{"id":1464,"date":"2021-11-14T07:36:13","date_gmt":"2021-11-14T07:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailynp.biz\/103\/?p=1464"},"modified":"2021-11-19T05:48:52","modified_gmt":"2021-11-19T05:48:52","slug":"ducks-and-donuts-youth-hunt-opens-duck-season-at-owma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailynp.biz\/103\/2021\/11\/14\/ducks-and-donuts-youth-hunt-opens-duck-season-at-owma\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Ducks and Donuts\u2019 Youth Hunt Opens Duck Season at OWMA"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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\u2018Ducks and Donuts\u2019 Youth Hunt Opens Duck Season at OWMA\n<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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\"\"
The Stoker family and Teegan Freeman enjoyed their time at the Ducks and Donuts event held Saturday morning. PHOTO BY STEPHANIE BUNKER\/The Progress<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There were a lot of donuts, even if the ducks were scarce on Saturday morning at the Overton Wildlife Management Area (OWMA). The Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW) brought the breakfast and a prize drawing to spice up the annual Youth Duck Hunt.<\/p>\n

The event, being called \u201cDucks and Donuts\u201d, started with a drawing at 4:00 am to help youth to get excited about participating in the duck hunt. Prizes included items related to duck hunting such as decoys and duck calls. Arms Corps Rock Island from Pahrump donated a shotgun to the event which was won by Moapa Valley\u2019s own, Alyssa Vann.<\/p>\n

NDOW brought a grill and equipment to cook a full breakfast for participants at the end of the hunt.\n\u201cWe have a small window of time when we can do our raffle before the youth go out on their hunt,\u201d said NDOW Public Affairs Officer Doug Neilsen. \u201cWe want to make this event something they can remember and look forward to.\u201d<\/p>\n

The event is supported by businesses that donate funds for the breakfast and the raffle which has made this a successful and flourishing event. \u201cEvery year we have someone who shows up to donate,\u201d Neilsen said. In fact, They even had a trap thrower donated last minute that morning.<\/p>\n

OWMA is one of the only areas in the Nevada that has a youth hunt before the general season.\n\u201cAdults can\u2019t hunt yet so they can focus on helping the youth today and they aren\u2019t worried about their own hunt,\u201d said OWMA Manager Benny Vann.<\/p>\n

Vann reported that the number of hunters has been steadily declining. NDOW and other entities are doing what they can to encourage and teach youth how to become interested in the sport.<\/p>\n

According to Neilsen, the youth duck hunt in the past only gathered 3-4 youth. \u201cMyself and my coworkers brainstormed some ideas on promoting the hunt and we came up with Ducks and Donuts,\u201d he said. \u201cWe had 44 hunters and mentors show up that first year then 32 the next and after that COVID happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year the event held strong with 41 mentors and hunters participating.\nVann has also seen a decrease in the number of ducks around the OWMA.\n\u201cIt was a tougher time this year,\u201d he said. \u201cThe weather has been warm and the drought conditions poor. There has been a report of less numbers of first year birds up north, which are the type of birds harvested the most.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vann explained that the ducks won\u2019t stop for water but continue their journey south.\nVann mentored his daughter that Saturday morning of the hunt and said that she didn\u2019t even get a shot off due to lack of birds. Possibly her luck just ran out after winning the shotgun at the raffle.<\/p>\n

But not all the youth hunters got skunked in the hunt. There were a total of 12 birds harvested that morning. Mitchell Stoker had a great morning, he was positioned in a blind with his mentor Nick Gulli, his friend Beck Freeman and Becks dad Preston Freeman. Mitchell reported that he saw a lot of birds but many of them were flying high. He was able to harvest a bird called a Coot, and Beck harvested a Teal Green Wing duck.<\/p>\n

This was Mitchell\u2019s 4th year hunting duck but there is plenty to continue learning, he said.\n\u201cI learned how to set decoys in the right places and how to tell what direction the wind is blowing,\u201d Beck said.<\/p>\n

He also said that he enjoys the \u201cDucks and Donuts event put on by NDOW. \u201cI liked how last year they had a competition and gave out prizes,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s fun to hang out and I like that they let the youth shoot first.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2018Ducks and Donuts\u2019 Youth Hunt Opens Duck Season at OWMA There were a lot of donuts, even if the ducks were scarce on Saturday morning at the Overton Wildlife Management … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1465,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_header_footer","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-stories","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailynp.biz\/103\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailynp.biz\/103\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailynp.biz\/103\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailynp.biz\/103\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailynp.biz\/103\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1464"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/dailynp.biz\/103\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2394,"href":"https:\/\/dailynp.biz\/103\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1464\/revisions\/2394"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailynp.biz\/103\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailynp.biz\/103\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailynp.biz\/103\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailynp.biz\/103\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}