Outfitting your young hunter

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ly outgrow the firearm, not the caliber. I’ll generally see right around the age of 15 to 18 multiple kids will come on in to get their next gun that will carry them forever or until they want to upgrade to a different one.”

The crossbow explosion of the last 1015 years has also given young hunters more options than they had in the past if they want to take part in the archery/ crossbow seasons for deer.

“I personally recommend starting off with a crossbow when they’re first starting to hunt,” Koffler said. “It gets out their first-years jitters with a deer. I remember my first time I started hunting, a deer comes on in, I’m shaking, I’m excited. I’m all over the board. With a crossbow, it’s a lot more precise. You’re probably still getting the shakes, but it’s not corresponding with the bow in hand.”

Koffler said there aren’t a ton of crossbows made with just youth hunters in mind, but Wicked Ridge makes some solid, budget-friendly models and Ten Point and Raven are good ones too, though Raven prices can start a bit high.

Koffler recommends looking for models that have a decocking feature.

“With most crossbows, you have to shoot in order to discharge the arrow and release it,” Koffler said. “With the decock feature you can just push a button and manually bring it back down and uncock it. It saves a lot on the string, wear on the crossbow. That’s usually what I recommend. But it always depends on value and where a person stands on how much they would like to spend.”

For those who are wanting to shoot compound bows, there is a 30-pound minimum draw weight in Wisconsin for hunting deer. Koffler said the technology with bows continues to get better all the time and draw weights and draw lengths are adjustable on many models.

“I would easily say a 30-pound bow now can outperform what a 40-pound bow could do when I was a kid,” Koffler said. “Now with compound bows they make multiple different bows that can go all the way down to a 15-inch draw all the way up to a 30-inch draw. It’ll fit nearly any kid to adult. You can almost buy one compound bow and it will grow with you for the rest of your life.

“I generally recommend for kids ages of 13 and under there’s a bow that I sell called the Mission Hammer, which has a little bit shorter axle to axle so it fits them a little bit better,” he added. “But then, once they get through the teen years, I generally recommend going to what’s called the Mission Switch and that’s essentially the bow that will last them completely the rest of their life. Economically, it’s a nicely-priced point bow that can go from 15-70 pounds.”

A Taylor County buck pauses from an evening meal to watch the passing motorist on Monday, Oct. 30.

MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS