I took the boys out for their first youth mule deer hunt this past week and we had a pretty good time. I told the kids they were in charge of how long we stayed and that when they were done we could go home (I didn't want to burn them out or turn them off to hunting). They stuck it out for almost 4 of the 5 day hunt and did a good job in staying quiet and not complaining too much. My 14yo has not been in the woods as much as the 16yo so he had the most problems with staying still when he needed to but he is coming along. I was impressed with my 16yo's progress in stalking skills and in reading game signs, but he needs to work on some other skills like being able to feel confident sitting by himself for more than a short time, he gets nervous about bears ever since onepressed its nose into the side of the tent and touched his nose while he was asleep.

Anyway, we ended up not seeing any deer but we did see elk every day, including a nice 5x5 and a good 6x6. I also wish I had bought a bear tag because on the 2nd day we came upon a nice 250 to 300 pound black bear. It was maybe 75 yards away and presented multiple broadside shot opportunities for nearly a minute before walking off into the brush. It knew someone was there but it was upwind of us and didn't spook. There aren't that many bear in the unit so that was a special treat.

My oldest son and I have elk tags in that unit for early Dec. and if the elk don't move out of the area between now and then things should go well for that hunt based on the number of elk we saw this past week. I just wish we had seen some deer so the boys could have gotten a taste of seeing the game they were after, or even better, the game they shot. They both learned some things and I feel they are slowly improving their skills,knowledge and appreciation of the outdoorswhich is the most important thing. Success will come with time as will confidence and stamina. Overall they did good and I'm proud of them.