MT Apprentice Hunter Program

[Brian in Montana]

My 11yo daughter sure wants to hunt next year. I was reading the info on Montanas Apprentice Hunter program the other night. Any of you guys done this before? How'd it go?

 

[Pondera]

Yup, just did it this year with 11 year old daughter. She was old/mature enough to take the hunter safety class so technically didn't do the apprentice program. I think it a great avenue for folks that are not sure if their kid will want to continue hunting or are non hunters themselves. I feel it lowers the bar of entry a little bit to young hunters and I know of several that participated that later were motivated to take the Hunter Safety class.

In short I waited until I thought my kids were old/mature enough and both had successful hunts.

Here was my post on youth hunting - https://onyourownadventures.com/hunttalk/showthread.php?285466-Montana-Youth-Deer-2018

 

[HuntingJudge]

My kids were 10 and 11 when we tried it. It was a rough year the first year but that is expected with those age children my 11 year old did not get her deer but my 10 year old son shot a doe at 100 yards. The next year they both shot nice bucks and this year they both shot bucks again. Just a couple tips if you are doing the apprentice season make sure the kids have a gun they can shoot and spend some time behind it. I would put a limit on the shots that they take, yardage wise. They will need to be helped a lot. If you have not hunted much with kids realize that it is a way different experience, i bet the first year we let 50 deer go just because they did not feel good about the shot, and i didn't want them to force it. THe last thing is a bi pod or shooting sticks. Hope this helps a bit, let me know if you need any more info or how to go about it.