Who else is getting pumped about youth weekend? This year will be my first year to take my daughter with me. We've got about 4 other youths that will be hunting our private land with us that have never killed a deer. We have not put any pressure on this land, other than planting and filling feeders. Hoping to see a lot of blood on kids faces this weekend. Anyone else hosting a youth hunt this year?

I got a 10 ye old son that’s so fired up school gonna suffer this week

Ya I'll be taking one of mine not sure which yet...prob 13yr old girl

My 13 year old always looks forward to youth season..

My 9 year old will be drawing blood.

We'll be there. This is the last year for my youngest son 😕 My oldest boy is so use to being able to come it's driving him nuts lol

My son plans on taking one of the kids up the road to our new lease.. their out bow hunting today.

Things are looking great up at the farm. Can't wait for this weekend. If anyone needs a place to take a youth, shoot me a PM. The farm in north of Winfield (Marion County). We'll be hunting Saturday and Sunday morning before church.

We have seven going at our place saturday. Six of them have never shot a deer before. Gonna be great.

It’s my favorite weekend of the year. We will have at least 6 guns Saturday afternoon and will be grilling out and playing football before the hunt. I know at least 3 of them have never killed a deer. Going to have a “biggest doe” pot for the kid that kills the heaviest doe that afternoon and enjoy the whole experience surrounding it.

Can’t wait for Saturday!

Have a few scheduled to hunt. Weather looking great.

I plan on taking my wife’s little cousin. He’s 9, never hunted and never shot a real gun until the other day when I took him shooting. He was cutting bullet holes at 50 yards with a 22 mag. I’m gonna step him up to the gun he’ll be hunting with one evening this week.

We’ll hunt a simple spot in hopes that a fat doe walks out.

I'd make sure that the gun he will be hunting with is dead on and let his first shot with it be at a deer, just my opinion, but I learned it raising my two daughters and saw the difference that it made in making sure they weren't scared of recoil. I made my oldest daughter shoot my 7-08 before the hunt and it scared her and my youngest daughter practiced with a 22 with a scope on it and the first time that she shot the 7-08 she killed her first deer.

That’s good advice. My 13 yr old shot his first deer with a 300 blackout. We were on a hog hunt this summer and he needed something with a little more distance capability. I brought a .270 and made sure it was dead on at camp. I didn’t want him to sight it in for fear he would get scared of the recoil. He made a great hundred yard shot on a pig the first time he ever shot that gun. Never mentioned the recoil and we will be using it on the youth hunt this weekend.

Thats how I'm gonna do my boy practice with 22mag then 1st shot with reduced recoil 308 will be at deer

Good luck! I hope your daughter gets her one. My son is only 2 but I can't wait until I can take him with me. I'm gonna try to get the wife her first on opening weekend.

I'm really fired up. My son has been looking for an old New England Firearms single shot youth rifle for years (he's 10 now) for his first deer rifle. He's been able to borrow my buddy's to take his first and only two deer when he was 6 and 7 years old. They stopped making NEF about 12 years ago so its kind of an annual tradition that leading up to youth season we go on "a hunt" for the rifle first. Well yesterday we were in a pawn shop in Athens and were walking out the door to leave and the guy helping us said "wait I do have this old youth model I just got in you could look at". Wouldn't you know it.... it was a NEF Youth model in .270. Beautiful gun in perfect shape. My son was ecstatic so I bought the gun and we went and sighted it in yesterday. I've got a big 6 point that's coming into a field I call the swamp every morning just about so I hope he can break in that rifle the right way this weekend.

We sighted in yesterday afternoon, let my son shoot the .22, AR, 300 blackout and then let him shoot some low recoil loads from his Model 7 7mm08. Hope something with horns walks out, he has laid it to the does the last few years but he really wants to shoot a buck this go around.

Why would you guys not let a kid practice with the weapon you want them to shoot the deer with? If they cant shoot the weapon because it scares or hurts them they probably dont need to shoot it period. Why not wait a year or two until they are comfortable with the gun and proficient with it. To each his own obviously but there is a big difference between a 22 and even a 243 youth with recoil reducing ammunition.

Not with a deer in the scope...if a kid can hit where he aims why does it matter...my 308 is just as light and has better trigger than the 22..the boom is a lot louder tho which can make a young kid flinch if he's practicing

You got kids????

If youve never noticed, a gun dont seem to kick as much or seem as loud when youre shooting it at a deer. If thats the only time a little kid shoots a deer rifle, they probably wont ever notice the kick. They need to practice though so you let them practice with a 22. It works but it certainly isnt the only method.

I assume you have hearing protection on them anyway. I teach all of them not to flinch by loading or unloading each round on the range so they never know if the gun is loaded or not before squeezing the trigger.

My son shoots a suppressed model 700 308. No flinch for him

My daughter shoots a 300 blackout suppressed no recoil or noise. My son likes a 243 youth with recoil and sound but he does not flinch and can shoot the bullseye out at 100yds at 8 yrs old. It takes him a while to squeeze one off but if he is not dead in it he wont squeese

I’m getting to take 2 granddaughters
11 and 5 ! We will have food , candy
I pads and ear buds and a couple of does
if the good Lord blesses us . Gonna be a
Great Day !

I reload. What I did with my son was load some shells way down for him to practice with, then loaded some full house loads for him to hunt with. That way, he was practicing with the same gun, scope and trigger that he would hunt with. It wasn't really the recoil with a 6mm, but the noise that scared him. My daughter, now 17, is still stuck on the 223 she started with. She is confident in it and is a killer. It has performed flawlessly with Barnes bullets and I have a hard time trying to convince her to fix what isn't broken.

My 12yr old doesn't even like the sound of fireworks and since the crown hasn't seen fit to allow me to buy a suppressor, we will continue to practice with the .22.

Does he not wear ear muffs? Can double up with plugs and muffs and it will greatly reduce the noise

She does ear plugs & muffs... but that short barrel .243 is LOUD

It really is a travesty that we're not allowed to buy suppressors without jumping through hoops. Hell, countries with much more restrictive firearm laws than ours not only allow them but [u]require[/i] them.

check your blinky envelope

Good luck to everyone. This will be my next to last youth hunt for my kids. My daughter is 17 now, and my son is 14, so I have this year and next.

These weekends are the best memories I have with my kids. I cherish every minute. My daughter was almost in tears because her brother is going and she can't hunt. (unless she wants to pick up a bow, and she politely declined)

The state did a great thing when they started offering the special youth hunts. I can't remember the weather being any better!

I’ll be taking a couple of 9 year olds, neither has killed a deer before. I’ll let them shoot my model Seven in 7mm-08.

because .22 ammo is about $15 per 500 round brick .243 is about $1 a round. my kids can shoot the barrel off their .22s for all i care but ill let them put 15 or 20 .243 downrange after i know they can group with the .22 first. once they learn to shoot a .22 shooting a highpowered rifle is no different you just have to teach yourself not to flinch or tense up anticipating the recoil.

My son is pumped and hopefully he will get a shot at something. My 3 yo daughter has asked if she can go too (obviously not to shoot), so one afternoon we are all 3 gonna go sit in a big shooting house with plenty of things to do and hopefully be quiet enough for my son to shoot the first doe that walks out. She has a solid pink set of insulated carhartt bibs and jacket that she has been dying to wear.

So 3 years old is too young to shoot? I don't really know anything about kids or how fast they grow, but a good friend of mine has a 3 year old son that he keeps saying he will be taking to the woods this weekend and I thought he was too young to shoot a high powered rifle but Im not gonna tell someone how to raise their kids.

I'd have to see a 3yr old hit a target from high power rifle for me to believe it...without a led sled that is...

Sounds like one of those dads that wants to start his season early. Gw probably not gonna bye that excuse and he will get a ticket for hunting out of season.

A 3yo probably can't pull a trigger without using 2 fingers, even a light trigger. Then there is the issue that there is probably not a gun built that will even remotely "fit" a 3yo such that they can shoulder it and even reach the trigger much less shoulder it, reach the trigger, and see through the scope.

My son was 4 or 5 when he started shooting the smallest daisy made "lil buck" which is several inches shorter than a red ryder. That thing is lit a toy even compared to an AR with the stock collapsed.

I taught both my kids how to shoot using a .22lr with open sights, then a .22lr rifle with a scope. Hundreds and hundreds of rounds. Over a few years, until it felt natural to them and they were proficient. Muscle memory shouldering the weapon and getting your eye relief correct and obtaining quick, consistent sight pictures.

Both of them killed their first deer with a short action high powered rifle (.243 and 7-08) on the first shot they ever fired from a high powered rifle. Neither was scared of the recoil, not then, and not now. Now they both shoot excellent small groups off the bench and we don't even talk about recoil. I think they were in the 8-10 year range with the .22, and were 10 or 11, or 12 when killing their first deer.

To each his own, and every parent and every kid is different. I just wanted to share what worked for me.

If you make recoil a big deal, it will become a big deal.

I would normally tell someone to practice with the weapon they will be fighting with, but in this case, with kids, the above method has worked perfect for me twice.

my grandson was not quite three when he started shooting a cut down single shot 223 with a red dot scope on it. shot it by himself.

I understand this and encourage shooting a 22 to become proficient but I would also make sure my kid could hit where he was aining at 50-100 yards with the weapon he was planning to shoot. I would not let him shoot one weapon at a target then switch him to one he had never fired and hope he shot it well at an animal

Sounds like something he would do LOL. Unfortunately for my buddy, I don't think any 3y/o out there can stay quiet enough in the woods to get a deer in front of him.

I started my son shooting the 22LR at 3 yrs old. He could nail targets at 50 yds with it, so i built him an AR 223 to shoot. He was proficient in shooting this by the age of 4 while using 2 fingers to pull the trigger, so i took him on his first hunt. While we did not get a shot because he could not get steady enough for a long range shot (125 yds for him was long) i was confident at a shorter distance he would do fine. He killed his first deer at the age of 5 while shooting my muzzleloader loaded with 245gr powerbelt and 100 gr of pryodex.

Say what you want, but it is all in how often you work with them and how comfortable they are with shooting. He has since taken 3 more deer with the MZ and i think he prefers it over the rifle anyday.

Wait! What? Your 2yo isn’t driving tacks at 100 yards already? You are way behind. 🙄

Dr. B

Daughter is in bed and knocked out. Time to pack the truck and get ready for the am. I’m more excited than she is I do believe.

Me too...im taking my oldest 13yr old girl it was in the air before today but I was gonna give her seniority over the others..i honestly don't think she cares but I'll take whatever I can get from her now...im really proud of her just being cool headed and her own self no matter what is brought her way

I had my daughters look at deer magazines with all the different angles and asked them to show me where the crosshairs should best go. It really seemed to help them understand shot placement.

I got to watch others yesterday and took my bow for the first sit of the year. Our youth didn't see any horns, but a cousin killed a six.
Made sure he knew we were excited for him.

My oldest had her first legal drink today, so cherish these moments.

Any of yall hunt mid morning this morning? My cameras were blowing up from 10-12

First hunt out of our first shooting house. Sure is laid back hunting.

Watching the auburn game in my phone and watching a powerline plot with my son.. Three small bucks and does so far..

We on the board, son just shot his first racked buck. He almost beat the bullet to the deer he is so pumped

Awesome!!!

Nice. I remember taking my sons for his as well.

Special moments when your kids become adults. Time goes by too quickly.

Congrats Demp. Thats excellant!