This coming Saturday and Sunday is the annual time for youth and apprentice hunters to hunt wild turkeys. This exclusive pre-season opportunity allows the next generation of hunters, and those learning to enjoy what hunting offers, a chance to harvest a spring gobbler turkey. It’s a great time to be in the woods and an excellent time to introduce a new hunter to what early spring looks and feels like when you are inside the timber.

For spring gobbler hunters, there is another benefit if you accompany and assist a new hunter on this special youth gobbler hunting weekend. Given that this two-day hunting opportunity occurs within a week of the opening day for the 2026 spring gobbler hunting season, anyone who is with a youth or apprentice hunter will have some advanced knowledge about where the turkeys are located.

Getting the Team Ready

Hunters who volunteer to work with and assist a youngster or apprentice hunter during the annual youth spring gobbler hunting weekend have an important task to complete. In addition to helping their hunting partner understand and follow the regulations for hunting wild turkeys in Virginia, they need to keep the process enjoyable and interesting.

Add to that the priority of making sure new hunters accept and comprehend hunting safety and ethics, and you quickly realize the need for focus and attention. Not to say that today’s young teenagers are not alert and intelligent, because most any parent or guardian can tell you they are. The challenge is to stay on the subject of safety and ethics while keeping it interesting.

Discussing actual hunting tactics can include sharing some of your own experiences in previous spring gobbler hunts.

Safety a Top Priority

Hunting safety is the most important topic to cover in preparation for the spring gobbler hunting weekend. This is a topic worth discussing more than once. There is a lot of beneficial information included in both the online and in-person hunter safety courses provided by the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources (DWR). Revisiting what an apprentice or youth hunter learned from a hunter safety course is a worthwhile effort. So is giving them a chance to raise any questions or talk about something they may not fully understand.

Just revisiting the basics—like always controlling the muzzle direction of a firearm and being sure of what is in front of, behind, and on the side of your intended target—can be a worthy effort. Sometimes discussing a particular safety practice before the hunt can help the youth or apprentice hunter think of another hunting safety topic they have a question about.

Parameters for This Weekend Hunt

The 2026 Youth and Apprentice Spring Gobbler Hunt takes place on Saturday, April 4, and Sunday, April 5. The hunting hours are from one-half hour before sunrise to sunset. Only bearded birds can be harvested. The bag limit is one turkey per youth/apprentice hunter, per weekend. Any turkeys harvested by youth or apprentice hunters during the April 4–5 weekend count against their daily and season/year bag limit.

Both resident and nonresident youth hunters 15 years of age and under, or those who have a valid apprentice hunting license, are eligible to hunt and harvest a turkey during this weekend. Those hunting must be accompanied and directly supervised by an adult who is 18 years or older and who has a valid Virginia hunting license or is exempt from purchasing a hunting license.

Nonresident youth of any age need to have the appropriate licenses unless they are exempt from purchasing a license. The adult hunters accompanying the youth or apprentice turkey hunters do not need a deer/turkey license on this weekend. They may assist with calling a turkey but may not carry or discharge a weapon. The adult accompanying the youth or apprentice hunter must maintain close visual and verbal contact with their partner and provide adequate direction to them. They must be able to, if necessary, immediately assume control of the firearm that the youth or apprentice hunter is handling.

Information about the 2026 Youth and Apprentice Spring Gobbler Hunting Weekend can be found at https://dwr.virginia. gov/hunting/regulations/turkey/