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2003 Youth Turkey Hunt

Hosted by Bell Wildlife Specialties
April 4-6

On Friday, April 4, 6 matches and 2 waiting Littles traveled to Harveyville, KS to hunt turkeys during the Kansas Youth Turkey season as guest of Dan Bell and Bell Wildlife Specialties. Byron Schrag, host of the Diamond Adventures outdoors show, was along to film the event for his TV show later this year. In addition, Tim Lenartz, CEO of ASAT Camouflage, joined the group to offer his turkey calling expertise.

An early-to-bed crew was anticipating a great hunt for Saturday. Stories were told of all the birds that had been seen and all were anxious to head to the blinds early in the morning. For some of the crew, the 4:00 AM wake-up call couldn't come early enough! A quick breakfast and everyone hustled to the field to be there well before sunrise.

The hunters were divided into 4 groups and taken to different locations near Harveyville. On Saturday morning, one group had a hunt that few hunters will ever have. Set up in camouflaged blinds on the side a of winter wheat field, across from where the turkeys were known to roost, Big Jeff Christensen and Little Josh Meliza waited with John Dickey and his son Thomas. Tim Lenartz was positioned behind them to call in the birds. Soon after arriving at their blinds, they could hear the turkeys gobbling and soon saw them flying down from their roosts. As the turkeys gradually made their way into the field, one tom saw the decoy set-up with a jake and two hens and was determined to intervene. He came at a dead run across the field and slammed into the jake decoy, knocking it 10 feet away. The tom proceeded to stomp, kick and peck at the decoy, just to show him who was the boss tom. The hunters were seeing all of this action not 15 yards in front of them! Big Jeff held off on calling for the shot, hoping that the other birds would soon join them and offer shots for both boys. But while waiting, the tom kept attacking the decoy and began to drag it off! As the rest of the flock joined them, other jakes and toms joined in on the attack. After a few minutes, the flock had managed to come back within range and Big Jeff called for the shot. BOOM! Josh had his first turkey! But Thomas was muttering something about having his safety still on! No chance for a shot as the birds scattered at the sound of Josh's gun.

As the birds scattered, Tim aggressively began calling the flock back and was able to get the attention of another tom. The tom turned around and saw the bird Josh had shot and decided that he should show it who was boss. As he came into range, Thomas let loose and bagged his first turkey as well!

A great hunt with a fantastic finish!

That afternoon, Dan and Tim gave the Littles a turkey calling lesson to help them become more successful in the field. Byron passed out push-button box calls that were donated to the hunters by River Valley Game Calls. Dan and Tim demonstrated how to purr, put, and yelp on the calls. They also showed the Littles how other calls like the slate call, box call, and mouth calls could be used. Dan then passed around turkey wings that the Littles could use to simulate the noise a turkey makes when coming down off the roost in the morning.

Little Dana Schweers bagged his first turkey the following morning amidst the cold and the wind and the rain. In the blinds before sun up, it wasn't more than 30 minutes before a flock of birds came sauntering into range. Dan Bell called for the shot and Dana and Little John Brown took aim. Dana's bird fell, but John's bird gave a bit of a shake like he was shaking water off his back and then flew off!

Others on the trip were Big Stuart Epperson and his Little Buddy Sheets, Big Randy Wells and his Little Jonathan Sherman, and Littles Shawn Schweers, Charlie O'Halloran, and Joshua Farris. All are looking forward to their next opportunity to spend time in the field!

Many thanks go out to Dan Bell and the great folks at Bell Wildlife Specialties, Byron Schrag of Diamond Adventures, and Tim Lenartz of ASAT Camouflage and to River Valley Game Calls, who donated push-button box calls to the hunters. Great folks like these make Pass It On possible!

From left to right, Tim Larentz, John Dickey, Josh Meliza and Jeff Christensen, proudly showing off the results of a successful hunt!	Everyone's paying attention!	Dan and Tim talked at length on what calls to use when and how to bring the big toms in.
Josh with his first turkey!	Dan Bell and Mike Christensen congratulate Little Dana Schweers on his first turkey!	This group of hunters included from left to right, in front, Charlie O'Halloran and Josh Farris, and in the back, Shawn Schweers, Jonathan Sherman, John Brown, Dana Schweers, Buddy Sheets, Josh Meliza and Thomas Dickey
	Thomas showing off his first turkey...on his first ever hunt!