Fursniper
Active member
The Southern AZ Wildlife Callers (SAWC) held their 1st predator calling youth hunt near Tucson, AZ. The purpose of the youth hunt was to introduce kids with little or no hunting experience to the sport of predator hunting in hopes of recruiting new hunters. The SAWC received a grant from the National Shooting Sports Foundation to conduct the event and also received help from several sponsors including Predator Masters, Carver Calls, AllPredatorCalls.com, the AZ Game and Fish Dept, and the Bureau of Land Management. After 2 years of planning, it all came together this weekend.
The AZ Game and Fish Dept. advertised the event in their hunting regulation booklet. The SAWC is a small club with a limited number of mentors so participation was kept below 20 youth with a parent. There was enough interest that the SAWC ended up turning people away. About a day before the youth hunt, an orientation meeting was held to assign novice families a mentor from the SAWC and for them to plan their predator hunt together. The event was free to families and the SAWC had received lots of merchandise from sponsors to give away to the kids. There were 17 kids plus parents signed up to go. After giving their confirmation, 13 youth and their parents cancelled at the last minute. It was weird receiving confirmation from everyone to attend 2 days before, then within 24 hours of the event, 76% cancelled going. The end result was only 4 youth showed up to participate in the youth hunt. Those who cancelled missed out on a spectacular time. Those that came had a blast and made life long memories. The picture below (left to right) is Patrick, Erik, and Alex. Nicholas left early to attend his sister’s birthday party so we missed getting a picture of him. These were the 4 youth hunters that attended.
There were 4 groups consisting of a mentor from the SAWC with a youth and parent that had never been predator calling before. Below are the mentors with their youth hunters. The mentors left to right are Bob, Jim, and Roger. The forth team missing is Nicholas with his mentor Doug.
The morning was spent predator calling and the check in was held in the afternoon. A total of 12 coyotes were called in among the 4 different groups. Every kid experienced a coyote being called in by their mentor and put in front of them to shoot, but not everyone connected. When the dust settled, Patrick connected and really put the smack on his first coyote. He was ecstatic!
Below is Patrick (middle) with his very proud dad (left) and his SAWC mentor. They really got excited and hooked on predator calling. The stand before Patrick shot this coyote; a double came in the backdoor and busted his dad. He is still kicking himself for not taking the shot.
The SAWC obtained a special recreational use permit from the BLM to conduct the check in on public lands at a wildcat shooting area. The SAWC wanted to promote respecting public lands by cleaning up this shooting site as part of the youth hunt check in activities.
The AZ Game and Fish Department provided trash bags, tongs, trailer, hand tools, and t-shirts to participants from their Adopt-A-Ranch Program. The BLM is proposing to close large swaths of public land in southern AZ to shooting because of the trash left behind at shooting sites. If everyone helped to clean up our public lands, we would not be having this problem.
After the trash cleanup, Erik wanted to skin the coyote that Patrick shot. The youngsters never skinned a coyote before and neither had their parents. Patrick did not want the pelt, but wanted to keep the head and have the skull cleaned as a souvenir from his first coyote. The coyote pelt was not very good, but the participants really wanted to learn how. It was their first coyote so the SAWC made it happen.
Erik, Alex, and their mom tore into the coyote learning how to skin it for a pelt. Patrick also took his turn and everyone really got into it. I have never seen an event get so much mileage out of one coyote.
Erik and Alex really have an awesome mom. She made a special 2 hour trip driving to Tucson so her boys could participate and she was just as enthusiastic as they were learning how to skin a coyote. By the end of the hunt, a good time was had by all with memories to last a life time. Helping the youth and their parents was more rewarding for the mentors than hunting themselves.
The SAWC also learned a lot hosting their first youth hunt. There were too many families that got turned away by those who cancelled at the last minute. If the youth hunt is held again next year, the SAWC might collect a fully refundable reservation fee that will be returned to those who participate and kept from those who don’t.
Good Luck and Good Hunting!
The AZ Game and Fish Dept. advertised the event in their hunting regulation booklet. The SAWC is a small club with a limited number of mentors so participation was kept below 20 youth with a parent. There was enough interest that the SAWC ended up turning people away. About a day before the youth hunt, an orientation meeting was held to assign novice families a mentor from the SAWC and for them to plan their predator hunt together. The event was free to families and the SAWC had received lots of merchandise from sponsors to give away to the kids. There were 17 kids plus parents signed up to go. After giving their confirmation, 13 youth and their parents cancelled at the last minute. It was weird receiving confirmation from everyone to attend 2 days before, then within 24 hours of the event, 76% cancelled going. The end result was only 4 youth showed up to participate in the youth hunt. Those who cancelled missed out on a spectacular time. Those that came had a blast and made life long memories. The picture below (left to right) is Patrick, Erik, and Alex. Nicholas left early to attend his sister’s birthday party so we missed getting a picture of him. These were the 4 youth hunters that attended.
There were 4 groups consisting of a mentor from the SAWC with a youth and parent that had never been predator calling before. Below are the mentors with their youth hunters. The mentors left to right are Bob, Jim, and Roger. The forth team missing is Nicholas with his mentor Doug.
The morning was spent predator calling and the check in was held in the afternoon. A total of 12 coyotes were called in among the 4 different groups. Every kid experienced a coyote being called in by their mentor and put in front of them to shoot, but not everyone connected. When the dust settled, Patrick connected and really put the smack on his first coyote. He was ecstatic!
Below is Patrick (middle) with his very proud dad (left) and his SAWC mentor. They really got excited and hooked on predator calling. The stand before Patrick shot this coyote; a double came in the backdoor and busted his dad. He is still kicking himself for not taking the shot.
The SAWC obtained a special recreational use permit from the BLM to conduct the check in on public lands at a wildcat shooting area. The SAWC wanted to promote respecting public lands by cleaning up this shooting site as part of the youth hunt check in activities.
The AZ Game and Fish Department provided trash bags, tongs, trailer, hand tools, and t-shirts to participants from their Adopt-A-Ranch Program. The BLM is proposing to close large swaths of public land in southern AZ to shooting because of the trash left behind at shooting sites. If everyone helped to clean up our public lands, we would not be having this problem.
After the trash cleanup, Erik wanted to skin the coyote that Patrick shot. The youngsters never skinned a coyote before and neither had their parents. Patrick did not want the pelt, but wanted to keep the head and have the skull cleaned as a souvenir from his first coyote. The coyote pelt was not very good, but the participants really wanted to learn how. It was their first coyote so the SAWC made it happen.
Erik, Alex, and their mom tore into the coyote learning how to skin it for a pelt. Patrick also took his turn and everyone really got into it. I have never seen an event get so much mileage out of one coyote.
Erik and Alex really have an awesome mom. She made a special 2 hour trip driving to Tucson so her boys could participate and she was just as enthusiastic as they were learning how to skin a coyote. By the end of the hunt, a good time was had by all with memories to last a life time. Helping the youth and their parents was more rewarding for the mentors than hunting themselves.
The SAWC also learned a lot hosting their first youth hunt. There were too many families that got turned away by those who cancelled at the last minute. If the youth hunt is held again next year, the SAWC might collect a fully refundable reservation fee that will be returned to those who participate and kept from those who don’t.
Good Luck and Good Hunting!
