She informed me she's excited to kill something with it. I'm looking for some ideas. She's killed a deer with her rifle at age 11 and isn't afraid to try new things. Her school schedule is from Labor Day until June 1st so it'd be pretty tough to go in Sept or Oct unless it were a close drive. We live in Northern MN so not a lot of options. The deer herd here is pretty low and we can't shoot does either.
Here's my thoughts:
1. Hog hunt - downside is most places are in southern states so if we go in June - August it will be scorching hot. I hog hunted once in Florida with a friend during October. Didn't see a thing.
2. Antelope - this is doable in late August. However, it'd be tough to scout and get a blind or two set up somewhere beforehand. We'd need a connection with someone willing to take a kid out for a reasonable price. I do have two preference points in WY. My experience with this is the Bowsite hunt with BB and once with my rifle years ago that was guided.
3. Turkeys - We could do this in MN but would be limited to a long weekend. Finding a place to hunt is the challenge. The good areas are south of us about 5 hours away.
4. Bear - She wasn't interested in this
5. Alligator?
Any summer hunt would be in conjunction with a vacation too. ie Florida beach plus hogs or gators? Antelope with fishing in the mountains. Maybe shoot prairie dogs and coyotes too? A Quebec caribou hunt would be incredible but I don't have that kind of money to spend on her first hunt.
Open to suggestions here. I want to seize the opportunity while she is still enthused before she has other interests as she gets older.
Hog during Spring break
I'm in Hibbing. 2 hours east of Bemidji, hour north of Duluth.
I would suggest a turkey hunt, I think that's one of the best ways to get kids into hunting. Southeast MN has some great turkey hunting, I could give you some good spots on public land. Send me a PM if you want them.
Antelope is another good idea, but I think you need more time than you mentioned for that.
Best of luck whenever you go.
