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Hunting during youth hunt

With the youth hunt coming up I was wondering how everyone approaches it. Do you put your blaze orange on and hunt or do you skip that weekend. I am.going up to my cabin and can't decide if I wanna bow hunt or get out and grouse hunt instead. I know the regs say you have to wear blaze orange but does that apply if you are on your own private land?

Yes

No more need to go to the registration station. With hunting as competitive as it is today, all the gunfire expected at dawn and dusk Saturday and Sunday would make it a whole lot easier for a "poaching hunter" to fill a bow/crossbow tag with a firearm. That's been one of the concerns I've heard a lot more in the past year. Go home, clean the deer and call it in the next day, by 5 p.m., when the venison is already packaged and in the fridge/freezer.

While some expect a big spike in bow/crossbow buck registrations, I'd be more willing to bet it'll be similar to the first few weeks, maybe even down a bit due to the intrusion/confusion of the extra guns causing a bit more caution among the veteran bucks. Will be fun to see the youth hunt numbers by county months earlier than normal, though. I've always wondered why, when they did require in-person registration, with today's technology they didn't just have a kiosk where you scanned your tag/license and entered the info right on the spot, where it too could be shared electronically in real time online by county, antlered/antlerless and bow, crossbow or firearm.

I do the same thing I do during the rest of the gun seasons, grab my blaze orange and go bowhunt.

If you want honesty,which I think you do, I do not wear orange. I hunt private land and don't see any need for me to wear it.

I'm the same as zinger, I hunt my land which is private and no one else is allowed on it. I wear orange in and once in the tree I take it off and pack it away and once down put the orange back on.

My blaze stays in the bag until Nov. I'll be working this weekend.

I'll be on my land this weekend hunting with my 13 year old daughter. We WILL be wearing our orange as it is the law.

It's going to be unseasonably warm, weatherman said it could get to 80. May be a good weekend for turkeys.

The poacher hunter does not need a gun season to enable poaching. The modern narrow crossbow with a scope is the perfect and silent 100+ yard weapon.

Sure, you can shoot a target that far, but anyone that shoots at a live whitetail that far is a fool and is asking for wounding. Too noisy and too much can happen in that second before impact. Most crossbow guys I know shoot 20-40 yards, a few out to 60.

My 10 yr old niece shot a crossgun a few weeks ago. They set up a target at 40 yds and she hit the bullseye on the first shot. They thought it was luck so she shot again and hit the bullseye. Her dad said so I guess we're buying a crossgun, she said no that was to easy. They left with a compound.

Really sawtooh (RC) you're going to preach on people poaching? A poacher will poach wether they're using a bow, rifle, pistol or crossbow. Heck they're even poach with a corn pile and blame it on their elderly father!

What's really wild is he admitted to owning three crossbows years ago. Anyone else here against crossbows and owns three (or even two, or one)?

This isn't a crossbow thread. They're legal now. It's time to move on.

I will be out with my ghille suit and rifle..........

I will be out on the land with 2 young hunters, their younger brother who is 8 and their Dad. A Marine vet and cancer survivor. He can't handle the cold, so it's the perfect time to get the kids out into the woods and maybe get a deer or two.

We will all be wearing blaze orange.

Naz, I am not against crossbows at all.

I do not however consider them bowhunting, and animals killed with them bow kills.

The modern crossbows are 100 yard weapons with the correct scope, and in the proper conditions. Even today, many western hunters shoot 40-60 yards at game with a compound. This is especially true of caribou, antelope, mule deer, whitetail and even some elk hunters.

Why would you shoot at 100yds? Just put out a pile of corn and if you get caught blame it on your father.

I tend to use the youth hunt weekend to get treestand chores done on the property. I will wear a orange vest. But most of the time I will be move/repair stands. Re-cut some shooting lanes. Check/move cameras. Make mock scrapes, and maybe do some treestand scouting.

My whole west boundary is public land, and I expect to hear shooting all day as the legal and poaching hunters will be in full force.

We tend to find 1-2 headless buck carcasses each year right after the "youth hunt".

Dampland id be patrolling that west end! Good luck and hopefully hunters show respect with your boundaries

Highly doubt the few kids out there shooting a couple of deer are going to make a difference. Duck, grouse, turkey, and bear been going on for weeks now. Don't really believe the youth hunt is going to scare all the deer I hope. I suppose some do though. Since there are no deer, or bear in N WI now that dogs have been running around for over 3 months right, LOL!!!

Wear your orange, and go out and enjoy the woods. That's all it should be about. Not who is doing what! The more time you waste on worrying about what others are doing. The less you have to enjoy the outdoors!

my son is very excited, we've struck out 3 yrs now. We also have a young lady who is going to try her luck for the first time too. She got gun-shy practicing w/ too large a gun 2 years ago but started shooting a 22 this summer and has worked her way back into it.

I bowhunt Burnett County. Last year I saw exactly ONE youth hunter on the youth weekend...he and his Dad walked into a patch of pine with a rifle and about five minutes later came out and drove away. Never saw another youth hunter or even heard a shot! I don't think it's much of a factor in my area as far as disturbing deer and possibly ruining some guys bowhunt goes. I still make sure the wife and kid wear a blaze hat that weekend around the cabin just to be safe. Another two years and me and the kid can participate in the youth hunt and he's pretty excited about that; he sits in the bow stand with me and I know he's chomping at the bit to shoot his own deer.

I am usually up at our cabin in Phillips during the youth hunt, grouse and deer hunting. I rarely see any groups doing the youth hunt. Now back in my day, it would have been a slaughter with the amount of youths that would have done it. No impact at all that I see.

@south farm I too have a cabin in Burrnett county that I will be hunting at. I don't think there will be a lot of youth hunters in the area, the hunting pressure has really gone down over the year with the lack of deer in the area.

Up north = different story for sure. I'd guess that maybe 80 to 90 percent of the deer taken in the youth hunt are farm country whitetails, maybe even more in some counties.

Last year I put on my orange and bow killed a big doe. This year I took a friends son out (10 years old) and he shot a button buck on Saturday and a six point on Sunday. Orange makes no difference - take a black and white photo from the ground up to your stand - the orange blends in with the sky.

Helped a first year hunter bag her first deer. She was so happy with a fork horn buck and so proud to bring it home to her mother!

Her dad would love to be here and is in spirit. Congrats to you as well old friend

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