Hunting with your kids, youth hunts?

[cableguy11]

Any advice? My daughter is 12 and really into archery and I am really pumped to get her out hunting next year. Any one have any tips on the youth hunts? I am still new to the hunting game and playing preference points here in CO so any help is appreciated.

Thanks!

[ray1970]

Not sure what type of advice you’re looking for.

My only advice would be to emphasize safety and ethics.

Also, when my son was about that age and wanted to hunt I took him to the range and explained to him that until he could hit a three inch target reliably at a hundred yards that I wasn’t taking him hunting.

Also, kids that age tend to want to do stuff because either they think it’s cool or they think their friends will think they’re cool. I explained to my son that while it could be a fun experience that it would definitely be work. I’m sure in his head all he pictured was shooting his rifle and killing an animal. What he didn’t factor in was setting up camp, getting up way before the sun, hiking about three miles to the other side of a valley, tracking a wounded animal, field dressing and quartering the animal, making multiple hikes back to camp with the meat, etc.

Needless to say he decided after his first trip that hunting really wasn’t his thing.

[CS1983]

Maybe do a few fake recon hunts.. Get her up early before sunrise and drive up in the mtns, head into the woods somewhere, and see if you can find a deer or elk to stalk and see how close you can get to it.. get some practice in.

This

[def90]

Maybe do a few fake recon hunts.. Get her up early before sunrise and drive up in the mtns, head into the woods somewhere, and see if you can find a deer or elk to stalk and see how close you can get to it.. get some practice in.

[hunterhawk]

Most of all make it fun! It helps when they are seeing animals and not too cold. Im taking my 4 year old whitetail hunting with me to Michigan, going to sit some ground blinds and taking an ipad with movies and headphones for the down time... trouble i might have is keeping him warm..kids camo is not cheap! Might also take a heater so since im archery hunting ill have to play the wind right.. he has his hunting whisper down. He is crazy excited to go so i hope he keeps it up.

[sniper7]

I've been taking my oldest quite a bit. He has been with me for a few turkeys, pheasant, duck, and pronghorn and we've been successful on all of them.
He just turned 6 and went on his first turkey hunt when he was 4. He stayed right behind me as we stalked and fanned.
Duck hunting was pretty early for him and he fell asleep in the blind but woke up when I shot!
Pronghorn was awesome this year, he walked several miles, crawled several hundred yards, was a champ getting cactus in his hands and knees and only at the very end did he get cold, but warmed right up when it was time to clean. He was very curious how to do it and the different organ so that was a fun learning experience, especially since we got 2 (wife and I had tags) and he was there next to us for both shots.

As far as your daughter goes, look at the DOW website on women afield and kids afield. There are ranches and farms that offer hunts for women and youth for small game, waterfowl and big game. I'll be putting my boys in when they are old enough as it is a awesome program.

The youth tags are great because fewer people apply for them so you have a better chance of getting your kid a tag. And a lot of them are in better units that typically take more points.

If she is into it, no matter what you do, put her in for preference points for everything. It's $1000 (well for adults, less for youth) to apply for all the species but then when those refund checks come back it's raining cash!

[whitewalrus]

Start putting in for preference points to hunt the better units. As others have said, make sure she knows that hunting is not the same as just shooting something. Anytime you can spend in the outdoors just trying to spot the animals is great for teaching them how animals behave.

[cableguy11]

Thanks guys. All good points and good advice. She will be getting archery lessons and she is a pretty darn good shot already. My plan was to start getting her points and see about getting on some of the youth hunts that as mentioned are much easier for kids than adults to get. I think we will have to start doing some days up in the mountains and see how it goes. I appreciate it.