Pennsylvania's First Youth Spring Gobbler Day.

[Rob/PA Bowyer]

Anyone take a youth out on this one day turkey hunt?

I worked with an outdoor writer by the name of Melody Zullinger to put out an essay contest for our outdoor youths to win a free hunt with River Valley Outfitters. Also included is a turkey call kit from River Valley Game Calls and a camo outfit provided by Chuck Pensyl of ASAT Camo.

On Saturday the 24th we had 3 youths in camp, their fathers, Melody Zullinger from the PA's Federation of Sportsmen Clubs, Chuck Pensyl of ASAT Camo, Ray Smith, Owner River Valley Game Calls and guide/owner for River Valley Outfitters, Doug Marquardt owner/guide for River Valley Outfitters, and myself, coowner/guide for River Valley Outfitters.

By days end, the 3 of us took our chosen youth and had 3 birds on the ground. We had a lot to celebrate during our needed lunch and pictures galore....

Chuck Pensyl accompanied me on the hunt with the youth and his father and we managed to get some very exciting footage of the whole hunt. We had birds going all morning but most of the gobblers we heard were hen'd up...I did call a hen in and fought her calls at 12 ft for several minutes before allowing her to walk off unspooked..ASAT is amazing.

At quarter to eleven, after a break at the truck of water and stick bologna I decided we should head to a patch of woods next to a field where gobblers have been known to strut late morning looking for hens....upon the first call a gobbler sounded off about a hundred yards away....several calls later from the Sweet Talker by River Valley and the magic of the MOJO by River Valley...we had the third bird of the day on the ground.

What an exciting hunt and I can't wait to view more of that exciting video...
I have many pictures in the Turkey Forum Under the same topic...with River Valley.

[rybohunter]

I took my nephew out, but sorry to report we didn't hear a bird all morning. I was quite shocked, the area we hunted is loaded with birds but not a peep. We saw one hen and had some deer come by real close. He really enjoyed himself and didn't care at all about the lack of action. We saw a hawk eat a chipmunk up in a tree.

[dgdukefan]

I took my cousin out this morning. We heard about a dozen gobblers, most of which had hens. We were around birds all morning and i finially managed to get one in at 15 yards for him to take. It was his first spring gobbler, it had a 8 7/8 beard 1/2'' spurs and it weighted 18 3/4 pounds. Not bad for his first gobbler. It was a pleasure to see how much joy it brought to him.