Weather this weekend has certainly been less than ideal for the juvenile hunt, but probably still better than the brutal cold in January when almost zero juveniles participate.
Still a "bonus" opportunity for kids, and . . . . . . . .
No reason parents/grandparents can't take their kids hunting on opening day of rifle deer season as well as most other weekends?
Many younger TN hunters might find it hard to believe how hunting, not just deer hunting, has changed in TN over the past many decades.
When I began, it was mainly small game people hunted most. Many TN counties didn't even have a deer season, and the annual statewide buck limit was one (1). There was no special muzzleloader season, there was no juvenile hunt, and very, very few bowhunters. There was also zero to near zero turkey hunting in most TN counties.
Many might not believe this, but I believe back in the 1960's there was more TN hunters hunting ducks than even today, and the opening of squirrel season was a bigger event than today's opening of rifle deer season.
As a youth, I spent more time quail hunting than any other type of hunting.
And it was unreal how many people owned "bird" dogs, and actually hunted with them.
Today, quail are near extinct across most of TN (but not because of hunting).
In the past decade, I've brought in some expert bird hunters with truly world-class dogs, and we discovered more than a couple changes in some areas I believed there then to be a hunt-able population of quail.
One, the birds would more often flush over 100 yds away just from seeing the dogs in the distance. Two, there really weren't enough quail that we should have killed any, as their ongoing existence here is simply too fragile. Even without any hunting in those places the past 3 yrs, I've gone 2 yrs without seeing or hearing a bobwhite, and this is an area of thousands of acres of what would be considered good quail habitat, and held several coveys only a few years ago.