Good luck turkey hunters

[Poonie]

Well, the time is almost upon us. Here's hoping we all get a big gobbler on Saturday. I am looking forward to this season, as my 10 year old son will be with me. The weather is looking to be good, so hopefully he'll be able to hear some gobbles in the early morning and get the bug as I have.

[buster]

Did you miss the junior hunt on Saturday? Your boy could have been hunting birds then.

[bigborehnd]

Anyone lucky enough to bag one, post some pics. Good luck everyone.

[wis bang]

Did you miss the junior hunt on Saturday? Your boy could have been hunting birds then.

Junior hunters are over 12 and have a license and have completed a Hunter Safety class.

He can 'mentor' under child under 12 during the regular season just him and the child w/ one gun and he can let the youngster shoot as long as he is in arms reach. They are starting to sell a permit to monitor this.

You can have two juniors w/ their own weapons on the special junior day that was last Saturday...just has to be close enough to provide direction but not in arms reach as the junior is a licensed hunter...

[Feddog82]

Good Luck to all. I will be out in Wayne County, the northern half. WMU 3C I believe the technical term would be. I will most likely contiue to hunt until I get lucky considering work is slim right now. Good and bad I guess. Last year I was done at 7AM but you can't expect to do that every year.

[Mabuz]

Good luck to everyone else too. This will be my first time out turkey hunting, so I'm pretty pumped to see how it goes. Stay safe everyone.

[Lougotzz]

I saw a female turkey on the side woods near route 52 and 926. She was just 5-8 feet from the road eating. Nice size too.

[Feddog82]

Nice to see hens in that area. Not too many turkeys around in the southeast anymore. Too much development.

[buster]

Junior hunters are over 12 and have a license and have completed a Hunter Safety class.

He can 'mentor' under child under 12 during the regular season just him and the child w/ one gun and he can let the youngster shoot as long as he is in arms reach. They are starting to sell a permit to monitor this.

You can have two juniors w/ their own weapons on the special junior day that was last Saturday...just has to be close enough to provide direction but not in arms reach as the junior is a licensed hunter...

Well, it is called the "junior hunt."

There are NO permits to obtain to mentor a youth hunter. Please don't start any rumors.

[wis bang]

Well, it is called the "junior hunt."

There are NO permits to obtain to mentor a youth hunter. Please don't start any rumors.

No rumor, they start with the new license year in July! The following is quoted from huntingpa.com

The intention from the beginning was to have a permit. POS will make it easier. Cost of $2.70. $1. to the PGC, $1. to the issue agent, and .70 for POS vendor fees.

There are several reasons to have a permit.

1) Track recruitment and retention rates
2) Increases likelyhood of harvest reporting
3) Youth has something to "show off" to friends, and a life long momento of that hunt.
4) PGC can notify youth of upcoming HTE classes
5) PGC can survey youth to find out what part of the program they like or didn't like, etc.

Another benefit will come with the passage of HB 281 which will allow for the transfer of tags between an adult mentor and a mentored youth.

There was no way to track tag transfer making more certain it was legitimate before.

With the permit, a doe or turkey tag, for example, could be transfered from mentor license # XXX to youth permit # yyy.

A small price to pay for all of the benefits!

I was simply pointing out that he could not take a 10yr old out during the junior hunt. I should have been more specific about the mentor permit, one is NOT needed for this Spring Gobbler season but they will be required during this fall deer season...

I will be out there early this Saturday and I spotted numerous birds last Saturday including a bearded hen & one tom strutting inthe middle of a dirt road.

Good luck to all, shoot well and be safe!