Late season youth elk hunt

[Bait O' Eggs]

My hunting partner got his 13 year old boy a Wilson unit youth cow tag. We are headed out this weekend to fill it, I just wish he had the option to shoot a bull.

Shouldnt be to hard if the boy can shoot straight. He is not the best shot (not enough practice :depressed: ) but he is fair at best. I havent seen him shoot under pressure, but he has good drive when we have taken him along on hunts in the past as a spectator.

I hope to be packing meat on Saturday. I was glad to hear my partner tell me he isnt going to drive the kid around for an hour or so and spot an elk and go shoot it. The plan was to get the kid on foot and make him work at it a little. :tongue: Neither of us are cow hunters but he is gonna let his kid start with one. It will be a good learning experience for me when my boy gets of age and I get to try to get him on an animal. The boy didnt get out much during the deer season and went without filling his tag as he wanted to play soccer rather than go hunt Some have the drive, some dont, This weekend could be pivitol in his hunting career in my opinion.

I have no idea how to gut a cow, I always start next to something that will be missing

[MountainLion84]

My 12 year old son has a late season "any deer" tag, and he doesn't show as much enthusiasm as I would hope. We went to Eastern Oregon, and he got a forken horn. I told him not many people get a chance to harvest a mule deer buck and a blacktail buck in the same year. He said he will probably hold out for a buck the first weekend. I tried to explain that we aren't going to see 15-20 does a day like eastern oregon. The way the rain is pouring, I can kind of see that dampening his spirits. Getting to hunt east can kind of spoil a guy. I don't like to hunt here if I don't have to. Maybe they will show more excitement the older they get. It seems they are involved in so many more things than we had opportunities for when we were young. Another problem I think is that so few kids hunt. Most of their yuppy friends don't hunt. When he got that deer, I asked him if he had hero status at school? It appeared that nobody could care less. Its a changing society, and not for the better!!!! Good luck on the hunt. I tnought about putting him in for that hunt, like you I'm not big on antlerless hunting, and I don't think his .243 is big enough.

[WildHawg]

Sounds like fun BOE. My sons first hunt (his B-day is in late December) was the Wilson Cow hunt. Day before season, we saw three groups of cows, could have shot any of them. Put one group up the Kilchis to bed, and came back the next morning. Snuck in at first light, and spot a big ol' elk butt about 100 yards away--boy raises his rifle as I'm trying to id it, when I see the big ol' rack of a mature bull. Thank God Isaac saw it too! He busted, and so did the 20 cows and spikes with him.
Went back to the other area up the Nehalem, and saw a number of gutpiles on the side of the road. Guess the roadhunters cleaned up, cause they got alot spookier after that. We did have other opportunities, but Ike is pretty cautious and picky about shot placement, and passed up on a couple of chances. I was darn proud of him, even if it did make my stomach growl. To date, he has shot 2 bullets at bucks, and made 2 clean kills.
As for huntin' cows, I think it is a good, safe way to introduce kids to the game. I used to bowhunt regularly, and always passed (sometimes to my chagrin later) on cows, but noone told me I couldn't shoot 'em. As we get more experienced, and put a few animals under our belts, most folks choose to hunt bucks and bulls anyway. I also think as we get older, the idea of a fat cow from a limited entry hunt might not sound as bad as it does now either
There is a time and place for everything, and the Wilson Cow hunt is a great way to start kids, while introducing them to the work associated with harvesting an animal.
Just remember that kids often don't wanna hunt quite as hard as us ol' rednecks. Make it fun, and taylor the day for the kid, without too high of expectations, and you'll have the time of your life. Who knows, you might even get to find out what cows taste like--not the Dutchbelts, Holsteins and Jerseys (my fav's), but the ELK!
Are you going to take your boy along too? Might be a good way to introduce him to the sport.
Good luck!!!! 'Hawg.

[Bait O' Eggs]

Wildhawg - my boy is only 5 and wouldnt probably do well on a cold wet rainy day chasing elk. Though I think he has as much drive as my buddies 13 year old. :tongue: Sometimes my boy has some momma in him

We will be hunting the upper kilchis, I hope the creeks are not so high we cant cross them, or packing/chasing might be a real problem.

I took my boy high cascade hunting this year when my brother had a tag. I planned on lots of snacks and a good lazy dad/son day. My brother dumps a bull right after daylight and radioed me to bring the 4 packboards up the hill since they all took off without the boards. It was a long uphill hike and I had to take my boy since I couldnt leave him alone for 6 or 7 hours at the truck. He made the hike great but it was sunny and nice and we were not in a hurry.

My buddy was gonna let his boy hunt with his 243. [img]graemlins/eek13.gif[/img] I tried my best to discourage that, and now the boy will be packing dads 300 win mag. He screwed on the boss with the muzzlebreak instead of the regular boss he has. It makes for one noisy cannon but it doesnt kick nearly as bad. I am pretty sure the kid has not shot that gun but he may have once or twice, but then again if he did, he might not be packing it Another product of not shooting nearly enough. That is something I am not proud of for my hunting partner and his kid for, to many soccer practices and not enough shooting practice.

My nightmare would be crippling an elk and chasing all day. My hunting buddy is color blind red and doesnt track blood well at all. I will have to make sure we find a perfect rest before he shoots.

I am sure it will be fun no matter what, I guess we wont know what the boy is made of until we test him under fire so to speak. Being a parent it is interesting how we look at our own kids and compare/contrast them to other kids.

I will report back the results good or bad :smile:

[seadog]

BOE, Sounds like fun! I have 2 boys ages 7 and 5. The 7 year old is already counting the days until he is 12! The kid is a freak for hunting and fishing, (and I couldn't be happier). He is already asking me if he can take his hunters safety course yet.!! The 5 year old loves it too, but he is not quite as gung-ho as his brother.
I think the cow hunts and other hunts are a great thing for kids. I just hope there will be enough animals left when my boys get old enough to hunt.
I also am a long time bow hunter, but I think I will start my boys with a rifle so. I think a kid has a better chance of success with a rifle. Hopefully with these youth hunts he can get a couple animals under his belt, then we'll switch to bowhunting (he is a great shot with his bow).
Good Luck, Brett

[Norm]

Youth hunts can be fun, I love playing guide for my son. keep them well fed, warm and busy and they will have a blast. I used to bowhunt the upper kilches, during a late season hunt in the area I stoped to eat lunch and dry out on the side of the main road next to a clearcut. After a sitting for a while a cow popped up from behind a log in the middle of the cut. I watched here for a while, and every time a car would come up the road she would laydown behind the log before they came into view and hide until the car left. It was a real education watching her duck the road hunters and feed in the cut during the middle of the day. I tried stalking her, but she had my number [img]graemlins/stupid.gif[/img] .
Good luck.

[Bait O' Eggs]

My buddy and myself took his kid hunting today. My buddy kept telling me he wanted to make it a tough hunt, no easy shots from the road, and he stuck to it.

We hunted in the sawtooth ridges on the kilchis and it was cold, snowy and every bit as steep as last time I was there. [img]graemlins/eek13.gif[/img]

My buddy radioed me around 11 and asked if I thought his kid could make a 420 yard shot, he had a cow standing broadside.

I confirmed then that the kid has never shot the 300 mag rifle yet and I know he has only put a couple boxes thru this 243 in the last couple years :depressed: (not the way to teach a kid to hunt)

They work closer to get to a couple hundred yards and find the elk had moved and were now actually about 400 yards away. He doesnt radio me this time and the kid starts banging away. :depressed: He shoots 4 times and the spike and cow elk slip off into the brush. They go over to look for blood and find one drop. They find a second drop about 50 yards away. They lose where the elk went and spend an hour trying to find where they lost the tracks. It isnt looking good and I know it is best to bite my tongue since it isnt my son and I am along to pack meat only. They keep looking and find a single drop of blood a hundred yards away again and are on the trail again. They walk up 20 yards from the cow and the kid misses again, and then they get another shot at about 40 yards a couple minutes later and finally the job gets done. :smile:

It was a long ugly pack but all downhill, so we decide to take it out in one trip. I boned the entire hand half and made one heck of a heavy pack. My buddy boned the front half and the kid packed the head and his gun

In conclusion we ended up making a tough hunt for dad and me with overweight packs and the kid skipped down the hill.

I know what I wont do with my boy when the time comes. I am not proud of my buddys choice to pull the gun out of the cabinet and show it to the kid and then take him hunting. I am sure glad we ended up getting the elk, there is no worse feeling than wounding an animal and not getting it.

[Snapset]

I took a kid and his dad up to a place equally distant from the Kilchis, Wilson and Nehalem rivers, and he had his elk by 8:00 in the morning. I had to tell him that "they aren't all this easy".

[WildHawg]

BOE, you are a Saint. I would have had a very hard time keeping my mouth shut when I learned he had not even shot the 300 .
Guess I'm kinda a hardliner when it comes to these things, but that kid had absolutely no business carrying a rifle. I don't blame the kid, he only had the opportunities his dad gave him to shoot--it's the dad that ****** me off. First of all--my kid plays both A school B-ball and AAU B-ball. All together, he has 51 games, and countless practices, which begin in Mid-November, and end in Late February. We hunt the Mckenzie unit primarily, which is over 2 hours drive. It is not easy to coordinate his elite level athletic schedule with youth hunts, but somehow we manage to put at least 4 boxes of ammo through his Great G'pas model 88 308 before season, scout, and spend at least 7 days each November chasing critters. Yeah, I had to drive him back and forth a few times for practice, but hey, I'm a dad, and he's my kid. He chooses to try and do both, and has put in the time and effort to excel at both.
I guess what I am trying to tell your friend and his son (sorry for the rant BOE it aint your fault) is STAY THE HECK OUT OF THE WOODS UNLESS YOU ARE WILLING TO SPEND THE TIME PREPARING.
You can ruin a kid for life, not to mention cause horrible pain and suffering to an animal, by thrusting them into a situation they are not prepared for.