Youth Archery Elk

[phillyphan]

My son turns 16 next month and has successfully harvested two cows and should be successful again next month for his third youth elk hunt.  He's starting to talk about going after a bull next.  What I'd like to do is put him in for archery with us?  For all you experts out there is 16 too young for a bull archery elk hunt?  How old did you start your kids in archery hunts if at all?

[trphyhntr]

16 is old 

[phillyphan]

Well he had a bow back when he was 10 and shot that for a few years before we decided to have him concentrate on rifle hunts for a while.  He never hunted with the bow.  Guess I'll start looking for a new bow for him then and get him working on it.  Thanks!

[rossislider]

If he can shoot a bow accurately and consistently, I would say do it. My personal opinion is that someone should be drawing at least 50 pounds for elk, but that is just my opinion. My son has his first archery bull hunt this year. We are currently at the midpoint of his hunt. It has been tough but a lot of fun. He just turned 15 two weeks ago, draws 62 pounds and practiced daily for the past couple of years. Unfortunately, he broke his wrist this summer at football practice, had surgery, and is now using a crossbow since he still doesn't have doctor approval to draw his bow.

[phillyphan]

Thanks for the info.  That's what I was hoping to hear about.  Bummer about your son's wrist.  Good luck on your hunt!

[Big Tub]

I agree with the others.  If he practices and shoots only at a distance where he keeps the groups in an 8" diameter and meets the legal minimums withing the regulations, go for it.

P.S.  he has to have the discipline to take only good (broadside and not moving) shots.  

[lancetkenyon]

My older daughter started her archery hunting when she was old enough to pull a 40# bow, about 12 years old.  Took a deer, javalina and an exotic with her bow before she turned 13.  Never did get an elk tag, but we tried.

40# bow, cut-on-contact broadheads, and a state champion 3d archer = success on game.

51 yards in a tropical storm that dumped 6" in 24 hours.

[phillyphan]

1 minute ago, lancetkenyon said:

My older daughter started her archery hunting when she was old enough to pull a 40# bow, about 12 years old.  Took a deer, javalina and an exotic with her bow before she turned 13.  Never did get an elk tag, but we tried.

40# bow, cut-on-contact broadheads, and a state champion 3d archer = success on game.

That is awesome.  Congrats to her.  My wife can barely pull 40# lol.  Don't tell her I said that.  

[jim]

My boy killed his first deer at 12 with a bow and his first Javelina at 11. 

[phillyphan]

Now time for me to talk him into it.  He has taken 2 Javelina, 2 Cow Elk and 1 Antelope with his rifle.  From what everyone's saying he should be ready to move to archery.  

[rossislider]

As long as he wants to do it. If the push is from you instead of internal motivation, he won't put in the time and energy required to be successful at it. Don't spend the money on a bow setup unless he seems really excited about it.

[phillyphan]

Just now, rossislider said:

As long as he wants to do it. If the push is from you instead of internal motivation, he won't put in the time and energy required to be successful at it. Don't spend the money on a bow setup unless he seems really excited about it.

Absolutely.  I'm going to ask him about it today because I 100% agree with you.  If he's not excited about it he won't put the time and effort in it will require.

[Smith2260]

This is my then 16 year old son. He was very disciplined to shoot a lot all summer and even every day in camp. The hardest time I had was calling for him and trying to tell him to draw. He didn’t realize how fast it can happen and then be gone. So we ended up sitting water and he easily 10-ringed this bull from a well practiced sitting position. He could easily shoot my bow at 63 pounds. But we left him at 55 pounds so he could slowly draw and hold for awhile. Also, the older my kids get, the less available time they have to hunt, between school, sports and the opposite sex, there’s a small window to hunt. 

[phillyphan]

1 minute ago, Smith2260 said:

This is my then 16 year old son. He was very disciplined to shoot a lot all summer and even every day in camp. The hardest time I had was calling for him and trying to tell him to draw. He didn’t realize how fast it can happen and then be gone. So we ended up sitting water and he easily 10-ringed this bull from a well practiced sitting position. He could easily shoot my bow at 63 pounds. But we left him at 55 pounds so he could slowly draw and hold for awhile. Also, the older my kids get, the less available time they have to hunt, between school, sports and the opposite sex, there’s a small window to hunt. 

I keep going back and forth about putting him in for the youth elk hunts or the bull hunts.  He's pulled a youth cow tag three years in a row and is the only one putting meat in the freezer.  I feel like we probably have maybe two years left of hunting before he's off to college.  That's if the opposite sex doesn't take all his attention at that time too lol.  I have no doubts he'll be a hunter throughout his life, but have had several hunters tell me there's a period where their kids stopped hunting for a big period of time due to college, work, new family, etc.  Anyway it just seems like he has a better opportunity to pull a tag for youth cow or archery bull, so when he expressed interest in going for bull next year archery popped into my head as the obvious way to go.  

[Delw]

2 hours ago, phillyphan said:

My son turns 16 next month and has successfully harvested two cows and should be successful again next month for his third youth elk hunt.  He's starting to talk about going after a bull next.  What I'd like to do is put him in for archery with us?  For all you experts out there is 16 too young for a bull archery elk hunt?  How old did you start your kids in archery hunts if at all?

There is NO difference between cows and bulls. put him on a separate tag he will have a better chance of getting drawn, also if you get drawn you can sing your tag over to him. so basically he gets 2 chance to get drawn.

My daughter started shooting competition archery when she was like 9 maybe 10 targets not 3d. she started hunting with a bow when she was 9. at 10 she was archery deer hunting , she had early archery bull elk tags 3 years in a row 2 I signed over to her one she drew.

when you have kids, your top priority should be them! sign your tag over to them. They grow up to fast and then there gone. I signed tags (4 or 5 elk tags early rifle and early archery, 1 lope tag and a couple north rim deer tags) to my kids for the last 18 years. Now I get to hunt as the kids are all grown up so now its all about me.  before the transferring of tags was legal I let them pull a trigger or 2 on a few deer tags.

that all being said do it if and only if the kid wants to hunt , dont force them at all as they will stop immediately and never have a interest.