cloudbase
New member
I've lurked on this forum for a long time, but figured I may as well start posting! I am fairly new to hunting, having started in 2014 with an antelope buck. I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and had no exposure to hunting whatsoever, then came to Montana for college in 2007, graduated in 2011, met my husband a year later, and he was the one who introduced me to this passion. Now, I'm not the sort of gal who does things just to tag along with her significant other (I had previously dated a martial artist and a downhill mountain biker and had zero inclination to either of those activities), so when I decided to get into hunting, it was because it was something that genuinely interested me on its own merits. I've loved to cook since I was a kid, so procuring your own meat and being your own butcher was an exciting prospect to me.
I'm also the sort of person that thinks hiking, by itself, is boring - when I go into the mountains, it has to be with some sort of goal, either to fish an alpine lake, fly my paraglider off a slope, or bag a peak with some beautiful views. Hunting is the ultimate goal-oriented excuse for traipsing around the woods. I've always loved wildlife, and I quickly discovered that hunting was the most reliable way to guarantee I would see and encounter incredible, gorgeous, exhilarating things every time I stepped foot on our public lands. Encounters with wolves, ermine, strutting blue grouse, eagles, mountain lions, and bobcats to name a few, plus more sunrises and sunsets and stunning landscapes than Bob Ross could shake a paintbrush at.
Most days I wish I could've had a whole-life head start on this Montana hunting thing - age 26 is a good decade and a half less time than most of my friends and peers have had to learn the ropes. It's hard to escape the feeling of playing catch-up. But I've tried my best to be a fast learner. I'm a pretty decent shot with a rifle, and I've managed to cut 14 tags in the last 4 seasons (including this one that isn't over yet). I've even progressed to helping less experienced friends fill their tags, including two turkeys this spring and a whitetail and an antelope buck this fall. Helping others is extremely rewarding, and has proven to be the best test of my own knowledge retention. The only thing that makes me as proud is getting things solo, of which I've gotten a spring bear, a whitetail doe, and an antelope doe.
But enough jabber jawing, I bet you want some pictures! Here are a few of my favorites. And apologies in advance for not being one of those girls that piles on makeup before going hunting - it's better to look at the critters, not my face.
I'm also the sort of person that thinks hiking, by itself, is boring - when I go into the mountains, it has to be with some sort of goal, either to fish an alpine lake, fly my paraglider off a slope, or bag a peak with some beautiful views. Hunting is the ultimate goal-oriented excuse for traipsing around the woods. I've always loved wildlife, and I quickly discovered that hunting was the most reliable way to guarantee I would see and encounter incredible, gorgeous, exhilarating things every time I stepped foot on our public lands. Encounters with wolves, ermine, strutting blue grouse, eagles, mountain lions, and bobcats to name a few, plus more sunrises and sunsets and stunning landscapes than Bob Ross could shake a paintbrush at.
Most days I wish I could've had a whole-life head start on this Montana hunting thing - age 26 is a good decade and a half less time than most of my friends and peers have had to learn the ropes. It's hard to escape the feeling of playing catch-up. But I've tried my best to be a fast learner. I'm a pretty decent shot with a rifle, and I've managed to cut 14 tags in the last 4 seasons (including this one that isn't over yet). I've even progressed to helping less experienced friends fill their tags, including two turkeys this spring and a whitetail and an antelope buck this fall. Helping others is extremely rewarding, and has proven to be the best test of my own knowledge retention. The only thing that makes me as proud is getting things solo, of which I've gotten a spring bear, a whitetail doe, and an antelope doe.
But enough jabber jawing, I bet you want some pictures! Here are a few of my favorites. And apologies in advance for not being one of those girls that piles on makeup before going hunting - it's better to look at the critters, not my face.
