Youth Hunting?

[NStone23]

My son just got done with his hunter ed course, we bought the youth sports pac and are going to hunt for deer or elk, do we need anything else?

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[BigGame]

I assume you're talking about Oregon.

The sports pac (youth or adult) entitles you to a deer tag and elk tag, among other things. But you must still select which specific tags you will use. You do this online by 'buying' the particular tag. When you go to check out you'll find that the cost of the tag is $0 because you've already paid with the sports pac. But you must still go through this process. For example, you'd buy the Western General Deer tag for rifle hunting (see page 26 of big game regs). For elk you'll buy the Western Cascade Elk, Coast Elk 1st Season, or Coast Elk 2nd Season depending on where and when you'll hunt (see pages 40-41 of big game regs).

Problem: I think you're past the deadline to buy the deer tag, as the season opened Oct. 3 and you must buy by Oct. 2. You can still buy an elk tag, but the deadline for Western Cascade Elk is Oct. 16, so be quick. (See page 7 of big game regs).

 

[BigGame]

One more follow up comment.

I assume your son did not participate in the controlled tag draw earlier this year and win a controlled deer or elk tag. If he did, he would 'buy' those particular controlled tags instead of the general tags I described in my first message.

 

[Pepe-lepew]

If he is still young enough, register him for the mentor youth program. It is free and he gets Controlled hunt preference points he can use later.

Don't make the mistake I did, get all the tags the youth sports pac offers. We saw three bears while deer hunting but I did not get the kid a bear tag. We also seen plenty of grouse and did not have the upland game bird tag.