Youth hunts provide memories for hunters new and old

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This Saturday the statewide annual youth turkey hunts start just before sunrise. The two-day hunt is for hunters under the age of 16. This hunt started in 2007 hoping to provide youth hunters a chance to hunt turkeys prior to the pressure of the regular turkey season. The youth turkey hunt has been well received by residents, unlike other youth hunts that often draw criticism. That’s another discussion – I support the youth hunts.

If you know a young hunter or one lives in your house, hopefully you can find time to get them out this weekend. Turkeys started displaying breeding behavior a while ago this spring. If we get a day with some sunshine and calm winds, more than a few young hunters will fill their tags.

Youth hunters must possess a turkey hunting license, turkey stamp, and a valid harvest authorization for the zone they hunt in - just like adult hunters. For hunters 12 and up that passed a Hunters Ed class, their mentor needs to only be within voice or visual signaling distance. For those that are younger than 12 or still need to pass a Hunters Ed class, they can hunt under the Mentor Hunt Program rules, which means within arms reach. Anyone 18 or older, with any valid hunting license, may mentor the youth hunter under the Mentor Hunt Program, but they may only mentor one youth hunter. If the youth hunter has passed a Hunters Ed class and is 12 or older, the mentor does not need to possess a current valid hunting license. The time period of the harvest authorization (tag) doesn’t matter. All are valid during the youth turkey hunt and if luck doesn’t smile down upon them during the youth hunt, they can still hunt the time period that the tag is issued for.

When the youth seasons started popping up, we kept hearing about opportunity. I didn’t feel like we lacked opportunity back in the dark ages when I started hunting. I felt like we didn’t get enough deer hunting, only nine days of gun deer season. Back then, the chance to just see a wild turkey in Wisconsin didn’t exist, because no wild turkeys lived in Wisconsin. So just the chance to hunt turkeys seems like an opportunity when a season started.

I like that youth hunts exist with our modern version of hunting. I enjoyed the youth hunts for both of my children. They had fun and they were excited to go. I’m going to draw attention to the part about the fun they had and the excitement they experienced.

They had fun spending time with the person that took them hunting one on one. I had fun taking them out on those youth hunts. Great memories were made. That’s the most important part of the youth hunts.

From where I sit now, far closer to the end of my hunting life than the beginning, I feel the youth hunts provided me more than my now grown children. I would have lost the opportunity, not them, and it often had nothing to do with them harvesting game.

The youth turkey hunt often dishes up difficult conditions. Often, it’s cold. Sometimes they get snow, often rain, and at least one day with wind. Yet it offers a chance for a special hunt for both, the kind that often gets muddled by the hecticness of the regular season.

If you know a youth close to you that you would like to have the opportunity to experience all that while letting them have a lot of fun. Well, get out and take them turkey hunting this weekend. If you didn’t apply for a tag last December for them, you can purchase a left over tag for the zone they want to hunt. The DNR website spells out all the details, just search “youth turkey hunt.”

It’s a great opportunity for you, it’s a turkey hunt for them.

This weekend several people, young and old alike, will experience a big Tom belting out gobble within 50 yards of them for the first time. The sound waves vibrating through their chest leaving them with goosebumps and the back of their neck tingling – almost better than shooting the bird.

I want to wish everyone that heads to the field this weekend and for the regular turkey season that starts this coming Wednesday all the luck in the world, but please remember, Safe Hunting is No Accident!