2012 Youth Turkey Camp

[WillowRidgeCalls]

Here is a picture of what was hanging by 9:30 this morning, between 9:30 and 12:00, 16 more birds were brought in. The largest bird weighted in at 27.4 lbs, the longest beard was 12-3/4, the longest spurrs were 1-5/16. I haven't heard what they've done this afternoon yet. We had 59 young hunters today, every hunter is seeing or getting a chance at birds today. Tomorrow is day 2.

[kenturkey89]

That's awesome, Scott! Good luck to all the young guys and gals going back after it tomorrow

[charlie elk]

WOW!!! Those are indeed some fine birds. There must a lot of smiling faces around camp.
Hope the good luck continues tomorrow.

[Steve_In]

That is awesome. Many more and a stonger rope will be needed. If it was in black & white it would look like one of those old time pictures.

[kygobbler]

Looks like the kids had a ball up there.

Down here in KY it is youth weekend also. This mourning when I laid down to go to bed I had 6 people texting me about their kids getting a gobbler. It was after 11 am before I finally was able to go to sleep. Then for some reason I woke up at 1 pm and looked at my cell phone and I had 15 messages. It was photos of all the birds killed. Each kid had a smile from ear to ear. I got out of bed and about told my wife I was going turkey hunting, then I stopped myself. I knew there was a reason why I could not go but it took me a couple of minutes to actually think why. Unfortunately the light bulb came on and it was because I had to go to work tonight.

I hope everyone tries to take a kid out and enjoys the experience. Hopefully tommorrow afternoon I can get my 12 yo cousin his first gobbler.

[WillowRidgeCalls]

WOW!!! Those are indeed some fine birds. There must a lot of smiling faces around camp.
Hope the good luck continues tomorrow.

It was a tough morning, only heard one bird gobbling in my area. So we waited until 7:00 and grabbed my box call and started gobbling up a storm on it. A long beard pops out of the corner of the woods and heads our way along the field edge. My young hunter dropped him and we picked up all our stuff and headed back to the sport shop to record him. A nice two year old bird 21 lbs, 8" beard, 3/4 spurs. As I was sitting talkin with the owner about all the hunts, another group comes back in because the mentor could only hunt till 9:30. The young lady he was mentoring, hadn't seen a bird yet and still wanted to hunt . Her mom said she could only hunt until noon today. I said, well we still have a couple hours yet so lets go. The owner of the shop said take her to his farm no one took a bird off it yesterday. Now this young lady is a tiny girl and she was shooting a little 28 ga. pump that her uncle let her use. So we got out there and set up, I only put my strutter out and started calling. About 5 min later a long beard comes out the the woods across the field I grabbed my box and gave him a gobble, then started purring on my pot. He looked our way and starts heading to us. He sees the strutter and comes on the run. This young lady was shaking so bad her gun was bouncing on her knee. I told her to breath and just put the bead on his head and touch it off when he gets to the decoy. BANG!! the bird spins around and tares off down the edge of the woods headed right at mom watching from the car. Runs across the road and into the woods. My younng hunter is in tears, because she finally seen one and missed her only shot, I asked her what she was crying about and she says "I missed!! the only bird I've seen and I missed!!" I said well quit crying and pump another shell into your gun!! because we have 4 more running straight at us, her head pops right back up. Here come a gang of jakes after the strutter. I told her to just sit tight and aim right at it's head, and breath. The jakes get to the strutter and 3 of them start fighting with it, the forth bird is standing watching the fight, right in front of us at 8 yards. She draws a bead on it and squeezes the trigger, the bird drops like a rock and the others jump on him. She jumps up and goes screaming at those jakes to *leave my bird alone*, she reach that bird just as the rest flew off, there was no one or nothing getting her bird she was sitting on top of it so it couldn't get away. I emptyed her gun, and she had put the safty back on, before she flew off after her bird. She was grinning from ear to ear the whole way back to the shop and giving her story about her first bird to mom the way back. She was so proud of herself!!! If I don't take a bird this year, that hunt made my whole season!!!

[eggshell]

Man, you got me all choked up Scott. Good for you for making a memory of a life time. It's been a long time since I had that first time experience with anyone. I hope I can see it with my daughter this spring, although she's a grown woman now she is just starting to hunt.

[charlie elk]

It was a tough morning,

Give me a tough hunt like that anytime! That to me sounds like one heck of a hunt.

If I don't take a bird this year, that hunt made my whole season!!

Great attitude; there are things bigger than ourselves and things like this are blessing for us to realize how fortunate we are. Heck just reading your story makes me think the same about my upcoming season. Some great calling there too Willow. Congratulations.

I am curious about the youth hunt, sounds like it is well organized; who does this / sponsors? Do the kids actually attend an overnight turkey camp? Where do you find 59 kids that want to hunt?

[WillowRidgeCalls]

I am curious about the youth hunt, sounds like it is well organized; who does this / sponsors? Do the kids actually attend an overnight turkey camp? Where do you find 59 kids that want to hunt?

The hunt is run out of Tom's Guns in Marshall WI. Tom and his wife Julie do all the work to getting hunters and mentors signed up and places to hunt lock up for the hunt. It takes a lot of work to find enough farms to let the young hunters on to hunt, and make sure everything works out ok. It's not hard to find enough kids, it's harder to find enough mentors to handle all the kids. With youth hunters a mentor can take two kids, but with the learn to hunt hunters then it's one on one only. A lot of these farms will not let anyone on to hunt, but they let the youths on to get a bird and that is great for the young hunters. Sponsors help out a lot for the kids, Winchester gives them facemasks and all the hunters ammo for the hunt. Hook's donates a bunch of mouth calls for the hunters, the Marshall Lions Club does all the cooking for the lunchen, and there are quite a few other that donate things for the hunters, myself included. It is a great time and all enjoy it very much, people talk about it for a long time and how much they enjoyed that hunt. It's great that Tom & Julie take the time to organize a hunt like this, and it takes a lot of time to make sure everything is set for the hunt. It is a very, very well run hunt. Some of the kids spend the weekend at Toms because they can't get a ride there every morning, so Tom goes and picks them up friday after school and brings them back to the shop to spend the weekend.

[charlie elk]

Now this young lady is a tiny girl and she was shooting a little 28 ga. pump that her uncle let her use.

When I first read this I thought oops not sure that is legal gun in WI. Checked and found there is no min gauge requirement in WI.
Are there turkey loads made for the 28 ga?
My granddaughter can't hunt because she too small framed to handle a 20 at this point, a 410 is too small for turkey, but maybe a 28 would worth exploring.