Early Symptoms of Turkey Fever

Turkey hunting… it seems hard to bring this subject up now in the dead of winter, but I’m going to anyway because I love to hunt the bearded gobbler so much. It’s such a fun challenge to be able to chase after this game bird in the woods, or rather have them chase you down in response to some imitated clucks of a hen. Although at times it seems hard to wake up at four or five o’clock in the morning its wholeheartedly worth it, there’s nothing quite like being in the middle of the woods when the sun wakes up all of the song birds and the sun’s light leaks through the greening canopy of oak trees. It seems a tradition very much unchanged since hundreds of years ago that mankind first hunted the turkey with a gun.

I watch in earnest as I’m able to cross off the days of the calendar until the opening day of turkey hunting season comes, which happens to fall on April 13th this year. I’ll be returning to my same hunting ground this year which is a large three- hundred acre piece of timber with a pond in the middle and to the south edge of the timber lays some grain fields. The timber is owned by my uncle and is in between New Sharon and Barnes City, Iowa. There is a large population of turkeys in the vicinity of these woods and I have seen on several occasions the biggest turkey I’ve ever seen on t.v., in magazines, or anywhere, but of course he is the wariest of the male turkeys in this wood and without a doubt that is why he is still alive and so big. However, this year I hope that I can get him, as I’ve watched him for two or three years now and I believe I know his pattern of movement. Undoubtedly I will keep you all posted on this tom and of course the others that I pray will cross my path in search of his lady friend the hen.

A night or two ago I really caught the itching to go turkey hunting and I soon found myself cleaning my twelve gauge and dusting off the turkey decoys. I won’t be surprised if in the next week or two I’ll be in Wal-Mart buying some turkey loads for the shotgun and some new turkey calls. This is the year to get that big tom, and I’m already preparing myself to do so. I hope you all haven’t caught the turkey fever like I have, at least not THIS early, well anyways see you in the woods or on the lake, and good luck.