Youth Hunting

[Mooretitan]

I am going to through this out there and hope maybe someone has some insight to share. I know giving up info is hard but maybe for a youth hunt that know one can hunt it will be easier. Anyways I have 5 kids and a few of them love hunting and I am trying to get them into the best situation for harvesting great animals. I have a few spots in other states that they can fill their tags on lesser animals so I am really looking at hard to draw trophy areas for youth in NM. All I know about NM is that its a random draw so they have at least a chance at getting a tag. So if someone has any insight or information on youth hunts in NM that would be great. Hopefully they are lucky in the draw and can pick up a tag because so far my luck is not the greatest.

Thanks

 

[efnm]

Do you live out of state?

NM treats in-state youth VERY well in my opinion and are pretty good to non-residents. If you are out of state and your kid didn't draw a big-game animal then you can pick up Youth encouragement cow elk tags. These are released around July and are over the counter. NM residents get first dibs for 14 days but out of staters can get some if there are left some after the 14 days. While 16A sold out in seconds on day 1, there were 16D cow tags still available after 2 weeks. Both of those are Gila units.

That said, give the draw a chance. You get almost everything refunded and they don't do the dumb points that other states do.

 

[roadrunner]

Sure, NM offers some youth-only opportunities meaning grown ups can't apply. I would disagree wholeheartedly that NM favors youths with hunts. Most of them are much too early or much too late to be "awesome" hunts.

Best put in for the regular "adult" hunts for the best opportunity for trophy quality if that's your thing.

 

[Reuben_Soady]

Some youth-only hunts are scheduled around typical school vacations...like Wed to Sun over Thanksgiving.

Some YO hunts take place where adults can never hunt, but the one I took my boy on was so crowded with day hikers, we won't be going back, ever.

Despite all the New Mexico pictures that I see on MM, I'm pretty sure that hunting anything in New Mexico is not as easy as whitetail in Ohio. But maybe that's just me.

Make sure you have the hunter safety certs all straightened out.

 

[swampokie]

>Sure, NM offers some youth-only opportunities
>meaning grown ups can't apply.
> I would disagree wholeheartedly
>that NM favors youths with
>hunts. Most of them
>are much too early or
>much too late to be
>"awesome" hunts.
>
>Best put in for the regular
>"adult" hunts for the best
>opportunity for trophy quality if
>that's your thing.


I would say thanksgiving muley hunts for youth would fall into the premium hunts list and adults cant hunt those dates during the rut

 

[Mooretitan]

Thanks for some of the input. Really looking for top quality youth hunting opportunities. We have some hunting spots in other states that we can fill tags on with some effort. Trying to see what units I should be putting them in for that are a once in a life time hunt. If its all a random draw in NM they its worth the effort to at least try to pull one of these tags. If there are any top of the line youth hunts we should be putting in for then please let me know.

Thanks again

 

[284NM]

My youngest child (daughter) just started hunting with me and harvested her first antelope this past week. She is the third youth hunter in our household. New Mexico provides some excellent opportunities for youth hunters to be in the woods and be successful. New Mexico Game and Fish does not tie 350" bulls to trees for the kiddos to shoot from the truck. As stated before just because it's a youth hunt doesn't mean the hunting is any better than anywhere else, you still need to research your units and and hunt dates, teaching kids the how and why of scouting and preparation is important too. You made reference in your post to great animals and lesser animals. I assume you mean trophy quality, How do you define that? Can your kids tell the difference? There are many ways to define success on a hunt, the important thing is getting to spend the time with the kids, I think NM does a great job in that respect.

 

[BigDaddyL]

Sent you a PM

 

[roadrunner]

"I would say thanksgiving muley hunts for youth would fall into the premium hunts list and adults cant hunt those dates during the rut"

I agree, that is the one hunt they have right.

My daughter has the Rio Chama youth deer tag this year, ought to be good!

 

[live4muleys]

I would not say it is the one hunt they got right. There are some great hunts for elk that are youth only hunts. There are still some that make you scratch your head, but there are some good ones for the youth. Tough to draw but great hunts if you can.

 

[roadrunner]

LAST EDITED ON Oct-19-18 AT 08:03PM (MST)[p]Agreed, there are others. This is one of a few they got right, now if only to keep the gov'rs tags guys out during that time frame...