Story and photos by Eric Fowler
Turkeys were already gobbling in their roost trees when Gabe Sovereign and his mentor, Greg Hesse, walked to the blind they had set up in a wooded creek bottom east of Verdigre 40 minutes before sunrise.
About 30 minutes later, the birds began to leave their roosts, making even more noise in the woods, clucking, purring and gobbling to the left, right and even over the hill in front of them, answering most of Hesse’s calls.
“Geez, they’re everywhere,” said Sovereign, a 13-year old from Coolridge.
“Be careful not to move,” said Hesse, a Nebraska Game and Parks Commission conservation officer based in Long Pine. “We’ve got a hen close to us somewhere. I can hear her clucking.”
After that hen made a brief appearance next to the two-track road where they had set up their decoys, Sovereign settled the barrel of his shotgun into a shooting stick, and they waited. Soon, turkeys appeared on the hillside, scratching their way across it in search of food.
Thirty minutes after sunrise, Hesse’s calls finally coaxed five of them, three hens and two toms, closer. As the hens cautiously approached the decoys, stopping at 30 yards, the toms strutted across the draw 50 yards away for five minutes before they all continued on their way.
The hunters moved their blind a few hundred yards east to the edge of a feedlot turkeys frequented and cows weren’t currently using, Sovereign losing a boot in the mud on the way. As he got lessons from Hesse on how to use a slate call, the residents of the feedlot returned, curiously gathering around their decoys and even licking and nibbling on them. “I wish turkeys were like this, just walking up here and staring at us,” Sovereign said.
Sovereign had hunted ducks and deer with his father, harvesting a buck the previous fall. But this was his second day of turkey hunting ever, a guest at a mentored youth hunt hosted by conservation officers from northeastern Nebraska at Niobrara State Park.
The previous morning, opening day of the youth turkey season, he passed on a chance to fill his tag with a bearded hen that came to Hesse’s call. “I thought there would be a bigger turkey come in,” he said. “It was cool. It got me really nervous.”
Sovereign was one of six youths who took part in the mentored hunt and one of four who didn’t harvest a bird. But on this weekend, conditions were less than ideal for turkey hunting. With plenty of hens talking, toms don’t respond to calls like they might later in the season. And with winds gusting to 50 mph, some couldn’t even hear the calls. But whether or not the hunt was a success depends on how success is measured.
Conservation officers from northeastern Nebraska began hosting mentored youth hunts in 2010, when Jeff Fields, then the superintendent of Ponca State Park, and Tom Zimmer, the district conservation officer for the region, set up a muzzleloader deer hunt in the park. The following spring, they held a turkey hunt at Ponca and have alternated between the two each year since. Last spring, they moved the turkey hunt to Niobrara State Park.
Several organizations, including the Tri-County Chapter of Whitetails Unlimited, the Big Game Conservation Association, the Verdigre Niobrara Valley Sportsmen and the Nebraska Game and Parks Foundation sponsor the hunt. Each youth leaves with a new shotgun, a hunting blind, turkey calls, hats and other gear, as well as a lifetime hunting permit. Area landowners provide places for the youths to hunt.
Participants are recent graduates of the Hunter Education program, nominated by instructors and have little, if any, hunting experience.
“We try to pick kids who don’t have these opportunities to hunt and get them outdoors,” said Cory Krause, a conservation officer from West Point who helps organize the hunts.
The weekend-long event begins Friday evening with a turkey hunting 101 course, where safety, shot placement and calling are discussed. After spending the night in cabins at the park and an early breakfast, hunters head to blinds mentors have set up in promising spots scattered around northern Knox County.
Like all mentored youth hunts conducted by Game and Parks, the goal is to turn interest into passion and create future hunters. Often, that happens. Be it deer, turkey or pheasant season, Krause can expect to receive photos sent by parents of their son or daughter following successful hunts. “And these kids are hooked,” he said.
One of those hunters to send photos to Krause last fall was Austyn Batenhorst, who harvested her first deer in November. The 14-year-old from West Point had hunted pheasants and coyotes with her dad. “It’s just always been something my family does, and I enjoy it a lot,” she said. But deer and turkey hunting were different. She took part in the mentored deer hunt at Ponca in December 2023 and was invited to the turkey hunt last spring.
The first morning, she was teamed with Kelbi Abke, a conservation officer from Craig, who was also her mentor on the deer hunt. In the blind, Batenhorst admitted she hadn’t slept much the previous night. She made sure to take a photo of the sunrise and enjoyed watching a squirrel run past the blind. But there were no turkeys to be seen or heard.
“With this wind, things might not move, but you have a smile, so that’s good,” Abke said. Batenhorst was smiling the entire weekend.
“I came for the food and the pretty skies,” she said. “I’m good.”
Two hunters were successful on opening morning. One was Lilly Mortensen of Neligh. The 13-year-old was participating in the 4-H shooting sports program, and in order to move up and shoot .22-cal. rifles, she was required to take hunter education. There, she was selected to take part in a mentored pheasant hunt. No one in her family hunted, but this sparked interest, and she was chosen for the turkey hunt at Niobrara.
Paired with Katie Leware, superintendent of Ponca State Park, she saw several turkeys in the first hours of opening morning. The first was a tom that strutted for a while at 80 yards, but came no closer. The second was 30 yards from the blind, but stayed behind some trees and didn’t offer a clear shot. “Then about an hour and a half later there was one that came from behind the blind, and it was messing with the decoy,” Mortensen said. “I didn’t shoot that one, but then after that one came a bunch of them from over the hill. I waited a while and there was one about 15 yards away from the hunting blind, and that’s the one I shot. It was really exciting.”
“She couldn’t keep a smile off her face,” Leware said. “She called the birds in. She didn’t shoot the first one, and took her time and made sure she had a good, clean shot.”
Mortensen passed away the following October, surrounded by family. Her parents, Adam and Kendra, said she was ecstatic about the experience she had on the mentored hunt, and they shared her joy.
Another successful hunter was Lennix Chavez. The 13-year-old had moved to Verdigre from Colorado a year earlier and became interested in hunting. “It just sounded fun,” he said.
His mother, Cassandra, went to work trying to feed that interest. “I was worried we wouldn’t be able to find anybody to show him, but after I sent a crazy number of emails, somehow I got linked into these guys.”
After completing hunter education, Chavez was chosen to participate in the youth deer hunt at Ponca, where he harvested a doe. He was just the kind of kid the officers like to have, so they invited him to the turkey hunt as well.
Paired with Mitch Johnson, an officer from Crofton, their hunt didn’t last long on opening morning. In the blind for 45 minutes, they started hearing birds.
“All of the turkeys we heard were behind us,” Chavez said. “They were about a half-mile away, but we kept on calling and waiting. And out of nowhere, this big tom comes and just gobbles.”
Out of range when it appeared, the bird turned to leave twice, but each time was called back by Johnson. The final time, the bird closed to 35 yards. “As soon as he stopped, I shot him.”
Quiet and reserved, Chavez simply said “yes” when asked if he was excited.
Johnson provided more insight. “As we got out of the blind, he was shaking,” Johnson said. “I asked if he was cold, and he said maybe a little bit. I told him I knew the feeling — when you shoot something or are hunting something and have an encounter — of shaking when the adrenaline kicks in. He was definitely proud. And he should be.”
So is his mother. “It’s kind of our passion now, so it makes me happy,” Cassandra said of her son, who harvested more deer since his first mentored hunt. “Our freezer is full because of him.”
Not all of Chavez’s turkey made it home. He contributed some to the Saturday evening meal, where it was turned into a stir fry by officers assigned the cooking duties. Dinner that night, shared by hunters and a few of their parents, was a wild game feed that also included deer roast and antelope taco salad.
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The hunts aren’t all about turkeys and hunting. Mentors share their knowledge of the outdoors, the wildlife they see and their careers.
Jack Baumert remembers many details of the mentored pheasant and turkey hunts he took part in while growing up in West Point. His mentors became friends, people he would call for advice about upcoming hunts. “I felt like I was the king of the world when I could share hunting stories with an adult,” Baumert said.
They helped him grow not only as a hunter and outdoorsman, but also as a person, and played a pivotal part in his life, he said. One of those mentors was the late Pat Ellis of West Point, the school’s trap shooting coach, who took him on his first pheasant hunt. “That was enough to set the hook in me, I guess,” Baumert said.
The other was Krause. “The few days I spent with Cory made me realize what I wanted to do when I grew up: I wanted to be a game warden,” said Baumert, who in 2023 did just that when he became a wildlife conservation officer with South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks.
Krause helped him decide which classes to take and which internships would serve him best. They still talk regularly, except instead of asking Krause for advice on an upcoming hunt, Baumert asks about cases he’s working. And now, Baumert has become the mentor, guiding youths on waterfowl hunts.
“It’s fun to be able to plant the seed,” he said. “You can see the kids who are interested when we do the mentored hunts. You can tell some probably won’t be game wardens, but they definitely seek out nature-related jobs in our department.”
Baumert may not be the only participant to become a game warden. Batenhorst has also set that as her career goal. That seed had been planted before she took part in the deer hunt at Ponca State Park, but her time in the blind with Abke really got it growing.
“I like being out in nature a lot, and I would like to be part of protecting it,” she said.
Should that happen, Krause said, it will be another success story from the many hunts the officers have hosted, where success isn’t measured in birds harvested or game wardens created.
“It goes back to making memories and, hopefully, a little drive, and they want to keep doing it,” Krause said.
Conservation Officer Mentored Hunts
Mentored hunts organized by Game and Parks conservation officers give youths who have an interest in hunting, but not necessarily a place to go or someone to take them, a chance to go.
Donors provide hunting equipment the kids get to take home and food, and landowners open their property to the youths. Parks and Wildlife division staff assist in the hunts.
Southeastern Nebraska Deer Hunt: Six first-time hunters camp at Indian Cave State Park and hunt on private land nearby during the River Antlerless Season in October. Leg work and networking by Game and Parks staff help identify young hunters to participate in the program.
Ash Hollow Youth Waterfowl Hunt: Twenty-five youths ages 11 to 15 spend a morning learning about blind and boat safety, waterfowl identification, duck calling and decoy setup and placement, and shoot clay targets before spending the afternoon hunting ducks and geese from blinds at Clear Creek Wildlife Management Area. The event is on the second day of the youth waterfowl season in late October.
Registration opens after Labor Day, with preference given to those with no hunting experience. Contact Ash Hollow State Historical Park for more information.