Deer areas for youth to put in Special permit for?

[brianb231]

Hey Guys/Gals,

Well I just got both my kids through Hunter Ed a couple weeks ago. I have been primarily an Elk Hunter the past 25 years in the naches area bowhunting. Deer there is a novelty. But now I want to give my 11 year old son and 15 year old daughter the best chance to harvest a deer with a rifle on their first trip out but I am not familiar with the rifle deer units that would be best for this. I would like to keep them to within 150 yard shots if possible beings how they are new.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks Hunt-wa!

Brianb231

[doyourtime89]

I great hunt is the youth Skookumchuck hunt.  They have it split now for the past couple years but hunt 1549 is for antlerless and hunt 1550 is any buck.  I would put in for both of those.  That is if you don't mind having them shot a doe.  But there are a lot of deer in there and they let the kids go in a week early.  They are going to start charging an access for that area, but I have heard this year they are still going to let the youth hunt for free.  My son had this tag a few years ago and we seen tons of deer and not another hunter.  GREAT tag for a kid.

[gasman]

In my opinion, the Entiat (1514) youth doe tag is 

My kids drew it twice each growing up and all tags were filled with out any issue on opening weekend.

[brianb231]

Thanks for the info guys. I will be sure to post pictures of their first kills for sure.

Brianb231

[Boss .300 winmag]

Glad to hear more youth are choosing to hunt! 

When I started my oldest you could almost get drawn yearly, but it seems like lmore youth are putting in for them now. My youngest didn't draw last year, but should this year with two points.

Good luck.

Modern permits below.

[trophyhunt]

Brian, I will send you a PM on my thoughts!

[Bullkllr]

Glad to hear more youth are choosing to hunt! 

When I started my oldest you could almost get drawn yearly, but it seems like lmore youth are putting in for them now. My youngest didn't draw last year, but should this year with two points.

Good luck.

Modern permits below.

It is getting harder to draw youth tags. Another big reason is the number of antlerless mule deer tags is way down from several years ago.
Entiat for instance had 1:25.6 odds with last years numbers.

Hey Guys/Gals,

Well I just got both my kids through Hunter Ed a couple weeks ago. I have been primarily an Elk Hunter the past 25 years in the naches area bowhunting. Deer there is a novelty. But now I want to give my 11 year old son and 15 year old daughter the best chance to harvest a deer with a rifle on their first trip out but I am not familiar with the rifle deer units that would be best for this. I would like to keep them to within 150 yard shots if possible beings how they are new.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks Hunt-wa!

Brianb231

Couple issues to consider. How much travel do you want?  How much time will you have? How soon do you want to draw a tag?

If you're willing to travel, some of the Eastside permits would probably be the best for putting a deer in front of the kids. Downside would be unfamiliar units- but that can be overcome. Since drawing a permit is far from a guarantee- be sure to check out the general hunts for antlerless whitetail in many of the 100 units. Great opportunity for kids if you have time to figure it out.

Closer to home (west) the easier to draw units will be the hardest to access (private prop., etc). Others are not automatic draws: Skookumchuck antlerless is about 1:7, Satsop is about 1:12.

My youngest is on his last year of youth "eligibility" this year, so we've been doing it for awhile. Willing to provide more ideas as needed.

[jackelope]

If you don't mind driving, take them to the northeast part of the state. Lots of OTC GMU's where they can shoot antlerless or any deer.
 

[brianb231]

Thank you for all the info guys! The last 25 years I have just bowhunted the eastside for Elk and that's it so this youth deer with modern firearm is sorta new.

Thanks again

Brianb231

[doyourtime89]

Thank you for all the info guys! The last 25 years I have just bowhunted the eastside for Elk and that's it so this youth deer with modern firearm is sorta new.

Thanks again

Brianb231

I was the same way.  I had only bow hunted since I was in high school and then when my son started hunting at 9 he was to young to pull the legal draw weight for a bow so I was taking time off work to bow hunt and then again to take him rifle hunting.  So after a year of that I switched to rifle hunting and we go together.  I miss bow hunting.  But there is nothing like hunting with my son.  He drew a doe tag the one year they had a youth doe tag in the colockum area.  I bow hunted in there for years for elk so I knew that area.  Then he drew the Skookumchuck one year.  But other then that we would go to the NE.  It worked pretty good for us, because me dad hunted with us too.  And there are a lot of GMU's over there that a youth and senior can shot does with their general tags and some of those units you can put in for a 2nd tag too.

[12Gauge]

Area 204 youth hunt #1504

[Pathfinder101]

If you don't mind driving, take them to the northeast part of the state. Lots of OTC GMU's where they can shoot antlerless or any deer.
 

X2

When PathfinderJR was younger we used this strategy (since he played football and our time was limited):  Since you can hunt whitetails on a general tag in a lot of eastside units, we would make a long weekend out of opening weekend. Saturday and Sunday we would hunt bucks, then if he didn't get one, Monday evening he would harvest a whitey doe.  Some years he got a buck, other years we put some meat in the freezer and he only missed one day of football practice. 

[billdo5]

Desert Tag

[spin05]

This state really sucks for Youth in my opinion.  Why they dont still consider 17 a youth is beyond me. Also the archery tags for youth are non-existant......Idaho is much more friendly towards youth

[bobcat]

Archery tags are over the counter and most units are either sex for both deer and elk. So there's no need for a special permit.

I agree that Idaho provides more opportunities for kids, but they have more animals and less people than we do. So it makes sense just for that reason.

I started hunting in this state when I was eleven (34 years ago), and we just hunted all the same seasons as adults. I never thought I should be given any special seasons as a kid.

Now they have early waterfowl, upland bird, and turkey seasons. Plus the many units in which kids can take any whitetail deer.

So from my perspective it seems like kids have it pretty good these days.

[Bullkllr]

Archery tags are over the counter and most units are either sex for both deer and elk. So there's no need for a special permit.

I agree that Idaho provides more opportunities for kids, but they have more animals and less people than we do. So it makes sense just for that reason.

I started hunting in this state when I was eleven (34 years ago), and we just hunted all the same seasons as adults. I never thought I should be given any special seasons as a kid.

Now they have early waterfowl, upland bird, and turkey seasons. Plus the many units in which kids can take any whitetail deer.

So from my perspective it seems like kids have it pretty good these days.

Having held a license since I was 9 (41 years ago- woah), I have to agree with everything you mention.

However, when I was young, about the only thing anybody could put in for was a "cow tag" and everyone put into the same pot (I also remember a goat tag...). So the overall number of special permits and categories to put in for has basically mushroomed since then.

And with hunting generally getting "tougher" (access, seasons, costs, etc.), I think the WDFW could make things a bit easier for kids (especially on westside who don't have time to travel to NE for deer) by throwing a few more antlerless permits their way. Oregon, for example, gives several hundred youth antlerless elk tags each year. I don't think too many hunters would complain about shifting a few more tags toward kids to help them experience early success to help keep them in the game. My

[spin05]

yea its not so much the permits as it is the price. My son hunts archery. Has always hunted archery and had no desire to hunt with a rifle. He is 17 now and he is a small kid so it had taken him till he was 13 to be able to pull a bow to the minuim pounds to hunt. So now after 2 or 3 years he is already up to adult priced license and tags. So now its double of whatever i get.

[Bullkllr]

yea its not so much the permits as it is the price. My son hunts archery. Has always hunted archery and had no desire to hunt with a rifle. He is 17 now and he is a small kid so it had taken him till he was 13 to be able to pull a bow to the minuim pounds to hunt. So now after 2 or 3 years he is already up to adult priced license and tags. So now its double of whatever i get.

Why the state picked 16 for the end of youth I don't know. This year is my youngest son's last youth year- he's 15/almost 16. Then things do get more expensive for sure.