Friday, March 20, 2020

Indiana: apply for reserved youth turkey hunts by March 27

Youth hunters (under age 18 on the day of the hunt) may register for reserved turkey hunts from now until March 27.

Reserved youth turkey hunts will occur April 18-19. A limit will be placed on the number of youth hunters allowed to hunt a respective property on each hunting day, in an attempt to provide quality hunts for participants. Interested hunters or an adult representing them must register by phone during the normal office hours for the property they wish to hunt. Hunters are allowed to register for only one property.

Participating fish & wildlife areas include Atterbury, Chinook, Crosley, Deer Creek, Fairbanks Landing, Glendale, Goose Pond, Hillenbrand, Hovey Lake, Jasper-Pulaski, Kingsbury, LaSalle, Pigeon River, J.E. Roush Lake, Sugar Ridge, Tri-County, Wabashiki, Willow Slough and Winamac. Two reservoir properties, Mississinewa Lake and Salamonie Lake, will also take part in the hunts.

Those wanting to sign up for the Chinook or Wabashiki hunts may register by calling Deer Creek FWA. Those wanting to sign up for the Fairbanks Landing or Hillenbrand hunts should call Goose Pond FWA.

A drawing will be held on Wednesday, April 1 at properties where the number of registered hunters exceeds the spots available. A youth hunter may be drawn for either one or both hunt days, depending on the number of applicants. All applicants will be notified of drawing results by mail.

Applicants must possess a 2020 Youth Consolidated Hunting & Trapping License, a 2020 Non-Resident Youth Spring Turkey License with a gamebird habitat stamp privilege, or a Lifetime Comprehensive Hunting License. Apprentice hunting licenses of the types named above also may be used.

Hunting hours are one-half hour before sunrise until noon at properties in the Central Time Zone, and one-half hour before sunrise until 1 p.m. on properties in the Eastern Time Zone.

Youth hunters who are selected for the hunt will receive their hunt information by email or by mail if they did not provide an email address. Properties will not have a daily “no-show” drawing. Hunters interested in possible unfilled quotas at a property should call that property for more information before showing up.

Youth hunters can take a bearded or male wild turkey. The youth must be accompanied by someone 18 or older.

The youth hunter may use any legal shotgun, bow and arrow, or crossbow. The adult accompanying the youth hunter must not possess a firearm, bow and arrow, or crossbow while in the field. The accompanying adult must be licensed if they are assisting by calling or if the youth is using an apprentice license.

For property contact information, visit wildlife.IN.gov/3077.htm. To purchase a license, visit on.IN.gov/inhuntfish. For wild turkey hunting regulations, visit hunting.IN.gov. For turkey hunting safety tips go to wildlife.IN.gov/2710.htm.

To view all DNR news releases, please see dnr.IN.gov.

 

Media contact: Tom Despot, Public Lands Northwest Region Supervisor, DNR Fish & Wildlife, 574-896-3522, tdespot@dnr.IN.gov.