Originally Posted by Father Forkhorn

Harshly criticizing young hunters in forum posts is a good way to do it. We all need to be aware that the person we're criticizing in a post may be a young hunter who makes the biggest mistakes because they are still learning. We don't want to discourage a young person from hunting, because it weakens us as a whole.

I can point out two posting mistakes we've made in particular:

1. Hammering a beginner who took a small buttons buck as a first deer.

True, it might have kept a deer from developing into a trophy rack, but a first deer is absolutely a trophy. Congratulate the kid for doing what's necessary to be a successful hunter and then raise the bar for the next season--e.g. it has to have a visible rack--or challenge him to distinguish a buttons buck from a doe.

2. Hammering a young hunter who botched a search for a wounded deer. Don't criticize, but instead gently correct and teach so they learn to do it right the next time.

I can remember that they never told us how to do this in hunter safety--only that you should wait for a deer to lie down and then search. It never said anything about grid searches or how long to search. They may need our help and encouragement to realize how to do it.