BarnesX.308

You don't. That's why you do short hunts. An hour or two in the morning and the same amount of time in the PM. We hunted every weekend last year and got nothing. That's the way it goes.

The evening hunts are easier because we hunt the edge of a turnip field and we see deer. We've only had one in bow range in two years and that's the one he got. I don't care that it kept me from getting a deer. It's just cool that my son loves hunting as much as I do.

We started him with a BB gun at around 4 years old. A 22LR the next year. At 6yo, he was shooting a single shot 410. I started loading reduced loads for our Youth model .308 Winchester and worked his way up.

Next year he'll be 10 and we're going bear hunting in Maine. I won't be hunting. This is his hunt. I'm just going along to share the experience with him. Oh yeah, I have to drive too because he's not old enough to drive.

Gunplummer

It is a bad Idea. I have to agree with Sproulman, something I rarely do. I am out there and see it on public land. Two years ago on the last day of deer season over a dozen hunters showed up at the mountain I hunt. Everyone of them had a kid with them. You know what they are doing. The Commission changed the law and you are now allowed to carry your muzzle loader and bow during the October loader season. What the heck were they thinking? A whole lot of bucks were shot with a muzzle loader and then an arrow was stuck in them. Before that law a guy I know caught two guys shooting shooting two bucks and he ran out to the road (over 2 miles) where his cell phone worked and called the Game Commission in Harrisburg. He told them that their truck was there and the only other trucks sitting there were his and mine. There is only one way out of that valley and nobody from the Game Commission showed up. This is not some stupid hunting rumor, I was there that day. Over the years many people reported these guys and the Wardens did nothing. I told them names like others did and I was told by the wardens "we are working on it". How do you work on it sitting in a heated SUV. Sproulman is right. The only way to stop the poaching is to make one rule for everybody.

BarnesX.308

Gunplummer - what do your stories have to do with a kid being able to use his parent's doe tag?

Either I shoot the doe myself, or my gets to. This rule does not allow the parent to gain anything at the exploitation of the kid.

And the mentored youth program doesn't allow you to carry a bow and a gun. The law says you can only have one weapon between the mentor and the youth. The adult must carry the weapon while moving.

Gunplummer

I suspect that this mentored youth hunt will have it's own day or two and will not be during regular season?

BarnesX.308

Mentored Youth hunting can take place any time. But the youth season, where a kid can shoot a doe with a rifle, is only on October 22nd. One day.

Gunplummer

Handy. Nice early day with no pressure on the doe. Reminds me of deer hanging in the Butcher shop with a kids name on the tag and he was in school with your nephew that day.

BarnesX.308

Not sure about this? This sounds like an example of a parent using the kids doe tag. The kids will not have doe tags. Only grown-ups will have a doe tag. The kid can use theirs but not the other way around.

I think some guys are thinking there are ways grown-ups can exploit the kids to take more deer for themselves. This rule does not allow that. Just the opposite.

Gunplummer

You need to get out more on Public land. The "Grown ups" will use that one day to kill a doe the easy way. Same way they use the kid's buck tag to shoot a 4 point. Some of these guys have a hard time killing a doe during the regular season.

BarnesX.308

Are you saying there will be adults hunting in October with rifles without the kids being there?

Why would they need a transferable tag to do that? It's their own doe tag they would use anyway, not the kids.

If they are going to go out, on public land, with a rifle in archery season, they're not even being sneaky anymore. They blatantly poaching in broad day light.

And the kid is in school with your nephew, so they can't tell the game warden that they're "youth hunting". They're hunting with a rifle in archery season with their own, adult doe tag.

One question, though: Why wouldn't these guys just use a scoped, in-line muzzle loader?

Sniggle

I am shocked at the haters on here. I think having a youth rifle day is a great thing. I plan to get my 9 year old out this year, set him up in my climber at about 6 feet, and hope that he gets the chance to bang one with my marlin 1894.

Will some people abuse the season...yes. But the folks that will abuse the season will not follow game laws anyway.