Charlie Elk

pseudonym of a man

Take The Wisconsin Slam Challenge

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There’s no better place to hunt turkeys

Vic, my turkey dog, a Vizsla (member of the pointer group), and I begin our fall hunting adventure together, typically setting up where Vic scattered a flock of turkeys. Vic lays next to my left leg with the look of happiness only a dog can express at a glance. As the scattered turkeys start their lost “kee kee” whistles looking to find each other in order to regroup, we know that’s my cue to start lost yelping and assembly calling.  In the case of scattered gobblers, coarse yelps, and aggressive purrs can bring them back into the gun. 

The woods is filled with turkey calls. Vic the turkey dog can't understand why we're waiting.

The woods are filled with turkey calls and Vic, the turkey dog, can’t understand why we’re waiting.

I love it when the woodlands are filled with the sounds of turkeys whistling and yelping at each other and back at us. Vic and I then become part of the flock, talking back and forth. As the conversation continues, Vic stiffens on a laying point towards the direction of the approaching turkeys. My gun will be up at the ready. There are two tags in my pocket and with a couple of gunshots, I’ll be hoping to validate those.

Turkeys are not just another upland bird to be flushed and shot. You can certainly do that; it’s legal. However, to a traditional turkey hunter like me, turkeys are special birds that require more finesse to tag. After all, what other upland game bird can be called in?

And there is no better place to hunt turkeys than in Wisconsin. The combination of seasons, habitat and the fact I can take my dog along in the fall make it turkey hunting heaven.

Summer gobbler Vic's first hunt. Beginner's luck?

Summer gobbler Vic’s first hunt. Beginner’s luck?

The Wisconsin Slam

Summer turkey? Wait you can’t shoot turkeys in the summer.  There is only a spring and fall season, right?

Most think of Wisconsin’s two turkey seasons; spring (April 15 to May 26) and Fall (Sept. 12 to Dec. 31 —  closes during nine-day gun deer season then reopens at the end of deer season).

But if you check the calendar, the fall turkey season dates overlap the official calendar dates of summer and winter. Summer officially runs June 21 to Sept. 22 allowing one to bag a summer turkey in the fall season, and winter officially starts on Dec. 22 giving Wisconsin fall turkey hunters a 10-day opportunity to shoot a “winter” turkey.

It was about eight years ago when it dawned on me that Wisconsin hunters can shoot a turkey during each of the four calendar-based seasons of the year: spring, summer, fall and winter.

Think of it as “The Wisconsin Slam” — taking a turkey in each of the seasons. Who do you know who has accomplished this? No trophies are awarded, and there is no official recognition. It’s all about the personal satisfaction a turkey hunter who understands turkeys and their year round behavior gets from this distinction.

Bar none; Wisconsin is a unique stand-alone wild turkey hunting state offering thousands of tags over the counter that in some units do not sell out by season’s end.

Why pursue a Wisconsin Slam?

The Wisconsin Slam is fun motivation to get out turkey hunting during a time when you might be distracted by something else to do or hunt. The “summer” and “winter” turkeys are harder to bag and offer a fun challenge. The vegetation is thick in the summer making the turkeys harder to find and see.  Winter season is the opposite — there is no vegetation, so the turkeys are easier to find, but that means it is also easier for the turkeys to see the hunter and his dog.

Being able to hunt in all seasons of the year is a uniquely Wisconsin hunting opportunity that so many hunters are overlooking. The spring season is the most popular but I’d like to see more hunters take advantage of hunting turkeys during the four seasons of the year. Need more incentive?  Summer, fall and winter turkeys are more tender and taste much better than the spring gobblers who are the survivors of winter starvation.

Extend the season winter turkey hunting with your dog

Extend the season winter turkey hunting with your dog

Not only can you complete a Wisconsin Slam but the state offers a variety hunting flavors.

Want to chase turkeys in miles of forests? Head to the northern big-woods. Want to try mountain turkey hunting? Wisconsin doesn’t have any “real” mountains but western Wisconsin does have some mighty steep bluffs. Marshland and river bottoms across the state can provide hunting with the feel of southern swamp turkeys, minus the large reptiles. Don’t forget to try southern Wisconsin for some prairie turkey hunting.

I’d argue that no other state offers such a myriad of turkey hunting opportunities.

Another important dimension to Wisconsin’s wild turkey hunting happened when turkey dogs were legalized for the fall turkey hunt season starting in 2011.  It is widely believed hunting turkeys with dogs is a new method; however, turkey dogs in North America are one of the original turkey hunting practices which date back to the founding of Jamestown in 1607. A small contingent of turkey hunters are now bringing the sport of turkey dogging back.

In spring, gobblers advertise their location by gobbling. In fall, this is not normally the case which makes finding the turkeys more challenging. Thus, a turkey dog comes in handy during the fall season. A turkey dog’s job is to find the turkey flocks then flush them in different directions while barking or yipping to let his master know where the action is. When turkeys scatter in different directions, it is easier for the hunter to call the turkeys back together while setup with their dog at the point of the break.

Hunting with a dog in the fall brings the excitement that makes spring hunting seem tame by comparison. When turkeys respond for gathering they do so with gusto, gobbling, purring, kee kees, yelps — you name the call, and they do it. Many times a group of gobblers will not only gobble and purr they’ll fight with each other as they come back.

Turkey dogging also extends the time of contact and interaction with wild turkeys. The first contact is when the dog is flushing or breaking up the turkey flock this is particularly rewarding for the hunter who enjoys the flush of wild birds. The second contact occurs when the turkey answers your call. Yes, turkeys talk to you. Then of course, hopefully, the interaction brings the turkeys in close to you and your dog. A trembling dog close by your side adds to the excitement of the incoming birds as you know you have trained this dog with the skills required. It’s fun to share the excitement, and there’s no better place to do it than in Wisconsin.

 

After breaking up a flock Vic sets up with anticipation of the turkeys reappearing.

After breaking up a flock, Vic sets up with anticipation of the turkeys reappearing.

Wisconsin’s turkey management plan

Wisconsin Turkey Management Plan

Wisconsin Turkey Management Plan

The Wisconsin Wild Turkey Management Plan, a product of coordination between the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, key stakeholder groups, and the public, is available on the department’s website.

People can view an electronic copy of the plan by searching the DNR website, dnr.wi.gov, for keywords “turkey management.”

The Wild Turkey Management Plan will guide decisions regarding the allocation of turkey permits, the structure of our spring and fall hunting seasons, the use of Wild Turkey Stamp funds, and many other aspects of turkey management in the state through 2025. The current plan reflects recent scientific research and changes in turkey distribution and hunting tradition. The management plan was guided in part by input received at 12 meetings held statewide in April and May 2012, as well as an online survey available during the same time period.

Article appeared in the Wisconsin Resource Magazine in August 2015.  Written by charlie elk.

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Wild Turkey Donation Bill

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As turkey hunters are all to aware- Turkeys do not share our dinner plans.

As turkey hunters are all to aware- Turkeys do not share our dinner plans.

OK I have to admit this law change caught me by surprise mainly because I had no idea that it was not legal to donate wild turkey meat.  A hunter can not sell the meat.  Thanks to  2015 Wisconsin Act 31 and AB107 wild turkey are now  the same value as deer.

It was legal to donate a wild turkey to whomever a hunter desired to give it to. What’s changed is the payment to the processor of the turkey.  If a county decides to operate a donation program and pay for all the processing they’ll be reimbursed by the state.

Under current law, the Department of Natural Resources administers a program to reimburse eligible counties for the costs incurred in processing and donating venison from certain deer (venison donation program). To be eligible for participation in the venison donation program, the county must accept deer carcasses for processing, it must pay the costs of the processing, and it must make reasonable efforts to donate the venison to a food distribution service or a charitable organization. Another eligibility requirement is that the county must participate in the wildlife damage abatement program and the wildlife damage claim program (wildlife damage programs). The wildlife damage programs reimburse a county for certain costs incurred for providing abatement assistance or for paying damage claims with respect to wildlife damage that occurs in the county. The venison donation program is funded in part by a wildlife damage surcharge on, and by voluntary contributions paid by persons who purchase, certain hunting approvals.

This bill expands the venison donation program to include wild turkey. Under the bill, a county is eligible to receive reimbursement for the costs incurred in processing and donating wild turkey, as well as the costs incurred in processing and donating venison, if the county accepts deer or wild turkey carcasses for processing and meets the other eligibility requirements for participation in the program.

 

Wisconsin Spring 2015 Wild Turkey Harvest Statistics

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2015 Mail Issued Spring Turkey Permits

Zone Permits Available Applicants Period 1 Period 2 Period 3 Period 4 Period 5 Period 6 Total
01 74,646 0 12,442 12,439 8,136 1,836 677 278 35,808
02 45,036 0 7,507 7,512 7,512 7,510 3,026 696 33,763
03 63,018 0 10,505 10,503 6,125 1,433 439 211 29,216
04 34,968 0 5,831 5,829 5,699 1,632 604 274 19,869
05 12,000 0 2,000 2,001 2,002 1,743 326 195 8,267
06 4,500 0 751 750 751 751 749 461 4,213
07 3,600 0 600 600 600 600 570 172 3,142
FM 460 337 75 97 65 33 5 15 290
Total 238,228 337 39,711 39,731 30,890 15,538 6,396 2,302 134,568

 

2015 Mail Issued Spring Turkey Permits

Zone Permits Available Applicants Period 1 Period 2 Period 3 Period 4 Period 5 Period 6 Total
01 74,646 0 12,442 12,439 8,136 1,836 677 278 35,808
02 45,036 0 7,507 7,512 7,512 7,510 3,026 696 33,763
03 63,018 0 10,505 10,503 6,125 1,433 439 211 29,216
04 34,968 0 5,831 5,829 5,699 1,632 604 274 19,869
05 12,000 0 2,000 2,001 2,002 1,743 326 195 8,267
06 4,500 0 751 750 751 751 749 461 4,213
07 3,600 0 600 600 600 600 570 172 3,142
FM 460 337 75 97 65 33 5 15 290
Total 238,228 337 39,711 39,731 30,890 15,538 6,396 2,302 134,568

2015 Spring Turkey “Over-the-Counter” Permits

Zone      Period 1        Period 2        Period 3        Period 4        Period 5        Period 6 Total
01 4,305 10,606 7,714 2,597 25,222
02 4,484 6,808 11,292
03 4,374 9,069 5,458 1,946 20,847
04 130 4,190 5,225 2,313 11,858
05 256 1,673 1,805 3,734
06 288 288
07 13 428 441
FM 0
Total 0 0 8,809 24,121 24,567 16,185 73,682

 

2015 Spring Turkey Total Permits
Zone Permits Available Applicants Period 1 Period 2 Period 3 Period 4 Period 5 Period 6 Total
01 74,646 0 12,442 12,439 12,441 12,442 8,391 2,875 61,030
02 45,036 0 7,507 7,512 7,512 7,510 7,510 7,504 45,055
03 63,018 0 10,505 10,503 10,499 10,502 5,897 2,157 50,063
04 34,968 0 5,831 5,829 5,829 5,822 5,829 2,587 31,727
05 12,000 0 2,000 2,001 2,002 1,999 1,999 2,000 12,001
06 4,500 0 751 750 751 751 749 749 4,501
07 3,600 0 600 600 600 600 583 600 3,583
FM 460 337 75 97 65 33 5 15 290
Total 238,228 337 39,711 39,731 39,699 39,659 30,963 18,487 208,250

 

2015 Spring Turkey Harvest
Zone A B C                      D E F LTH Youth Total
01 3,064 2,233 2,064              1,729 1,169 553 43 703 11,558
02 2,083 1,861 1,586              1,406 1,445 1,103 108 752 10,344
03 2,695 2,097 1,806              1,370 846 415 53 678 9,960
04 1,389 1,074    867                  945 701 376 20 409 5,781
05 488 402    309                  246 277 164 19 118 2,023
06 178 163    106                    71 64 73 3 59 717
07 127 117      97                    67 37 42 2 29 518
FM 23 20      11                       9 1 7 0 2 73
Unks 3 30
Total 10,047 7,967 6,846              5,843              4,540              2,733 251 2,750 40,977

 

 
Z A B C                      D E F LTH Youth Total
01 3,064 2,233 2,064              1,729 1,169 553 43 703 11,558
02 2,083 1,861 1,586             1,406 1,445 1,103 108 752 10,344
03 2,695 2,097 1,806              1,370 846 415 53 678 9,960
04 1,389 1,074    867                  945 701 20 409 5,781
05 488 402    309                  246 277 164 19 118 2,023
06 178 163    106                    71 64 73 3 59 717
07 127 117      97                    67 37 42 2 29 518
FM 23 20      11                       9 1 7 0 2 73
Unks 3 30
Total 10,047 7,967 6,846              5,843              4,540              2,733 251 2,750 40,977

 

2015 Spring Turkey Success Rates
Zone A B C D E F Total
01 25% 18% 17% 14% 14% 19% 18.9%
02 28% 25% 21% 19% 19% 15% 23.0%
03 26% 20% 17% 13% 14% 19% 19.9%
04 24% 18% 15% 16% 12% 15% 18.2%
05 24% 20% 15% 12% 14% 8% 16.9%
06 24% 22% 14% 9% 9% 10% 15.9%
07 21% 20% 16% 11% 6% 7% 14.5%
FM 31% 21% 17% 27% 20% 47% 25.2%
Total 25% 20% 17% 15% 15% 15% 19.7%

 

2015 LTH and Youth Turkey Harvest Grand Total43703111752536782040919

118

3

59

2

29

           2,999
Zone      PeriodLTH1YouthLTH 2YouthLTH 3YouthLTH 4Youth

LTH 5

Youth

LTH 6

Youth

LTH

7

Youth

Total:

 Female Male
Adult1513345—

–

.

.

.

.              31

 Juvenile–2—-2-

–

.

.

.

.                4

 Adult1952769606385461232117

100

3

51

2

24

         2,335

 Juvenile2317127143111278862

18 .

8 .

5

           629

 

 

Wisconsin 2015 Spring Turkey Harvest Down 1.29%

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charlie-with-at-the-buzzer-turkey-spring-2013Wild turkey hunters across Wisconsin continue to enjoy the hunt of 2015.  See table below. As of the end of the 4th mini season (D Season), 2015 harvest is down 1.29% from the same period 2014.   Unit 4 hunters have experienced a turkey increase of 5.12%, unit 6 & 7 increased 23.6 %, 36%.  WDNR cut the permits in these units by 25% in 2014 so with the permit numbers back to normal this year increase was expected.

All other units have decreased harvests.  Likely this is due to hunters holding out for a mature gobbler rather than taking a jake.  According to hunters, jake numbers are much higher this year, and fewer adult toms are being seen than in 2014.

Preliminary 2015 Spring Turkey Harvest, by Turkey Management Zone, through time period D. 
Zone 2015 2014 % change
1 9,732 10,273 -5.56%
2 7,701 7,793 -1.19%
3 8,584 8,916 -3.87%
4 4,645 4,407 5.12%
5 1,565 1,569 -0.26%
6 576 440 23.61%
7 430 275 36.05%
FM 70 59 15.71%
Statewide Summary
33,303 33,732 -1.29%

Wild turkey hunters across Wisconsin continue to enjoy the hunt of 2015.  The weather has been cool and until recently dry.  Rains have been moderate setting the stage for excellent nesting conditions.  If the weather trend continues to be favorable poult recruitment will be excellent providing for a superb 2015 fall hunt.

Spring 2015 hunters are seeming more jakes than adult gobblers.

Spring 2015 hunters are seeing more jakes than adult gobblers.

 

 

Pearled Head Gobbler

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Dang it anyway, I had just moved towards a hard gobbling turkey which I thought was the conversational turkey that abruptly left me to chase those four late departing hens.  As gobbler and I conversed, I had missed detecting the four hens still on roost above our heads until they flew down at 7:00 yelping their way off in the opposite direction with my tom in tow.  And now!  I hear gobbling coming from my original setup spot.  So much gobbling that surely if I had not gotten seduced into moving a beautiful turkey would be wearing my tag right now.

Here I am on day 3 of my hunt during Wisconsin’s second mini-season.  The morning dawned quiet and still even though the evening before I did a lot of audio baiting so I knew there would be birds nearby.

From some of the treetops on the opposite ridge, I heard what I thought were feet shifting on their roost branches and the ruffle of feathers.  No response to my owl hoots.  Gobbling has been sparse so far this spring in spite of the beautiful weather.

I setup down the ridge from the turkey sounds then around 6:00 a turkey gobbled in answer to my soft clucks.  Soon the sound of a dull thud as the tom apparently just let go and fell to the ground.  A series of walking clucks got him fired up gobbling and strutting as he moved towards me.  As I prepared for the anticipated upcoming shot, those hens mentioned earlier sailed off their roost, and my gobbler turned in pursuit gobbling his merry way after them.  Moving seemed a reasonable strategy, it always does until 20/20 hindsight takes effect, like gobbling coming from where you just left.

As I called more, gobbling started up all around.  A real turkey hunter’s dream morning, still, clear, mild and turkeys coming to life everywhere.  Picking the correct side of the tree in anticipation of which gobbler would arrive first was my most pressing issue.

The first group of 3 toms fought, strutted and picked their way along the top of the ridge to my right.  The offered shots were marginal and quickly became worse when a fourth unseen turkey busted me causing all them to move out and spooking the rest of the incoming turkeys.

All that action and now I’ve one more chance if I can get the left behind turkey to come in.  He was hung up gobbling his head off.  I moved around the to the other side of the large oak placing my back to him hoping my calls would sound like a hen giving up and walking away with the other turkeys.

Turkey noise stopped, and the only thing I heard was rustling in the leaves to my right.  Ever so slowly I turned my head just enough to see the tom in my peripheral vision, he was mere feet behind at 4 o’clock.  No breathing or blinking for me as he suddenly cut loose a thunderous gobble and walked past in the wide-open woods.

Nothing but air between us, I dared not move as he slowly continued to amble past me.  His feathers audibly rustled with each step that finally took him behind a large tree trunk out of sight.

Being right handed I had to turn for the shot, gun up at the ready for the tom’s reappearance.  It took forever; I started to think he’d heard me and walked straight away keeping the tree screening us. Oh No!

Oh yes!  His pearly white head emerges 12 yards off the end of my barrel, his eye straining to pick form out of the gnarled tree bark. My gunshot sounds as slides his neck out, beard dangling in the opening.

2015 first turkey at kill site (13) (640x469)

Preconceived Notions Hamper Turkey Hunt

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Wisconsin turkeys laughing

Are these turkeys laughing or snickering?

A frequently asked question;  What is the one most important thing that makes a great turkey hunter?

I can’t speak to the great part, not sure what that exactly means.  Great is probably defined differently by each person.  Let’s assume great is not a video star; instead, they’re a successful turkey hunter who enjoys the hunt and bags some birds.

For most turkey hunters Preconceived Notions are the number one impediment to killing wild turkeys.

Pick up most any hunting magazine or read online articles this time of year and you’ll find a plethora of expert advice:

  • About where the turkeys will fly down to,
  • you must be there early, in the dark.
  • How they’ll travel certain routes,
  • respond to individual calls,
  • Only call once every 20 minutes or whatever period of time the author made up. All of these examples assume turkeys are creatures of habit that show up, fly down and act according to preset rules or as I’ve learned to understand this advice as Preconceived Notions.

When I started turkey hunting, I heard all the advice above and assumed it was correct.  After five turkey hunts during which I was out somewhere in the dark woods setup by a preselected tree in an area that should hold roosted turkeys.  Only to discover as the sun rose the gobbling turkeys were everywhere I was not.  There I would sit making a call every 20 minutes, after all, I surely did not want to make the turkeys call shy.  This setup had everything a turkey could want an open slightly elevated strutting area, with drag marks and scratchings all over, and this is a classic example of a preconceived notion.  This type of planning and setup works for deer, not usually turkeys.

The turkey hunting light bulb burst on in my head one day when my hunting partner was too sick to leave camp early in the morning.  Upon my return to camp, he told me about a hunter who drove into the parking area then just sat there until a turkey gobbled.  He slipped out in the turkey’s direction.  In short order, there was a shot, and this mystery hunter returned to his truck with a fine gobbler.  All of this happened while I was much further away in the dark at a preplanned location.  At that point, I was a lifelong deer hunter, and now the epiphany hit.  Turkeys are random in action.

The next morning found me on the ridge not far from camp listening with no intention of moving until the gobbling started.  When it did, I walked towards that area in the light after the turkeys had flown down.  My calls answered almost every sound the turkeys made.  Shortly a magnificent strutting turkey appeared.  My heart raced, and I forgot to shoot until he was down the ridge out of sight. Those iridescent feathers catching the multi colors of the sunrise mesmerized me, in all my years of hunting I’d never seen a more hypnotically beautiful display.  Without more thought, I propped the gun on my knee and called.  Nothing, call again, nothing called a lot, not loud just persistent and that Tom reappeared to become my first turkey.

There was no looking back since that time some 33 years ago I have filled a tag during every season.  Nowadays some hunting units allow more than one tag, in those cases, I have not always filled all the tags in my pocket but filling just one is perfect ably acceptable.

Some preconceived notions to avoid:

  • You must be somewhere in the woods before first light. Entering an unknown hunting area in the dark when you have not put a turkey to bed risks bumping the birds off their roosts before a hunter can set up.
  • Restraining your calling for fear of making turkeys call shy;   Experience teaches you when to call how much and at what volume — not an arbitrary rule established in advance of the real-life hunting situation.
  • Assuming a turkey will only travel through an area one way or that he must pass by a particular spot.  Remember turkeys have wings they can and do fly across the water, valleys and from tree to tree.  During late season hunts, gobblers have come into my calls using leafed out trees to find the hen/ me on the ground.
  • Believing turkeys have left the area due to hunting pressure, weather, etc. The turkeys are always there even when they can’t be seen or heard. Turkey dogging has taught me turkeys will lay on the ground unmoving and unseen as a hunter passes by.  However, a turkey dog finds those birds, and in the fall I’m shocked at how hard it is to see one laying on the leaf-strewn ground a few feet away.

Turkey and Turkey Hunting Contact Post

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Over the years I’ve enjoyed discussing all things turkey with the forum members on Turkey and Turkey Hunting.  Unfortunately that forum has all the appearances of a website about to go dark.

For those who would like to stay in contact with charlie elk or willowridge please fill out this contact form.

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Double Tongue Gobbler

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The height of the red oaks provided the turkeys a long glide path.

The height of the red oaks provided the turkeys a long glide path.

The wild turkeys flew down before shooting light this morning in Wisconsin’s unit 3 area.  First the hens pitched off their roosts at 5:15 hitting the ground running like they had somewhere to be.  They must have nests they needed to tend to.  The gobblers sounded off and pitched off roost shortly after and that’s where things got interesting.   Their fly downs were more like long range glides carrying them well out my sight and hearing range.  In the “big” woods of areas of Clark County this makes for a challenging hunt because the toms just keep ranging further out all day long while giving the hunter little indication of where and which way they are heading.  These toms had a lot of altitude off their red oak  roosts so I figured they would have glided out a ways, I took a compass bearing and headed in the direction they went.

A lone gobble slices through the morning silence, distant, as in, across 2 creeks and in the middle of the swamp.  There are dry islands in the swamp but the water is too high for causal wading out to them. The trolling box call is put away and replaced with a Tongue Teaser.  After a couple of yelps and bionk clucks a  gobbler joins me on the trail staring intently in my direction about 40 yards away.  Oops, busted and game barely started. Big wings clawed for air as he took flight to parts unknown.  Where  there’s one turkey usually/sometimes there are more and now it’s  past time to get setup.

I select two different Willlowridge tongue teasers calls one built from purple heart and the other made of chestnut are placed in the go position ready for some very robust aggressive calling.  On mornings in the big turkey woods I have learned aggressive calling works best to bring in turkeys.  Once they get interested a hunter needs to keep them hooked with no slack in the audio line, for if slack is allowed toms will usually get distracted and throw the hook.  At this point in the game I’m thinking that distant gobbler or the one who flew away are the best chance.

Alternating between the calls I cast out course yelps, aggressive purrs and clucks for about 15 minutes elicited a  gobble which I answered immediately and continued cutting his gobbles off midway at each gobble.  The gobbles were getting closer and I must admit I was playing around more than really expecting the turkey to travel all that way across the two creeks to me.  Before I knew it, not only did the gobbler arrive but he brought a gobbling buddy.  Both turkeys went in and out of  strut as they closed the distance, I continue to cluck whenever they could not see me.  Only one turkey gobbled the other just strutted along silently.

As the toms cleared brush entering the open red oak woodland they did their final strut and pirouetted.  When the fans blocked their heads the tongue teaser gently slid onto my lap as my Remington rose to target…  Unfortunately for his buddy, the silent buddy offered the first clear headshot and I took it.

 

Purple heart and chestnut tongue teasers closed the deal.

Purple heart and chestnut tongue teasers closed the deal.

 

 

Sunrise Wild Turkey

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Moon giving way to morning.

Moon giving way to morning.

Every hunt has a certain ebb and flow, plans are made, altered and when it comes to wild turkey hunting altered again.  Turkeys are random birds being there one day and somewhere else the next. A turkey hunter is never sure… this was the case last night when a good buddy called  to tell me about a gobbler he heard while fishing on the Mississippi that afternoon. When a turkey’s location is offered during the last week of Wisconsin’s turkey season you’d be wise to pay attention and change plans accordingly.  An active late afternoon gobbler is likely going to roost nearby.

My buddy got fed up with Wisconsin’s licensing scheme and  quit turkey hunting a few years ago.  He has no desire to turkey hunt after the first 2 weeks for which, he was never drawn or he’d forget to apply. A late season turkey tag would just interfere with his beloved fishing.

During the fall this buddy loves to bow hunt deer so I had given him GPS coordinates to a particular spot where I figured he’d have a chance at a dandy buck.  While fall turkey hunting Vic the Turkey Dog and I would see this 12 pointer,  after just a couple of hours my buddy killed his first trophy class buck.

He felt he owed me something in return and  knew I would be interested in his turkey report including the coordinates.  Besides he figured I was the only one crazy enough to  climb that  huge bluff in the dark from river level.

My hunting plan ebbed and  at 4:40 AM: I found myself at the base of a 500 foot bluff thinking just maybe my friend was playing with me. There was no turkey talk going on, a beautiful but silent morning in an area my boots had never before trod. Up the old logging path, hooting and cawing. At the top- the woods was open, 5:45 not so much as a cluck.

To catch my breath and figure at things I setup on the most comfortable tree of the season, the sun just a red beam peeking over the horizon at my back. Fighting off a bout of tree trunk narcolepsy I made my first calls quiet yelps, rising to cackles and into fighting purrs. Nothing. Let out a series of lost yelps and kee-kees. Quiet.

The most intense sunrise ever?

The most intense sunrise ever?

About 6:10 burning red light reflected off the morning clouds, the sunrise light is filtering and dancing in all around throughout the woods, magically gorgeous and I know not from where he came, the most outrageously beautiful strutting turkey I have ever seen; bathed in the glow of sunrise. His feathers caught and shimmered those colored rays of light back at me as he pirouetted on his toes in a manner that would make any ballerina jealous. I gazed intently over the  barrel, usually a natural thing at times like this, but it seemed so out of place on this morning…..

There are times when the quarry has conducted itself admirably and  you’ve hunted well.  Isn’t that reward enough?

Wisconsin 2015 Spring Turkey Permit Drawing Completed

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tagged gob at kill site

2016 Drawing Update

January 16, 2015 – Wisconsin has completed and posted the results of spring turkey 2015 permit drawing.  Notification cards  are being mailed to successful hunters.  Turkey hunters can login Wisconsin Online License Center to  check the status of their spring turkey application.

103,516 Leftover Spring 2015 Turkey Tags

Remaining permits will be sold on a first-come, first-served basis. Each zone has a designated sales date starting at 10:00 a.m. and running through midnight each day. These sales will be held for five consecutive days with hunters able to purchase one permit per day. Remaining permits for all zones will go on sale on the sixth day (one permit per day). Saturday, March 28, 2015 at 10 a.m.

The scheduled sales dates are:

•Zone 1 – Monday, March 23

•Zone 2 – Tuesday, March 24

•Zone 3 – Wednesday, March 25

•Zone 4 – Thursday, March 26

•Zone 5 – Friday, March 27

Table of leftover Wisconsin Spring 2015 Permits

 

Time Periods A April 15-21  B April 22-28  C April 29-May 5 D May 6-12 E May 13-19 F May 20-26
Zone
1 0 0 4304 10,605 11,763 12,163
2 0 0 0 0 4485 6,810
3 0 0 4376 9069 10,063 10,292
4 0 0 128 4196 5225 5,554
5 0 0 0 257 1674 1805
6 0 0 0 0 0 289
7 0 0 0 0 30 428

photo 3 (1)IMGP1103 (1024x560)

 

 

Ecology of Wild Turkeys in Wisconsin a 2015-2025 Plan for Their Management

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Here is the draft of Wisconsin’s new turkey management plan. There is a lot good turkey information included in this document that all turkey hunters and anyone with an interest in wild turkeys should read.  You can click the image to download a PDF of the entire plan.

Ecology of Wild Turkeys in Wisconsin

A Plan for Their Management 2015-2025 

Click to download all 116 page draft plan

Click to download all 116 page draft plan

For the most part it appears the current spring season scheme will remain in place for the foreseeable future. A majority of active turkey hunters will be very happy about this. However, those who would like to turkey but do not know their schedule and family commitments months in advance will likely continue nonparticipation. These potential turkey hunters are not surveyed about their thoughts. In a time when hunter recruitment has all the buzz these potential hunter’s opinions are left out.

A few glaring problems regarding future turkey management in this draft plan:

  • Any change to future season and licensing will require a 70% approval of turkey hunters.  How will this be determined?  Currently there are no scientific surveys taken.  Yes the DNR sends a random survey to licensed turkey hunters each year and they do some online surveys.  These are interesting but in no way representative of hunters as a whole, only those who choose to respond.  What about considering the opinions of  hunting organizations.  This is another  problem; few hunters are involved in any hunting organization less than 3% of all hunters are members of hunting or conservation groups.  Many groups pretend this is not the case but that is for another post.
  • There is some discussion about eliminating the fall drawing.  If the fall drawing is eliminated these same flawed surveys indicate a majority of hunters support only a 1 bird limit.  There are very few fall turkey hunters in Wisconsin the net number is around 26-30,000 statewide per year.  There are more permits sold and many of the DNR numbers reflect permits as hunters.
  • Oak regeneration for improving turkey habitat.  Be careful here.  Unlike deer and grouse, turkeys require open mature oak woodlands.  Turkeys do not like to hang out in brush or dense new growth. In west central Wisconsin where many “mature” oak woodlands are being clear cut including state owned wildlife management areas, the turkeys have moved out.  Many of what were the finest turkey woods in the nation are no more.  This strategy of clear cutting mature oaks was done in the Missouri Ozarks during the 1950’s to such an extent turkeys nearly vanished for a generation.  Don’t believe me, then ask Ray Eye or any other old Missouri turkey hunter.

The plan as written contains good wild turkey ecology information and is a must read for all Wisconsin turkey hunters.  However, it is, perhaps intentionally vague about specific future management strategies.  This may be because turkeys in Wisconsin don’t require active management.  So long as their habitat is not destroyed.  But even then urban / suburban  turkeys are doing quite well in many areas.

A Thought about Learning Turkey

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Learning about turkey hunting is not to know everything about turkeys – It’s to enjoy life more.

This popped into my head while turkey dogging the other day.  For those who don’t know about turkey dogging- that is when you hunt with a dog to flush and scatter flocks of turkeys in order to call them back.  Anyway,  I read and talk a lot about turkeys and their hunting so I’m not sure if this is something I read somewhere or an original  random thought that flowed in from the spirit of the hunt.  If someone knows who wrote or said that quote please leave a comment to credit them.  Good hunting.

Take your dog turkey hunting. You'll both be the better for it.

Take your dog turkey hunting. You’ll both be the better for it.

Wisconsin Wild Turkey Slam

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What is a Wisconsin Wild Turkey Slam?

During the fall 2007 wild turkey season it occurred to me Wisconsin has a turkey season during all seasons; spring, summer, fall

Spring gobbler

Spring gobbler

and winter, there is no end to the turkey hunting opportunities in Wisconsin.   I’m sure some enterprising employee in the state’s tourism department will declare Wisconsin the “Wild Turkey Capital of the Nation” or maybe even the World!   Hmm, perhaps that would not be good and I should post about the lack of turkeys on a opening weekend 2014?  But I digress.

Summer turkey

Summer turkey

Back to the Wisconsin Wild Turkey Slam.

In an effort to get away from the pressure of shooting the biggest, longest bearded and spurred turkey in the woods.  Instead attempt to kill a turkey in every season of the year.  The concept begin to glow and the more I thought about it the more I liked it.  Nothing wrong with bagging the oldest, biggest and most dominate bird in the woods it’s just that “trophy hunting” sometimes does things to hunters and not all good.  Above all hunting should be fun and if you are not having fun go do something else.

  • Here’s how the Wisconsin Slam Works:
  • Tag a turkey in each season- spring, summer, fall and winter in the same year, any wild turkey counts.
  •  When the spring season is open it is spring, no question there.
  • Summer lasts until September 22 in 2014 so the window to get a summer turkey is opening day Sept. 13 to Sept. 21.
  • Fall starts Sept. 22 and continues to December 31.  Lots of time to get the fall bird except there are many other distractions as in other things to hunt.
  • Winter starts December 21 and goes to the December 31 when the Wisconsin turkey season closes.  Vic and I go a New Year’s Eve turkey every year.

You can double check my dates here.

Fall turkeys . Most turkey hunters do not realize toms gobble and respond to calls in the fall too.

Fall turkeys . Most turkey hunters do not realize toms gobble and respond to calls in the fall too.

Winter turkey

Winter turkey

Why even do this slam?

In my case I became immersed in trophy deer hunting for a couple of decades and yep quite successful at it.  Walls are full and there are boxes of big antlers in the shed.  Same thing with spring bearded turkey hunting.  Yes, I had lots of fun and I’m not about to discourage anyone from pursuing trophies.  It is more of a personal thing for me as it slowly dawned on me that focusing like that was changing me and I did not like what that was doing to me, as in what I was becoming.  Now a days I don’t compete in any hunting related contest.  Rather I create my own goals.  Humans need some goals for motivation and I’m no exception in that department.

Please remember while hunting – have fun however that is defined by you and only you.

Charlie Answered Turkey Dog Questions on Outdoor Life

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New Year turkey 2011 (640x513)

 I’ve enjoyed participating in Outdoor Life’s forum over the last 5 years. Because  I get a lot of  questions about turkey dogging like Turkey Hunter 39 asked on one of the OL Answers Thread. So I thought I would publish it here for other would be turkey doggers to enjoy.

Turkey hunter39 started by asking-

Q: Anyone planning to use a dog for fall turkey hunting this year? If so, what breed?

Charlie elk could not resist helping out a turkey dogger to be. The thread contains a lot of good information so I decided to reprint it here.

I love turkey dogging it only took one season that would be last year to get me hooked. My dog is a Vizsla there are some of his puppy pics in my profile. There would be more of him and his turkeys but OL will not let me load them up without a Facebook page which I don’t have.

If you Google “turkey dog hunting with charlie elk” a wide variety of my posts and pictures on this subject will come up.

Turkey39–

Charlie, thanks for the reply. I am a member of the American Wild Turkey Hunting Dog Association, new member, and have talked to Jon several times. Jon was very helpful in helping me choose a dog. I will be picking up Steve Hickoff ‘s book, it is on my literature list. You are absolutely correct that fall hunting makes you a better spring hunter. In the fall, you get to hear the turkey’s full vocabulary. The fall is a great time to practice your calling, and more importantly, how to match the call to the situation at hand. Turkey dogging is a small world, but almost everyone that I encounter is interested in it. The common response is….”I have never heard of that.” I don’t know that I want it to go mainstream, but it would be nice to have additional resources available for the new guys. Keep posting the material and I will keep reading, maybe even contribute some of my own. If my pup isn’t ready this year due to age, he definitely will be next year. If anyone else is interested, don’t sit on the fence, just ask. Turkey meat is even sweeter in the fall!

Sometimes we get a little off subject, that’s OK too as JM chimes in-

A few years ago I drove 16 hours out of state to bring a friend of mine who was in college archery hunting for the first time (first time hunting at all for anything besides rabbits). Since we were too far away from my farm and he did not know anyone with private land, we decided to go to public land. It was a 2500 acre property (all woods) and for three days straight the same three people had 6 dogs running around barking throughout the entire property looking for a turkey. On the second day we caught up with them at the parking lot when we went in to eat lunch and asked them if they could leave an area alone for me and my friend to hunt. They seemed nice, and showed us an area on the map that they would leave for us (was a nice big area, so we just agreed and headed straight out without even going into town to buy lunch). About 45 minutes later all three of them walked right past us (in the area they said they would leave alone), and when we walked up to them all they would say was “public land.” On the third day we thought we caught a break because they were not in the parking lot that morning…but nope. 30 minutes after it got light they drove down a trail in 4 wheelers (It was illegal to ride them on this section of public land). We just gave up and called the police and they contacted a game warden who came out. Turns out all three of them weren’t even supposed to be hunting (warden wouldn’t tell us why they lost licenses). Needless to say we did not see a single deer (or turkey) and I have been unable to get him to try it again since….hopefully there are some respectful turkey hunters that use dogs (I know Charlie is one), but sadly this was the only encounter I have ever had with one.

charlie elk-

JM those you describe were obviously lawbreakers and or poachers. We should take great care and never refer to them as hunters.

Turkey doggers do not use packs of hounds. The vast majority use one dog maybe 2 (an older trained dog and a younger being trained) that work closely together to find a flock. Then they charge for the break, hopefully they bark to let the hunter know the exact location so they can all setup and call the birds back in.

Welcome to the American Wild Turkey Hunting Dog Association! Glad to have you as a member. I am sure Jon has given you a lot of very sound advice. When I was debating whether or not to get a turkey dog and what kind he was most kind, open and helpful. As a member you have access to a lot of very good information in the member section of the website. Make good use of it.

What state will you be hunting in?

 

Turkeyhunter39-

I have been all through that website and it is great. Read the pamphlet that Jon sends out as well. Most of my fall turkey hunting will be in KY and TN. Jon has extended an offer to come up to Wisconsin and I plan to take him up on it. I was very interested to read how versatile Vic is as far as hunting turkeys and upland game. That is what I am hoping to accomplish as well. Kentucky has two very short fall turkey seasons, 6-7 days in both October and December. Tennessee also has a short fall shotgun season, but a more liberal bag limit. My ace in the hole is a public hunting area that has a really long fall season and an amazingly liberal bag limit. All combined, I could run my Brittany for about 4 months…which is fantastic. I have access to some wild quail as well, so we are going to go the double duty route. It is funny to me how welcoming the turkey dogging community is, and how passionate the hunters are about their sport. Everyone has been unbelievably helpful. I feel like I have stumbled onto the best kept non-secret ever.

JM, I hate that you had a bad experience with some questionable hunters. I would say that conflict would most likely occur during archery season as the seasons will undoubtedly overlap. I will be hunting both public and private ground. The private ground is a non-issue, but I don’t believe I would turn my dog loose on just any Wildlife Management Area (WMA). The public area that I will hunt is more regulated and it is not very likely that I would run into anyone else, if I do, they will be turkey hunting also. I also lease ground from time to time, and didn’t renew a lease this year because of their dog policy. No harm, no foul. There is enough space for all of us. I wanted to do something different than the crowd, and so it wasn’t a good match anymore. All forms of hunting has its time and place, and I have no desire to ruin someone else’s hard earned hunting time. Hopefully your next encounter will be more positive. Happy Hunting.

JM-

As Charlie stated, I shouldn’t have even called them hunters. Just 3 selfish poachers who thought they were more important than anything around them.

-I wish you and your dog luck in the upcoming hunting seasons. I hope someday I will the time to train a dog to hunt with me. I just do not think I could give a dog enough attention right now (I Work 60hrs/week over the summer and still working on my degree).

 

charlie elk-

Turkey hunters are arguably the most considerate sharing easy to get along with hunters of them all. That goes double for turkey doggers.

TH39, WI has no limit on fall turkey hunting you get as many as you have permits for and the season is 3 1/2 months long. Should you find your way to WI drop me a line and perhaps our paths will cross. To contact me just make a comment on my website or PM me on the other sites you see my posts on.

Check out the January turkey hunt at Fort Campbell, they allow dogs. Also some states allow dogs for spring hunting too. Jon has those posted on the turkey dog site.

You are right on about fall turkey tasting so much better.

How old is your pup?

At 4 months old I started getting Vic accustom to gunfire. A turkey dog must endure very close gunfire more so than any other hunting dog. 

Turkey doggers don’t usually interfere with bowhunters. Turkey dogging is a mid-day activity and the vast majority of bowhunters have already left the field by the time we start. Although they should stay on their stands because I see more trophy bucks within easy bow range when Vic is with me than I do sitting on my butt during “prime time”.

But some bowhunters are upset about anyone else doing anything else in the woods because–

The scent control salesmen and inexperienced outdoor writers have too many deer hunters so freaked out about leaving scent in the woods that they think if anyone walks around without a has-mat suit on; the area is contaminated making it impossible for them to kill a deer let alone a trophy.

Oh well what I can say about these guys. Except you need to get out more. 😉

 

JM–

What do you expect Charlie? Have you seen hunting shows lately? I saw one where the “hunter” said that the hunt was the hardest of his life. He spent three hours in a stand and passed on more than 20 bucks (all within easy bow range) that 90% of hunters would have called the biggest deer of their life. Yeah, real tough hunt.

Turkey39–

I do hunt Campbell and it is loaded with turkeys. The fall season has two segments, so you can run ’em early and late season. The funny thing about Campbell is access, you have to call in and get a unit. I tried all spring to get a unit and couldn’t, it was full every day. They allow you to take 4 bearded turkeys in the spring, so I ate 4 tags. I haven’t had any problems, knock on wood, getting in units during the fall season, very few people fall turkey hunt…it is tough hunting. Campbell is one of the reasons I started investigating alternatives for fall turkey hunting, as it is so vast. I hunted multiple days without seeing or hearing a turkey, and I know they are there. So it got me thinking that there had to be a better way, and that is when I came across Jon’s website. I started doing research, decided it was something I wanted to do, verified I could use a dog on Campbell and the rest is history. My pup is four months old now and he is definitely interested in birds, he just seems to not be quite ready yet for any real training. I am reading a lot about Brittany’s and they don’t seem to mature very early. He has taken to yard work very well and has no problem plowing through the brush, but he still seems too hyper to really focus on the task at hand. Could be my training as well. He has the pedigree and seems to have a good nose, he is just very puppyish. I don’t want to rush him and we are keeping it fun. The weather hasn’t really cooperated with me either. It is either 100+ or thunderstorms. My tentative plan is to continue the yard work for another month or so, mix in as much live bird work as I can, introduce the e-collar around 6 months of age, and take him with me in October for the early KY season. It is private ground and we can just go out and hunt. No pressure and lots of birds. I am very familiar with their fall habitat on that piece of land, so I can help focus his efforts. I am working on getting him to settle down next to me and I will introduce him to the bag in the next two weeks. I am definitely seeing progress, I just don’t want to push him too hard. Let me know what you think. Did Vic mature early?

charlie elk-

Come August the turkeys of the year will be old enough to take some chasing. Turkey hunter 39, you should get your pup out in some turkey areas so he can get a nose full of the good stuff. If you have some wings, tails or feathers introduce them into his play routine. Pups have short attention spans but when they like the smell of something coupled with your strong approval; well that is the start of something good.

Vic was about 3 1/2 months when I was leading him in charging across March’s frozen fields yelling turkey, turkey; those flocks broke with cackling, wing flapping pandemonium and the strong scent left behind for him to inhale. Soon he was spotting and beating me to the turkeys though I’m not too tough to beat. Then we did practice setups, I’d call for bit and maybe spend 5-10 minutes kind of still. A couple of times the turkeys came back that quick and he learned to point at them as they came in. He is rigid while pointing.

We did these exercises until my spring season opened 3rd week of April. Vic was allowed to nose the dead gobblers over good and I would direct him to grab their heads and drag them to me. He really like that game. Then we went for a hike to the kill spot where I had left some feathers lying about. Vic would go crazy sorting out the trail the gobbler approached on. All great fun and I let him be like a kid on his first hunt, but Vic did seem to realize there was something very serious going on.

 In August we pursued turkey flocks, scattered them and practice setups. During all this training I should mention I used a blank starter pistol to shoot around Vic including on our practice setups. From there we graduated to 22, a 410 and then 20 gauge. The first time he heard a 12 was on opening day when a nice gobbler rolled over dead in front of him.

Some trainers tried to discourage me from taking him hunting until the next year. Said I was rushing him too much. But like you I did not put the screws to him very hard rather just let him develop at his own pace while giving him plenty of exposure to what counts. All the while letting him know what I liked and disliked.

BTW, Vic does not know what an e-collar is, my training methods are very old school.

You are in for more fun than you can imagine.

 Turkeyhunter39-

Charlie Elk, I laughed when I read your last post, as I too have been waiting for the poults to get big enough to handle some pressure. I want to train my dog, but not at the expense of the animal I love to hunt. I am conflicted about the e collar and if I was just hunting private ground, I might not go that route. I am looking at the e collar to keep him honest and out of harm’s way. Also, the fallout of not bringing the family pet home from a hunt would be unbearable. He follows me everywhere I go, but there is always that chance that temptation could end up in a lost dog, especially with a young dog like him. So I plan to use an e collar and a gps collar. I do some traveling to hunt, so those items give me some piece of mind. I have some wings that I am cleaning up…they were treated with Borax as I make wing bone yelpers. I want to make sure I have the Borax off them before he plays with them. I think the time of year they were born in makes a difference. I got him at 10 weeks old in the dead heat, with poults everywhere. Oh well, I am a patient man…lol. Have you had any issues with Vic getting on a scent and heading to parts unknown? I have read about the old timers leaving their jacket on the ground so the dog could find it and they would pick them up the next day…which isn’t a situation I want to find myself in.

 charlie elk-

I have never lost a dog in afield. Good basic obedience is critical. Does Vic cross property lines while in hot pursuit? Yes. Do I wish I could really teach him a lesson then? Yes. Like with an e collar? Yes, let his hair smoke.

Fortunately it now seems we are past this due to whistle training. We use a very shrill whistle that seems to cut through his excitement of the moment. Once I have his attention he has a strong desire to please so he comes back.

I have never used any training collar so I have no way to give a meaningful opinion. Guys who use them swear by em. Except one friend of Jon’s who thought his dog was chasing a deer so he zapped his dog. Oops, it turned out to be a turkey. The dog never pursued a turkey again for him, he used it to hunt other birds but remained confused as to why this dog refused to chase turkeys. Until he loaned his dog to friend who reported back the dog was the best turkey dog he had ever hunted with. Hmm… Guess you have to be careful with those collars. You might have read about this one I think it is in Jon’s booklet.

A turkey dog must be able to operate independently out to 200-300 yards, this is one of the tough parts of the hunt. Where we hunt there are bears, coyotes, wolves and rattlesnakes; I worry about Vic when he is a little overdue for check in. A GPS locator might be in his future.

 Turkeyhunter39-

“Have you had any issues with Vic getting on a scent and heading to parts unknown?”

charlie elk-

Not so far. Should he, I am prepared to stay afield overnight in the last place we parted company.

To prevent this I used Jon’s technique of showing great displeasure and dislike of things like deer. The idea is to get the dog to think you hate deer or whatever he should not chase.

In my area the deer are more numerous than rabbits. Of course as Vic and I hiked around preseason they would run, what great fun for a pup. My reaction was oh an awful smelly deer, no like deer. Vic would then bark at the deer and bluff charge them a few yards to chase them away and come back for his reward. Now he does not care about deer at all, they are just something on his way to the target birds.

I will never forget the look of betrayal on his face when I came home with the first dead deer he ever saw. He sniffed it over real good and looked at me as if to say you LIAR! But he still does not have any interest in deer while we are hunting.

This is good, in addition to turkeys I arrow a lot of deer each year too. But sitting on deer stand is getting really boring compared to all the excitement and action of turkey dogging.

Turkeyhunter39-

Charlie Elk, The e collar is definitely something you have to be careful with. I haven’t even bought one yet, as I am still reading over the various training techniques and how to introduce and use one properly. I am with you on the overnight vigil if the dog would run off. Private ground, no problem. Fort Campbell, they are going to start looking for you if you don’t sign out. Sign out and stay in the unit to find your dog……? Guess it depends on who finds you, and what kind of day he/she is having. I need to go back and read about the avoidance training…my shoes could definitely use a break. LOL. He likes to carry them around. We still have some basic obedience training to work on as well. He responds well to basic commands, but we seem to have a little bit of a focus problem. Any tips on helping to deal with distractions and increase focus would be much appreciated.

charlie elk-

In a Fort Campbell situation it might be prudent to leave the field early with your dog in order to avoid that lost dog scenario. An old fashion leash would be a good idea, allowing the dog off leash only when turkeys are encountered.

When Vic gets overly spun up I leash him to keep him close until he settles back down. An inexperienced pup encountering all the rich turkey scent…well who can really blame him for getting all excited?

The leashing helps focus attention and keeps the master in command. I keep telling Vic there is a reason I wear the whistle and he wears the collar. 😉

A pup’s attention span is that of a gnat so look for the moments of focus and capitalize training on them at that moment. I believe a trainer of a young dog must be very careful to not crush the spirit of the dog. For example Vic still points and dashes after butterflies, perhaps embarrassing if anyone else sees, but an important part of the desire and drive. As Steve Hickoff reminds desire must be there it is the one thing you cannot train into a dog. So if you stop the dog constantly from chasing he might lose interest.

 Turkeyhunter39-

Charlie Elk, Good tips. Do you have a suggestion on leash length? I have a 20 foot check cord that I let him explore with, especially when we’re someplace new. That really isn’t conducive for a hunting situation though. Of course, I have a 6 foot leash as well. I have found that he does calm down when I leash him, so that might very well work. I guess in my mind, I am having trouble imagining the scenario. I still don’t know if he will point, then flush; point only; flush only. In the leash scenario, are you putting the dog on the leash after the flush, so he calms down for the calling? I know Jon will leash his dogs until he gets to a promising area, and I can see leashing the dog for the walk out when the hunt is over. Can you give me a scenario when you would put Vic on a leash during the hunt?

charlie elk-

I have never used a check cord, too long in woods and as a turkey dog first, Vic needs to range wide. We just use a 4′ leash. My favorite for turkey hunting is the Mendota British-Style Slip Lead in 4 foot length, do a search on Cabela’s to see it. For Vic and I this is just the right size on turkey setup and when necessary for spin down time. It is fast to put on as it slips over his head so you don’t have to find the clip and loop on his collar.

During Vic’s first season, hopefully only because of his youth, he would get over stimulated (spun up) and start dashing about, obviously not hunting just going through the motions at a high rate of speed; this is an example of leash time for spin down. I don’t treat this as punishment, I talk to him a sympathetic soothing tone telling him what and how we need to hunt. When he sees this lead in my hand he now comes over and sticks his head through the loop as it signifies something really good might be getting ready to happen like a turkey becoming dead or I’m taking him to a more game rich area.

The lead was used to teach Vic to “sneak”. Sometimes turkeys are feeding on the other side of a field; if the dog just charges across at the turkeys they flush as a group. The better strategy is heel the dog and sneak in as close as possible ideally so Vic can run into the center of the birds to scatter them all directions. My command to Vic for this is “sneak”, he knows the difference between heel and sneak. It is cute when he sneaks, he crouches down with me and pads lightly.

Another leash scenario is when hunting private land you must be careful of the property lines in order to maintain good neighborly relations. So Vic gets leashed when we are getting close to the lines. I preferred hunting large tracts of public land during Vic’s rookie year in order to avoid these.

Trust me, when you need to leash your pup, you’ll know it.

Yesterday, Vic and I went out scouting we encountered a flock of about 20 feeding in hayed barley field. Told Vic to sneak, we did the crouch to the end of an adjoining cornfield. On command “Turkeys Get Em” – Vic slipped 2 rows into the corn and charged down the row until he was opposite the turkeys, turned into them…

It was a beautiful heartwarming sight all those turkeys, surprise putting & cackling, flying to different areas.

The kee-kees and assembly yelps started before we left the area, clearly those turkeys would have been callable to the gun.

Turkeyhunter39-

Charlie Elk, I will check into that leash. Thanks for the nuts and bolts. I like the idea of “sneak” and will see if Max will take to that. I have been contemplating the command for charging the flock and will probably try “bust ’em.” Any thoughts on what you wish you had done for your first “dry run” or what you did do that worked very well?

charlie elk–

Each dog has a different personality and they each seem to understand our language and inflections with differing levels of comprehension & excitement. So as long as the dog comprehends what is necessary the chosen command does not matter. As long as the master is consistent in its use.

Usually Vic busts the flock on his own. Only when I spot the field flocks do I take control. Otherwise I trust Vic will sniff em out and charge on his own, just wish I could figure out how to get him to bark and let me know about it.

I do like to use different commands than those in the “book” for safety reasons. Like “kennel” I use a different word when its time to get in the truck. Around here there is an unusually high incidence of hunting dog theft. Also, I allow Vic to be a little aggressive toward strangers, I ask companions to not give him any commands.

That way, hopefully if someone stops and orders Vic to Kennel he’ll bark and find me or bite them if they try to grab him.

Turkeyhunter39-

Charlie Elk, Do you use a bag for Vic? Max is white, so we have to use the bag. Any suggestions for getting him to like the bag?

 charlie elk–

Vic is deer colored, he blends in really well so he usually wears a wide reflective orange collar or orange vest which easily slips off for setup. During cold weather, because of his short hair mrs elk made some camo vests to keep him warm. Vic has quite the wardrobe, snow, brown, gray, green camo and orange vests both nylon and fleece. Depends on the weather and where we are going to hunt.

Glad you asked, I have been meaning to post some pics of him in his camo on my website. I’ll try to get that done this weekend.

In Steve Hickoff’s book he describes how to get a dog blind/bag tolerant.

 Turkeyhunter39-

Charlie Elk, I really need to order that book. Thumbs up to Mrs. Elk for making the vests. My wife also sews and is making some custom bags for me. I need something really lightweight for early season and a fleece one for late season. I checked out that leash you recommended online and I think it is available at my local Bass Pro Shop so I will check it out in person. There is one thing in particular that I haven’t decided on and that is water transport in the field. Max drinks a ton and I am not sure a couple of bottles of water in my vest is going to be enough. I will be dealing with warm weather for a lot of my fall turkey season, and a good water source isn’t always readily available in some of the areas. How much water do you carry and how do you do it? At this point, as I go through the mental checklist, I feel like I need to take a mule with us. LOL. Water, blind bag, leashes, calls. Have you encountered the same problem or do you have a minimalist approach you would like to share?

 

charlie elk–

Minimalist while turkey dogging? Let me know when you figure that out. 😉 My vest gained at least 30 pounds and doubled in bulk when Vic joined me.

I have my calls down to 2 wing bones and a slate.

Water is heavy and necessary for an extended warm weather hunt. I carry 2 one quart water bottles, mostly for Vic I don’t drink much.

Tried one of those bladder type re hydration things too cumbersome to operate.

On really hot days we woodlot hop with a couple gallons of water in the truck or boat.

As far as container I just lug the proper size plastic juice bottles and when they get icky throw em away.

 

Turkeyhunter39-

Charlie Elk, I am laughing because I keep looking at the gear and I am wondering just how I am going to haul it all. Glad to see that I am not alone. I have actually been thinking about how I can divide up some of my hunting so that we circle back to the truck. I am also considering carry a tub with water in it as a dunk tank for Max on really warm days…I might see 90 plus degree days. Circle back to the truck, hydrate, and dunk him to cool him off. For the fall, I use wing bone calls, mouth calls, and a tube call, so they are not that bulky. I basically need shells, calls and a therma cell. No blind, no decoys. Realistically, how long do your hunts average? Some of my places we could cover in an hour or two, some we couldn’t cover in a full day. Do you feed Vic between wood lots when you are putting in a long day? Have you ever tried to run Vic and harvest a turkey with a bow?

 charlie elk–

Well TH39, Jon uses a backpack, he carries all the stuff we do plus a pop up blind and chair.

On really hot days I plan a series of shorter hunts and return to the truck or boat. Many hot day hunts take place in river valleys. Not only does Vic need resting, I need resting more than he. 😉

If I need food on a hunt then I offer Vic food too.

No on the bow; I have killed numerous turkeys with arrows and have found I just don’t care for it. This may sound strange but I do not find any extra challenge in taking a turkey with a bow. For it is about the same as shotgun, so I just use the shotgun. Plus with a shotgun the turkeys do not flop away requiring tracking. Although, with a turkey dog tracking is no big deal.

Last spring a neighboring hunter arrowed a gobbler but it got back up and ran away. He mentioned this to me, I told him about my turkey dog. In about 10 minutes Vic found the turkey dead 250 yards away from point of shot. The hunter had thought the turkey survived.

Forgot to answer your question about how long does hunt last.

Vic was a pup last season, his attention span was short so at first a couple of hours at a time or less depending on his attention. Sometimes we just leash timed out, spun down, while we practiced being setup with some cold calling. Other times Vic would start hunting for himself rather than with me.(very bad habit for a hunting) Then it was back to the truck, until he recovered and settled down.

Typical day last season; I would go out bow hunt deer early morning until 10. Come back get Vic and hunt until 3-4 in the afternoon. Then Vic spent resting time with mrs elk while I went back out deer hunting

Turkeyhunter39–

Thanks for all the helpful advice. I have noticed a change in Max over the last week or so, it seems he is starting to understand what I want him to do. Not perfect mind you, but he seems much more focused when we are going through exercises. I have noticed from your comments that you really focus on Vic having fun along with getting down to business. I decided I would relax some and Max has responded well. I mentioned bow hunting for turkeys due to season length. With the exception of Campbell, both of my typical states have really short shotgun seasons. With a bow, I have months. I have considered just taking Max and putting him in a blind with me, a little bonding, and let him get good and excited over a fresh kill. I plan to take him out in a week or so and see if we can’t get on a flock…see what he does with it. I have roughly 6 weeks until we could potentially start chasing birds on Campbell. I am planning to run him, carry a gun, keep expectations low and see how he does. A lot of trial and error headed my way. I guess I am a little unsure and don’t want to mess him up, as he is a good dog.

charlie elk–

TH39, this has been an enjoyable exchange, thank you.

If a bow was the only way I could turkey hunt, well then bow hunt it is. Please do not let my comments about that discourage you and anyone else who is reading. I am not against bow hunting turkey. In WI we are blessed with a 3 1/2 month fall season, bow or gun, I just choose gun.

If you would like to write about Max and your experiences, Jon would love to post them on www.turkeydog.org and of course www.charlieelk.com complete with any pictures you would like to share. The more turkey doggers the merrier.

Turkeyhunter39–

Charlie Elk, I too have enjoyed the exchange. I have learned a lot. It has been nice to get practical advice. I plan to post our adventures as the season progresses. I will keep you posted on the training and Max’s antics. I hope others who are interested will come across these posts and join in on the fun of turkey dogging. Good luck this fall. Check back periodically, as I am sure I will need additional advice. LOL.

charlie elk–

Oh yes Th39 there will some Max antics and I will love to hear about them.During hunting season I become what the OL editors lovingly refer to as a ghost. So if you have a story or two you could also email me at elk@charlieelk.com Good hunting and have a grand time building a relationship with Max.

Full Outdoor Life thread can be viewed here –

 

 

 

 

Wisconsins Fall Turkey Drawing Completed August 14, 2014

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Good News for Wisconsin’s fall turkey hunters. As of today August 14, 2014 the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has completed the 2014 fall turkey drawing.  Cards will be sent out next week to notify the successful hunters.  If you are an avid turkey hunter who can’t wait results are posted in Wisconsin’s  Online Licensing Center

Leftover fall turkey permits go on sale over the counter starting Saturday August 23th at 10:00 AM. Hunters may buy one per day until sold out.  Hunters who were not drawn are still eligible to purchase leftover permits.

Details on the leftover turkey permits available can be found here soon when they are posted.  As of this writing the final number of leftover permits are not available.  Should be there within a couple of days.

 

Most turkey hunters do not realize toms gobble and respond to calls in the fall too.

Most turkey hunters do not realize toms gobble and respond to calls in the fall too.

 

2014 Wisconsin Fall Wild Turkey Permits Stable

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Wisconsin 2014 wild turkey permit status:

After the last minute spring turkey permit reduction fiasco that very few knowledgeable hunters thought was a good idea.  Fall turkey hunters were concerned those same few complainers would manage to convince the WDNR to reduce fall turkey permit availability in 2014.  Thankfully, wildlife management based on science prevailed and the fall turkey permit numbers will be  equal to the number offered during the 2013 fall season.  Statewide 96,700 permits will be available with permits allocated to specific turkey management zones based on the amount of habitat available.

Fall permit levels are set by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources after review by the Turkey Advisory Committee, a group that includes representatives from the department and numerous partner organizations with an interest in Wisconsin’s wild turkey resource.

Zone-specific fall 2014 permit levels are as follows:

  •  Zone 1: 27,500
  •  Zone 2: 18,000
  •  Zone 3: 30,000
  •  Zone 4: 15,000
  •  Zone 5: 3,800
  •  Zone 6: 1,400
  •  Zone 7: 1,000

Scott Walter reports:

“We certainly heard from hunters who were concerned that this past winter might significantly impact our northern turkey flock,” said DNR upland wildlife ecologist Scott Walter. “We do know from research in the Midwest that prolonged periods with deep snow and cold can lead to increased mortality, and with up to four feet of snow on the ground and weeks of bitter cold in some areas this year, those concerns were justified. However, when the snow finally began to melt and winter flocks broke up, folks began to see turkeys in large numbers across the north.”

Fall either-sex harvests can impact turkey populations if hen harvest is excessive, but the number of hens harvested in Wisconsin is very low. Biologists are not concerned that fall harvests will influence turkey populations. Given these low hen harvests and indications from the spring season that turkeys came through winter in decent shape, the advisory committee decided to maintain fall permit availability at 2013 levels.

“In northern zones 6 and 7, hunters harvested just one hen for every 50 to 100 square miles of forest cover last fall,” said Walter. “In some counties, total registered hen harvest was in the single digits – these very low hen harvests are well below the level capable of influencing population abundance.”

According to Scott Walter,

since all permits are utilized in the northern zones, every permit not allocated would lead to one hunter that would not be able to pursue turkeys in that zone in 2014. A permit reduction would provide no benefits for the turkey population, so a reduction in hunting opportunity is not necessary.

In layman terms think of turkeys this way; Turkeys live about 2 and half years whether you hunt them or not.

Most turkey hunters do not realize toms gobble and respond to calls in the fall too.

Most turkey hunters do not realize toms gobble and respond to calls in the fall too.

So even if you did not apply by August 1st for a fall turkey permit you can still purchase over the counter tags when they go on sale August 23.  Successful applicants will be notified by mail the week of August 18.  Hunters who did not apply for the drawing will not a receive a tag with their turkey license, they will need to purchase a tag over the counter.

2014 Wisconsin License Permit Application Deadlines

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Wisconsin 2014 Fall turkey

  • 96,700 wild turkey permits are expected to be available to hunters for the fall 2014 turkey hunting season  same number of permits that were offered in 2013.
  • Please note that this number is preliminary and may be revised following review.
  • Any fall turkey permits remaining after the initial drawing will go on sale at 10 a.m. on Aug. 23.
  • Leftover fall turkey permits will be sold by zone until sold out or the season ends. Hunters who receive fall turkey permits in Zones 1-5 will be able to fill their unused permits during the extended season in the zone where the permits were issued.

Application Deadline is August 1, 2014

Wisconsin Fall Turkey 2014 Season Dates

  • Sept. 13 to Nov. 20 for all seven of Wisconsin’s turkey management zones; and
  • an extended fall turkey season for Zones 1-5 from Dec. 1 to Dec. 31.

Canada geese

NRB  will set waterfowl season dates at its Aug. 13 meeting.

  •  Note that Horicon zone hunters no longer need to apply in advance for hunting tags. Hunters in this zone will simply need to indicate their zone preference when they purchase a license. Licenses are available for purchase at any time prior to hunting.
  • Season dates for waterfowl vary annually and will not be available until the Natural Resources Board acts in August.

Bobcat, fisher and otter

Quotas for bobcat, fisher and otter will be available on the DNR web page in late July

  • No major changes are expected from last year. An additional Southern bobcat zone (all of Wis. south of Hwy 64) has been approved for 2014.
  • Those interested in hunting and/or trapping bobcats will need to apply to a specific zone (north or south) and time period (period 1 or 2) for the upcoming season. Bobcat applicant preference points will continue as in the past.

Final permit numbers will be final in August

  •  Drawings for all three species will take place in late August or early September.

Application deadline is August 1, 2014

Season dates

  • bobcat hunting and trapping: Period 1: Oct. 18 to Dec. 25; Period 2: Dec. 26 to Jan. 31, 2015;
  • fisher (trapping only): Oct. 18 through Dec. 31; and
  • otter (trapping only): North Zone Nov. 2, 2013 through April 30, 2014; Central & South zones Nov. 2, 2013 through March 31, 2014.

Wolf

The total wolf quota has been set at 156

  •  quota available to state-licensed hunters and trappers may be adjusted depending on state response to tribal declarations.
  • WDNR will maintain a 10-to-1 license-to-quota ratio.
  • One-half of available permits will be issued randomly among all permit applicants
  • Second half will be issued through a cumulative preference point drawing.
  • Successful applicants will be notified by letter or check their drawing status through the DNR website or via  licensing agents.
  • It is the applicants responsibility to know their drawing status. Applicants who are not successful in the drawing will be awarded a preference point toward future drawings.

Season Dates

  • Starts  in all zones on Oct. 15 and is open until the zone is closed by DNR or the last day of February, whichever occurs first.
  • WDNR has the authority to close hunting zones when quotas are met or if deemed biologically necessary.

Turkey Dogs Don’t Ruin Deer Hunting Areas

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The short answer is no.

Turkey-doggers and their dogs don’t usually interfere with bowhunters or ruin their deer hunting.  Turkey dogging is a late morning mid-day activity, and the vast majority of bowhunters have already left the field by the time we start;  although deer hunters should stay on their stands if they see or hear turkey doggers in the area.  Deer have a tendency to bed down during full daylight hours, and as long as the deer don’t move, a stand hunter has little chance of seeing them.  When mobile hunters such as turkey doggers, other small game or upland hunters enter an area, the deer will get up and move around.  Deer are territorial; they do not leave their home range unless there is a lot of disturbance.  If the deer leave, it is a short time before they will return, just like rabbits who circle the beagles and return to where they started.   I see more trophy bucks within easy bow range when Vic is with me than I do sitting on my butt during “prime time.”  Turkey dogs and other hunting dogs are trained not to chase deer.  The dog may occasionally bluff a deer to get it away from the bird hunting area, but they rarely chase the deer for long distances.  vic willow call turkey (640x505)

Some bowhunters get upset about anyone else doing anything else in the woods perhaps it’s they start to feel ownership of a spot after placing their stand.  Or more likely it’s because–
The scent control salespeople and inexperienced outdoor writers have convinced many deer hunters that leaving any scent in the woods will destroy the quality of the hunting area and all the deer will “blowout”.  So they think if anyone walks around without a has-mat suit on the area is contaminated making it impossible for them to kill a deer let alone a trophy.
Oh well, what can I say about these guys? Except you need to get off your stand and out more.  Come on think about it- If deer boogied out of all the areas with human, canine or a scent they don’t recognize, there would be no area holding any deer.  Some scent is everywhere.

Turkey hunters are arguably the most considerate,  sharing and easy to get along with hunters of them all. That goes double for turkey doggers.  If you are sitting on your stand, a turkey dogger comes by, wave, so they know you’re there, and they’ll move out.  Then stay alert, it’s likely a deer, possibly a trophy will be by soon.

Good hunting.

Wisconsin 2014 Final Spring Harvest/Kill Stats

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We’ve all been waiting for these.  Well all of us serious turkey hunters.  Scroll down for the final, complete 2014 Wisconsin Spring Hunt Wild Turkey Stats.

2014 Wisconsin Wild Turkey Spring Harvest/Kill

2014 Spring Turkey Harvest
Zone A B C D E F LTH Youth Total
01 3,300 2,446 2,090 1,737 1,260 607 155 545 12,140
02 2,016 1,865 1,700 1,356 1,421 1,149 285 571 10,363
03 2,669 2,181 1,955 1,452 1,032 569 192 467 10,517
04 1,187 1,050 926 907 725 626 99 238 5,758
05 386 416 361 266 261 183 56 84 2,013
06 122 122 101 75 73 31 5 15 544
07 61 77 74 54 51 28 2 7 354
01A 2 4 4 1 1 12
01B 6 4 6 1 17
01C 3 1 0 4
01D 3 1 0 4
01E 0 1 0 1
01F 3 5 0 8
02A 0
03A 1 0 1 2
04A 0
04B 3 1 1 5
04C 0
01G 1 1
01H 0
01J 1 1
01K 0
01L 0
02B 0
FM 29 22 1 7 2 10 0 0 71
Unks 0
0
Total 9,790 8,198 7,218 5,856 4,827 3,203 794 1,929 41,815

 

2014 Wisconsin Spring Wild Turkey Kill by Age and Sex Ratio

2014 Turkey Kill by Age and Sex.
Zone Toms Jakes Hens   Total  % of Adult Toms  
01 10,978 1,058 104 12,140 90.4%
02 9,258 1,008 97 10,363 89.3%
03 9,581 867 69 10,517 91.1%
04 5,340 396 22 5,758 92.7%
05 1,828 174 11 2,013 90.8%
06 489 54 1 544 89.9%
07 306 45 3 354 86.4%
FM 64 5 2 71 90.1%
Total 37,844 3,607 309   41,760  90,6%  

Wisconsin 2014 Spring Wild Turkey Success Rates by Unit and Season Time Period

2014 Spring Turkey Success Rates
Zone A B C D E F Total
01 27% 20% 17% 14% 14% 14% 19.3%
02 27% 25% 23% 18% 19% 15% 23.0%
03 25% 21% 19% 14% 16% 17% 20.3%
04 20% 18% 16% 19% 16% 14% 18.4%
05 19% 21% 18% 13% 16% 12% 18.1%
06 16% 16% 13% 10% 10% 5% 12.6%
07 10% 13% 12% 9% 9% 8% 10.6%
01A 17% 33% 31% 32.4%
01B 40% 27% 40% 37.8%
01C 38% 13% 0% 15.4%
01D 25% 8% 0% 11.1%
01E 0% 20% 0% 6.7%
01F 14% 24% 0% 12.7%
02A 0% 0% 0% 0.0%
03A 0% 17% 0% 10.5%
04A 0% 0% 0% 0.0%
04B 38% 13% 0% 20.8%
04C 0% 0% 0% 0.0%
01G 0% 0% 0% 20.0%
01H 0% 0% 0% 0.0%
01J 0% 50% 0% 16.7%
01K 0% 0% 0% 0.0%
02B 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0.0%
FM 35% 22% 3% 18% 8% 25% 21.9%

Wisconsin 2014 Spring Wild Turkey Mail Issued tags

2014 Mail Issued Spring Turkey Permits
Permits Available Applicants Period 1 Period 2 Period 3 Period 4 Period 5 Period 6 Total
74,400 36,109 12,400 12,400 8,438 1,872 623 245 35,978
45,000 35,981 7,500 7,500 7,500 7,500 2,487 651 33,138
63,000 29,649 10,500 10,500 6,851 1,397 432 163 29,843
34,920 20,785 5,820 5,820 5,821 2,123 560 242 20,386
12,000 9,047 2,000 2,000 2,000 2,000 371 166 8,537
4,500 4,936 750 750 750 750 751 576 4,327
3,600 3,594 600 600 600 600 600 348 3,348
36 128 12 12 13 37
45 78 15 15 15 45
24 46 8 8 10 26
36 66 12 12 12 36
15 23 5 5 5 15
63 89 21 21 18 60
18 26 6 6 6 18
18 54 6 6 7 19
6 23 2 2 2 6
24 68 8 8 8 24
15 24 6 4 5 15
6 4 2 2 1 5
6 4 2 2 2 6
6 21 2 2 2 6
6 22 2 2 3 7
3 1 0 1 0 1
18 80 4 3 3 3 4 2 19
415 324 84 101 36 39 24 40 324
238,180 141,182 39,767 39,782 32,108 16,284 5,852 2,433 136,226

OTC Tags/Permits Wisconsin 2014 Spring Wild Turkey

2014 Spring Turkey “Over-the-Counter” Permits
Zone     Period 1 Period 2 Period 3 Period 4 Period 5 Period 6 Total
01 3,960 10,521 8,445 3,999 26,925
02 5,011 6,851 11,862
03 3,647 9,102 6,008 3,226 21,983
04 2,771 3,946 4,184 10,901
05 1,219 1,376 2,595

Wisconsin 2014 Spring Wild Turkey Total Permits

2014 Spring Turkey Total Permits
Zone Permits Available Applicants Period 1 Period 2 Period 3 Period 4 Period 5 Period 6 Total
01 74,400 36,109 12,400 12,400 12,398 12,393 9,068 4,244 62,903
02 45,000 35,981 7,500 7,500 7,500 7,500 7,498 7,502 45,000
03 63,000 29,649 10,500 10,500 10,498 10,499 6,440 3,389 51,826
04 34,920 20,785 5,820 5,820 5,821 4,894 4,506 4,426 31,287
05 12,000 9,047 2,000 2,000 2,000 2,000 1,590 1,542 11,132
06 4,500 4,936 750 750 750 750 751 576 4,327
07 3,600 3,594 600 600 600 600 600 348 3,348
01A 36 128 12 12 13 0 0 0 37
01B 45 78 15 15 15 0 0 0 45
01C 24 46 8 8 10 0 0 0 26
01D 36 66 12 12 12 0 0 0 36
01E 15 23 5 5 5 0 0 0 15
01F 63 89 21 21 21 0 0 0 63
02A 18 26 6 6 6 0 0 0 18
03A 18 54 6 6 7 0 0 0 19
04A 6 23 2 2 2 0 0 0 6
04B 24 68 8 8 8 0 0 0 24
04C 15 24 6 4 5 0 0 0 15
01G 6 4 2 2 1 0 0 0 5
01H 6 4 2 2 2 0 0 0 6
01J 6 21 2 2 2 0 0 0 6
01K 6 22 2 2 3 0 0 0 7
01L 3 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1
02B 18 80 4 3 3 3 5 2 20
FM 415 324 84 101 36 39 24 40 324
 
Total 238,180 141,182 39,767 39,782 39,718 38,678 30,482 22,069 210,496

Wisconsin 2014 Spring Wild Turkey Learn To Hunt Harvest/Kill

2014 LTH and Youth Turkey Harvest
Count of Harvest HARV_SEX HARV_AGE
F M Grand Total
Zone Period A J A J
01 LTH 1 136 18 155
Youth 5 2 475 63 545
1A YH . . 1 . 1
1B YH . . 1 . 1
2 LTH 5 . 245 35 285
YH 3 . 506 62 571
3 LTH 5 . 162 25 192
YH 3 . 428 36 467
4 LTH 1 . 87 11 99
YH 1 . 221 16 238
5 LTH . . 52 4 56
YH 1 . 71 12 84
6 LTH . . 5 . 5
YH . . 13 2 15
7 LTH . . 2 . 2
YH . . 7 . 7
Total 25 2 2412 284 2723

A lot of wild turkey stats here.  Appears to it was a fantastic spring turkey hunt.  Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments section.

Tough to Hunt Gobbler Led to Ghillie Suited Grass Setup

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You all know this gobbler or at least have met/heard him.  He sits on his roost proclaiming himself king for the day.  He wants all the other toms to back off and leave all the hens to him.  Because he is stuck on gobble every hunter in the areas thinks Mr. Loud Mouth will be an easy mark only to find out this bird is king of hunter avoiding strategies.  My advice is when you meet this turkey find another to hunt or you’ll find yourself addicted to killing this particular bird.  You find yourself getting up earlier and earlier in order to head him off while each time for some not so obvious reason or maybe an obvious reason you can’t figure out due to the additional sleep deprivation.

grass setup closeup (1024x766)

Ghillie Suit hides the human form.  Make sure it is made of natural materials they reflect less light.

Anyone who knows me, knows I can’t bring myself to give up, so my sound advice above goes right over my own head which leads me to unusual or some would say desperate tactics.  Such is the case in the following tale of the grass setup.

This turkey out gobbled every turkey in the valley making him impossible to ignore.  He seemed to have a easy pattern and at first glance I thought he would be wearing my tag in short order.  However, his habit of leaving the roost and walking to the upper field ended the first time I setup there; he walked down hill.  Must have seen or heard me, odd all the other turkeys flew or walked into the upper field.  Next morning I arrived earlier and snuck into woods middle ridge, it stayed quiet except for the wing beats landing in the field.  Then after my 2+ hour wait he started gobbling at 6 O’clock and stayed on roost until 7 before dropping the ground and sprinting up into the field gobbling all the way.  His zigging and my zagging went on for days.

Then I remembered my grass ghillie suit.  A disappointing apparel purchase mainly because it was very hard to move in.  It picked up every sticker and snagged on every piece of vegetation.  I realized that would not matter since the field was freshly planted and the 12 inch high grass strip would provide sufficient cover to lay in.  There was one particular fold in that field where the turkeys moved through out of range of any edge setup.  With only 2 days left to fill 2 tags I smirked at how well this idea would work.

grass setup 2 (1024x493)

View the approaching turkeys see.

Morning dawned on me lying on dew coated grass wearing an artificial grass boonie hat dressed in a grass suit with gun resting along my right side.  Sure glad only turkeys are out in those early mornings.  Someone from normal society might try and lockup a camo painted face grass clad hunter.  Some things are just too hard to explain to those outside the know.

The target turkey sounded off and stayed on roost while a hen moseyed along staring at me.  I had called on a tongue teaser call, she came to point of call.   She purred and stared looking for the turkey she had heard.  A hunting buddy had told me a story of how he moved while hiding in some logs during a fall hunt thinking he messed up his chances when all of sudden the flock of turkeys came over to investigate.  He figured they were expecting to see movement and his movement looked turkey like to them, he shot his bird.  So I moved my head and the hen immediately came within a few feet of me continuing to purr.  The two us played this game for at least a half hour.

The turkeys were within and never showed any concern as I laid still watching.

The turkeys were within feet and never showed any concern as I laid still watching. Bagged a second gobbler from this setup the next day.

He appeared without warning, I had been distracted playing with the hen and not paying attention of the gobbler’s approach.  The gobbler stood at attention staring at me and the fading away hen, she moved up the field past my head out of sight.

The gobbler moved to a 45 angle a few feet from my feet looking down at me.  My plan, as had happened on so many other open area setups was to wait for him to strut,  pirouette until his fan blocked his vision, rise up with gun pointed and shoot as he came out of strut.  Sounds easy, that is, until the gobbler is not in the mood to strut and looking down on you.  Come on, there is a hen please strut your stuff….

As the gobbler resumed stiff legging closer it was very apparent he was not going to strut.  My fingers found the shotgun’s grip, fumbled the safety off as the barrel aligned with his beak.  Pink mist filled the air with the headless turkey flopping on his back, he felt no pain.

Second Turkey using Grass Ghillie Suit.

Second Turkey using Grass Ghillie Suit.

History of Ghillie Suits

The word ghillie is an old Scottish term for a special kind of game warden. Ghillies were tasked with protecting the game on their Lord’s lands from poachers. From time to time, the ghillies would stalk the game by hiding in the grass and lying perfectly still. They would wait for unsuspecting deer to amble by and then leap out and grab it with their bare hands. Ghillies would then haul their prize back to the keep so the Lord could shoot it in the castle courtyard in a “mock hunt.”

 

Grass setups work to get tough gobblers in close.

Grass Ghillie Suit setups work to get tough gobblers in close.