up their rear end as far as the youth season goes. I have no idea why they limit it to 1 week for the doe tags (and in September when the crops are on, deer are nocturnal, and its hot out most years) and then only to 1 week and regular deer season for the one "any" tag. It's not like the youth hunters are making some gigantic dent in the deer population. Why not open it on Sept 1 and close it on Jan 1, follow bow season or something of that nature. Peoples lives are damn busy, weather doesn't always cooperate (look at this coming weekend as an example 4 days of rain), the fact that kids have a lot different programs and commitments that they are part of at this at this age be it sports, youth activities, church, school, etc. My son is in football which pretty much kills every week night, and then they roll into basketball and go figure, but a couple of the tournament dates of course fall during regular deer season. So he's likely going to bail on his team that he made a commitment to so he can hunt during a pretty limited time frame. Couple that up with Sunday and or Wednesday church or confirmation and in order to get out in the field and spend the time needed to actually hunt and have success, puts them in a place where they are forced to skip other commitments. that's not a way to get more youth involved.
bucksnbears, if you think hard nose hunting, pushing brush trying to shoot a running deer, making kids chose to hunt over other activitys & commitments, and forcing them to hunt in shitty or inclimate weather is going to get more youth involved, your in lala land and part of the reason the sport is in the decline. I look back at how we used to hunt and of the 6 kids that I hunted with back in my early years, I'm the only avid one of the group, and 2 don't hunt at all anymore. Part of that goes back to the cheap shitty gear we had and being wet, muddy, cold and freezing experiences that made those hunts more like work than fun. Make it fun, make it rewarding, and you'll have far more on your side when it comes to hunting & gun issues in the future. We didn't kill a deer last weekend but it was still a darn rewarding trip. oh by the way, maybe you should change your avatar so it's a picture of you holding up a nice big doe since its "FINE" to shoot a doe?
