Prepping a Girl for her First Elk Hunt

This will be an ongoing series through this fall. Alyssa's Trigger Pull Length.

Alright 'merica, I'm going to pull back the curtain a tiny bit here for you. For all my crankiness and bluster, I do love being a dad. I also love having a daughter and keeping her involved in hunting. She's very good at it, never bitches (what good would it do?) and is very patient and quiet in the woods. Additionally, she's very safe with firearms.

We relocated to Helena, Montana last fall from Minnesota where Alyssa hunted whitetail. She'll be 13 years-old this fall and we're planning her first cow or spike elk hunt. We'll be taking you through the process with us all the way to the hunt.

I hunted at Alyssa's age, but nobody ever measured me for anything but busting brush. I'll be honest with you, I wasn't raised by the most sophisticated hunters in the world. So, the rifle I was usually checked out was the rustiest and least likely to be missed.

I'm trying to do this right. So, if you're new to taking your kid hunting and you were raised like me, we can figure out how to do this right together. I'll bumble through and ask all the stupid questions for you. Then when you saunter in to the sporting goods store with junior in tow, you'll look savvy.

If you're already an expert at getting a kid ready for an elk hunt, share your knowledge in the comments section. I want to do this right, but sometimes a person doesn't always know all the right questions to ask. Also, if you make a cool video that educates and informs on getting young hunters ready, let me know and I'll post it on my blog.

At this point it looks like these are the steps up to now:

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1) Acquire human offspring.

2) Feed human offspring until they can pass hunter's safety.

3) Spend a great deal of time in the woods and at the range.

4) Get offspring measured for trigger pull length.

5) Buy appropriate rifle.

What now?

That's all the niceness I have in me for this week. You're welcome.