Getting Youth Involved in Turkey Season
By Dave Hoffman
Youth turkey season can be such a fun, exciting and rewarding experience.
Here are some tips and tricks for a successful hunt.
Get Them Involved
Give the youth turkey calls to practice with and invite them to practice calling before season. A box call or push-button calls are simple and fairly easy to learn and use, diagraph calls take more time to master, but it’s good to start practicing early.
Take them scouting and let them pick the spot. Listen to the youth. One memorial experience was a very inexperienced ten-year-old youth picking a spot that I thought was absolutely horrible, but it turned out great.
Show the youth turkey hunting videos before the hunt.
Practice Safety, Rules, and Respect
Purchase your youth tag early, they can then also hunt in the later seasons.
Take the youth to obtain landowner permission. Teach the youth to knock on doors, be respectful, be appreciative and give back to the landowner. (Monat pic)
Practice safety, good shot placement, ethical behavior and safe operation of the turkey gun. Practice shooting, you can start small with a BB gun or .22 rifle and move up from there. I’ll never forget teaching someone who is left eye dominant and attempting to shoot right handed. I recall .22 bullet way off target and denting an electrical box. Consider a gun rest or tripod, or fashion a gun rest from a down limb etc.
Practice controlled breathing and shooting in an excited situation. Build up their confidence and comfort level with the gun and shooting.
Pattern the turkey gun and make sure it fits them and they are able to shoot comfortably.
Practice shooting at a life size target from the blind, especially if hunting with a bow in the blind and a small shooting window. A lesson learned the hard way and an arrow hole in the lower part of my blind window.
Get Them Set for Success
Consider a ground blind to hunt in the rain, snow and to conceal movement. Also teach skills in building a natural brush blind and not to totally rely on a ground blind.
Consider a decoy or two. A jake and a hen decoy can be effective. Try to set them and the blind up accordingly for easy shots.
Teach woodsmanship skills like scouting, and learn to identify roosting, feeding and strutting areas. Observe and learn the turkey biology and behavior.
Let the youth call whenever possible. An old tom responding to their call is priceless. The most memorial experience for me is when my nephew (excited and over working) a box call, had a gobbler fired up and responding to the call every 20 seconds for over 40 minutes before he showed himself and strutted into range!
Make sure the youth has warm clothes and boots. Tennis shoes in the cold and snow wasn’t very warm or very comfortable on a snowy morning hunt.
Let the youth use binoculars to scan the area. Listen and note the distance and direction of the gobblers.
Teach patience and don’t force it.
Take the youth out for breakfast during a lull in the action or better yet cook eggs and bacon in the blind. The camp stove can also serve as a warm heater.
Take comfy chairs for naps.
Take snacks. Limit screen time, cards/board games can be a fun way to pass the time if needed.
Take a friend or sibling and involve then in the social experience. Consider involving and inviting a parent. A reminder that extra people may have to be licensed if participating in the hunt.
Emphasize that hunting is about enjoying nature and time with family and friends, not just harvesting an animal. A memorial experience was leaving the blind during a lull time and discovering owl pellets, beaver chewing’s and animal signs.
Leaving the blind also taught a lesson in patience as we returned to the blind just to watch a gobbler strutting by the blind and decoy. Oh, and a reminder to remember to stake down the blind just in case a strong wind comes up. I remember a funny story and watching my blind blowing and rolling end over end across a field and disappear nearly a quarter mile away.
Enjoy and nurture the experience, it’s about engaging, connecting and instilling a value. We ultimately protect what we value. Practice and instill conservation before and after the hunt. Consider joining conservation organizations like the National Wild Turkey Federation, Iowa Bowhunters Assoc. and attending conservation and fundraising events. Consider cooking the turkey and enjoying the harvest together.
Find Out More
Check out the IA DNR website for the latest rules, regs, tips and news releases.
Check out: Iowa Outdoor Mentors https://outdoormentors.org/
“Mentoring ensures conservation. We NEED people in the outdoors to be stewards of the resources available. That doesn’t happen without us as the current outdoorsmen and women, recruiting more people.” – Wade Skeen, Outdoor Mentor
Pay it Forward
Volunteering is extremely rewarding. It is awesome to teach and empower youth to learn and continue hunting. It is great and so rewarding to have past youth hunters taking and teaching the next generation of new youth hunters. Please consider volunteering and passing the tradition you so value and love onto the next generation.
Finally, Step Back and Let Them Enjoy. Good Luck!
