Who's too young

I believe it is up to the parents, if they feel their child has the proper training and ability then who am I to say they can or cant.
 
If you want to take it one step further, we can look at those deer that are left limping, or to die with a gut shot thats never recovered. Most of those deer are hit by people of a more mature age.

My point is not who wounds deer or who don't. My point is about the young mind of a 5 year old being taught to kill; not hunt. At 5 I was still playing with a cap gun, not a loaded deer rifle. We have enough folks who are killers; not hunters. It doesn't create a future hunter in my opinion. 12 used to be the age of legal hunting with a parent. Lowering it to any age just seems like a bad idea to me. As I said; it's my 2 cents.

IMO..children develope in different ways... so age is not a factor.
Who knows,  maybe the child was mereley a observer with a family member.  Maybe he didn't shoot it. Or he was spending time with Dad and it was a celebratory photo or something.  In a way, that would be teaching the youngster about death and living off the land. 
 
I would rather trust mentored youth hunters than most of the hunters that are associated with first day Buck hunting.
 
 
 

Personally I would like to see the mentored youth season changed.
 
I think you should have some type of FORMAL safety training before discharging a firearm in the woods.
Lower the age on taking the Hunter Safety Course so if you can pass the test you can buy a Junior lisc.
Not all hunters out there taking advantage of the MYH are the best teachers of Safety.
Many of those hunters that you complain about being idiots(i agree) are also some of the ones training their youth..
 
At least this way they would have some proper Safety Training.
 
My sons 8 yrs old this year and still isn't ready to go shoot a deer. As EG said he will squirrel and rabbit hunt first.

Well one of the primary regulations with the mentored hunt is that the adult is in control of the gun at all times until in a stationary position. And the youth must be within arm's reach so the youngster being able to handle a gun in different sitations is a moot point. The adult is supposed to be in control of the hunting sitation at all times. Frankly, I think it's one of the safest scenarios in the woods.

I agree largely that 5 or 6 is probably too young. My son is 9 and I've been wanting to take him out for a few years but he wasn't mentally or physically ready to hunt deer until this year. I had certain standards for him as he progressed from a Red Ryder at age 6 to a deer rifle this year.

He had to show me that he understood and could practice gun safety. He had to show me shooting competency from prone, kneeling and standing shots - with and without shooting sticks with each gun - Red Ryder, a scoped bb gun, a .22 and a deer rifle.

He is mature enough that he declined to take shots at 3 deer when he wasn't ready or comfortable with the shot. I wasn't encouraging him to take risky, long range shots or anything, but he knows not to shoot until he's steady and on the vitals. All three times with me whispering direction to him, he couldn't get on the vitals in the few moments he had to shoot, so he didn't shoot. When he finally got the oppotunity to take his time and get settled he dropped a spike with one shot.

In each scenario, I held the shooting stick and controlled the safety, not because he couldn't but because I didn't want him to shoot until I was comfortable with the shot according to his ability. He did all the rest.

The way we hunted, he was absolutely no danger to other hunters that may have been in the area. He was also no danger to roads, houses or livestock because I was in control of every shooting scenario we faced, which is what is intended by the regulations of this program. The mentored program is as safe as the adult makes it, and if the adult doesn't make safety and ethics the top priorities, is that really any less safe or ethical than that adult hunting on his own just because a kid is pulling the trigger?

I bet the Dad or uncle shot it for the 5 year old 

Bogey, I get what yer saying and agree for the most part.
 
But I'd argue that while a 12 or 14 year old who has been through HTE may in fact REALIZE he or she is getting bad advice or instruction from a mentor, it doesn't take long for the mentor to break the kid down and teach him or her to hunt like a slob.
 
Think about when you were 16 - 4 years after your HTE - and you could hunt on your own.  If you were at all like me, you knew who the slobs were by then.  You knew you absolutely wouldn't hunt with certain guys.  Even though we'd all been through HTE, by and large the people that mentored us determined whether or not we were slobs. 
 
I'd be all for some type of modified HTE for a kid to be able to participate in the mentored program as it's currently constituted - education for both the kid and any adult that wanted to serve as a mentor. 

'Zactly
 
My dad was 51 when he took me hunting for the first time at age 13.  He hunted every day as a kid, but he was almost shot when he was in his late 20's when his cousin laid a 30/30 bullet between his feet while unloading his gun. 
 
Although he never punched me in the chest, there were 2 times during the first two years when the hunt was over immediately when I handled the gun unsafely.  Right out of the woods, and straight home. 

As a father of a young hunter I can say that it all depends on the child.  My son is 9, last year as an 8 year old he shot his first deer.  He took a perfect shot one inch behind the should at 50 yards at a nice 5 pt standing broad side and stopped.  We were hunting from a 2 man ladder stand.  He had passed on a bigger deer earlier in the day because we could not get it to stop, very responsible decision on his part.  After the shot, he was shaking and excited as all deer hunters are.  This year he did not get a deer and still stuck with the season and deemed it a great success becuase we got to spend time together in the woods.

As there are no young kids in my family, and won't be for quite some time, I heard about the MYP and generally thought, "Good.  They're getting kids out there earlier, and keeping it safe.  Wish they had that when I was a kid." and basically didn't really come back around to thinking about it much.
 
I'm surprised to learn that the kids don't have to complete a Hunter Safety course.  In my opinion, this course should be a must for ALL hunters.  If the child isn't capable of successful completion of the course, they aren't ready for the woods.  I'm sure plenty of 5yo's would pass with flying colors, while other 8 and 9 year olds would struggle.  That should be the deciding factor, again IMHO.
 
For my part, I was (and still am) somewhat over-cautious.  The vast majority of the deer I've shot had to come to a complete stop.  It's not that I couldn't get on them, it's just that i'm very concerned with placing a good shot.  Sometimes it drives my dad nuts when we're hunting together, because he's more comfortable placing a good shot on a moving deer, but he's never pressured me to shoot if I wasn't ready.  I've taken a few deer moving, and placed some fairly tricky shots since those times, but overall, I'm still more hesitant than most.  
 
I think the distinction between deer and small game is highly relevant as well.  Even without the MYP, I think they could allow 8-11 yo's to hunt small game before getting into deer at 12, but really, I think thus far the MYP is doing more good than bad. 

I think the mentor program overall has been a decent program, but like one of the earlier posts I think lots of the deer are shot by the mentor and not the youth. 
 
Personally, I never saw anything wrong with making a kid wait for his/her 12th birthday, but kids don't have to wait for much of anything anymore... I can still remember the anticipation and excitement of turning 12 and finally getting to hunt...

Can they pass a hunter safety course

 
REALLY ?????
 
I know adults that could not pass a hunter's safety course... LOL
 
did ya hear about the hunter shooting himself while loading his gun... the one that did not have a safety belt on and fell out of his tree stand.. the one a few weeks ago where a guy was putting a loaded gun in his vechicle and shot his kid in the back seat .... the guy who shot and killed a teenager thinking he was a spring turkey... in infamous pregnant lady sitting in her car ...etc... etc
 
 
HOW MANY MENTORED ACCIDENTS HAVE WE HEARD OF..
 
It's up to the mentor if he or she feels the child is old enough
 
and with today's computer games I know 3 years olds who know what it means to"shoot to kill" and the meaning of death..
 
I also got to meet several youngsters who shot big deer this year as mentored youths .. one with a "pumpkin ball" and 2 with small caliber rifles... and 2 with crossbows(but that also was a reason many of us fought to get crossbows legalized in archery as well as rifle season)
 
 
Did the mentor shoot the deer  ? 
 
I have heard adults talk about using a wife's or kid's tag = YEARS AGO !!!!!
 
It's kind of nice to read that more of you seem to be agreeing with me -- finally -- that there is a good number of hunters out there that should not be and are breaking game codes every year !!!!!!! :)