The importance of the turkey youth hunt this weekend
April showers mean more than May flowers. April means the start of spring turkey season and the annual youth turkey hunt.
The youth hunt runs Saturday, April 12th and Sunday the 13th this coming weekend. The youth hunt provides any hunter under the age of 16 an opportunity to hunt unpressured birds. Anyone hunting the youth season must possess a valid turkey tag for the management zone they hunt in. The time period of the tag doesn't matter. If the youth hunter doesn’t fill their tag during the youth hunt, they may hunt that tag during the time period the tag is issued for. If they fill the tag, they may not hunt on that tag during the regular season.
Most youth hunters 1 2 - 1 5 years old passed a hunters ed. class and hunt under the youth hunt rules. Until the age of 14 that means within voice or hand signal. Electronic devices are not allowed.
If the hunters did not pass a hunters ed. class prior to the youth season or are younger than 12 years old, they may hunt under the mentor hunting law. When doing so the mentor must remain within arm’s reach of the hunter. The mentor must possess a valid hunting license. If born after January 1, 1973, the mentor must have passed a hunters education class. In both circumstances, mentors cannot carry their own firearm. Besides offering sage advice, the mentors can call turkeys for the youth hunter. Interesting that in 2024 at the annual spring hearing a question was raised on expanding the youth hunts in the state to allow for a longer hunt. Only the youth turkey hunt received support for a longer timeframe. Clearly the hunters in the state support the youth turkey hunt and feel that hunt offers a lot, both to the hunter and the mentor.
I often wondered why the youth turkey hunt didn’t get more than two days. Often the weather doesn’t cooperate. I recall one year that the temps were subzero on Saturday morning with a pretty brisk wind.
Sunday wasn’t much warmer. Other years it snowed and a number of years it rained. In many years, youth hunters earn their turkeys. In the seasons that my former youth hunters hunted, they hunted in tough conditions far more than favorable conditions. Kind of earning their stripes so to speak.
In many ways, that provides much of the intangible benefits of the youth hunt. Hunting in tough conditions provides lessons in learning to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. Sometimes in hunting, just like life, the perfect scenario doesn’t exist. But learning that you can lean against a cold tree, survive a cold wind for 30 minutes, that you won’t melt from the rain, and that snow can pile up on your clothes and you can survive, provides many life lessons.
They learn that after that short sit they can get up and walk and warm-up. Clothes diy and the snow can get knocked off when they stand up. They learn that snow provides great camouflage. They learn that each hunt becomes an adventure. They learn that even in tough conditions success isn’t always fleeting. And they learn to appreciate when the weather turns favorable, the sun shines bright, and the air becomes warm.
Taking a youth hunter out turkey hunting doesn’t need to be an all day event. A lot of the turkey hunt can take place before 8:00 a.m. on Saturday or late afternoon on Sunday.
Not every hunter that goes out in the youth season fills a tag. Just like not every adult turkey hunter fills theirs. They learn that sometimes bagging a turkey eludes your grasp because the hens are feeding a half-mile from where you have permission to hunt and all the toms stay with the hens. Sometimes it’s because a predator moved the birds out of where you are hunting for a of couple days. Sometimes it’s because they move to an area providing better feed. Sometimes they move because the neighbor was making firewood for a few days before you hunted. Sometimes they move because you spook them. And sometimes you even miss your shot.
But if you keep hunting you eventually overcome all that. You and a turkey intersect in time and circumstance and you don’t miss. Those are the days that the youth hunt eventually provides - but only two days at a time. Good luck to all the youth hunters this weekend and please remember, Safe Hunting is No Accident!
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