Scout for birds before spring turkey season starts next month
Posted: Thursday, March 27, 2008 12:00 am
WES SMALLING
Star-Tribune Outdoors Editor
Opening day of spring turkey season is rapidly approaching. Do you know where your gobbler is?
Hunters who get out before the season starts and scout around for birds usually have a pretty good idea where the birds are by the time the season gets underway in April. That's a big advantage, especially if you plan to hunt on public lands.
Now, whether or not that big tom turkey will come strutting up to your amorous mating calls is anybody's guess. But knowing where a gobbler roosts at night, where he's likely to grab a bite to eat, and where he'll be strutting for his hens is most of the battle for a turkey hunter.
During spring, tom turkeys are busy strutting their stuff and gobbling to attract mates. That makes the hormone-crazy male birds susceptible to being lured into gun range by a hunter's calls. Similar to elk hunting in the fall, spring turkey hunters use slate, box or diaphragm calls to make sounds like a hen to lure in a randy gobbler, or they make the sounds of a young male turkey - a jake - in the hopes that a gobbler will come running into the line of fire looking for a fight.
Reputation-wise, wild turkeys get a bad rap. They aren't stupid. In fact, they're wary, crafty birds with superb eyesight, great hearing and the ability to fly fast for short distances - making them a formidable challenge for hunters.
Statistics gathered from Wyoming's previous hunting seasons show that about half of the state's turkey hunters bag a bird during the spring season. The other half go home empty-handed. It takes the average hunter five to six days in the field to get a spring turkey.
You can be the greatest turkey caller in the world, but if you don't know where the birds are you may be in for some tough hunting. That's why scouting before the season starts is so important, said Jared McJunkin, regional biologist for the National Wild Turkey Federation.
"I think turkey hunting is about 90 percent scouting and the rest is made up of calling and woodsmanship skills. I think too many people think it is the other way around," McJunkin said.
Finding where the birds roost is key, says Hugh Vogel of Casper. He's 80 years old and has been hunting turkeys in Wyoming since 1992. He's a guy who knows where his gobbler is year after year after year.
One of the best tactics for locating turkeys is "putting 'em to bed," he said.
Tom turkeys will respond with a loud gobble to a crow call or an owl hoot. Vogel makes those calls at sunset, listening for a response from a turkey who's perched on a distant roost.
"If they don't gobble they're not in the area. Move on to another spot," he said. "If you can find out where they roost at night, be there early in the morning to get 'em coming off the roost."
Look for turkey scat and feathers at the base of a tree to find the spot where a turkey likes to snooze at night.
Know your poop too. Turkey scat in the shape of the letter "J" is from a gobbler. If it's a small mound, it's from a hen.
Turkeys are creatures of habit, especially the Merriam's subspecies that occupies Wyoming. They frequent the same food and water sources day-in, day-out so look for their three-pronged tracks and scratch marks on the ground.
Finally, search for likely strutting areas. That's where you'll want to set up nearby when the season starts. Strutting areas are usually open, sunny spots where gobblers can puff up their feathers and strut around in the sun gobbling in an attempt to attract mates.
"I always find mine at the edge of timber where they go out into the open ground for strutting," Vogel said.
Also, hunters should know that turkeys on national forests and other public lands tend to be warier and quieter than birds on private ranches.
"They definitely are quieter on public land," said Wyoming Game and Fish wildlife biologist Joe Sandrini. "Gobbling really drops off on public land compared to the private ranches so it takes more scouting to locate birds."
If you plan to hunt on private lands, now is the time to start contacting landowners to ask for permission. Don't wait until the first day of the season, Sandrini said.
Spring turkey forecast
Many turkeys may not have survived the harsh winter that hit some parts of the state. But with the number of turkeys in Wyoming at a 20-year high, the forecast for this year's spring turkey hunting season is still looking good especially in the Black Hills, said Joe Sandrini, wildlife biologist for the Wyoming Department of Game and Fish.
"The turkeys are just starting to move around and the toms are getting fired up," Sandrini said this week about the birds of the Black Hills, Wyoming's premier turkey hunting spot.
According to Game and Fish, a good hatch of birds last spring around Douglas and Casper means there should be an abundant number of young males, or jakes, for hunters in hunt areas 2 and 9 this year. West of the Black Hills, the hunting from Sheridan to Kaycee looks similar to recent years, which is statistically pretty good. The turkey hunting outlook is also favorable in the Laramie Peak area and to the east near Camp Guernsey.
The first few hunt areas open April 1 while most areas of the state open April 12. The season ends May 20 statewide. The bag limit is one male wild turkey or any wild turkey with a visible beard.
Turkeys wearing jewelry?
If you're hunting turkeys in the Black Hills of Wyoming or South Dakota this year and you shoot a gobbler that's wearing a leg band or a radio-collar, don't worry, you didn't do anything wrong.
The wildlife agencies of the two states have teamed up on a four-year mortality study of turkeys in the Black Hills region. About 75 birds have been fitted with leg bands or radio collars and over the next three years, wildlife biologists plan to collar another 100 gobblers.
During the study, biologists will track how many gobblers survive each hunting season. They'll also assess what impacts predators have on their populations. The Wyoming Game and Fish Department is considering raising the bag limit in some areas to two turkeys for the fall 2008 season and plans to have two-tom limits in 2010-2011. The mortality study should help biologists predict how much effect increasing bag limits will have on Wyoming's turkeys.
"Hunters should know that it is OK to shoot radio-collared or banded turkeys when in season," said Wyoming Game and Fish wildlife biologist Joe Sandrini. Hunters who kill a radio-collared or leg-banded turkey are asked to help out with the project by calling the reporting number on the leg band or by notifying a game warden in the Black Hills.
The radio-collars can usually be re-used, so if hunters return them it will save the agency a lot of money, Sandrini said.
Talkin' turkey
Don't know a yelp from a kee-kee run? Need to fine-tune your putts and purrs?
Then head to Sportsman's Warehouse in Casper. The store is hosting a free turkey calling seminar Sunday at 1 p.m. featuring turkey hunting pro John Louden of Quaker Boy Game Calls.
This weekend is also a good time to get to know other turkey hunters in the Casper area. The Bighorn Chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation is holding its annual Hunting Heritage Banquet on Saturday at Parkway Plaza in Casper. For tickets, call Richard Shain at 266-4690.