Free: Contests & Raffles.
JMO but Alta is not a kid friendly place to hunt. Way too timbered and steep. A kid should be set up where they can be talked to about their shot and explained why its okay or not to shoot, have plenty of time to glass the animal and determine its legal and ethical. The Alta unit is no where near this kind of area. Sounds like your mind is made up on hunting this particular unit though. I think its a mistake and has far too much potential for a negative outing. With kids you want to keep every outing positive for a few years or I have found they lose interest.
Quote from: Shootmoore on February 24, 2010, 10:31:12 AMQuote from: DoubleJ on February 24, 2010, 10:26:50 AMI was looking at the NE corner too. We are stuck with where my brother and father are hunting though. Wife says I need to go with them this first year. They are hunting Foster Creek probably. Camping at Brewster, I can make the drive to Alta if it's going to be better huntingFoster Crk is flat sagebrush country if your worried about how steep things are. There are alot more deer up in those sagebrush and wheat fields than people think. It may look flat but there are a lot of dips and draws that hold deer. If you could draw a youth doe tag for that area (no clue if there is a doe tag for there) it would be pretty easy to get a shot at a doe. ShootmooreI'm worried about a couple of things at Foster Creek. 1. The walking. My dad says it's quite a few miles of walking. 8 year old legs have a hard time keeping up. Few miles of flat land vs. a few thousand feet of hills. It works out to be about even I think.2. My dad and brother said that the number of hunters they saw at Foster Creek more than tripled last year vs. the previous few years. They said it was so bad that you saw hunter orange in every direction. I was looking at somewhere a bit more secluded. Again, I have not scouted any of these areas so, I'm going by the word of people I know and, now you guys.
Quote from: DoubleJ on February 24, 2010, 10:26:50 AMI was looking at the NE corner too. We are stuck with where my brother and father are hunting though. Wife says I need to go with them this first year. They are hunting Foster Creek probably. Camping at Brewster, I can make the drive to Alta if it's going to be better huntingFoster Crk is flat sagebrush country if your worried about how steep things are. There are alot more deer up in those sagebrush and wheat fields than people think. It may look flat but there are a lot of dips and draws that hold deer. If you could draw a youth doe tag for that area (no clue if there is a doe tag for there) it would be pretty easy to get a shot at a doe. Shootmoore
I was looking at the NE corner too. We are stuck with where my brother and father are hunting though. Wife says I need to go with them this first year. They are hunting Foster Creek probably. Camping at Brewster, I can make the drive to Alta if it's going to be better hunting
The youth tags in the northeast have their own season I believe, maybe the weekend before general? I can't remember...for some reason I am also thinking they changed this....maybe I should go look.The odds of securing private land access is better with an 8 year old doing the hunting too...something else to consider. We hunt farm country, pretty flat if you want it to be and we hunted with an 11 year old this year and walked a couple miles and he was beat at the end of it.This was in a different part of the state though...but you get the idea. An 8 year old is gonna be worn out quick in country like the Alta unit has.
Quote from: DoubleJ on February 24, 2010, 10:39:59 AMQuote from: Shootmoore on February 24, 2010, 10:31:12 AMQuote from: DoubleJ on February 24, 2010, 10:26:50 AMI was looking at the NE corner too. We are stuck with where my brother and father are hunting though. Wife says I need to go with them this first year. They are hunting Foster Creek probably. Camping at Brewster, I can make the drive to Alta if it's going to be better huntingFoster Crk is flat sagebrush country if your worried about how steep things are. There are alot more deer up in those sagebrush and wheat fields than people think. It may look flat but there are a lot of dips and draws that hold deer. If you could draw a youth doe tag for that area (no clue if there is a doe tag for there) it would be pretty easy to get a shot at a doe. ShootmooreI'm worried about a couple of things at Foster Creek. 1. The walking. My dad says it's quite a few miles of walking. 8 year old legs have a hard time keeping up. Few miles of flat land vs. a few thousand feet of hills. It works out to be about even I think.2. My dad and brother said that the number of hunters they saw at Foster Creek more than tripled last year vs. the previous few years. They said it was so bad that you saw hunter orange in every direction. I was looking at somewhere a bit more secluded. Again, I have not scouted any of these areas so, I'm going by the word of people I know and, now you guys.Don't take this the wrong way as its ment to be constructive.If your worried about the 8 year old being able to walk a few miles, I would suggest looking at the NE area for whitetails. You ARE going to burn boot leather hunting mule deer no matter if its the Alta area or the Foster Creek area. More likely than not your not going to be able to walk up on top of a hill and shoot a deer. Your going to have to cover country, spot and stalk no getting around it. If your concerned about the 8 year old making it, is there medical issues or weight issues (I'm not trying to be mean here)? My nephews who are 13 and 7 have went out with me bird hunting and I wear out before they do. If there is a weight issue or not being in shape I would strongly suggest getting out with the kid hiking this spring and summer (hunt sheds, scout etc.) to make it "fun" exercise. His experience will be much better if he is not worn out. Covering country is just a fact of life for hunting mule deer. Shootmoore
Where do I find info on the youth special hunt in the NE? I haven't seen anything about this. GMU 290 is the only early season youth hunt I see and GMU 101 is the only youth special permit I see in the NE.
Good luck on your hunt. Even if you don't bag a deer, hopefully it will still be a great experience for you and your son. I can't wait till my son is old enough to take him hunting as well, and just hope there will still be as many helpful people on this forum when that time comes. I hope you post pics if you do manage to connect your son with a deer though.
