Having just made it through a week and a half of subfreezing high temperatures it is hard not to daydream about hunting in warmer seasons. Cold weather hunting, fishing, and trapping require contending with little aggravations such as ice in your beard and mustache so thick you feel it pull your face and bounce with every step. It’s nice to dream about actually needing to shave off the ‘soup-catcher’ because it is just too hot to continue wearing the long, hot, itchy thing (the wife will appreciate it as well!). Another Old Man Winter aggravation is dragging your now exhilaratingly refreshed foot and leg from the hole in the creek ice and discovering your new rubber hip-boots didn’t hold up so well to that last multi-floral rose bush. You long for temperatures warm enough so that the mile walk back to the truck is actually optional. With experiences like these (of course these are just hypothetical situations with no real-life, personal connotations intended …) it is very easy to dream of warm season activities such as baseball and spring turkey season. And, while I’m not much of a baseball watcher, to speak in baseball terms, spring turkeys are on deck.
This year spring turkey season starts with the youth hunt scheduled for the weekend of April 10 and 11, 2010 and regular season extending from Monday, April 19 through Sunday, May 9, 2010. For the youth hunter during youth weekend only, hunting hours are extended to all day long. This feature is a great advantage for getting a young hunter in on some great spring turkey hunting action. During youth weekend a youth is limited to one turkey only. Their second eligible turkey is not legal to take until the second week of regular season starting on Monday, April 26. For adult hunters two male turkeys are the season limit with only one able to be taken the first week. If both turkeys are harvested during the last two weeks of season only one turkey may be harvested per day (you can’t kill two in one day). Legal shotgun sizes include all gauges from .410 through 10 gauge. Shotgun ammunition is limited to #4 shot and smaller size (remember shot size is inversely related to its number designation).
Action is plentiful in the spring turkey woods. Gobblers are generally bunched up early and disband as the season progresses. During youth season it is not uncommon to call up several gobblers together. When 3 or 4 big toms come up running, strutting, and gobbling, it’s a test for the most experienced turkey hunter to stay calm, let alone a youth hunter. Young and inexperienced hunters often have a problem knowing when and when not to move, thus scaring off many turkeys. It is times like these that ground blinds are a great advantage. Decoys can also provide for an enormous advantage in that they will keep the tom’s attention on the decoy and away from the hunters. A word to the wise - be very cautious when using decoys on public ground. Only position decoys relative to your position in such a manner that would prevent even the most unscrupulous amateur hunter from being able to stumble onto your set and fire in your direction.
From clucks and purrs to cackles, cuts, kee kees and yelps, all turkey vocalizations are in play and effective calls to make in the spring. The accomplished caller who has mastered multiple types of calls and calling apparatuses such as box, mouth, slate, yelper, or wing bone, to name a few, will have a great advantage in the spring turkey woods. Young toms, or jakes, will sound off with some of the most bizarre sounds you have ever heard as they attempt to gobble. Those same jakes will also respond to some of the most flawed calling a beginner might ever have the misfortune to make, so beginning callers fear not. The best way to learn is to listen to real turkeys and accomplished callers and then get out there and try it yourself!
Speaking of trying it yourself, did I mention that wild turkey breast, as far as a hillbilly is concerned, is a delicacy desirable over any escargot or caviar…(but then again, I’d rather eat Spam than snails and fish eggs)? Anyway, in Nature’s Economy there are no artificial fillers, no high fructose corn syrup, no MSG or any other preservatives. Wild turkey meat is very high in protein, two percent higher than domestic turkey. Wild turkey is also lower in fat than its domestic cousin due to a wild turkey’s diet of all natural, wild food devoid of any additives. Wild turkey meat is a valuable source for vitamins B3 and B6, folic acid, zinc, potassium, and the amino acid tryptophan. These valuable nutrients are responsible for a wide rang of health benefits ranging from protection against heart disease and birth defects to fighting off cancer cells.
This winter, as Old Man Winter bears down his icy grip and your thoughts drift to warmer temperatures and spring turkey hunting, consider all the potential rewards - natural beauty, action and excitement, lifelong memories, participating in the Creator’s original design, and unsurpassed delicious, organic, and nutritional sustenance. For what more could you ask? Yes, spring turkeys are on deck. And when they get to the plate I hope they hit a home run for you, your youth hunter, and your family at dinner time. Good luck, be safe, and get a big one.
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