Hunting Archery Duck Deer

Turkey hunt off to poor start - The guaranteed hunt as it is now called got off to a poor start.

The Department of Natural Resources initiated this hunt back in 1996 as an effort to give more people a chance to hunt turkeys. It came after the prime time, of course, and it was so late that the hunting really wasn’t very good.

The “experimental hunt” as it was called then, was only a little over a week long and it was in prime bug season - the black flies had already joined the mosquitoes in the woods. It was also so late that the foliage had already started to develop in the woods and it was a little challenging to see the birds. It was also challenging to hide in the woods that was turning green in camo, which was predominately brown and gray. The “experimental hunt,” however, was a success, and it has been vastly improved.

The guaranteed hunt as it is called now is much longer than the other two hunts in this area and it is typically almost the whole month of May. It takes in much of what used to be the second and preferred hunt and it is absolutely prime time. As a matter of fact, the two earlier hunts are a bit dicey in that, if we get a late spring, the birds may not be into mating full swing and that would make them difficult to attract with calls.

In addition, those two early hunts are short - those hunts typically start on a Monday and end on the following Sunday with only two weekend days to hunt. If one chooses one of those hunts and encounters a couple of weather days, the season could come to nothing. In the guaranteed hunt period, there will typically be eight weekend days insulating the hunter from that weather problem in addition to giving that hunter a lot of time to get a bird.

One can still choose the guaranteed hunt as secondary to one of the earlier hunts in this area, if you enter the lottery. That means selecting one of the early hunts as your first choice and the late hunt as your second choice. Or, you can just take the late hunt or guaranteed hunt and avoid the lottery.

If you make that choice, you can save the application fee for the lottery and buy your license for the guaranteed hunt over the counter and be four bucks ahead of the game. This also means that you have your license in your pocket at the get-go and you can proceed to arrange your time off and make your plans without waiting for the lottery.

The one disadvantage to the late hunt is that your turkeys may have been hunted by others, in the prior hunts. If that is not the case, you have nothing to worry about. If you hunt land that doesn’t get much pressure, you are home free.

If, however, the land you hunt is also hunted by others, you may have to make some adjustments in your hunting. The first of those might be to limit your calling. These birds have already heard a lot of off-key yelping and they might not respond well. Calling less or calling only with soft yelps and clucks might be a good idea. The second adjustment might be to hunt without a decoy.

Birds that have been called to a decoy once or twice will avoid that plastic hen like the plague and you might be better off to hunt without one. If you are willing to take a jake and not hold out for a mature gobbler, don’t include a jake in your decoy spread. Jakes will sometimes fail to approach a decoy jake, trying to avoid a fight.

Even if the turkeys you hunt in May have not been hunted, there is one other adjustment you might have to make. Most of the hens will have been bred by this time and most of them will be tending nests. They will be out feeding and consorting with the gobblers early in the day, but, by mid-morning, they will be leaving them to tend their nests.

This means that by late morning the gobblers are generally abandoned and looking for new company. While many of us are used to confining our turkey hunting to the first few hours of the day, hunting the late season may mean that you have to hunt more in the middle of the day, to take advantage of those lonely gobblers. They will respond quickly to a call and you can sometimes locate them by just listening. These foolish birds will wander the woods and fields, gobbling away, and telling the world where they are located.

This year, because the first day of May falls on a Monday, the guaranteed or late hunt covers the entire month of May. The first two hunts, in April, are timed much like last year and the number of licenses is the same - 2,000 for each of the hunts in our area “J.”

The applications forms for the lottery are available at license dealers now and the licenses for the guaranteed or late hunt can be purchased now.

George Rowe may be contacted at 547-4138, or georgerowe@racc2000.com.