For those Utah hunters with kids approaching hunting age.

AGCHAWK · Post by **AGCHAWK** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 5:53 pm

Utah Proposes Lower Minimum Age for Big Game Hunting

What is proposed?

Reduce the minimum age requirements for hunting big game from 14 to 12.
Utah's requirements for hunter education and adult supervision will remain in effect.
Utah has the most restrictive youth big game hunting regulations in the western United States.

Why make the change?

According to the national Youth Hunting Report compiled by the National Shooting Sports Foundation and the National Wild Turkey Federation:

Youth hunters (ages 6 to 10) are safe. In 2002, with 1.7 million young hunters spending over 15.3 million days in the field, there were 77 hunting-related shooting accidents reported.
Hunting in general is safe. Statistically, the number of people injured or killed in hunting-related shooting accidents is similar to the number of people injured or killed by lightening strikes.
Youth hunting rates are declining and now is the time to facilitate participation and aggressively recruit new hunters.
Youth recruitment is less successful in states with higher youth hunting restrictions.
The minimum age for hunting small game in Utah was eliminated in 2006. More than 2,500 hunters age 12 and under hunted small game in Utah during 2006 with no reported accidents.
Reductions in hunter numbers will harm the hunting economy and adversely affect conservation.
On November 22, 2005, the Utah Wildlife Board endorsed reducing the minimum age for big game hunting from 14 to 12. Public sentiment at Regional Advisory Council meetings generally supported this change to the minimum big game hunting age.

Nevadahunter · Post by **Nevadahunter** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 8:04 pm

i agree

Don Fischer · Post by **Don Fischer** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 10:40 pm

What's the adult supervision program?

Post by **MuleyMadness** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 10:57 pm

Not sure how I feel about this one, hunters safe in the 6-10 age category?? Not sure how I feel about that either.

Youngsters are safe when they have great parents and training. Not until in my book. The truth of the matter is youngsters aren't to safe although most think they are. Some are just plain dangerous.

With good training, parenting, teaching, and course then yes of course they can be safe.

Post by **MuleyMadness** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 10:59 pm

I'm curious as to how many accidents we have each year with the non-hunting youth I guess is my question?

AGCHAWK · Post by **AGCHAWK** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 11:11 pm

Good points Brett. I actually held my oldest sone back a year because I didn't feel he was "ready". He wasn't too happy about it but I would rather he be upset with me than to be involved in some sort of accident.

Post by **DeadI** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 12:04 am

I am a hunter ed teacher here in Utah. We are just finishing a class, now and there are a few in that class that I wonder about. It is not that they don't have the desire, or the knowledge, it is that they just don't have the body or the maturity to handle a gun. I for one do not agree in making no age limit on small game, they should have kept it at 12, oh well what is done is done. I don't think I would mind the big game being at 12, but it is a case by case deal there are just some kids that are not ready for that kind of responsibiltiy. Crude on second thought though, there are a lot of adults that i thing should have to have a hunter ed class again.

Heads or Tails · Post by **Heads or Tails** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 1:46 pm

The Division researched it long and hard before they committed to the small game age was lowered.

The majority of hunting accidents happen in the age groups of 18-25! More than likely that is most of our age group. The parameters for these youth hunting is that the youth needs to be within a range of the supervising adult that they can communicate without using radios or anything, just by speaking to each other.
True. Not every parent out there is responsible either, but for the most part a lot of them are.

IMO it is a great opportunity to get fathers and sons back in the outdoors together, if a kid goes through hunter safety and his dad hasn't hunted for a while, I'll bet he will get back out there with his kid!
We also need to remember that the youth are the next generation if we aren't doing things to keep them involved with hunting we may lose them and if we do we lose the ones that will be fighting with us to save the sport in years to come.

In the last few years the number of youth buying small game and hunting licenses had dropped significantly, they are doing things along with some of the sportsman’s groups to keep the alive in hunting. For our sake and the sports let’s hope that it works.

When this passes it will only be for the general season hunts they will not be able to put in for the limited entries until they reach 14.

I was at a particular hunting banquet two nights ago and they did a lot of things to involve the youth even at the banquet-it was great. They even raffled off a youth turkey hunt; those are opportunities that I never had.

This is just another one of those threads that is just my opinion, but in 15 years I want to be hunting and having as good of opportunity then as do now with my kids. I definitely believe that we need to be involved in some way to help our sport and passions stay alive..........and improve!

Don Fischer · Post by **Don Fischer** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 6:40 pm

I think that people that hunt will involve their kids weather this goes thru or not. It's not the kid's fish and game should concern themselves with, it's the adult's they are losing. Here in Oregon it's all draw where I live. If I don't draw then I have to drive about 150 mi to get to where it's legal to hunt. If I draw a tag for here, it's 5 min and I'm there. I also have to pay a non-refundable fee just to get into the draw. I went three year's without getting drawn in my own area and it's 95% private property. I don't think you could let my kids hunt at 12 and get me all excited. There are just to many problem's for the feel good program's to excite me. Our hunting regulation's look like a novel, you need a lawyer to interpert them.

If you have anything like that in Utah, lowering the age to 12 won't help there either.

Post by **killerbee** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 7:43 pm

well everyone is entitled to their own opinion but, i to am from oregon and I would definatly have to dissagree with you here. the reason it is so hard to draw a tag if from the past irresponsible regulations that allowed everybody who wanted to get a tag, now places that used to have great hunting are still trying to recouperate from those years! I hear to many people complain about the hunting being poor anymore-- we all have to pitch in something to get better hunting! i would rather not draw a tag every year in exchange for good hunting when i do draw. there are places you can go hunt each year to feed the hunting hunger!! yes i wish i could be the one to beat the odds and draw the killer tag every year but so does everyone else. look at other states are drawes over all are rather easy- yes there are a few tags that take 10 yrs to draw but not as many as some other states. if you just want to go hunting there are hunts within 30 minuts of Antelope that you can draw almost every year but their just so/so hunts. depends on how hard you want to hunt. getting the youth envolved is are only hope for the future , i do think 12 is a real good age for big game hunting and hear in oregon you can hunt small game when your 9. i went through hunter saftey when i was eight yrs old and hunted with my father all the time. i remember hearing my first bugle ever when i was 5 yrs old-- you cant replace that!! when my daughter gets old enough{ if she wants to ] I will glad;y pack her on my shoulders and take her with me as much as she wants! my greed for not getting my super tag will in no way keep me from showing any kid what fun there is hunting! remember that to a kid are worst hunt we ever have in the woods will be a memory they will never forget!!!!!!