Daughters First Bear Hunt!!

[Jerrad Pelzer]

Well with the current situation I thought it’d be a perfect time to take my daughter Kaylee (12years old) our to Wyoming bear hunting. No missing school or sports so was easy to get away. We were going to head out Wednesday but left Monday morning instead as the weather looked better. We went hunt with Ross Adney from Beaver Trap Outfitters in Dayton, Wyoming.

We left at around 9am our time in hopes to knock the 985 mile trip out that day! We arrived in Sheridan and stayed the night at 10pm their time

 

[Jerrad Pelzer]

We got up Tuesday morning checked the quota only 3 of the 8 females were filled so we stopped in Shiptons and bought her tag. We got to Ross’s house early morning and caught up and decided to go check a bait for another hunter and fill it back up. The other guy that was hunting was from Texas and actually went to College about 15 miles from my house ( small world) Out to bait! We got done ate some lunch and headed up the Mountain to kill some time and check to make sure the rifles were still on. The weather was awesome it was warm in town and really nice on the mountain mid 70’s up top

 

[Jerrad Pelzer]

We got back to town and decided to load up the 4wheeler with snow tracks on and Kaylee and I headed up to go hunt for the evening. The ride back wasn’t too bad but we wouldn’t have gotten to far without the tracks. We arrived at 4:30 or so and I got a text that there was only 1 female left on the quota. We did see more hunters than usual lower but none up top too much. So knowing that 4 more had just been checked in I got a little nervous and figured it would close that night. We glassed across the canyon and seen probably 100+ elk and a moose. No more than that I turned and seen a bear coming in. Kaylee at this point is getting pretty excited! I see that she is shaking some and grinning ear to ear. She was ready to shoot. I told her to sit tight and watch it for a bit. She gets ready and is watching through the scope and waiting for a good shot. I told her to wait until it was all 4’s broadside.

 

[Jerrad Pelzer]

We had been practicing and shooting quite a bit and she seemed to be shooting the Tikka CTR 6.5creed a little better than the 7mm08. We decided to use the 6.5 with factory Hornady Precision Hunter 143eldx ammo. This was the same gun she used last fall for her Antelope

After watching the bear, we decided when it does give her a good shot that she would take it. It looked to have really nice hair no rubs and a white patch on its chest which was neat. She laid there for 20-30 mins watching the bear before it gave her a good shot. At one point it looked like it was going to leave and man she got nervous!!!! It really didn’t go far and came back in. She had settled down some by now and shot. ( Right at 140 yards) hit the bear it spun back and bite at itself. ( It looked like a good hit) and turned and leaped going down hill. I was on it and lost it behind a tree about 20 yards down from where she shot it. Then we heard the death moan. I said well I pretty sure that should do it and we loaded up to head down and see what we had.

It didn’t go far 15-20 yards and was lying there dead. The snow on that side of the mountain was deep and lots of it. I told Kaylee one more step and it would’ve slid down 500 more feet. It was a smaller bear like I had figured but she was pumped!! We had a heck of a time getting to a spot where we could get a half ass picture and start skinning it out. It was in a pretty bad spot to start skinning out. Kaylee did her best to hold it and keep it from sliding down further!!

 

[Jerrad Pelzer]

We took our time and got it all ready to go and didn’t end up any further down then we started!! It wasn’t a really far hike out but the first couple hundred yards were straight up. Kaylee packed out the hide on the pack frame and I got the rest out in my pack.

Although it was a very quick hunt I was happy with the way everything turned out. It would have been fun to hunt a few more days but Kaylee was happy and so was I. We planned to take the other hunter out the next morning and go check cameras at another bait and pack some more in. We called in to check the quota and season had closed at 6am that morning. So it made Kaylee even happier knowing that her hunt would’ve been over. ( We did have a spot in another area but it hadn’t been getting hit yet, it since has though)

We messed around with Ross Wednesday checking over some new areas and had a good time. We decided to head back and made it to Rapid City at about 10pm and knocked the rest out the next day to get home at 7:00pm. It was great to get away and I can’t wait to be back out there this fall!! I can’t thank Ross enough for letting Kaylee hunt and I’m sure she won’t forget this for a long time!!

Out of the snow and just a little further

 

[JohnnyB]

Congrats! Nice bear and awesome job by Kaylee for getting it done with the rifle and then doing the hard work. What a great memory for you both.

 

[Rob5589]

Awesome job young lady!

 

[John Kimble]

Outstanding!!! I can't wait to get my kids out hunting. Thank you for the post and great story.

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[Sourdough]

Congratulations to the young lady, for job well done. That was a nice accounting of her adventure.

 

[lang]

Nice job!

 

[Gen273]

Awesome, thanks for sharing! My favorite hunts are when I am with my daughter.

 

[Sawtooth66]

Looks like it was a great hunt! I can't wait until my daughters are old enough to take into the back country.

 

[BAKPAKR]

I enjoyed your story. Congratulations to your daughter.

 

[Austin_Smedley]

Awesome!! Congrats to both of you!

 

[weekender7]

Congrats to both of you. How can it get any better than sharing a hunt with your daughter or son.

 

[Easternbowhunter]

Awsome.

 

[Mac7]

Very cool. Congrats to Kaylee.

 

[Salmonchaser]

Pretty dang awesome. Love seeing the girls getting involved.

 

[slaton]

That’s awesome. Congratulations to her and dad. I really enjoy hunting with my daughter.


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[doublelung69]

That's great. congratulations. My daughter is 9. I hope she decides to hunt with me.