2014 Youth Spring Turkey Hunt Contest Official Thread - Deadline is April 30

[letinmfly]

This thread will serve as the official rules and entry thread for the youth hunt.  This year there will be three judges... Wooly, Paula and myself.  We will judge the contestants based on the following rules...

 

1. The youth hunter or mentor must submit a picture of the youth or of the two of them with their harvest.

2. A brief story of the hunt, preferably written by the youth, must be submitted.

3. You must post both your picture and story on this thread only!!! PLEASE DO NOT START ANOTHER THREAD FOR THE CONTEST ENTRY!!

 

The winner will be chosen based on a combination of best picture and story submitted.  The size of the bird WILL NOT be taken into account, although we encourage that you post the birds stats.  As far as the judges are concerned all birds harvested are a trophy!!

 

There will be some great prizes given away this year and we wish everyone a safe and successful hunt!!!

 

GOOD LUCK TO ALL!!!

 

 

This is not run by HuntingNY.com

Edited March 21, 2014 by letinmfly

[letinmfly]

The deadline for submitting your entry is 12:00am on April 30.  So if you harvest a bird make sure to enter it on this thread before then!!

Edited April 26, 2014 by letinmfly

[HectorBuckBuster]

This was my daughters second year of youth turkey hunting she is 13 and  she did not have any luck last year. So, we went out Sat put on lots of miles and seen lots of deer and 1 hen. So of Sat afternoon I had my dart league banquet for the year, and one of my dart team member's told me that he seen 3 jakes on their property earlier that day and I was more then welcome to take my daughter there to hunt Sunday. So we get up and head out Sunday morning at 5am as it is only a mile down the road from out house. We get there and sit down and listen. We start hearing the geese,ducks, and seagulls, and the waves hitting the shore line down on the lake. Then we hear some grouse drumming. It was heard to hear, but I though I hear a gobble to the south about a couple hundred yards away, so we waited and I heard it again. So we get up walk about 100 yards down the hill, stop I make a call and he hear a goggle, so I look the area over quickly and walk about 80 yards into the woods from the logging road. I find a nice open area on the ridge. I set my daughter up by a tree facing SW and I setup out Avian Jake and Hen decoys (theses decoys are worth every penny). As I just finished placing the decoys I seen a bird fly down about 100 yards from me. I was like did I just spook this bird. So I got back to my daughter and sit near hear. I got out my slate called and did a light call, and he hammered the call with a gobble about 80 yards away. So I told my daughter get ready. I have here using a 20 gauge Harrington & Richardson because it is small and light.So I make another call and nothing. So we sat there and listed, and I heard a noise. I told her to the gun up on her knee and aim towards the lake. I could hear the gobbler puffing up and drumming but could not see him. Then my daughter says she see's him, he was at 20 yards and coming fast in the brush, he breaks out in to the opening and charges the jake decoy and now is at 10 yards,he puffs up front of  my daughter. He is fully puffed up (not strutting and turns and faces my daughter), I am like shoot, shoot. then bang, She bagged a bruiser of a bird.The hunt over with by 6:10 am. Total time of setup and hunt was about 5 minutes after locating him. It was a amazing hunt, with the bird just puffing up and charging the decoy. The bird weighted 19 lbs and beard was 9 1/4 and 1 inch spurs. It does appear to have a second beard, but its tough to tell if it fits the definition of a true double bearded or just a super thick beard that splits. Her dad is writing the story as she was tired and wanted to get some sleep.

[Terry]

My 12 year old son Hunter and I were unable to roost any birds Friday night due to a scheduling conflict so we had to go in blind Saturday morning. I decided to take him to my best spot in hopes of him at least having some action. We arrived at our chosen location at about 5:25 Saturday morning. We were settled in to our blind by about 5:35. It was on the edge of a corn field with a steep hardwood hill behind us. Instantly after getting set up I let out a couple owl hoots but never got a response. I had a bad feeling at this point since that is not normal for this area this early in the season. Around 5:45 I let out a series of tree yelps without an answer and I immediately started to think about the next spot since I planned on being pretty aggressive to get him at least some good gobbling action. Around 5:55 I let out another series of yelps and immediately was answered by a group of 4 jakes that were only roosted about 75 yards behind us on the hill. Almost instantly they flew down into the field and landed about 100 yards away from the blind. It was like they were waiting for my command before entering the field.

 

They stayed out away from us for a bit before I started calling. They would all answer and go into full strut, but really weren't coming any closer. I was trying to call sparingly and I finally realized that I had to kick it up a notch to keep their attention. After some aggressive cuts and yelps they slowly started making their way towards us. I would stop calling for a minute and they would start heading back the way they came. It was like they had ADD! So I really started to call a lot and they slowly made their way to the blind. Eventually they were only about 20 yards away, but when choosing where to set the blind I put it right next to a brush pile to help with concealment. And of course it was now between us and the birds, we didn't have a clear shot and I couldn't get them to budge anymore. There we were 20 yards away from what we both wanted so bad and couldn't do anything about it. My son was shaking so much I had to put my hand on his leg to hold it down. It really was an exciting 5 to 10 minutes that seemed more like an eternity. Eventually the birds started heading to our right and back into the woods. I told my son to spin around and place his 870 20 gauge out the side window. As he was doing this the jakes figured out something was wrong and started to pick up their pace. He got into position just as the last two were entering the woods. He asked if he could shoot and I said SHOOT!!! He pulled the trigger and down the last bird went.

 

The amount of excitement and emotion that was in the blind at that moment is unexplainable. You have to live it to know what I mean. As the jake fell he spun around to see what to do next. I quickly gained control of his gun and told him to go get him. He left the blind in record time and stopped again to see what I wanted him to do. I yelled out, go grab him and stand on his head. By the time he got there the jake had rolled down farther into the woods. I came up just in time to see Hunter gain control of his first turkey. Our hunt was over at about 6:30. We instantly started telling the story over and over again to each other like it was years ago. After the initial rush of excitement I helped Hunter fill out his own tag and took some pictures.

 

He was a young bird that was probably born pretty late last year, but honestly I don't think even a mature tom could have made that moment any better. He weighed 12 pounds and had a 1" beard. This will definitely go down as one of my best hunting moments ever, and hopefully his too.

 

 

[Deerthug]

This was my 12 year old son, Steven's, first time turkey hunting since taking and passing the sportsman's education course this past October. He decided that his first hunt would be this years Youth Spring Turkey Hunt.  Last weekend my father in law gave him a 20 y.o. Savage 20ga side by side shotgun with double trigger. He also gave him a 410 which he had a blast shooting at the Calverton range. He was afraid to use the Savage and I did not push the issue. During our car ride up this past Friday afternoon we got to talking about the 410 not having enough knockdown power and that he should consider using the 20ga when we went into the field the following morning. Well he didn't give it much thought and half way up he decided that he felt confident to shoot the 20ga. I said ok and left it at that. 

 

Saturday morning's hunt started out with the two of us trying to sneak to our blind when we didn't realize we were set up right below a roost. We ended up spooking 5 big ones and heard them soar like helicopters onto the neighboring property. We get to the area where I had previously set up the ground blind and it was missing. So in pouring rain I'm cursing under my breath that someone stole it. I thought to myself I'm not going to let this ruin his first hunt. After about 5 minutes I found the blind upside down along a path inside tall brush. After resetting up the blind we sat there trying to dry off and heard nothing. Then the rain stopped and shortly thereafter the gobbles started. He was shaking in his pants from excitement. They were far off in the distance but close enough to get him hooked. After a few hours on Saturday, we see two young jakes coming out from the tall brush and enter a cut corn field about 150 yards to our right. I start soft calling on my glass call. They start moving at an angle closer toward us but heading for the woods. Eventually they disappear into the treelike. About 30 minutes later my son spots two hens coming out of the woods in the corner of the property just opposite the front of our blind. Following not even 5 minutes later were 4 jakes. All 6 were heading into the cut corn field. I had a jake and hen decoy out and I started purring on my glass call. The jakes danced around for a few minutes but eventually continued on their way just out of the 20ga range. Needless to say although they were too far my son was excited to see them that close. At 10:30 he was bored after not seeing anything for about 2 hours so we called it a day. 

 

Saturday night he says to me lets get out there earlier on Sunday. So I said Ok and asked him what time. He said lets be in the blind by 5:00am. After another sleepless night for me, (He was sound asleep all night) I'm up at 3:30am and head downstairs to put wood in the wood stove. About 30 minutes later I hear footsteps walking along the hallway and down he comes dressed and ready. I said it's still too early. We sat and talked for a while and he says to me I feel that I'm going to get me a turkey today. I said lets hope so. He wanted to get in there before they flew down from above us. 

 

At 4:45 we head out to our blind and by 5:00 we are sitting patiently in the blind. Unfortunately they decided to roost all the way on the other side of the property on the neighbor's land. Sitting there listening to them gobble their heads off on the roost made me a bit disappointed and I thought to myself well they have about 600 yards to make there way toward us and we only had 3 hours to hunt today. Nevertheless, he was all excited and raring to go sitting there listening to the Toms gobbling. 

 

About 6:30 we are glassing the fields and we see 4 turkeys about 500 yards away across the fields, tall brush, a stream and a pond. I start soft calling and purring and they start to gobble. I call again and they continue. This goes on for about 20 minutes but they are moving from our right to our left still at 500 yards away. I'm thinking to myself Steven is not going to connect today. Then out of nowhere without a peep at about 6:50 two jakes pop their heads out of the brush about 40 yards directly across from our blind. I grab my glass call and start purring. One starts to gobble. Steven grabs the 20 and slowly puts the butt up against his right shoulder and places the fore end on my Primos trigger stick for support. The jakes start walking toward us but at an angle to our right and toward the woods. All the while I'm soft calling and they stop, look and continue. My son has his 20 still pointing straight out of the blind and he can't maneuver it toward the right. I slowly grab the trigger stick and help him lift and angle the 20 toward the two jakes. The jakes get to about 15 yards to our right at a real awkward angle and they stop about 10 feet apart or so.  I say to Steven, pick one and shoot whenever you are ready. I hear the safety go "click" and then the next thing I hear is "BOOM!" One jake runs and takes off and the other hobbles its way toward us, crosses not 15 feet from our blind and drops in a heap just off to our left another 10 feet away. We look at each other and the expression on Steven's face was indescribable. He could not believe he just shot his first jake.  We hug, and he just sits there. I say "what are you waiting for, lets go get your gobbler"!  He tears off his face mask and we run over to where he laid down in a pile and without even saying anything to him, he says to me "Dad, lets kneel down beside him and thank God for the opportunity". I was speechless. 

 

He weighed in at about 18lbs with a 5inch beard and stubs for spurs. I think the pictures describe his experience a lot better than I did!

 

 

 

 

[G-Man]

(by my nephew ryan)

My First Turkey!    

 

The first day of my hunt was starting to be a beautiful day. My uncle woke me up
at 5:00 am and told me to get  my camouflage on while he made me breakfast
(pancakes, waffles and eggs). After breakfast we set out into the woods. We
started along a path that led to another path that was taken on two sides by a
thick forest and a large meadow. We found a good spot and sat there and waited
and waited.turkeys were gobbling on the roost across the meadow from us. Around 7:00 after seeing that nothing was calling back to us or "the
turkeys weren't talking" as my uncle said.
We got up and walked straight through the meadow. We heard turkey's gobble where
we just left. We started to make our way back over but there were 3 hunters coming up the hill that spooked the turkey , they saw us and they left. After that we walked a lot and arrived at a field where we could
see two toms and a hen. We started to make our way over to them but we kicked up
some deer. The deer almost trampled the turkeys as both the deer and turkeys
left the field. We pursued the turkeys only to hear them crossing the road out
of reach.
     We started walking up a hill back to my uncles house and came to the same
path that started our journey.  A heavy rain set in and made everything  more
difficult.  We went back to the house and changed our clothes so we could go out
to lunch.

     The second day was a lot shorter time on the actual hunting part. I was
awakened at 4:30 am by my uncle. This time we didn't eat breakfast. Outside the
air was chilling. We left the house at 5:10 am and departed to start our walk.
Around quarter to six we reached our destination.  It was here that a game of
calling and response occurred. The game lasted for about 25 minutes when one of the
Two toms started down the trail towards us.  He was not within my effect range
by about 10 yards.Right as i  would of gotten a clear shot he spotted me putted and flew away! 

While
doing this he let all the other turkeys within a 200 yard radius know I was
there.  We got up and he took me to an new area about 1/2 a mile away  at about  8 am At some point we came across a corn field and there was a tom turkey in
it. We called to it but it spooked and snuck back into the woods. We pursued it.in the direction it had headed
While walking in quietly, i heard a gobble, we sat and called he would gobble back, after 15 min, I looked to my left and 50 yards away it was walking
towards us. I got a clear shot  at 40 yrds and took it!

After it was dead I carried him back
to the house where my uncle showed me how to gut and clean him.... (THIS WAS HIS LEAST FAVORITE PART  lol)

We called the
DEC to report the harvest. In the aftermath I learned the importance of wildlife
in the woodland ecosystem and what a huge step it is to take a creature's life.

By Ryan Van Splunder
 

Edited April 28, 2014 by G-Man

[letinmfly]

Congrats to those who have submitted their entry so far.  Myself and the other two judges will make a decision on the winner and will post the winner's name on May 6th. 

I will PM the winner for their mailing info to mail out your prize.

[MACHINIST]

congrats to all the youth entries,I bet its going to be a difficult choice for the judges!!

[letinmfly]

Before I announce the winner I'd like to thank Paula and Wooly for taking on the challenge of being judges for the contest.  I'd also like to congratulate the youth hunter's and their mentors.  I'm sure the youngsters got a lot more out of the hunt then just the kill.

It was a tough decision but all three judges came to a unanimous decision...the results are as follows.

 

The winner of the youth contest this year is G-man's nephew Ryan.

Second place goes to Terry's son Hunter.

 

Congrats to the winners and to all who participated in this year's contest.  God willing I will be running this contest once again next year and hopefully it will be even bigger and better.

 

Yes I posted the winners a day early because we agreed on the winners and no need in keeping the youth's in suspense.

[Terry]

Thank you from Hunter and myself!

[JALA RUT]

Congrats to all the youth hunters and their mentors for a great job!

[G-Man]

On behalf of my nephew Ryan and myself (past his bed time for school now) i would like to congratulate all the contestants and their mentors your all winners!!! to the judges an everyone else involved i wish to say thank you! I know my nephew really appreciates it!.

[MACHINIST]

This is a great contest,if someone could contact me I would like to donate something when it comes around for next year.

[letinmfly]

This is a great contest,if someone could contact me I would like to donate something when it comes around for next year.

 

Please send me a PM next year and your donation will be gladly accepted and appreciated.  Thanks!!

Edited May 6, 2014 by letinmfly

[Deerthug]

Congrats to all the youth hunters and their mentors.

[letinmfly]

Congrats to the successful youth hunters once again!!  Prizes have been mailed out this morning and hopefully you will have them by the end of this week.

 

 

[Terry]

Thank you!

[Terry]

Hunter and his new Matthew's custom call

[letinmfly]

Great picture. Hope that call serves you well. I hand picked that one and it sounded good to me. Hopefully the turkeys will agree!!

[HectorBuckBuster]

My daughters packaged arrived yesterday, but she is away with her Aunt camping till tomorrow. So the package is just sitting here, waiting for her to open it. Will get pictures when she uses.Thank You again for doing a Youth Turkey Hunting Contest. After the hunt I had with my daughter, I really don't care if I get a turkey or not, I would prefer taking a kid out and watch them get a chance at a turkey.

[G-Man]

My nephew ryan with his mounted fan and box call!

[Terry]

Awesome G-man!