Taking a youth hunting creates memorable experiences

She sits on a plastic bucket in a field with her toy wooden gun, admiring the caterpillars and butterflies, while her father waits alongside and hopes for doves to fly into shotgun range.

They are creating a memory and nurturing a seed planted a couple of years ago. She was 3 then and her dad had taken a deer during the modern gun season. Seeing the harvested animal up close intrigued her.

The daughter may decide when she is older that it would be more fun to participate than watch. If that’s the case, and her parents agree she’s ready, little stands in her way.

Each fall, Kentucky offers youth hunters special opportunities to take deer, doves, elk, furbearers, waterfowl and, now, bears. A hunter is considered a youth if they are age 15 or under at the time of the hunt.

“I encourage everyone to take a kid out hunting this fall,” said Steve Beam, Wildlife Division director for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. “We have some amazing opportunities for our kids out there.”

Among the most popular is the statewide youth-only firearms deer season that runs for two consecutive days starting the second Saturday in October. This year, the dates are Oct. 10 and 11. The appropriate hunting license and deer permits are required, and all other zone restrictions and hunter requirements apply. Most of the state’s Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) are open for this special deer hunting opportunity for youth hunters, including some of the most sought-after locations, Beam said.

“Adults spend years building preference points to draw the quota hunts on places like Big Rivers and Ballard,” he said, “but if you have a child who wants to deer hunt there, just load them in the car and head that way for the October youth deer weekend.”

A new youth-only bear season coincides with the free youth weekend for deer, which this year is scheduled for Dec. 26 and 27. The youth-only bear season harvest quota is five bears of either sex. A hunting license and bear permit is required. The seven-day free youth hunting and trapping week also starts the Saturday after Christmas. It represents a great opportunity to mentor young hunters and trappers. Furbearers may be hunted or trapped and small game hunters may pursue rabbits, quail, grouse and squirrels.

Children under the age of 16 are not required to have licenses, permits or hunter education certification during the Free Youth Weekend for deer and the Free Youth Hunting and Trapping Week. The first free youth weekend will start this Saturday, October 10.