Governor Greg Gianforte announced the winners of the 2025 Youth Hunting Story Contest on Monday and one of the winning entries came from Havre’s Kael Milam who is 12 years old.
“Montana’s youth hunters are the future of our state’s proud hunting tradition,” said Gov. Gianforte. “We received nearly 150 stories from young hunters across Montana this year, each showing passion, skill, and respect for the outdoors. I look forward to welcoming the top ten winners to the State Capitol in the new year to celebrate their achievements and our hunting heritage.”
Governor Gianforte created the Youth Hunting Story contest in 2022 for Montana youth and apprentice hunters between the ages of 10 and 17.
To enter the contest, resident hunters submitted a story of no more than 500 words and a photo from their hunt. Eligible entries included the harvest of any legal game, furbearer animals, or birds in Montana. Read their stories here.
The governor will recognize the ten winning hunters in the State Capitol in the new year.
Here is Kael Milam’s Letter.
This hunt was very important to me because it was my first year
of hunting antelope and I was lucky to draw a tag. So, we went
hunting as soon as we could. My dad and I got ready to go. We all
were excited to go and hope for the best that we could get
something on our hunt. When we got out there, we spotted a big
group of antelope. We decided to go after them. We hiked as far
as we could, but we could never find them again. So we decided
to go back to the pickup. We were a little sad that we didn’t have
success but agreed we would try again. The next week we went
out and we found a big group of antelope. We went towards them,
but they were too far. They were like 1,000 yards and we couldn’t
get closer, so we went back to the pickup. We remained hopeful
that we would get our shot on a good antelope. The next day, my
sister joined us for the hunt. We went out and we were driving.
There were a bunch of antelope, but they were on private land, so
we had to keep on going. As we were driving, my sister, my dad
and I looked over and there it was! So, we drove to a little turn off
and we hiked behind a reservoir. Then we got set up at 160 yards.
I couldn’t get steady so my dad said we can get closer and I told
him “No, it’s fine.” I got steady finally and boom! It dropped
suddenly. I was so happy that it dropped, but it still looked like it
was still moving when we were walking up to it. So, I was scared I
made a horrible shot. When we got to the antelope, it stopped
moving. The doe was huge and had over 4-inch horns and half
inch prongs. This will continue to be an important hunting
memory because it was such a thrill as well as a big moment for
me
