Saturday April 21, 2007 was the youth hunter turkey day in Pennsylvania. This day comes a week sooner than the general opener. Kids with a junior license are eligible to hunt, as are "mentored" youth hunters. My 13 year old daughter killed her first turkey ever at 6:40 am. This spring is her second turkey season. We had some very close calls last year and she had some chances and got to see and hear a lot of birds.

This year, we roosted some birds Friday night and were set up well before dawn on Saturday. The birds did not gobble until late and I was getting worried, but they eventually fired up. There was one long beard and two jakes in the little group, along with at least one hen. After flydown, the birds answered my mouth call sproradically. I switched to a box call and they loved it. One bird double-gobbled and the others gobbled. Within about 2 minutes, a hen came up to us, about 20 yards away, and started cutting like crazy. I answered her with my mouth call and we battled back and forth for about 2-3 minutes. She started to walk away and the gobblers eventually followed her. They did not follow the same path, however, and were about 50 yards away. Two birds (one long beard and one jake) turned toward us when I called to them, but they stopped at about 40 yards and started to putt. Maybe they picked up my daughter's shaking movement, or maybe they were just nervous because they could not see the "hen" that was calling to them. Anyway, the jake was in the clear and I told Kaitlyn to shoot as soon as she could. At the shot, the turkey was down and I was off to the races. After I had my foot on his neck, I almost could not contain my excitement.

It was a really great experience. Kaitlyn was shaking so bad before the shot and I kept telling her to calm down, (meanwhile I am about to start shaking for excitement for her). I had a monopod shooing stick that I held under the gun for her, or I doubt that she could have killed the bird because she was shaking so much.

My 10 year old son hunted with my neighbor and they had a chance to work a few birds but they did not get any birds in. So he will be ready to go next Saturday. I heard four different birds this morning on the way to work, so things are looking up for him.

Congrats!

Great Hunt.

Reloader

Congratulations !!! Makes for a special hunt...

Ken....

tell your daughter congrats and let her know what a fine looking turkey she has.

Cheers,
Canuck

I think the smile your daughter has in the second picture says it all. Congrats on an excellent way to get the season off to a good start!!

It's nice to see the smiling faces of youngsters with their successful hunts. If you want to really get her juices flowing, go the Alaskan Forum and click on 366Torque's thread on a 9 yr old girl getting a brownie. She's also got her own hunting page going on. Just follow the links.