Youth Waterfowl Hunt

[East Rush Rules]

Hey yall, I was just wonderin what the age limit is for the youth hunt. I heard some rumors that it was changed to 16 or 18.!. Are these true or what???? I figured u guys would know!

[jblabsnduck]

It is 16

[EXTREME]

When is it this year?

[jlm]

What about a minimum age limit? I heard there is no minimum age as long as the kid is capable of being safe. Is there any truth to this?

[BDR]

Jlm- I was surprised to learn this answer im my 13 year olds gun safety class last year.

firearms safety training for 13 to 18 Year olds is only required to purchase big game lisences. Small game, under 16 must be accompanied by an adult. No minimum age for actually hunting small game or waterfowl.

This is only taken from memory so I would refer to the regs for an official explanation.

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I'd rather be skunked than follow the crowd!

Brian Rogers

JR's Tackle
Catch-N Tackle and Bio Bait

[East Rush Rules]

So your telling me that i can go again this year!!!! Im 16 right now!! That is the best hunting time let me tell ya!

[BLACKJACK]

The last post is exactly whats wrong with the Youth Waterfowl Day, the concept sounds good, get kids out hunting but I would bet you that 98% of the kids that are taken out on YWD would also be out on the regular waterfowl opener.

[jeffyo45]

Blackjack

Are you concerned that those kids are going to scare away "your" ducks before the opener. I think the youth waterfowl day is a good concept and should be done with more species. Those kids that get to hunt the youth day and the regual opener are lucky they have good parents to take them on both days. We lose too many hunters every year because kids aren't into the outdoors anymore.

[Mark Christianson]

I don't embrace the Youth day all that much.
If it goes away, no big deal. But as long as its available, you can bet my son will be going.

Regarding the minimum age, I talked face to face with a CO last year.
He said my 7 year old son is legal to hunt ducks. But he is the one that needs to hold that gun and shoot, with a supervising adult there. (quite obvious)

Here is Brandon with his first duck ever. It's going on the wall. Not the prettiest, but I promised him I would mount his first duck.

He'll be out Sept 18th this year, but I won't be there.
Grandpa has to take him.

[Borch]

Congrats to you and your son. That bird will bring back memories for the both of you. I've done the youth hunt a couple of times with my kids. To be honest the action was never very fast. I could gnerally count the shots on two hands that were heard in the area.

To be honest there is a lot more shooting during the early goose season. Not to mention that to me the duck opener is more about tradition than shooting ducks. If I want to shoot ducks it's all about the late season hunts(not to mention no pinfeathers to pluck).

Borch

[bigbucks]

I'm not a big fan of it because I know a lot of the time the adults shoot the birds & because in my hunting areas we pretty much get local birds the first 1-2 weeks & that's it. I don't want to go hunt the lakes where the late season ducks come, I'm deer hunting then. I can't honestly say it's affected me much though as I generally hunt private land.

I emailed the DNR last year that I thought they should just let the youth go on opening day & then their chaperon could hunt without a license that day as well. Eventually that would either sell more stamps & licenses as you'd get two avid hunters who want to hunt more than one weekend a year, or the adult would stop hunting other than that weekend, which would take some pressure off the ducks.