Turkey & Turkey Hunting

There seems to be considerable ambiguity when defining the terms environmentalist and conservationist — and who best represents these core ideals. Too many people further confuse the issue when it comes to the philosophy of the wise use of renewable natural resources as opposed to the non-use of those resources. This is all too often evident when the general media addresses environmental issues in terms of preservation, and give lip service to those individuals or groups with anti-hunting agendas claiming to be conservationists. But who are the real conservationists, the true environmentalists? To me the answer is simple: it’s the hunters who have historically put the resource first when it comes to managing our nation’s wildlife and lands they inhabit. It’s those forward thinking individuals who helped develop the modern…

It might seem hard to believe, but wild turkeys were extirpated in Ohio by 1904. No turkeys and no seasons? That’s how it was in one of the nation’s most hunting-crazy states until Ohio Department of Natural Resources officials began a restoration program in the late 1950s. From there, the first modern-day season was opened in 1966. Hunters checked in 12 turkeys in the nine counties where a season was held. Just 34 years ago, in 1984, the season total was 1,000 birds. Those numbers might sound small compared to other states, but for Ohio’s management strategy they were big. Flash to 2000 for the first statewide season and the efforts became more clear: More than 20,000 birds were checked in. Since then, the ODNR’s efforts have paid off handsomely…

EASY TIPS FOR CLEANING A TURKEY Try these tips from Mossy Oak Game- Keepers the next time you clean a gobbler to make things easier: Step 1: Removing the beard — If you want to save the beard you will need to remove it first. The beard can be pulled away from the breast or carefully cut away. Remove any excess tissue. Steps 2: Removing the spurs — To remove the spurs simply apply pressure to the turkey knee joint until it pops loose. After the joint pops loose, you should be able to easily separate the skin with a sharp knife. Step 3: Removing the fan — Remove the fan by holding on to the base of the tail and cutting just below the lump of meat that holds the fan feathers…

“It’s important to note, however, that no single type of sign is any more revealing than any other — all signs contains useful information.” Reading turkey books, photographing wild turkeys, practicing calling techniques and recording turkey calls are all good ways to study turkeys during the off season, but the very best way is to scout your hunting territory and master how to read turkey sign in the field. There is abundant field sign everywhere turkeys roam. For example, a turkey makes about 10,000 tracks per day and leaves 30 or more droppings. Each bird sheds dozens of feathers every day from early summer through fall and makes several dusting pits to wallow in almost every day. Gobblers and hens might scratch over 200 square feet of forest litter in…

Turkey hunting, at its core, is a contest between two opponents. But unlike tennis, say, or collegiate wrestling, it has no set time frame or format. Nope, no regimentation, rules or guidelines here. Instead, turkey hunting is an interwoven, unpredictable mess, a spaghetti plate of infinite and ever-changing variables. It’s a game played on a field of unknown dimension, against an opponent that doesn’t want to participate in the game and wouldn’t abide by the rules even if there were any. Which, as mentioned, there are not. Alone and of itself, that’s already enough to give a turkey hunter a lifetime supply of angst. Throw in the fact that a turkey may act — or react — very differently on successive days to a seemingly identical set of circumstances, and…

It was well before daylight on opening morning, and we were sitting in Teddy Rainey’s pickup on a dirt back road that winds through Holly Springs National Forest in northcentral Mississippi. Rainey wanted to be here plenty early, ahead of anyone with similar plans of hunting this public-access area along a road he’d scouted in the days leading up to this highly anticipated hunt. One morning he heard seven gobblers sounding off from one point not far ahead of where we were parked. Rainey stepped away from the pickup, cupped his hands to his mouth and emitted realistic, reverberating owl hoots, hoping to startle a gobble out of a roosting tom. Hearing no response, we eased into the pickup and cruised a quarter-mile or so down the road and pulled…