Patrick Durkin: Youth-only hunts often trigger petty opposition

Even though Wisconsin’s hunter numbers have tumbled the past quarter-century, some adults get all pouty about the state’s two-day youth-only hunts for deer, waterfowl, and turkeys, especially when kids enjoy a little success.

During this spring’s youth turkey hunt, kids 15 and younger shot a record 3,981 jakes and gobblers. That’s three more than they shot in 2024, and the fifth time the past 15 springs they shot more than 3,000 birds.

Therefore, a few readers emailed complaints, basically saying: “It’s not fair. I never got to hunt early when I was a kid. Now we let kids go out and ‘educate’ turkeys before the regular season and make it harder for the rest of us.”

Oh, how we suffer.

That record kill by kids made up only 7.9% of the regular season’s total of 50,287 turkeys. Further, the kids’ biggest one-year contribution to the total the past 15 years was 3,308 turkeys in 2021, or 8.9% of the 37,266 harvest.

Maybe those critics cheered in 2018 when a record-smashing blizzard slammed Wisconsin during mid-April’s youth hunt, causing a record low 950 kills, or 2.4% of the season’s 38,885 turkeys. The previous low for kids was 1,549 turkeys in 2013, or 4% of the 37,804 total.

Because bad weather can tank such brief hunts, some of us were pleased in April 2023 when spring hearing voters supported taking the youth turkey season from two days to four. Of the nearly 7,400 people voting yes or no, the four-day proposal won by a 62-38 percentage. Further, of our 72 counties, 59 approved, 12 opposed and one tied, an 82-17-1 win.

With such overwhelming support, the idea seemed certain to advance when Conservation Congress delegates reviewed it at the May 2023 convention. Instead, only 32 county delegations voted for it, while 33 opposed it and seven abstained.

With the congress stalemated, the DNR didn’t advance the proposal for a formal vote at the April 2024 hearings. Neither did the congress nor DNR ask the question on this year’s ballot, or explain why they were ignoring the public’s April 2023 landslide endorsements.

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Rob Bohmann, congress chairman, noted: “People get a little selfish sometimes. I guess some of them think we’re giving kids too much.”

None of this surprises anyone who knows the history of youth-only hunts. In September 2000, my former colleague Brian Lovett took my daughter Leah, then 15, duck hunting during that year’s one-day youth hunt. After I wrote about it, malcontents sent letters claiming youth hunts kill too many ducks and chase them southward, making for slim pickings in the regular season.

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For the record, the 3,379 youngsters participating in the 1999 hunt killed about 7,150 ducks statewide. That’s about 10.5% of what opening-day hunters shot (68,000 ducks) that fall, and 6.4% of the estimated 111,300 ducks shot the first three days of the season.

Data seldom trumps spite, of course, and so 25 years later the DNR still reminds critics that a one-day youth hunt has dubious statewide impact. In 2019, for example, the youth waterfowl hunt attracted about 2,216 youths, and they shot about 3,550 ducks and 200 geese.

The DNR’s 2019 recap noted 33% of Wisconsin’s duck harvest typically occurs opening weekend, even though critics claim Saturday youth hunts “chase all the ducks off the marshes prior to the regular-season.”

That 2019 report even included a drip of sarcasm, noting that if a one-day youth hunt is so disruptive, then opening weekend – with a harvest “several of orders of magnitude greater” – would leave no ducks on Wisconsin’s marshes. The study’s authors concluded, “We do not believe hunting pressure generated by the youth hunt is substantial enough to significantly affect the regular opener.”

This topic grows even more interesting among deer hunters. Ever since Wisconsin offered its first youth weekend deer hunt in October 2006, we’ve heard widespread bellyaching, especially from bowhunters, that gunfire by kids disrupts deer activity in the weeks that follow.

Disruptive or not, the youth weekend gun-hunt accounts for only 2.3% of Wisconsin’s annual deer kill, including 7,340 of 321,844 during the 2024 season. Further, when kids shot a record 8,826 deer in October 2016, it marked the only time they’ve neared 9,000 kills.

In contrast, archers that year killed 48,272 deer; crossbow hunters, 39,776; and gun-hunters 219,900.

Again, though, data seldom penetrates closed minds. When I shared data in March 2024 about ongoing declines in Wisconsin’s deer hunting population, some readers sent angry notes. That analysis of archery and firearms license sales from 2005 through 2022 showed Wisconsin lost 65,000 deer hunters, a nearly 10% decline from 672,000 hunters to about 607,000, with most of that 51,000 drop (78.5%) occurring after 2014.

The study found hunter numbers falling across all ages, not just the huge baby-boomer generation (hunters born from 1946 to 1964), who are “aging out” of hunting. A man who signed his note, “Dave a Michigan pissed hunter,” blamed it all on youth deer hunts, and said Michigan has the same problems.

Brace yourself for his run-on sentence: “I’ll tell you what … I’ve hunted the past 40 years and I have to settle for what’s left over and you wonder why people are quitting you take all the hunt away before the season gets to the big hunt of the big opening day most the big bucks are already gone you have so many hunts kids, special hunts, x-bow, regular bow the regular opening day big hunt is a big flop. …. Want more hunter cut the bull crap give the bucks back to the opening day big hunts. You might start to see some other people come back if it might already be too late.”

Whew.

Still other critics invoke the “But think of the children!” argument. That is, if youngsters shoot a trophy buck during October’s youth-only hunt, they’ll risk being forever spoiled, with little chance of ever killing a bigger buck. They could grow so frustrated they quit hunting deer.

Hey kid: If that’s the worst hardship you’ll risk in life, shoot the buck and take your chances.

Contact Patrick Durkin at patrickdurkin56@gmail.com.