There is a famous saying thats says “the outside of a horse is good for the inside of a man”. After all it was our Dad’s and uncles and Grandpa’s that got us started and our Mom’s ooing and ahhing over our “trophy” spike deer or elk that encouraged us to take up our bows, guns and fishing poles, get our butts off the couch and head into the woods. We here at Wild Idaho Outfitters like Idaho Fish and Games approach to recruiting youth hunters into the hunting world and we want to encourage family participation in the hunts.

mentored for youth hunts so even if a hunting quota area may have sold out, by contacting and booking through a hunting outfitter, you still will probably be able to take that youth on a hunt. Hunting outfitters with guaranteed tags can also use their tags for Jr. So if a parent or guardian wants to take a youth hunting, with a little planning ahead you can guarantee that you and your youth hunter will be able to not only go together, but hunt together and at a drastically reduced price as an incentive to encourage youth hunting participation. Idaho Fish and Game youth hunts are much different, not only do they offer huge discounts for youth hunters, but most hunting tags are over the counter on a first come first service basis. Needless to say the youth who put in for states like Utah simply learn the disappointment that goes with getting that “unsuccessful” letter or email. This sets a youth hunter up for the idea of putting in with thousands of other youth hunters who are applying for only a few hundred tags. Most western states like Utah where I am from and also guide, offer youth hunting tag opportunities in the form of draw tags or “youth only” hunts with limited spots available. So a spike buck you kill in the fall to keep it from breeding and passing “poor genetics” down to the next generation likely wouldn’t have been part of the local herd the next season anyway.Idaho Fish and Game has, in my opinion, one of the west’s most positive and progressive approaches to youth hunter recruitment I have ever seen. Once relocated, they set up their home ranges and core areas. Young bucks, he said, are subject to move away from their home areas as they mature, often moving a considerable distance. Stanford also pointed to the concept of “buck dispersal” as a reason to pass up spikes. So a late-born fawn that is a spike at 18 months of age might be the offspring of a buck with a 140-inch, 10-point rack - but it won’t begin to show those trophy characteristics until age 2 ½ or 3 ½, when it catches up with older cousins.

It won’t be until his second year that antler development takes on a bigger role.” “Antler development is secondary at that time.

“In that first year, from the time a buck is a fawn through 1 ½ years old, they’re putting all of their energy into growing, putting on more body mass, more bone mass,” Stanford said. “Her buck fawn is going to have a very rough time putting any kind of energy into antler development his first year.”įor one thing, that late buck fawn finds itself entering its first winter at perhaps five months of age, which puts it far behind older buck fawns coming out of winter in March, when the process of body development and antler development begins. “Frequently, when a (doe) fawn goes into estrus, she’ll skip through the (normal) estrus period and come in much later,” Stanford said.

Trophy spike deer