Nebraska questions

[307]

I'm considering a family hunt to Nebraska this fall for mule deer.

Their regs show that 10 years or older can hunt deer and my oldest daughter is 10 this year. She's a good shooter with a rifle (.22) and interested in hunting. I'm an aspiring archery hunter. My family has about 25k acres in the sandhills and we are invited to come hunt the ranch.

The youth tag has a really long season, Sept 1 to Jan 15. The archery tag is also really long, Sept 1 to Dec 31. This bodes well for our chances.

My questions:

Is the archery tag available OTC even in a draw rifle unit? As I understand it, the archery tag is only good for archery harvest and would be non valid for a rifle harvest during the 8 day rifle season, correct?

My daughter and I struck out in Nebraska for Turkeys this year though she did get a shot with the crossbow and we had a great trip. I spent all my time trying to get her on a bird so I didn't even draw my bow. She's a lot better with a rifle and hopefully we can get it done.

Thanks in advance.

 

[307]

I see now that the youth tag is valid over multiple weapons but the weapons must be used in their respective seasons, ie rifle must be in the November 11-19 timeframe.

 

[Jordan Budd]

Your right on the youth being good for all the weapons but rifle can only be used during rifle seasons.

The archery tag is available OTC even in a draw rifle unit. But really even in a rifle unit unless it's the mule deer restricted further south, you'll get an OTC tag for rifle after the draw if your act relatively quickly. They seem to only sell out like the last week before season. The archery tag is not good for rifle, but you can hunt with a bow during rifle season. Just can't shoot a deer with a rifle off your archery tag. But, NE is a 2 buck state, so you could buy 2 tags, one for archery and one for rifle. There's also a whitetail only tag that is statewide. Let's you hunt all of the seasons but is whitetail only.

 

[307]

Thanks Jordan.

My family has a guy who they "lease" to for rifle season so I'll be headed there sometime during archery. My 10 year old is handy with a crossbow so we should be able to work something out for that archery season.

 

[Jordan Budd]

Thanks Jordan.

My family has a guy who they "lease" to for rifle season so I'll be headed there sometime during archery. My 10 year old is handy with a crossbow so we should be able to work something out for that archery season.

For sure! We used to have one of those too, now I've cut rifle season out completely and only let hunters come in for archery or muzzleloader. Gets rid of most of the drama, haha. Where is your families place? We are south of Rushville.

 

[vanish]

If either of you need my wife and I to come out and hunt your family property with our bows, just let me know ;D

We've rifle hunted NE the last 6 years, but this year we're getting the archery tag.

 

[307]

For sure! We used to have one of those too, now I've cut rifle season out completely and only let hunters come in for archery or muzzleloader. Gets rid of most of the drama, haha. Where is your families place? We are south of Rushville.

The main ranch is north of Ashby.