FIRST HUNT: JEPSON

Hi, my name is Jepson. I am twelve years old and today, I am going to tell you about my first big game antelope harvest.

I have gone elk hunting with my dad before, but I was too young to shoot big game. Unfortunately, he did not get an elk until the day after I left. I took my hunter safety with my friends when I was eleven. To prepare for hunting, we went to the gun range to sight in our 308 win and our 30-06. We also sighted in a 708, but the scope got messed up, so we did not take it. Our hunting area was 45, which is west of Laramie, Wyoming.

We hunted for three days. On the first day, we achieved nothing in the morning, but Harlan got his antelope in the evening. On the second day, Dad shot his antelope in the morning, and we field dressed till noon. In the afternoon, our friends, who were driving back to their house from our campsite, told us that there were two bucks on state land! We hurried over and my mom shot one of them. We were planning to leave the next morning, but when Dad went to plug in the generator, he saw an antelope! I got out of the camper, stepped in two cactuses, got the 308 out of the car, and shot it.
Field dressing was difficult because we had already skinned and quartered three other antelope, and we had forgotten our knife sharpener. In the end, it was okay.

My favorite part about this trip was that we got to see our friends and I got to hang out with my family. It was truly an adventure.