Youth vrs archery seasons

[J_T]

Why should it be restricted to bows for youth? My kids dont shoot bows and they are very expensive to outfit. Its bad enough with all the other expense's.

It's not restrictive in the least. Note the GOS for youth. Sept 10 - Nov 20th. Any deer.

Regarding cost. Most rifle hunters have more than one rifle. So purchase a bow (less cost than a rifle and more fun) next time and stick it with a few arrows in the tool kit. Done.

[NaStY]

It's not restrictive in the least. Note the GOS for youth. Sept 10 - Nov 20th. Any deer.

Regarding cost. Most rifle hunters have more than one rifle. So purchase a bow (less cost than a rifle and more fun) next time and stick it with a few arrows in the tool kit. Done.

I own a bow and am not about to go out and pay $500 for a youth bow, only to turn around and have to "upgrade" it every year. IE: different limbs, longer arrows, longer strings and on and on.

Most of my guns can be shot by anyone in my family and they dont need to be upgraded or changed.

Although i didnt see the "any deer gos" line. That in it self would have complications.

[6616]

Don't miss this important point guys. The key thing that provides the opportunity with the Region 7A youth hunts is not the youth bow hunt, but is the youth rifle hunt that runs for 10 weeks and is open for any deer, male or female. That in my opinion is very significant youth opportunity. Even if youth can only hunt the weekends that's still a potential 20 days of hunting which is much more than the 9 day youth hunt from Sept 1st to 9th ever offered, and it also offers some late season quality rut time to the youth any-deer hunt.

The early youth bow-only hunt is in reality fairly insignificant in this plan. Youth and novice hunters are not going to pick up bowhunting in droves no matter what bow seasons are offered, it's just too difficult for the inexperienced, the youth bow-only season only offers opportunity to a small number of kids from bow-only families. Even if kids from rifle-only families want to bow-hunt they're not going to get much opportunity because there's no bow-hunting mentor in most of those families. Also it's true, the season does not offer enough increased bow-hunting incentive for families to rush out and buy archery equipment that will hardly ever get used for their kids.

The greatest value in adding the youth bow-only hunt from Sept 1st to 9th in my mind is that it removes the controvery that has existed regarding the rifle/archery overlap.

[Kody94]

Its the best chance for a win-win that we have...more opportunity for youth than is currently the case, and less potential for conflict between bowhunters and rifle hunters. I support it.

[The Hermit]

Don't miss this important point guys. The key thing that provides the opportunity with the Region 7A youth hunts is not the youth bow hunt, but is the youth rifle hunt that runs for 10 weeks and is open for any deer, male or female. That in my opinion is very significant youth opportunity. Even if youth can only hunt the weekends that's still a potential 20 days of hunting which is much more than the 9 day youth hunt from Sept 1st to 9th ever offered, and it also offers some late season quality rut time to the youth any-deer hunt.

The early youth bow-only hunt is in reality fairly insignificant in this plan. Youth and novice hunters are not going to pick up bowhunting in droves no matter what bow seasons are offered, it's just too difficult for the inexperienced, the youth bow-only season only offers opportunity to a small number of kids from bow-only families. Even if kids from rifle-only families want to bow-hunt they're not going to get much opportunity because there's no bow-hunting mentor in most of those families. Also it's true, the season does not offer enough increased bow-hunting incentive for families to rush out and buy archery equipment that will hardly ever get used for their kids.

The greatest value in adding the youth bow-only hunt from Sept 1st to 9th in my mind is that it removes the controvery that has existed regarding the rifle/archery overlap.

Yup! I think this is pretty accurate. After seeing the impact of youth rifle overlap in the archery only season this year in the Kootney I am in the "keep them separate" camp.

I like the inherent fairness with this season for the youth in archery only families. They get a youth opportunity to get in the field in an archery only season... taking the firearms training, getting a PAL, and having to purchase another rifle would be a hardship on many archery only families. Those barriers to entry do not exist for the archery folks.

I also like the once in a life time opportunity for BRAND NEW hunters to take a doe where populations would support it.

[J_T]

Don't miss this important point guys. The key thing that provides the opportunity with the Region 7A youth hunts is not the youth bow hunt, but is the youth rifle hunt that runs for 10 weeks and is open for any deer, male or female. That in my opinion is very significant youth opportunity.

Finally!! Someone gets it. Thanks Andy. (I'm sure you understood it before) It is a great potential opportunity for youth.

[Onesock]

JT- Haven't we discussd this about a million times on here. Thanks to 6616 for picking up on this. I hope others also understand this.

[6616]

JT- Haven't we discussd this about a million times on here. Thanks to 6616 for picking up on this. I hope others also understand this.

It's not that people, including myself, never picked up on this before, it's really only viable over the status-quo youth season because it's an any deer hunt. Many regions may not consider this sustainable and won't be willing to apply that much pressure to antlerless deer, especially for Mule Deer. Without the antlerless component it's not a big deal and the early seaon to allow hunting of undisturbed deer might still be preferable to many. There's also the fact that school has not started for all the kids between Sept 1st and 9th, so don't jump to the conclusion that there's any huge change of opinion, this is quite a bit different then what was proposed before, or what regions may be willing to offer.

[threedhunter]

as long as this opportunity is consistant region to region, there can not be a conservation concern.there may be areas of the province that will not have as many mule deer per square mile as region 7, but that should not be an excuse by moe to reduce youth opportunity in light of thier feeble attempt to open up more time for youth only.i agree that the terms 6616 listed should be the same province wide, not just in region 7.threedhunter.

[GoatGuy]

The unfortunate thing about threads like these is that the 'bang stick' is blamed for an apparent impact on hunting. Some sort of competition theory because some folks believe that wildlife behaviour is tied strictly to hunter pressure.

There are several issues that are never discussed in these types of threads - they never relate to the hunters ability and the behavioral response of animals to what are surrounded by seasonal changes such as breeding and movement to different ranges. It clearly doesn't occur to some that bowhunting season overlap major changes for deer/elk and moose in the fall and that just maybe the reason those dates are so productive have absolutely nothing to do with gun/bow and everything to do with timing.

Some hunters believe that having a handful of kids out in the bush shuts the hunting down. It is statistically impossible for the 3500 youth, many of which do not hunt in a overlapping bow season, to negatively impact bowhunters. It is simply not possible.

When it comes to elk some hunters assume that because the bulls were bugling yesterday and not today that somebody else spooked them - apparently kids with guns. What they don't realize is that if they got onto the elk's tracks they'd find them in the next drainage. Or that a couple of cows had come into estrus that day and had been serviced or that they had actually stunk the place out. However, you have to call a couple of them in, follow a herd for a couple days and maybe even harvest a couple to realize that. For some reason some hunters don't realize this.

When it comes to the late bow seasons bowhunters do not realize that 'gun hunting' for white-tails actually stopped the day before and that the deer don't know that the stinky predator put his 200 yrd gun down and picked up a 30 yrd bow and that the weapon actually has no bearing on the hunt. Deer just aren't that smart.

In early September deer are also cleaning up they're antlers and shifting food. Sightability falls off even in areas where there is absolutely no hunting pressure - head to a national park and check it out. Bucks disappear there too! Home ranges dwindle down to a pocket of timber or a small chunk of alpine. You can generally spend mid September to mid October finding the same muley bucks in the same spots in the alpine if you spend the time. The same can be said for sheep until the rut and migration approaches. All of the sudden the bush comes alive and it has nothing to do with the weapon hunters are carrying.


Last but not least a handful of people think that once the guns come out you can't get close with a bow. If these people hunted in areas with no gun/bow pressure they'd realize that the temporal and spatial dynamics are the exact same. Having hunters afield certainly does affect behaviour in high pressure areas to a degree but guns and bows don't make anything any difference. Deer don't know if you have a gun or a bow over your shoulder and with a bunch of people stinking it up wildlife will become harder to spot and harvest. That's true for any weapon.

Wildlife doesn't see a person and look at what that person has in their hands and say "wow, that guy has a 55 lbs recurve, left-handed, made in saskatchewan, he's only using fingers instead of a tab so he's only good to about 30 yards." Or, "jeepers that guy has one of them custom .30-378's, I better get my but in gear." Or "watch out for them youth hunters, they're deadly". They just aren't that smart.

I'd draw on my own experiences from this fall with the moose and elk that were called within 20 yards and the bears, deer and sheep that could have all been shot with a bow but I'd rather fall back on wildlife and their responses to habitat and instinctual needs. I don't think everybody's seeing the big picture here. Looking for a solution to a problem that exists even in un-hunted populations.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with the proposal of any deer - I think it's great. But blaming a couple of kids with guns for not bagging something with a bow is nothing more than an excuse amongst a myriad of others, none of which finds a hunter examining his/her own abilities.

Removing youth hunters from the 'bow only' season will not make the remaining hunters more successful - it will serve to remove an excuse and replace it with another.