MT Apprentice Hunter Program

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?

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

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.