Spring Turkey Hunting Basics

There is a huge variety of hunting equipment available these days, due to the growing popularity of turkey hunting and ever-increasing numbers of turkey hunters. Turkey hunting was a much simpler activity in the past.

The hunter, dressed in his usual garb and hat, places his favorite slate call, box call, wing bone or scratch box into his jacket on the way out of the house. He picks up his double-barreled shotgun and a few shells in his pocket before walking out the door.

This is him, the turkey hunter

Fall was the preferred time to hunt wild turkeys by most of the famous old time turkey hunters and is still favored by many traditionalists. These turkey hunting experts liked it best because it was a lot more difficult and therefore more rewarding to call in an old turkey in the fall rather than the spring.

Gobblers in the late summer, fall and winter become very solitary animals with very little interest in females. They do, however, gobble in the fall and there have been a few mornings in October and November that you would think that it was spring with the huge number of gobblers around. On rare occasions, gobblers will even come in strutting and gobbling just like it was spring. More likely though, you won’t even notice a fall turkey reacting to your calls. He will just appear silently, looking for companionship with another long beard but not really caring whether he finds it or not. This is a real fall gobbler.

The fall season has regained its popularity recently with the ever-increasing numbers of turkeys. Over 40 states now host fall turkey seasons and more and more hunters are discovering the excitement of hunting in the fall. Turkey hunting is a pleasurable and enjoyable sport people are starting to like.

This sport requires seperate permits for hunters during the fall, along with the applications for spring hunting permits. Turkey hunters are allowed only to take only one wild turkey of either sex during that fall season each day.

Before you can hunt a wild turkey, you have got to find them. The easiest way to do this is by locating the general areas of the turkey’s habitat.

Turkeys are usually found in open, mixed hardwood and pine forests. Others are scattered in brush land. Others prefer to roost in trees larger than the surrounding vegetation and will often choose place to stay on sites facing slopes where they can shelter from the existing strong wind. They will use open fields and meadows as feeding and boasting sites and wooded areas are roosting sites. If few or no roosting sites are available, the turkey may leave the place and not use it.

Basic Turkey Characteristics

Turkey hunting is challenging, exciting and in some cases becomes addictive. Turkey’s senses are extremely keen – even your heart pounding can make the turkey vanish like a puff of smoke.

Turkeys’ ears are also placed on both sides of their heads. And because they have no outer ear to develop the sound in one direction, they hear sounds all the way around them. Sounds received by only one ear can help the turkey find out which direction the sound comes out but not any indication of distance. Turkeys turn around to be more alert.

With a highly developed sense of smell, they can determine the direction of danger by scent and wind direction. The clever beasts generally flee away from the danger, not toward it. Besides their sense of smell, they rely heavily on both their eyes and ears to determine the direction of danger before they run away from it.

Good luck, great hunting, and please respect our great outdoors.