CHENANGO COUNTY – This weekend is the Youth Turkey Hunt in New York, a weekend that provides the opportunity to those under 16 a chance harvest one bearded turkey before the regular season. The youth hunters must be accompanied by an adult of either 18 or 21 years of age, depending on the age of the youth hunter.
This special weekend was established at the same time that I began hunting in 2003-2004. I can’t remember exactly which year but I can vividly remember hunting on the youth weekend and harvesting my first turkey.
I had recently gone through the death of my father following his two year fight with cancer. I had taken my hunter education course the week after he passed and had planned on waiting until the regular season to hunt. My cousin and her boyfriend had broken up and I didn’t have an adult to take me out on the youth hunt. Or so I thought.
The day before the youth weekend, my friend Todd called and told me that his older brother, Tucker, said he would take me hunting if I wanted. Todd’s dad was taking him, so we both had adults to hunt with.
Of course, I had to ask my mom if it was okay and she said that it was fine.
I packed up my stuff and got it loaded in her SUV. We decided to stop and get dinner in Watkins Glen before she dropped me off at the farm for the night. As we ate dinner, I remembered that I left my hunting boots at home.
Since my birthday was in the upcoming week, my mom decided to buy me a new pair of Lacrosse Burly rubber boots as an early present at a store in town. With my new boots in tow, we headed to meet Todd at his family’s farm.
The next morning, we woke up early to get ready for the day. After breakfast, I grabbed my shotgun and put on my new boots before heading out the door.
I wasn’t really sure where on the farm we were headed but I tried to stay near to Tucker.
We started below the barn, listening for gobbles. After some time of not hearing any, we started the move.
After an hour of so, we came up to a field edge. Tucker froze mid-stride and I could hear a faint gasp. Just down the field from where we were walking, standing out from the woods was a tom in full strut. It was obstructing from our view as we approached the field.
Once the turkey saw us, it was over.
A little disappointed, Tucker apologized for not seeing the turkey but he was determined to find another one.
As we continued walking, we ended up by the ponds where I fished with the boys in my first trip to the farm.
When we were on the move, Tucker stopped every few minutes and let out some calls to see if a turkey answered. We hadn’t had a response all morning.
Tucker gave me the option of calling it quits since we had already covered all of the property on that side of the road. By this point, it was only 9 a.m.
Not wanting to seem like a wimpy kid, I said let’s keep going.
We trudged up hill to meet the road then walked down about a quarter-mile to the tractor path leading to the upper fields of the farm and headed in.
We stopped by a small pond on the edge of the woods so Tucker could call. A bird gobbled before he could finish his yelping. I was so astonished by the gobble that I started pointed to where it came from.
When I turned back to see what Tucker wanted to do, he was gone, running through the woods to cut the distance down between us and the turkey.
Once I finally caught up to him, he told me to sit down against a tree. He was going to slip back behind me about 50 yards and keep calling, hoping the bird would be looking for the hen behind my location and give me a chance to shoot without being seen.
I mentally tried to calm down but my adrenaline was pumping. Tucker started calling behind me.
The bird gobbled again but he was closer than the first time. The bird kept gobbling as Tucker called and I could tell he was getting closer.
I could hear leaves rustling so I got my shotgun to my shoulder and rested my elbow on my knee for a steady shot.
I noticed some red and blue moving in front of me. He had to get past a couple big trees to get into a shooting lane.
I clicked the safety off as he walked behind the trees and when he got in the shooting lane. Finally, I squeezed the trigger.
I saw the bird drop and I knew I had shot him. I let out an ecstatic “Whhoooo!!”
A minute later, Tucker came up from behind me. He made sure I had my gun on safe and helped me get up. I told him where the turkey was and he started looking for it.
A couple minutes went by before he started to ask me where I thought it was. Once I stood up, the shooting lane I had sitting down wasn’t as obvious and doubt started to settle into my mind.
After another minute of looking, Tucker found the turkey.
My emotions went from sad to super happy. I had just shot my first turkey with a shotgun that was my father’s when he was a teenager.
We filled out my tag, put it on the bird and headed back to the house. Once we got back, we took pictures and Todd’s dad showed me how to breast the turkey out.
I was fortunate enough to have someone approach me to hunt in the Youth Turkey Weekend. Now I am signed up to be a mentor for the Chenango County Youth Turkey Hunt, which taking place this weekend, April 20-21.
I encourage every hunter to take a youth hunter out this weekend or even during the regular season.