Interstate Youth Deer Hunt
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desperatehills
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the hunt as we know it has been cancelled.
Only 10 tag holders this year. My daughter was lucky enough to be one of them. We had a fantastic time together. One that neither of us will forget in our lifetimes. Not because of the size of the buck she got (by far not the biggest one she had a chance at), but because of the total experience. A chance to observe gobs and gobs of deer doing their thing... fighting, rutting, chasing eachother around all in plain view. Super cool hunt and I'm bummed more families won't get to experience that.
That’s awesome. I enjoy all the hunts I’m doing with my kids. I’m in a cow elk hunt with my son right now. Wouldn’t trade these experiences for anything.
I did not see that. Do you have a link to see this?
I found the new dates. Thanks for the heads up everyone. What a bummer. Been getting my son buck points and mentor points for 7 years to hopefully take him on this hunt. What a let down. As a non resident his points are almost worthless without the chance at that hunt. If anyone has advice on what the next best option for him would be, I would appreciate it. He’s already asleep tonight and will be pretty bummed in the morning when I break the news.
desperatehills
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With the 5% NR cap I am not sure you could have ever gotten that tag. Last years estimate from Ron was 0% at 14 points.
He will have max points for a youth when he’s 17. The year after next. He will have 15 going into next year at 16 years old. But it’s a moot point unfortunately.
Blacktailslayer
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I know this post is from month or two ago. But they got rid of the interstate youth hunt? Or changed the dates? My oldest had this tag and a buddy's son before that. Great opportunity for kids! That's horse puckey if it's gone. I have two son's working their way up with max points & mentor!!
270Hunter
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They changed the dates to right before the general rifle season opens.
kickerbuck
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ODFW needs to get rid of this hunt along with countless others including youth hunts for deer. It took a while but thank God they finally got rid of the late Juniper muzz hunt. Now they just need to cancel about 20 more late or youth hunts!
270Hunter
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Yeah, get rid of all youth hunts, the youth have had it too good for too long. Seriously get over yourself, last time I checked the youth are the next generation of hunters, I think youth hunts are a great way to get youth involved in the outdoors and provide them with opportunities that they wouldn't have otherwise. It's no question that Oregon's deer herds are hurting but you can't just cancel all hunts that you don't personally agree with. The interstate youth hunt has 20 tags while the interstate general has 1300 tags, the new Klamath unit youth hunt has 20 tags and the general has 800, if you think that the youth hunt is the problem, you're wrong. I stand by this statement, take hunts away from the youth and see what that does for hunting in the future.
Deer
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November Hunt is gone
osu92
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Just curious - how many special youth hunts did you go on as a kid? I'm 51 and a life long Oregonian. Have lots of diehard hunting friends. I don't think a single one of us ever went on a special youth hunt as kids. If the hunting in general didn't suck balls, maybe youth would be more interested in going. And really are you making a lifelong hunter but giving them a chance at a once in a lifetime hunt like this Interstate was? I bet a good portion of those kids drop right out after the first crappy adult tag hunt they go on.
kickerbuck
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I was going to leave this one alone, but since osu92 responded and a few others I will give a little more info on the topic from my point of view. First, I didn't say get rid of every youth hunt but there are 20 or more youth or series 600 deer hunts that ODFW could get rid of and help the deer. You're talking about a state in Oregon with MAX opportunity for all hunters and youth! At what point is enough enough? When ODFW starts eliminating late season hunts or changing the dates you know something must really be wrong with the herd numbers and the hunt.
My co-workers daughter had the Interstate tag 3 years ago. She shot the best buck they saw which was a 20 inch 4x4. To this day they talk about how dissapointed they are that they even shot that deer. His daughter now 18 yrs old has decided not to hunt Oregon anymore. His other daughter 16 yrs old has hunted Oregon several times and last year she got a buck in CO. I ran into her at the gas station and asked her about her CO hunt. At the end of our conversation she said she was done with Oregon! So 2 youth hunters that Oregon lost due to a lack of animals or the kids just thought they had a crappy hunt here?
So if we want to get the youth involved then I'm all for it. But let's have a hunt where the deer can handle it. When every unit except for the Wagontire unit is thousands of deer below objectives how on God's Green Earth can we justify shooting a rutting mature buck??? That one buck to me is priceless! For that one buck to make it through a gauntlet all year only to be shot in the rut isn't right to me youth hunt or not. If the numbers were better then have at it, but their not!!!
Most units at least over east are at 12 bucks per 100 does, some units are in single digits. That's why I say that one buck or 20 bucks for a youth hunt are PRICELESS! My personal agenda was brought up and actually I have 14 yr old twins. So no personal agenda from me. But I'm the guy who drew 2 Harney Basin doe tags for my kids last year and didn't purchase them, just to try and save 2 does and possibly their fawns in the spring. I see it as we gave 6 deer a chance, and my kids loved it!!!
My co-workers daughter had the Interstate tag 3 years ago. She shot the best buck they saw which was a 20 inch 4x4. To this day they talk about how dissapointed they are that they even shot that deer. His daughter now 18 yrs old has decided not to hunt Oregon anymore. His other daughter 16 yrs old has hunted Oregon several times and last year she got a buck in CO. I ran into her at the gas station and asked her about her CO hunt. At the end of our conversation she said she was done with Oregon! So 2 youth hunters that Oregon lost due to a lack of animals or the kids just thought they had a crappy hunt here?
So if we want to get the youth involved then I'm all for it. But let's have a hunt where the deer can handle it. When every unit except for the Wagontire unit is thousands of deer below objectives how on God's Green Earth can we justify shooting a rutting mature buck??? That one buck to me is priceless! For that one buck to make it through a gauntlet all year only to be shot in the rut isn't right to me youth hunt or not. If the numbers were better then have at it, but their not!!!
Most units at least over east are at 12 bucks per 100 does, some units are in single digits. That's why I say that one buck or 20 bucks for a youth hunt are PRICELESS! My personal agenda was brought up and actually I have 14 yr old twins. So no personal agenda from me. But I'm the guy who drew 2 Harney Basin doe tags for my kids last year and didn't purchase them, just to try and save 2 does and possibly their fawns in the spring. I see it as we gave 6 deer a chance, and my kids loved it!!!
If someone couldnt find better than a 20" buck on that hunt 3 years ago they were the minority. With that said every kid was not going to kill a 200" buck. Not all of those deer are residents of the interstate unit. On one hand it does spoil kids because they are not going to have another hunt of that caliber in Oregon. There were alot of adults complaining because there was no adult draw hunt that equaled the 175T hunt.
The juniper muzzleloader hunt allowed the harvest of a few bucks that only left the refuge during the rut, if at all and most of the time it was a post rut hunt.
The juniper muzzleloader hunt allowed the harvest of a few bucks that only left the refuge during the rut, if at all and most of the time it was a post rut hunt.
I do think deer management is poor in general. But it’s clear that most tag cuts are done for face value and not for herd protection. I can see how having 25 tags in the rut can be detrimental to the mature bucks in a herd, but interstate had been rolling out 1300+ tags for the general rifle season for years and finally they cut it to 850. The reality is interstate should be cut down to a few hundred tags at the most to maintain a good age class. The problem is the money. The 25 rut tags and the 1300 general tags are the same price per tag. The government can cut 25 rut tags and it looks super impactful to most, but still collect all the cash from the general tags. So the question is: would you rather have 1300 people out shooting every 1-3 year old buck they can? Or cut that number down to 300ish and allow 25 kids a chance at to chase a decent buck? And if you cut the slaughter of young bucks down in the general, maybe the 300 general tag holders would have a better chance at shooting 4+ year old bucks. But herd management is almost never the priority over the money that tag sales bring the government.
TargetPanic
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My brother and I have the late October muzzleloader tag and have never been to the unit other than for muzzleloader antelope last year. Do you have and tips for locating them or timeline for when they start migrating towards California? Anything helps, thank you!
