Brant, age 10, and Melissa Blessington's turkey hunt - 2013. This was Brant's first turkey!
- Photo submitted by Mike Blessington

Brooke bagged her first South Dakota rooster on her second trip afield this year. She broke many pigeons in preparation for her first chance at a wily public land rooster. Her hunting partner Max had a rock solid point on this bird which gave her time to ready herself for the shot.
- Photo submitted by Brooke's father, Aaron Miller

My son and husband after Hudson's first pheasant hunt near Sisseton, SD. Hudson (L) is 1 year old. Great faces, great places, South Dakota!
- Photo submitted by Dustin and Katie Bragg

10 year old Tommy had a grand slam this October when he shot his turkey, deer and antelope using one shot each. He has practiced a lot on prairie dogs in the last couple of years.

11 year old Abbi from Pierre. First mentor deer hunt with dad. It was a great experience, thanks to GFP for the Youth Mentor hunt program and the public land to hunt!
- Photo submitted by Abbi's father, Jordan Kitts

As a father, I waited and waited for the day to come when my daughter was going to be 10 years old. I wanted to take her big game hunting. I personally have a passion for deer hunting. I wanted to teach her gun safety first and foremost. We shot at the range, discussed shot placement and even practiced stalking. All of these simple tools came together and she harvested this nice whitetail doe. Thank you SD GF&P for offering such a wonderful program. Briana was thrilled when we walked up on her deer! We no more loaded the deer up and she said, "so... how many more doe tags can I shoot this year?" - I believe she is officially a hunter!
- Photo submitted by Briana's father, Brock

Evans first goose hunt!
- Photo submitted by Evan's father, Ron

Ryan's friend Paul took him out for his first goose hunt. "Lots of geese and an assortment of ducks. It was a lot of fun! Plans have already been made to let me tag along again!

Morgan shot his first deer in Brown county with Wayne Tesky.
- Photo submitted by Wayne

Logan, age 12, shot his first duck on Sunday of the Youth Waterfowl opener. The family yellow lab, Scout, retrieved the duck in the decoys.
- Photo submitted by his dad, Drake

Mason (age 12) with his first wood duck. Mason had a good evening shoot taking two teal and a wood duck.
- Photo submitted by his dad, Jeremy

Austin was able to score on his first deer and fill his 2012 Youth Deer Tag with his trusty .308 rifle.
- Photo submitted by his hunting buddy Todd

11 year old Andrew harvested his first deer with a Mentored Hunting tag on September 9, 2012.
- submitted by his father, Adam

Evan shot his first duck and it was a full color drake mallard. Evan has been going duck hunting with his dad since he was 3. He wanted his first duck to be full color,and he succeeded.
- submitted by Ron & Jodi Koerner (parents)

I went on my first hunt with my Uncle Jason and my brother Colby. We were in the Black Hills and on the second morning of tracking we came upon a group of 16 deer. Half of them ran off, but I was able to get a shot off at 100m and get my first doe! I took her down with a .243 caliber in the hip. Thanks to my uncle Jason and my "eagle eye scout" Colby!
- submitted by Kimberely Petersen (mother)

We had been sitting in the ground blind for about 15 minutes when we first started seeing deer. As the day was winding down I told Isiah to make sure we watch behind us. Sure enough, Isiah turns around and see a doe and followed by a buck coming right at us down the fence line. Isiah got ready to shoot, nervous was an under statement. He wasn't going to take a bad shot The doe continued and was about 150 yards out. As she continued walking away, Isiah goes "she is moving."  I made a grunted and the doe stopped. Isiah pulled the trigger and down she went. She didn't go far. Perfect lung shot with his .223 Grandpa Stan had bought him.

What made the afternoon even better is his cousin, Noah, who was also on his first hunt, shot his doe 20 minutes before him within a mile of each other. Also with a .223, with one shot, with his Grandpa Dennis.

Nathan Schnabel shot his first deer in November at 121 yards using a Remington 270 in Stanley County. He was hunting with his dad Al Schnabel.

Kolton Royalty is 10 years old from Mitchell, SD. He was able to go hunting for the first time thanks to the mentor hunting program. On the first day of the hunt shortly after leaving the pickup we spotted a doe 75 yards away. Kolton got setup with the bipods but wasn't able to see the deer in the scope. They scooted up another five yards and this time Kolton was able to see the doe. He made a great shot and she only went 20 yards and expired. Kolton was the happiest kid in ten counties. He is really looking forward to his next hunt for a turkey.
- Kris Royalty (Father)

Alyssa shot her first deer the second weekend of youth deer season thanks to the great mentor hunting program. She came in to the area trotting and I stopped the deer 100 yards away. Got Alyssa into position and she got her first nervous shot fired off and missed everything. Thanks to a very cooperative deer I got her stopped again after a short trot and Alyssa's second shot was with the deer quartering to us. I told her where to put the crosshairs and she put the bullet right through her lung! No tracking needed! Great feeling to be with your 10 year old daughter when she shoots her first deer.

Hurray for the mentor program! I have mentored a dozen kids and adults through their first deer hunts. And finally, thanks to the new 10 year old program, my son is the newest participant. I took Taylor and his friend out for a day on the prairie on Friday. Stalked through 3/4 mile of standing sunflowers, belly crawled 200 yards through the wheat stubble. Taylor's shot, 262 yards, sitting with bi-pods into a 40-50 mile an hour wind. Not easy to say the least. Dad's still sore from crawling.
- Jeff Edwards

My ten year old daughter Hannah shot her first deer in Minnehaha County. We saw deer immediately but could not get a good ethical shot. Around sunset we had a doe and fawn come walking down the trail and after Hannah told me to take my shaking hand off her shoulder she made a perfect 40 yard shot. We waited about 30 minutes before searching. Tracking was difficult due to the low light but persistence paid off and found the doe just 50 yards away.
- Shawn Wichmann