This is no tomfoolery

REDWOOD FALLS — It was 6 a.m, and darkness was dissolving into dawn when the first gobble broke the morning silence.

The turkey was perhaps 40 yards away, still roosting in a tree. He gobbled again, startling other tom turkeys nearby, and soon a half-dozen gobblers joined the chorus.

"They're close," I whispered to wide-eyed Lorna Wright, 13, of Vernon Center, Minn., hunting turkeys for the first time.

She was among 300 kids who hunted turkeys with a mentor and a parent Saturday and Sunday during Minnesota's seventh annual Youth Turkey Hunt.

We hunkered in a blind, our hearts pounding. We were in a field bordered by thick woods near Redwood Falls, somewhere near turkey heaven. Half an hour later, two big toms showed themselves, spitting, drumming and gobbling as they strolled in a field, separated from us by 45 yards and a tattered barbed-wire fence dotted with shrubs and trees.

"His beard touches the ground!" Lorna whispered excitedly. "Oh, wow, listen to him drum."

I thought Lorna's first turkey hunt might be a short one. But as any turkey hunter knows, seeing turkeys is easier than bagging one.

"That was an exciting morning," Lorna said later. "We'll get one tomorrow."

A healthy dose of optimism is helpful for hunters, especially turkey hunters. Most in Minnesota taste frustration, not wild turkey, each spring: Two-thirds go home without a bird.

Youth hunt a success

Lorna was among a group of a dozen young hunters, including her brother, Nathan, 12, who showed up for a weekend of hunting the Redwood Falls-Morton area in the beautiful Minnesota River Valley of southwestern Minnesota. Twenty-nine other groups gathered elsewhere in turkey country.

The youth turkey hunt began in 2004, a joint effort between the Department of Natural Resources and the National Wild Turkey Federation to boost the number of young hunters. Federation members are paired with a youth 12 to 17 and his or her parent or guardian. Twenty-nine kids partook the first year; more than 300 have participated the past few years.

Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the hunt is that more than 300 veteran turkey hunters volunteered to give up not just an hour or two of their time but often an entire weekend.

"If it's something you love, you want to share it," said mentor Tom Ferguson of Lakeville.

The payback often is the broad smiles worn on the faces of the kids, whether they bag birds or not.

Plenty of grins

In our group of 12 youths, four shot turkeys: Jason Kohout, 17, of Olivia; Brian Swedzinski, 13, of Milroy; Andrew Turbes, 13, of Wabasso; and Reece DeVries, 12, of Minneapolis. Reece was joined by his dad, Ryne, and guide Ferguson.

"There were a lot of birds," Ferguson said.

With Ferguson coaxing them with his calls, the turkeys flew down from their roost and approached a single decoy. Reece picked out a nice tom.

"He poked his head up and I shot him," he said. It was a 35-yard shot at 6:25 a.m., still five minutes before sunrise. The excitement of dad and son was palpable. "It was pretty neat," Ferguson said.

Said Ryne DeVries: "What a great experience. It's just amazing they offer this. It was just neat to be out there. The bird was the frosting on the cake."

Last call

At 7 a.m., a gobbler sounded off in the ravine below, clearly coming our way. The next gobble came from immediately outside our blind. But the tom had come from the worst direction -- the east, where the early-morning sun blasted us in the face. Compounding the problem, I had left an east-facing window in our blind closed, and as it turned out, that window offered the only good shot. The bird quickly ambled off.

Welcome to turkey hunting.

"That was so exciting," Lorna said with no disappointment on her face. "You miss some and you get some."

Said her mom: "I think she's hooked."

Doug Smith • dsmith@startribune.com