Turkey Youth Hunt - Pennsylvania
Alec waits for the birds.
Alec's dad takes a nap.
Experiences shared...Friendships made...
Hunter: Alec Nebel
Cameraman: Adam Spittler
Back in November my dad and I went down to the Cabela's in Wheeling, WV to hang out and enjoy the great hunting atmosphere for my birthday. While walking around we met POSSE members Terry and Kim Edwards and we talked about hunting and filming. After about two hours, we became good friends, and Terry gave me his email and he told me that he was going to contact a POSSE member from Pennsylvania and see if we could get hooked up for a hunt.
Adam contacted me wanting to know if my dad and I would like to come over to his place for the youth turkey hunt in Pennsylvania. My reaction was YES that would be awesome! We met Adam and Holly in February at the Eastern Sports and Outdoor show in Harrisburg and talked about the hunt. After an anxious two months, turkey season came!
On April 17, my dad got me out of school and we were on our way to Adam's. Him and Holly met up with us and we went to get a quick bite to eat and Adam showed us where we were going to be hunting in the morning and we went down to see all his pets (sitka deer, turkeys, and whitetails) and then we roosted the birds. After hearing all those gobblers, I couldn't sleep at all. At 3 a.m. the next morning, our alarm went off. We went and got some breakfast then drove to our hunting area, set the decoys out, and we crawled into our Ameristep Intimidator Blind and ranged the decoys with the Nikon rangefinder at 16 yards. We got all settled in and heard the first gobbler at 5:40 a.m.—I was pumped. Then we heard at least 4 to 5 different gobblers. They sounded like they were coming but never stepped out into the field.
We sat there and heard the turkeys gobbling for a good 2-3 hours, but never saw a gobbler but we did see the white hen Adam said he got pictures of on his Stealth Cam. It got quiet around 9:30, and around 10:30 we all got out of the blind and we decided to run and gun for a bird. We walked to the other end of the field, called, and a big old gobbler responded. At that point my heart was about to pound out of my chest. We sat down, set up, and called one more time and there were two turkeys that responded within 150 yards of us. Then 2 more turkeys gobbled but they were farther on the other side of the road. We thought the turkeys that were closer walked off but they ended up coming in quiet. Then there were two big longbeards, one strutting and the other walking in front of him, but they were at 70 yards, then walked off. Adam called them 5 minutes after they walked off and they gobbled right on us at 40 yards or so behind us, but even closer to my dad. In Pennsylvania during the youth hunt, you can only hunt until noon, when the turkeys gobbled at us Adam checked the time and he told me it was 11:59 so we didn’t have enough time to get the birds in. But that hunt was the most exciting hunt I have ever been on and it was a rush the whole hunt. At the end of it we heard about 13 different gobblers from 5:30 a.m. until noon. We didn't get a bird but we had an awesome time, and that's what it’s all about. Adam and Holly and I became even better friends. I'm looking forward to many more hunts with Adam and Holly in the future.
In conclusion I would like to thank Terry and Kim Edwards, and Adam and Holly Spittler for everything they have done and I hope this will be a start of my pursuit of becoming a POSSE member, something I have always wanted to do! See you in the woods!