Pennsylvania Game News - February 2020 - 52

Wildlife Management Area in Lancaster
and Lebanon counties.
The event is hosted by a team
of volunteer mentors from the
Lititz Sportsmen's Association. Jeff
experienced an exciting hunt, bagged
two pheasants, and got his father excited
about bird hunting.
Dave and Jeff then teamed up with
experienced mentor John Witmer, of
Millersburg, on the youth waterfowl hunt
at Middle Creek in November 2018.
Hunting with an experienced
hunter, father and son quickly
absorbed the nuances of a different
type of hunting.
"Sitting in a blind with an experienced
hunter offered a wealth of information,
from how to set up different decoy
spreads to the art of calling birds in," Jeff
said. "John's funny stories made the slow
periods between the action enjoyable,"
Dave added.
By tagging along as the supervising
parent on son Jeff's hunts, now Dave
is hooked on hunting and a confirmed
"adult onset" hunter.
"We love spending time together
afield and taking on the challenge of
hunting new species of game," he said.
Dave said the thing he and his son
value the most from having mentors
introduce them to hunting is learning
how to hunt different game species.
"We would not have had a chance to
get involved without dedicated mentors.
They also have made sure that we learned
the important safety aspects of each type
of hunt, as they all have some specialized
practices," Dave reiterated.
The mallard drake that Jeff shot while
guided by his mentor John Witmer during
that icy November hunt is now mounted
and on the wall at his home. Father and
son represent two generations of new
52

hunters, both introduced to hunting by
mentors.
Kevin Erdvig, 22, graduated from the
University of Valley Forge in May 2019
and immediately became interested in
turkey hunting. He took advantage of
an opportunity to hunt during the spring
gobbler season with a team of "super
mentors."
Dave Conklin, John Holt and Mike
Jamerson, of Kane, McKean County, are
passionate about helping new hunters get
a proper start. These gentlemen take firsttime hunters afield each season, giving
their time to introduce both youngsters
and adults to the thrills of hunting in the
Allegheny National Forest.
On the frosty morning of May
16, 2019, Kevin followed the trio of
mentors into the woods and heard
his first-ever gobble two hours after
daybreak. That single gobble then
turned into an absolute thrill of a hunt
when three different gobblers began
sounding off.
John and Mike set up behind Kevin,
with Dave at his side for guidance.
Finally, one of the gobblers came
in and Kevin shot the bird at 40 yards,
fulfilling his goal of tagging a turkey,
thanks to a team of mentors.
"We get more satisfaction out of
seeing a new hunter bag a gobbler
than we could ever get from pulling
the trigger ourselves," Dave Conklin
explained. "We have all killed plenty of
turkeys ourselves, and we get to extend
our seasons by helping new folks get in
the hunting game."
You, too, as an experienced hunter,
may find greater satisfaction in
introducing someone to hunting than
you derive from the hunt yourself.
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2020

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