Welcome to Issue Number 37

LET’S GO TURKEY HUNTING

We were delighted to hear about Aaron
Silverman’s turkey kill, out in California. His
two daughters also bagged turkeys.

'Aaron and his trophy'

Here’s what Aaron had to say about his trophy:

“I shot this bird from a little further than I would have liked to. I was just off a private road and looking across a small ravine. The tom had two hens with it and was answering my calls, though it wouldn’t come to me, so after about two minutes, it started to walk up a hill to my far left. I took my shot. I found out later that it was an amazing shot. While I cleaned, plucked and packaged the turkey to be frozen for Thanksgiving, I cooked the heart next night on the grill, and I found a pellet in the heart. That was a first.”

When I was growing up in Chicago, I knew about wild turkeys, and turkey hunting, but that happened out there in Texas and New Mexico, and the chance of my ever getting close enough to one to shoot was rather remote. But over the years wild turkeys have come to the hunters, with an open season in almost every American state, as a result of judicious stocking.

'Aaron’s daughters (Katie, left, and Paige, right) with their trophies'

Regulations will vary from state to state but the general idea is that you try to get the bird – the male – to come to you, because you are working a turkey-call that makes the tom think he’s going to be meeting up with a hen. Of course you need to become reasonably proficient with that call if you’re going to convince the wily fellow what a sexy lady he is about to encounter. You do this by getting hold of a tape with the calls on it, and then practice. But you need to be very restrained in your calling. Just let the gobbler know you’re there. If he answers, you know you’re in with a chance, and the idea is to bring him in, within twenty five yards, so you can make a clean kill with your shotgun.

It’s a good idea to camouflage your gun, and essential that you camouflage yourself. A lot of turkey hunters will also camouflage hands and face. Then it’s a question of wait and watch, be patient and alert because that bird may well come around from either side, and not from where you are expecting him to come. It is a time fraught with anxiety. Do you call again?

You need to be leaning back against a tree, one big enough to conceal you from the rear, sitting down on the ground, perhaps with a pillow for a bit of comfort to protect you from the hard, and maybe wet, ground. It could turn out that the tom you thought could be dinner, was another hunter also calling. Just because you did your pre-season scouting and found this place where there was ample evidence of turkey presence, doesn’t mean that a bunch of other guys haven’t also done the same thing.

There are five sub-species of turkeys, initially stocked according to their perceived suitability for the area in which they would best take hold. The Rio Grande hens, for example, are prolific re-nesters; should they lose eggs or chicks they will start again, several times if necessary.

During the spring season, only males are fair game. It is obviously going to take some doing to get that bird home and in the freezer.

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