12th Annual - 2026 YOUTH TURKEY HUNT CONTEST (enter by Mar 15)

[High Climber]

Harper-12- 1371

[HikerHunter]

Joel  / age 12  /  5464

Thanks for doing this bearpaw!

[locdown21]

Paravel / 13 / 2150
Rocco / 15 / 4650

[bearpaw]

Thanks to everyone who entered. One of the moderators will use a random number generator to get us a lucky number.

[bearpaw]

The random number is 2637

It looks like Jonah 2001 and Paravel 2151 are the winners, congratulations, I'll send you both a message.

Also thanks to everyone who participated in the contest.

[millerwheeler]

Congrats kids !!! They are going to make some
Wonderful memories GREAT JOB BEARPAW ! And all the other who help make this happen!

[hunterednate]

Congrats to the winners!! Thanks again for offering this Bearpaw. Best of luck to the kids for a great hunt and memories for a lifetime.

[Stein]

Congrats, looking forward to the pics of the successful hunt!

[locdown21]

Thank you so much! Paravel is thrilled, we are looking forward to it.

[bearpaw]

The kids and dads got here last night and are out hunting this morning. Right away this morning there were more visitors at our place!

[bearpaw]

They had some action this morning and there are stories to tell!

[teanawayslayer]

They had some action this morning and there are stories to tell!

fantastic!

[Midastouch]

A huge thank you goes out to Dale, Tara, Zach and Daniel. Jonah had an awesome time at turkey camp. What a great job Bearpaw does.

Also a big thanks to any other donors or folks making it happen behind the scenes that I’m not aware of.


Jonah’s lead up to turkey camp and hunt story …

“I entered a contest to win a guided turkey hunting trip and I won! I was very excited and it was a long wait until it was time to head to turkey camp.

When we arrived, we were greeted and shown where we would be staying. It was a comfy cabin with bunk beds, a rest room with a shower, and a really comfy couch. We settled into our cabin while we waited for the other winner to arrive. Then we went to practice shooting together. We had a really nice dinner before going to bed early. We had to wake up at 4:00 am. It was cold out so we set up our blind in the corner of a cow pasture. There was a creek behind us where the turkeys stopped to get water in the mornings. We could hear Toms and Jakes gobbling behind us. The flock came from our right. They started grazing and they moved right in front of us but too far to shoot. Then something scared them and all the hens flew away. A Tom stopped in front of us and with Zach's encouragement, I took my shot. I was shaky from the adrenaline and excited that I got my first turkey. We took photos to remember that moment then we went back and Zach showed me how to clean a turkey. Tara made a good lunch for everyone before they left.       

If you are a young hunter who wants to hunt turkeys, I would recommend you go on a guided hunt with Zach or Daniel. I had a great time and I learned how to clean a turkey.”

[hunterednate]

Right on! Congrats to Jonah!

[locdown21]

What an amazing experience, thank you Dale, Daniel, Zach, and Tara for making it so. Paravel had a great time, made some memories, learned a few things, and had overall had a blast.

Here is her experience in her own words:
'My turkey hunt was pretty eventful. When me and my dad showed up to the property the guides and the other winner Jonah went out and patterned our shotguns. Afterwards we got to eat pizza at the cabin - delicious! We made a plan for the next morning and went to bed early because we would be waking up at 4:30am. The next morning we got up, ate some breakfast, chatted a little bit, and then got on the road. We got to the place we were going to hunt and the moment we stepped out of the truck we heard gobbles. We had to hike down a little hill and were hearing gobbles the whole way down. At first me and my dad thought there might be 4 or 5 toms. After we got the blind setup and got comfortable, the turkeys started coming down. There were so many turkeys! We counted 80 at one point. We had to wait for a bit for the turkeys to see our decoys. Daniel called a little, so the toms would know that we were there on the far end of the field (a few hundred yards away). Eventually a single tom started making his way towards us, he kept coming and coming, we thought for sure this was going to be the perfect chance, but just before he came into range he took a sharp right and headed up the hill behind us. We thought we had lost him because his gobbles just kept getting further and further away. After a few minutes his gobble seemed a little closer, then a little closer again, then real close. So my dad peaked out the back of the blind and there he was just 5 yards away from us. He walked right Infront of the blind and over to the decoys and then jump kicked the jake decoy over. Luckily there was a hen decoy too or he may have left after that. He was gobbling a lot and I got the perfect shot. He stood still and then I pulled the trigger and boom, the tom rolled down the hill flopping all over. Then all the turkeys started coming over to see what was going on. It was so cool to get a tom and see so many turkeys around for so long. Eventually, they all left and we got the turkey, took pictures, got back to camp, gutted him, and got to hear Jonah's story too. It was such a cool experience!

Thank you!