A shooting incident involving a 3-year-old during Wisconsin’s youth turkey hunting season resulted in injuries to two members of another hunting party, including a 7-year-old.
The incident took place at Honey Creek Wildlife Area near Burlington during the afternoon of Sunday, April 12, the second and last day of the 2026 Wisconsin youth turkey hunt.
The 3-year-old was being mentored by their 34-year-old parent, said Renee Thok, Department of Natural Resources hunter education administrator.
The mentor and mentee spotted motion they mistook for a turkey, according the DNR hunting incident report.
The mentor “kneeled in front of their mentee and aided in positioning, aiming and firing of the firearm at the movement,” the report states.
The firearm was a 12-gauge semi-automatic shotgun.
Pellets from the shot struck a nearby hunting party, a 40-year-old mentor and a 7-year-old mentee.
The victims were in brush about 35 yards from the shooter, Thok said. The hunting parties were not hunting together and did not know each other, according to the DNR.
The victims were struck by pellets in the head, back and hands.
Both victims received treatment at a hospital. The adult was released later April 12, but the child, who sustained wounds to the head, was kept in the hospital for at least two days before being released, Thok said.
The DNR is not identifying the people involved. However, Thok said a parent was mentoring their child in both parties.
The shooting involving a 3-year-old marks the youngest person in a Wisconsin hunting incident, according to DNR records.
Thok said DNR wardens collected evidence at the site of the incident and the investigation remains open. The investigation will include interviews and attempt to determine who pulled the trigger.
Once the investigation is complete, Thok said it would be presented to a district attorney for possible charges.
The youth turkey hunting season is held on the weekend before the start of the state’s first normal turkey hunting period. Wisconsin divides its general spring turkey hunt into six, seven-day periods that run Wednesday to Tuesday.
What are the youth turkey hunt rules?
The 2026 two-day youth turkey hunt was held April 11 and 12. The special season is open to residents and nonresidents age 16 or younger. Participants must have a spring turkey license, a wild turkey stamp and a valid harvest authorization. Participants must be accompanied by an adult 18 or older and have completed hunter education or be part of the Mentored Hunting Program.
Wisconsin created a Mentored Hunting Law in 2009 that set a minimum age limit of 10 to participate. In 2017 the Wisconsin Legislature and former Gov. Scott Walker removed the minimum age limit, making parents or an adult mentor responsible for determining the age at which a child is ready to hunt.
The program allows a person to participate in a hunting season before passing a hunter education course. Mentors are required to stay within arm’s reach of the mentee.
In all other cases, hunters born on or after Jan. 1, 1973 must pass a state-certified hunter education course or be “military exempt” to hunt alone or serve as a hunting mentor to others.
In the April 12 shooting incident, the 34-year-old mentor was military exempt because of training received in the armed forces, according to the DNR report.
Shooting incident was the third in Wisconsin in 2026
It was the third hunting-related shooting incident in Wisconsin in 2026, according to DNR records.
The others involved an adult shooting another adult in the same hunting party. The first occurred Feb. 24 in Lincoln County during a coyote hunt and the other Feb. 27 in Manitowoc County during a pheasant hunt at a game farm. Victims in both incidents received non-fatal injuries from shotgun pellets.
Firearm-related hunting incidents have declined substantially in Wisconsin in recent decades. Hunting safety experts credit most of the improvement to mandatory hunter education, a blaze orange clothing requirement in gun deer hunting seasons and changes in hunting practices, including more gun deer hunting from elevated stands, resulting in shots fired toward the ground.
From 2015 to 2024, juveniles were responsible for 17% of the state’s shooting incidents with adults accounting for the other 83%, according to a DNR hunting safety report.
In 2025 there were 11 firearm-related hunting incidents in the state, including one fatality, and in 2024 there were eight and none was fatal.
The April 12 incident was obviously a failure by the mentor and mentee to positively identify their target, one of the basic rules of hunting safety, said John Plenke of Germantown, a retired DNR warden, active hunter education instructor and chairman of the Wisconsin Hunter Education Coalition.
In Wisconsin’s spring turkey hunting season, only bearded turkeys are legal game.
“It’s sad because they couldn’t have seen a beard,” Plenke said. “It’s traumatic for all involved in such an incident. There easily could have been loss of life in such a shooting incident.”
Plenke said this incident will reignite the debate over a minimum age.
“I’ve had 9-year-olds in my hunting education classes that weren’t physically able to properly hold and shoot a shotgun,” Plenke said. “In my mind 3 years old is way to young to be hunting with a firearm.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 3-year-old involved in Wisconsin turkey hunt shooting that injured 7-year-old
Reporting by Paul A. Smith, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
