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A fingertip guide to spring turkey hunting season 03/18/2001 From Staff Reports
• North Texas (129 counties): April 7-May 13.
• South Texas (32 counties): March 31-May 6
• Eastern Turkeys (32 counties): April 16-29.
All Texas turkey hunters must have a $5 turkey stamp. The turkey stamp is part of the Texas Super Combo License. Turkey stamp revenues paid for eastern birds to be restored in Texas. Eastern turkeys may be hunted with shotguns, lawful archery equipment and crossbows only (no rifles) and no baiting is permitted.
• Wear camouflage, including camo face mask or paint and camo gloves. Choose a camouflage pattern that looks good in spring woods. Bushlan camouflage is a good choice for hunting turkeys against a Texas mesquite background. Sit still when a turkey is looking in your direction. Turkeys have excellent eyesight and spot movement particularly well.
 Ray Sasser / DMN A mature Central Texas Rio Grande gobbler reflects sunlight off his copper-colored feathers.
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• Pay attention to where you set up to call turkeys. Try to sit with your back to a tree. The tree helps break up your outline and provides a back rest if you are forced to sit still for a long time. Sit where you have good visibility in the direction you think the turkey will come. Position yourself where you can comfortably shoulder your shotgun for a shot in the logical direction. Turkey pros often use gardening shears to prune branches or other vegetation that block shooting lanes.
• Use a shotgun with a full choke for maximum range but avoid shots farther than 30 yards. Shoot the turkey in the head and neck. Body shots with a shotgun are not effective because of the turkey's heavy feathers.
• Pattern your shotgun before the season to determine which shells work best. Several companies make turkey-sized paper targets that work well for patterning. Most turkey hunters use premium No. 6 shot but you should experiment with different loads to determine which work best with your particular shotgun and choke. Patterning your shotgun is also useful for seeing how the gun performs at measured distances.
• A camouflage vest designed for turkey hunting is a handy accessory. A turkey-hunting vest should include plenty of pockets for various calls and equipment, a game bag designed to accommodate a big turkey gobbler and a drop-down pad for sitting on wet or rocky ground.
• Most spring turkey hunters are in the woods well before daylight. They try to call a gobbler off the roost. Depending on the breeding chronology where you're hunting, gobblers are usually roosting in the vicinity of hens and they're difficult to call as they fly down from the roost and almost immediately join the hens. They're often easier to call at mid-morning when available hens have been bred and the gobblers are roaming in search of more hens.
• Roost areas are good places to set up and try to call birds in late afternoon. Waterholes can also be productive spots in late afternoon, particularly if there are roost trees nearby.
Calls are rated on a scale of 1 to 10 for three criteria – ease of use, sound and lack of movement needed to use the call. (Perfect score would be 30):
| Type
| Ease
of use
| Sound
| Lack of
movement
| Total
points
|
|
Diaphragm | 4 | 8 | 10 | 22 | |
Box call | 8 | 8 | 5 | 21 | |
Slate and striker | 6 | 8 | 5 | 19 | |
Pushpin call | 9 | 3 | 6 | 18 |
• Box call: This is the best all-around call because it produces a good sound and is easy to use. The drawback is that it requires both hands and it must be protected from damp weather.
• Slate and striker call: Slates also make good sounds but they're a little more difficult to use and are affected by wet weather.
• Mouth diaphragm: The mouth call makes a variety of good sounds, but it's difficult for some people to master. It leaves both hands free for handling the shotgun.
• Pushpin call: This so-called idiot-proof call is perfect for novices. It is limited in the variety of sounds it can produce. Pushpin calls are usually adequate, but they don't sound as good as other turkey-call types.
The best way to learn turkey calling is by personal instruction from an experienced caller. Lacking that opportunity, buy an instructional video or audio cassette and practice making the sounds along with the tape. The basic hen turkey calls include yelp, cluck, purr and cackle. You can imitate the sounds of a turkey flying down from the roost by flapping your hunting cap against your body.
A wild turkey is fully mature at age 2 but birds don't reach bragging-sized dimensions until age 3 or older. Most turkey hunters judge birds by weight and beard length. Twenty pounds is a big turkey, and any beard longer than nine inches is considered good. The National Wild Turkey Federation has created a scoring system for comparing birds. To determine your prize bird's NWTF score, add the weight plus 10 times the length of both spurs plus two times the beard length. Birds with multiple beards are considered non-typicals. Turkeys can be entered in NWTF records by calling 1-800-843-6983. There is no minimum score required to enter a bird. NWTF gets about 500 entries per year. The record for a typical Rio Grande gobbler is 84.37 from Oklahoma. The non-typical record is a multi-bearded Texas bird that scored 160.75. The eastern turkey typical record is 94 from Missouri while the eastern turkey non-typical record is a Wisconsin bird that scored 194.
Public access is best for eastern turkeys because those birds occur in East Texas, and that's where most of the state's public land is located. John Burk, eastern turkey program director for Texas Parks and Wildlife, said National Forest Service land afford the most public hunting opportunities. Burk said the best bets are the southern Angelina National Forest and most of the Sabine National Forest. The northern part of the Sabine National Forest includes counties that are having their initial eastern turkey seasons this spring. Birds in those areas have not been hunted in the past. "Many of the TP&W wildlife management areas [WMAs] in East Texas have huntable turkey populations," Burk said. "You have to buy a $40 annual hunting permit to gain access to the WMAs. One of the best new WMAs open to spring turkey hunting is White Oak Creek WMA, near Mount Pleasant."
Best regions for Rio Grande turkeys: Edwards Plateau (Hill Country), Cross Timbers, Rolling Plains, South Texas Plains.
Turkey hunting outfitters: Stasney's Cook Ranch, Albany, 1-888-762-2999; Krooked River Ranch, Haskell, 915-773-2457; Wildlife Systems, Inc., San Angelo, 915-655-0877; Indian Creek Guide Service, Comanche, 915-356-5705; Wulff Bluff Creek Ranch, McCullough County, 915-344-5768, 915-463-5547; Stowers Ranch, Hunt, 830-238-4346; South Fork Ranch, Hunt, 830-238-4931; Nail Ranch, Albany, 915-762-2974.
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Ray Sasser / DMN Full camouflage helps spring turkey hunters hide from alert birds. Also remember to keep still when a turkey is looking your way, because the bird has excellent eyesight.
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Turkey hunters are making sounds like a turkey and frequently use decoys, including decoys that resemble gobblers. It is legal to hunt Rio Grande turkeys with a rifle. For that reason, you should be particularly careful and make certain everyone in your hunting party knows where the other hunters intend to be.
Bear in mind that turkey hunters often cover long distances in pursuit of moving turkeys. It's best if rifle hunters are not hunting in the same area as camouflaged hunters using turkey calls and decoys. Though eastern turkey hunters are restricted to shotguns and archery equipment, there is always a risk when sharing public land with unknown hunters. If you use decoys, carry them in a fluorescent orange bag or totally concealed in your hunting vest.
Don't walk through the woods with a turkey decoy under your arm. You don't want anything showing that may look like a turkey to another hunter. If you see another hunter approaching through the woods, say something in a loud voice to let him know another person is nearby.
Stress the common firearms safety rules – always point your muzzle in a safe direction, be certain of your line of fire, never fire at a target you cannot identify, keep your safety engaged until it's time to shoot, be particularly careful crossing fences, creeks or other obstacles.
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