Spring Turkey

Turkeys Gobbling Time To Scout

March 11, 2018 by Charlie 4 Comments

Start scouting now? It’s only March in Wisconsin! Turkeys are still in winter flocks; What possible reason is there to start scouting wild turkeys now? The birds are likely going to be in different woods and fields by the time my spring season opens.

Turkeys spend more time in trees than we realize

The number one reason: it is fun and educational to be out talking to actual wild turkeys anytime of the year, even

Sign turkeys have been around.

better when an upcoming season is only a few weeks from opening. Rarely does a “spring only turkey hunter” venture out to experience the pure yet complex world of wild turkeys. Those who are year-round hunters know the male turkeys gobble and strut at all times of the year. Meanwhile, the other turkey hunters are shocked when they hear fall turkeys gobbling their heads off.

Here’s a brief what should you look for:

Goes without saying, try to find birds they make it all the more fun. This time of year wild turkey flocks are getting a little frayed around their social edges but still spend the day and night in their winter flocks. Hens plus jennies and gobblers with jakes satelliting, when the opportunity presents a lone gobbler the jakes like to harass him. Jakes act like the teenage boys of the turkey world, full of energy and trying to be part of the turkey world.
Travel corridors, with snow or mud or just soft ground walking turkey leave tracks which are quite easy to see. You can also determine the number and sex of the turkeys traveling together.
Turkeys use their wings more than most hunters realize. When turkeys are fluttering and flying around the bare treetops, they are easy to spot. On many occasions, I have seen turkeys hovering, much like giant hummingbirds pecking the swelling tree buds, typical behavior when the ground is an icy snow sheet.
Sounds of wild turkeys. Many of the flock’s members are beginning to disagree with the hierarchy they agreed to last fall and getting noisy about it. Especially the gobblers, who, for the most part, have not talked to any of the ladies in the neighboring gaggle for quite some time.
Call to the turkeys. Yeah, I know, all the “expert” advice is you are not supposed to call outside before the season opens. I’ll go out on a limb here and admit a secret; I have practiced my spring time calling to real live wild turkeys for the last twenty years. And what is the worst thing that has happened? Wild turkeys have moved into areas I can hunt. That’s right turkeys are very social birds and regularly seek out those other unknown interlopers. Read about “audio baiting” here– How to Legally Bait Turkeys

An icy beard hanging as he flies to the trees.

Whenever you can get out–do it and enjoy. By the way, if you deer hunt, their trails, bedding

Frozen insects are high protein food for winter time turkeys.

and feeding areas will be very obvious. These are the same areas the deer frequent during WI firearm, muzzleloader and late archery season.

A Sensational Turkey Hunter Goof Up

July 6, 2017 by Charlie 8 Comments

Luck is an indispensable asset during any successful turkey hunt. Not just luck at the beginning but it requires luck at every intersection of the hunt. Take for example one of my recent hunts during Wisconsin’s last spring season. I had a surefire plan, also known in turkey hunting parlance as a preconceived notion.

The previous day I had a six and half hour calling duel with a blabber beak type of gobbler who did not have the good manners to come and show himself. We introduced ourselves at 8:45 A and chatted back and forth until 3:15 P. Tried the silent treatment on him several times, needed a break from all the noise not to mention the old fingers were in need of rest. Plus the wingbone pucker needed to ease off my face. But each time he matched the silence while moving off 100+ yards to then give that nana you can’t get me gobbles, this only made me more determined to kill him. No luck, so all that night as I slept, I dreamed up – The Plan.

After the three miles foggy Mississippi River boat ride, the tedious wet slog to Mr. Babbler Beak’s haunt begin. The determination to get this particular bird was dominating my thoughts even though a wrong step could have frigid water pouring into my knee boots. Swamp turkeys can be most provoking.

Less than a quarter of the way into the plan an urgent gobble erupts. An unaccounted for occurrence in the hunt is an intersection; the hunter must decide to continue or change of mind. An easy decision, change of the plan. I figured out a doable setup on a relatively dry finger of land, a few soft tree yelps and settled in for fly down.

Air swooshing through feathers followed by a dull thud marked his landing. Scratching out the most urgent yelps I could muster brought a robust series of approaching gobbles. Down went the slate and up with the gun, just in time he’s right there in strut with two hens flanking him. When he moves clear, the blast swirls the fog, and I launch up to claim my prize.

Except, there is no prize laying there. What the heck? I saw him go down, after searching the area I turn around to go back to the setup, perhaps I’m looking in the wrong spot. Uh, no, that ripped down sapling caught all the shot. The tom is unscathed.

I Swear there really was a turkey there, while sitting against this tree.

Here I am at another intersection, is this a sign to go on with the original plan or stay in the area and pursue this lucky gobbler.

Working my way in the direction the hens went pays off. They flush, rising straight up above the oaks heading different directions, excellent they are out the picture. The tom should miss them at some point and call out for his ladies. I grin when he does – I’ll do the answering.

One of the hens had a nest on an elevated piece of ground to keep it out of the coming flood.

Like the hands on a clock, I move forward listening carefully. At different points, a couple of does break cover crashing off leaving behind their well-hidden fawns. Who can pass up taking those pictures?

Need to be careful where a hunter steps today.

Another one! I really have to watch my step.

Gobbling begins in earnest somewhere up ahead, can’t pinpoint it exactly as I continue moving forward until I realize he is on another strip of land to the east. The water is too deep to cross so backtracking is required to a more amicable crossing point. Dang river has been at flood stage all spring making stealthy approaches on longbeards difficult at best.

The woodland is open, full of mature maples and oaks with good visibility on the strip he chose. This is good news in that I have a better chance of seeing him and bad news, he has an even better opportunity to see me. Move down a bank to sneak along the water’s edge, slipping on the mud occasionally but this breaks up my outline while allowing to see.

The tom’s course yelps carry through the mist to my ears telling me it is time to pick a spot and start talking turkey. Of course, these spots are never perfect, my seat sinks down, no matter it is showtime. My first calls are answered with robust gobbling that is closing in. And, of course, he is across the water from me as he walks by out of range. I amp up my calling as soon as his head goes behind some trees this causes him to spin back and walk his back trail right past out of range. My calls continue every time he can’t see me, his gobbles start to fade with distance. My hope is he is going cross back to my side somewhere up ahead. Taking advantage of the pause in action I reposition into a convenient blow down which provides me better cover and good visibility.

There’s a white/blue head bobbing its way towards me, stopping to look for danger and hens. At fifty yards he goes behind and large maple,

Turkey hunting is great if for no other reason plans change

seemed like he stayed there for an eternity. When a gobbler is searching like this silence is a turkey hunter’s friend. His juking head preceded him as came out trotting in full strut facing my position. At thirty yards dropped out of strut to start yelping. I won’t claim to know

The shot caught him mid yelp.

what he was saying in “turkey speak” but those were his last words.

Stressed Hen Turkey Struts and Drags Wings

July 6, 2017 by Charlie 2 Comments

Submitted by AWTDA

It’s a hard life, trying to protect seven babies by yourself! This hyper hen was in a near perpetual 3/4 tail strut, almost dragging her wings,
warning anybody that sees her she’s a formidable threat. Notice her head position is always on alert, she rarely gets something to eat herself, always on a lookout for danger. Where are them big tough gobblers, when a mother could use a little help around here?

Do hens suffer from the loss of gobblers? For more tiptoeing around the issue see AWTDA

Video of Wisconsin Wild Turkey Hen with Poults; Video added

June 29, 2017 by Charlie 10 Comments

Contributed and Written By; American Wild Turkey Hunting Dog Association

Here is another hen with her brood this morning. A beautiful hatch, despite that it has rained 15 out of the last 17 days here. Either it’s an old wives tale that getting wet will kill poults when less than 3 days old, or Wisconsin turkeys have evolved to tolerate it.
I count 13 poults. Only saw the one hen, but I suspect her cohort(s) was/were nearby. Two or more related hens will often lay eggs in the same nest, take turns setting, serving as sentinel and raising the brood, with adjacent barren hens and male turkeys announcing danger in the neighborhood.

Notice this hen has a slight beard – never shoot bearded hens.

How old do you think these poults are on June 29, 02017?

At 44.27° N Latitude in Wisconsin.

Update June 30, 2017 – Next day video

Going the other direction today. Four poults flew 3′ off the ground, by tonight they’ll roost in the trees.

Hard to Stop Turkey Hunting

June 28, 2017 by Charlie 8 Comments

The last day of Wisconsin’s 2017 wild turkey hunt dawned quiet, very quiet; at least as far as turkey sounds are concerned. The usual bird rush hour was in its normal fine form, but on this morning the turkeys apparently had other plans. The season has been rewardingly long this spring from the first week in April hunting Colorado Rios, moving up to Wyoming Black Hills for a snowy Merriam and back to

Take time to teach the next generation of hunters.

Wisconsin for some youth hunt mentoring until my first Wisconsin tag validation the last week of April. Not a morning missed, rain, shine, or somewhere in between and now here I set wearily reflecting on it all to the sounds of silence, the 30th of May with no complaints or regrets. Yeah, I missed a turkey or two and zigged when a zag was needed more often than I care to remember. It’s not good to focus on negative thoughts because if you do, they become self-fulfilling prophecies.

As the morning birdie rush hours fade into memory, I stand, stretch and give thanks. Wild turkey season has come to an end for me…Until later while walking the dogs, a lone gobbler takes to flight out of the VPA field and glides lazily to the opposite woodlot. It’s 1:30 in the afternoon, the season is still open, and I have two unpunched tags left. VPA is private land that the Wisconsin DNR leases for public access, the field is open for hunting but as is so typical the woodlot is not enrolled, so it is closed to hunting without permission of the landowner.

The internal debate heats up; tiredness makes its nagging request just to forget him and rest. While the prey drive says “two open tags and several hours to hunt a gobbler you can call out to kill.”

I feel sorry for the poor dogs after promising them on my return this morning that my hunt was over until the fall season and Vic would get the hunt the next time. Funny thing about plans, they are subject to change, and here I am setting up in some long grass barely able to see the freshly planted corn field, calling on a tongue teaser to what seems like wide open empty spaces.

2017 spring’s most effective call for me

As 3:00 rolls around my sanity in some quarters would be questioned and the of quitting continues to grow in appeal. The sun seems searing in intensity; you’d think the biting gnats would have their wings burned off, sadly it just appears to energize their bloodlust.

Time crawls to only 3:15; Has my watch stopped? Ok, enough for one spring; as I roll off the gobbler lounger to take a final 360 look around a neon blue spot moves on my right…How in the heck did he get that close without being seen? And, as always, these birds come in from the direction least expected.

Rarely, is movement helpful when a standing tom is staring at you at close range. However, he must have thought another turkey was moving around in the long grass causing him to up periscope for a better look-see, a fatal mistake. I rose to my knees and looked at the twitching gobbler through the shot-tunnel in the grass. Must be a mirage! Another tom is closing fast, heading directly to the dead bird and the end of my barrel.

Two toms, side by side.

For a moment I thought it was just a dream, so I waited for the empty field to rematerialize. But you know, the weight of 40+ pounds of turkey over your back brings reality into focus. On the half mile stroll back to the truck there was a moment or two when the memory of turkey tags still available and the season does not close until 8p something…hmm.

The Kamikaze Bird, by huntfishtrap

June 12, 2017 by Charlie 18 Comments

By, HuntFishTrap

The morning of May 5 brought clear skies and mild temperatures to my corner of Iowa, and I was itching to get back into the turkey woods again, after a 2-week layoff following the hunt for my first bird of the year, back in our 2nd shotgun season. We’re allowed two gun tags for spring turkey hunting here in Iowa, and of the 2 one must be for the 4th and final season, for reasons I have never heard explained by the powers that be.

Being strongly averse to rising early in the morning, I elected to set my alarm for 6 am, and then hit the woods after fly-down. Since it was a weekday when most of the competition would be at work, I elected to go to a public land spot where I had long wanted to kill a gobbler. The property had produced a number of close calls over the years, including missing a big longbeard two seasons prior, but I had always seemed to be snakebit there.

I pulled into the deserted parking lot a little after 7 and set off into the woods as the rising sun painted the just-emerging maple and oak leaves with shades of gold. I walked about a ½ mile into the timber before stopping to call for the first time, knowing from past experience that calling close to the parking lot is usually a waste of time on public land. The first series of yelps did not produce a response, so I kept going, stopping to yelp a few times every couple hundred yards or so. My destination was a ridge overlooking a large oak flat that often held birds, and I had almost reached it when I heard a faint gobble from somewhere off in the distance. I cut loose a few loud yelps on my go-to long-distance aluminum pot call and received an answer. Still, could not tell exactly where the bird was, so I eased up to the top of the ridge and tried again. This time the far-off gobbler was joined by another, much closer bird, somewhere down on the oak flat in front of me. I quickly scanned the trees around me for a good spot to set up and chose a large oak tree with a deadfall in front of it which acted as a sort of natural blind.

After settling in, it didn’t take long to ascertain that the distant tom was way down in a big valley on the other side of the oak flat, and was most likely a lost cause. But the closer gobbles were only a few hundred yards away, and it sounded like there might even be more than one bird. My first few series of calls brought immediate responses, and it sounded like the bird or birds were moving closer, but then they seemed to begin to lose interest. So I started switching calls, looking for something they’d like, but without much success. The occasional gobble would ring out, but they didn’t seem to be answering anymore. Finally, I got to one of my three wingbones, which I rarely use, and mostly carry for emergencies. That was the ticket, as they – by now I was certain there was more than one – started responding again, and began working their way closer. The birds got to within 200 yards, then hung up, and a stalemate ensued. I would call, they would gobble, but wouldn’t come a step my way. I knew the area quite well and didn’t think there were any obstructions that would prevent them from moving my way, so after about 30 minutes I was getting exasperated. Finally, I’d had enough, so decided to make a move.

I eased back over the ridge until I was certain the turkeys couldn’t see me and started looping around one side. The open oak woods didn’t offer much cover for trying to sneak up on anything, but I knew there was a small ditch on the far side of the ridge that I could use for cover if I could get there. I made it to the ditch and followed it as far as I could, until reaching the point where I had to climb out in order to keep moving in the right direction. At this point, I figured I was still at least 150 yards from the last gobbles I’d heard, but at least I was now on their side of the ridge. I elected to stop and call just before reaching the top of the bank above the ditch, but before I could get my wingbone out of my pocket the toms gobbled again, but they sounded much farther away. I cut loose with a little wingbone music and received silence in reply, tried again, the same result. I was standing there a little despondently, trying to figure out a new plan of action, when I heard what I thought was a hen putting just over a small rise in the ground, about 100 yards in front of me. That was followed immediately by a loud commotion that sounded like several turkeys running in the dry, crackly leaves.

I figured I had somehow spooked part of the flock I’d been hearing, and almost started to jog up to the top of the knoll to see if I could catch a glimpse of them, when a red head popped over the hill in front of me, followed immediately by two more! I froze in consternation because I knew that standing in the middle of the open woods without any cover near me was a recipe for disaster. But thankfully when they lowered their heads they disappeared behind the rise in the land again, and I could drop to my knees and scramble several feet backward until I was up against an oak tree. I just had time to raise my trusty 870 and steady it over one knee before they came trotting over the hill, headed right for me. At this point I was not certain what kind of birds were coming in – the gobbles I’d been hearing all morning had sounded a little choppy at times, like jakes – but the first bird in line was a nice long beard, and he was determined to be first to the party. He came trucking right toward me, beard swinging from side to side, while I tried to make myself small against the oak. While he was coming in, I heard a loud spit-n-drum from beyond the rise and saw a fan pop open, so I knew there were still more birds coming but was focused on the one at hand.
He paused at about 40 yards, and I almost shot him, but just as I was about to squeeze the trigger he kept coming, and I kept tracking him with the gun muzzle. Even in the heat of the moment, the thought popped into my mind, “This bird is like a kamikaze – I’m going to kill him, or he’s going to run me over!”. Finally at 25 yards, he started to slow down, and finally stopped and started giving me the old hairy eyeball, so I centered the bright fiber-optic bead on his glowing head and sent 2 ounces of #5s on their way. The gun boomed he dropped like a stone, and turkeys took off in every direction behind him. There were at least 5 or 6 different birds, a mix of jakes and toms. I will never know what made that flock suddenly reverse course and come right to me after essentially disregarding my calling for the previous 2 hours, but I’m not complaining. Sometimes the unpredictability of turkeys is bad, and sometimes it’s good.

When I looked at my watch, I saw that the time was 9:35 am, only 5 minutes later in the morning than when I killed my first turkey of the year, two weeks before. This bird would then tip the scales at 20 ½lbs, with 1 1/8” spurs and a 10 ½” beard. A nice 3-year-old tom. After snapping some photos, and stopping to enjoy the beautiful day for a while, I loaded the bird into my pack and set off on the 3/4+ mile walk back to my truck. The hard part of the hunt was just beginning, but it was a small price to pay for such an awesome morning in the turkey woods.

Are Turkey Hunts like Chess Match or Card Game of Chance?

June 10, 2017 by Charlie 20 Comments

What do you think? Is a wild turkey hunt more like a game chess in the woods or is it more like the card game solitaire?

Something, perhaps mostly unknown about charlie elk is the fact it took him five wild turkey seasons before he finally killed a gobbler.

What took him so long?

After all, he helped Minnesota catch grouse for the Minnesota/Missouri turkey/grouse exchange release program so he should have learned something about turkeys during that long restoration period. Well, not so fast. Charlie was an accomplished big game hunter who frequently stalked within longbow range of bedded cervids across the North American Continent. And then, in the early eighties along came the wild turkey opportunities.

After finally being drawn for a Minnesota turkey license in the zone where a band of turkey nuts, including Charlie had released turkeys from Missouri years before; the young, cocky, self-assured Charlie was humbled by a bird with a brain about the size of a walnut. It is amazing how a feathered bird-brained creature could be so elusive.

He planned all his hunts so carefully, doing research to determine in advance where the turkeys roosted, where they would want to go from roost and how they would get there, all to no avail. Then late one morning he saw a truck with plates from Missouri pull into the parking area, an elderly gentleman stepped out walked around surveying the area and then did some cutting on a long box call. Answered by a robust gobble, not more than 100 yards down the trail Charlie had just walked back to camp. The veteran hunter headed down the path and soon a there was a gunshot. The fellow came walking back with a very nice turkey over his shoulder.

The mistake Charlie had been making, in his humble opinion was that he’d been hunting turkeys using many of same tactics as he used for hunting big game. Big game animals do things for reasons that are quite apparent to an experienced hunter. Whereas the wild turkey does things that are apparently done for well, maybe no clear reason at all.

A lot of turkey behavior, if not most, is random, much like the shuffling of a deck of cards. For example, if a turkey is flushed and somewhere different with suitable habitat and maybe an available hen during the spring— that turkey is likely to be just as content in the new location as he was in the previous one, he’ll just roost in whatever tree is convenient as it gets dark. Once this randomness soaked into charlie’s sometimes, most times, dense head, he has killed a turkey in every season he has hunted over the last 40 years.

Wisconsin Turkey Season Winding Down

May 27, 2017 by Charlie 4 Comments

As this is written there are only three hunting days left to Wisconsin’s 2017 spring turkey season. For the most part, the toms have stopped gobbling to tip off their locations and they have started forming their summer time bachelor groups. This is the moment some hunters eagerly wait for because when the toms are properly motivated with gobbler talk, deep sounding clucks followed by a slow raspy yelp or two. Make sure it’s just one or two yelps clearly separated and not run together.

The added challenge much like in fall hunting is finding the turkeys. When turkeys form groups there will be more areas without and the other areas will have more birds.

After sleeping in until 5:00 a, sleep deprivation is taking its toll on me; a gobbler who has irritated me since early April by consistently strutting in the middle of a field I can’t hunt. Worse, no one else has hunted him either so all he does is strut at me nearly everytime I drive by. This morning he was in the middle of the dirt road strutting as beautiful as a peacock with the rising sun glinting off his feathers. I did feel a temptation to stop and shoot him or just run him over, but clearly, those thoughts were just symptoms of sleep deprivation, I just blew the horn instead. That tom tipped me off to his roost location as he flew off. I had a good feeling the next morning I’d get him. He was clearly callable onto some land I have permission to hunt by a farmer who likes to have a lot of turkeys removed from his land.

I continued on my way to check out a hillside pocket that is only reachable by boat and since the rivers were above flood stage the turkeys should be in the “pocket”. Sure enough, I settled in called with a few clucks, noticed a black stump that looked very much like a turkey staring at me, red-headed and all. Figured it was a stump with a cardinal sitting on it. There have been a lot of cardinals and scarlet tanagers this year causing excitement here and there. Lack of sleep does that to you sometimes, so I lowered my eyelids to check for leaks. When I opened them a few minutes later the black stump was gone; I clucked and there he was not quite 30 yards standing at attention in the wide open woods staring at the lump that was me. Fortunately, my gun sling is always hooked on my left knee holding the barrel level out front and this tom is standing right in front of the gun barrel. All I needed to do was raise it up and one tag for the last season was filled.

Tongue Teaser call brought em in again.

That left two tags in my pocket for Friday. The determination to bag that most irritating strutter in the county rose to an obsessive level. That is, until Friday morning, when I forced myself out of bed, shooting that poor turkey did not seem as important as it did yesterday.

At 6:10 am I found myself laying back in a grassy field wash using the folds of the field to hide me. Lying back when you need sleep is not conducive to remaining alert. However, the chain gobbling that answered my first tongue teaser yelp sure did get my full attention and when that yelp was followed up with some walking clucks and a single yelp to be answered by near constant incoming gobbling from two sides—sleep just slid way down the priority list.

During late seasons my Willow Ridge Tongue Teaser – Gobbler Pine Box is the call I turn to, Scott made this special for me to use in the fall for calling in gobblers. It works whenever, the need to make gobbler calls arises.

In about 20 minutes the five toms converged on my location, marching as if on a mission to either recruit the lonesome gobbler (me) or kick his butt. I do not which it was, for they did not get any time to explain. At mid-gobble my gun commanded silence from the first one at 15 yards. The other four turned around marching away single file when a single cluck stopped them and turned em around for the gun to silence the second one mid-gobble at 30 yds filling my last two tags for the final season.

Late season turkeys are challenging to find, but when you do it might be double the fun.

You’d think, the season would end there… Not in Wisconsin, there are still thousands of OTC tags left and two of those are now in my pocket. Heck, sleep is overrated, I have all summer to catch up on it.

Neon Tom – Gobbler Rumble End

May 6, 2017 by Charlie 4 Comments

“Neon” Tom
by FirstBubba
The “Gobbler Rumble” ended when the six toms broke into smaller groups and headed to the field with the hens.
One of them, however, headed off on his own to the pecan grove to the east.
The grove has huge, old trees that have shaded out most undergrowth. As they leaf out, they also leave the ground under them in dark shadows.
This tom seemed to be on a mission. He never gobbled, yelped, spat or drummed. He simply walked into the dark shadows of the trees and began to strut proudly. I turned the video back on and began to track him. A few rays of the rising sun were stabbing through the timber east of the trees and provided perfect backlighting for his gaudy show!
I decided I wanted prints instead of video and switched the camera to “Smart Capture”, but alas, the show had ended! I did eventually get one nice photo of him (shot #3) as he strode off with a couple of hens that had arrived for the “Gala”!
As hard as I tried to make an 8×10, the “still from video” function just won’t allow a clear enlargement! Therefore, 4×6 is the best I can do! When we darken the room, his tail stands out in his framed photo like a curved beacon.
So, in all his “radiant glory”, these are the shots I call; “Neon Tom”!

Now is that a ” shiny hiney” or what?

Ending up Intoxicated on Wild Turkey in Colorado

May 1, 2017 by Charlie 8 Comments

It sounded almost like a breeze moving dead leaves on the tree branches, but I don’t remember there being any leaves on the early spring cottonwoods. As another wave of the fluttering sound reached my ears I realized the sound was not the trees or any leaves; it was a flock of turkeys rustling their feathers, and there must be a lot them to make that much noise at little after 4:00 am. A few minutes later the first yelps of the morning started. Apparently, Colorado turkeys wake up much earlier than those sleepy eastern birds in Wisconsin. Sure enough by 4:30 the first crescendo of gobbling cascaded down from their roosts, each like a wave crashing on a rocky beach. Each time the audio wave began it gained volume as if urging the sun to rise early. My shivering intensified, surprised I was that cold, then I became acutely aware it was maximum exhilaration that had no relationship to the temperature, this is what turkey nirvana is all about, like being drunk on wild turkey, the non-alcoholic kind.

Six years ago, on a now defunct turkey forum, Treerooster and charlie elk recognized each other as fellow turkey nerds. We discussed things like the length of the turkey’s memory, how they find food, the effect of ground temperatures on behavior, what the snood means, why two- dimensional sight works, techniques for tree-roosting all night with turkeys; OK you get the idea. Fortunately, the forum had a private message option allowing treerooster and charlie could make hunting plans. And when charlie got enough preference points to draw a spring license he was on his way to treerooster’s hunting turf in Colorado.

Our optimism was high we waded across the dark river back to the truck. We had roosted at least 15 toms and jakes on this eve of Colorado’s opening day of spring wild turkey season. Wake up was scheduled for 3:00 am to make sure we could take our place among the roosted turkeys well before sunrise. A treerooster nugget of wisdom – “Turkey hunting extends your life, each day of turkey hunting is the equivalent of 2 or 3 days of “normal life.”

There’s something about 15 or so roosted gobblers that make the lack of sleep and morning grogginess recede into the background of one’s conscious mind. Gazing up at a half dozen roosted turkeys highlighted against the moonlit sky I wanted to give treerooster

treerooster sometimes likes to spend the night in the roost trees.

two thumbs up for his accuracy last night casting the correct GPS coordinates. Clearly, he has done this many times, and that is why I told him that I would hunt the way he hunts. And he is a one of a kind tree-roosting aficionado, sometimes he actually sleeps in the tree with the turkeys; Prefers to setup, not 200, 100 or even 50 yards from roosted birds, rather, right in the middle of them.

There was a certain surrealness sitting under roosted turkeys expecting the morning light to brighten and instead, it became quite dark after the moon set as we waited for the first glimmers of sunrise. However, the turkeys had no inhibition and continued to call and gobble to each other. They did not seem to care there were coyotes on the prowl, raccoons screaming out their mating calls; every sound caused all those anxious roosted birds to turn up the volume. Treerooster was supposed to do the calling but any calls we’d have made would be the equivalent of spitting in the ocean due to all the actual turkey noise.

Is there such a thing as sonic boom gobbling? Had anyone asked me this question before my first-morning hunt in Colorado I would have thought them crazy. But, not now. A couple of mallards came flying through the trees, and one of them quacked, this caused such loud gobbling that it caused the ducks so much turbulence they almost fell out of the air. Laughter would have erupted from me had my ears not hurt so bad, never before did I wish to turn down or remove my hearing aids on a turkey hunt. What had been 15 roosted gobblers was now apparently 50-70 raucous male turkeys surrounding us on all sides. In almost 40 years of turkey hunting, I have never experienced anything like this.

When the hens snuck up from behind on my five, I became concerned if I didn’t get a tom out this huge group I’d have egg on my face and some explaining to do. Hen turkeys are notorious for messing up a well-planned gobbler killing strategy. One of those hens got so close she could have rested her beak on my shoulder when she yelped. I swear I felt her spittle on my cheek. If she putted, no one here noticed and none of the turkeys noticed the deer that almost tripped over my boot. Thankfully, the deer did not notice me, perhaps due to all the ruckus from turkeys.

Treerooster and charlie with Colorado opening day Rio wild turkey

More gobblers flew down; it was quickly getting crowded here on the ground. Finally, the one who had strutted back and forth from one end of the limb to the other launched and sailed in. Lesser turkeys scrambled out of his way, for a brief moment he disappeared in the dawn’s light. As his head came around the other side of some wispy brush I made a quick check for any other turkeys in the area, the roar of the Benelli caused a literal explosion of turkey wings clawing at the air and every sound these large birds can make filled the woods and the surrounding grassland.

In almost forty years of turkey hunting, I’d never experienced anything like that Colorado morning. We ended the

charlie carrying Rio turkey from the kill site.

hunt intoxicated by overdosing on a whole lot of wild turkey. The non-alcoholic kind.

Hip boots are required for access.

Crossing the river with the turkey while using a walking stick to stabilize footing on the shifting sands.

Pause to soak in the hunt and wide open scenery.

Treerooster’s very comfortable camp. Where charlie managed to arrive the day before right after treerooster got is setup.

Hey treerooster, thanks for the best of the best turkey hunting experiences.

FirstBubba’s Gobbler Rumble

April 5, 2017 by Charlie 4 Comments

Written and photographed by FirstBubba

Basically, this was my first attempt at “wild game photography”.

Armed with a Kodak Z5010 camera and a 21x zoom lens and my trusty Ruger 6.8mm Ranch rifle, (there’s lot’sa wild hogs in the area!) I set out about a week before season to locate and photograph turkeys…or what ever else may pop out.

Settling down in a gully behind a willow log in the gathering light, gobblers loudly greeting the dawn all around me and my heart goes into overdrive!

Wanting some action shots, I set the camera to “Video” and wait.

It doesn’t take long!

Two toms approach from the west, three from across the road behind me and two more from across the creek.

A “herd” of hens gather by twos, threes, and fours from all directions until I’m a nervous wreck!

I can’t track them ALL! …and don’t want one to “bust” me!

These six toms break off, cross under the fence and are joined by one stray hen who quickly scuttles away when the six square off.

I have trouble finding the birds on the screen!

RATS!

I finally get the camera recording, the raucous “fighting purrs” breaking the early dawn quiet and filling the bottom with sound.

Now if I can just keep them on screen…THAT didn’t happen!

With nearly 2 minutes of jittery video, at least the sound turned out good! LOL!

It was nearly 10 o’clock before all the turkeys left and I could escape unnoticed.

Only when I got home did it dawn on me that I only had video and no “pictures”.

The little camera, though inexpensive in the grand scheme of things, has a feature to make “stills” from videos!

That is what you see that Charlie has so beautifully “recreated” here!

Thanks, FirstBubba for these great pictures of Oklahoma gobblers getting ready to Rumble! It’s not very often if ever turkey hunters get a front row seat to this sporting event. Heck, how many hunters would take pictures or just watch before shooting one of these fine toms?

Thanks for sharing these with us Bubba, it is really appreciated. Sure gets a turkey hunter’s blood pumping.

Be sure to check out our Turkey Sitrep and leave turkey stories and reports in your state.

Photo courtesy FirstBubba

Photo courtesy FirstBubba
Gobbler Rumble

Photo courtesy FirstBubba
Gobbler Rumble

Photo courtesy FirstBubba
Gobbler Rumble

Turkey Sitrep; “military speak for the turkey situation in a particular area”

April 1, 2017 by Charlie 36 Comments

The turkeys have started an eat ham campaign. I wonder why?

Here’s the place to post the turkey situations in your area, whether that is in WI a neighboring state or somewhere across the world.

Patterning Board Surprise!

March 31, 2017 by Charlie 21 Comments

Yesterday evening while performing one of the most important spring rituals – patterning the turkey guns, three gobblers sounded off at each shot. How is that for incentive? Yes, I do the patterning ritual every year because there are always new turkey loads and a hunter can never get enough practice. Those loud-mouthed gobblers on the hillside who kept me entertained weren’t the biggest surprise of the evening. It was the Improved Modified (IM) choke tube that performed better than the turkey full chokes.

The gobblers flew up to roost with a lot of shooting light left so; I assume they must have decided to study this situation more in-depth too. As I continued firing away, checking and double checking the patterns on the targets at varying range, those toms would purr, cluck, yelp and gobble in apparent “turkey deep thought”.

A few years ago Federal Prairie Storm, and their Mag-Shok turkey loads, both use flightcontrol wads with copper coated lead got my attention because the good folks at Federal recommend using an improved cylinder (IC) choke. Using IC choke makes it easy to change from regular upland bird hunting and turkey hunting in the fall. Patterns are very good for the specific game out my 20 or 12 gauges without needing to swap choke tubes. These loads raised my awareness of using a more open choke for better performance and accuracy. Still, for spring gobbler hunting my head stayed stuck on a turkey full choke.

Last year a good friend gave me a case of Federal 3rd Degree shells, thank you very much, good friend. This gift allowed me to test them without spending $4+ per shot. While patterning the 3rd degree through a variety of chokes from cylinder to turkey full, I discovered the Benelli factory improved modified shot the best pattern from 10 – 50 yards. The 3rd Degrees put the scatter back into scattergun. A turkey will need to be standing by himself, at least two feet from another bird or there will be collateral taking involved. At 50 yards it’s common for all shotshell patterns to be spread out. The good thing about 3rd Degrees is they are consistently spread into a nice pattern all the way. Nine to twelve pellets were delivered into the kill zone at 50 yards. I might try these during this spring’s hunt.

Thinking about the difference in shot metallic hardness of heavy shot, steel, bismuth, copper plated lead and nickel plated lead a light came on regarding the choke effect on each shot type.

Vicker hardness of shotgun shell metals

Nickel 638
Copper 360
Iron 608
Tungsten 3500

For decades my turkey shell of choice has been Fiocchi nickel plated Golden Turkey because they pattern well, inexpensive and efficiently kill turkeys. Plus with the moderate price a hunter can practice without breaking their wallet. The thing is my head got stuck on the turkey full choke is the better concept and until now.

Nickel plated shot is almost twice as hard as copper, meaning the nickel should perform better out of a more open choke, in the same manner, steel shot does, this is why I was at the range yesterday with an audience of gobblers testing standard factory chokes from Remington V3 and Benelli M2. With the V3 a modified choke shot best and the Benelli’s improve modified shot best, this was the patterning board surprise. Actually; the second surprise in that I should have thought of this a very long time ago.

Carlson Turkey Choke at 50 yards

IM choke Benelli 50 yards

IM Benelli choke 25 yards

I have no plans to shoot turkeys at 50 yards, my personal limit is 30-35 yards. It’s just more fun to call them in close.

As for the gobbling gobblers, well that is just pared for the course here in Wisconsin. Heck, sometimes they have the audacity to walk in front of me while I’m shooting. Not to worry, though, that reckless behavior ends come hunting season.

Reflecting at the End of Spring Turkey Season 2016

June 18, 2016 by Charlie 10 Comments

The hen makes gentle clucks from a treetop behind me, odd perhaps, but this is one of the last days of the 2016 spring turkey season. For the most part, the hens are now sitting to incubating their eggs. The made morning rush is giving way to deliberate calm. At least on the part of the hen, not so with gobbler booming in the morning to my front. He is not in the mood to let go of his dominance or mating drive.

As the rays of sunlight begin piercing the woodland, my mind wanders over the passing days. Reminiscing about a turkey season before completion; who would think that is possible? This morning I’m having trouble shaking the feeling of melancholy, it’s typical at the end of a season to feel a certain reverence, but it’s not quite over yet. As the rays of sunlight begin piercing the woodland, in spite of the hard gobbling tom, my mind wanders over the last passing days.

Gobble gobble at the hen’s soft clucks.

It all started by accompanying my grandson on his youth hunt, the memory of those seven long beards coming in while he caused and earthquake in the magnitude of 3.6. The moment of consternation when he missed one of the biggest turkeys I’d ever seen afield that quickly gave way to a warm, confident feeling he’s on the road to becoming a hunter. He saw that insight that keeps us all hunting for just one more of those sights.

Gobble gobble the hen softly clucks.

My good friend Kody from Alberta, Canada, here on his first ever, heck he was the first Canadian ever to hunt spring turkeys in Wisconsin. Only two days to hunt but we crammed a full array of turkey hunting experiences into those days. This gobbler ushering the morning could very likely be one that Kody set up tight on; it’s in the same area. If only Kody could have hunted one more day. No one can predict the actions or behavior of turkeys; they are so random. The melancholy feeling set in after Kody departed for the airport so I setup in the field point where we had a close call with several different turkeys. I called a few times and let my mind wander savoring the memories of hunting with Kodyhunt’s highs. Suddenly the sight of two toms walking towards the decoy jerks me back into focusing on the now. With two tags still open in my pocket, the last day of the fourth Wisconsin season, I realized the tom’s heads were going to intersect which would allow me to kill them both with one shot. A feeling of frustration enveloped me as stood over the two dead birds; why didn’t, couldn’t this have happened when Kody was here? No predicting turkeys.

The hen’s wings caress the air as she flys off roost to her nest, and I take over her clucking. The tom does not seem to notice any difference and gobbled right back.

Last week Rye, my Grandson from Texas came to visit, he’s seven and wants to hunt so bad. With his help, we set up a pop-up blind, and then he had a blast randomly sticking out the decoys. He called his little heart out, dang, no turkeys showed up only some crows. A couple of years ago I gave him a crow call to use on Texas crows, so I told him to order those crows to go away. Well, I don’t know what he said in crow to make those crows go so wild. Whatever his calls meant to the crows remains a mystery, we were soon witnessing 25-30 crows darting about trees around us, screaming and diving at the blind. Had it been crow season we’d have had to eat a bunch of crows. As it was, he just blew that call with more urgency and laughing between breaths. Oh yeah on the way back he begged to carry my gun, it’s all about fun, so he was my gun bearer.

Gobble, gobble, yelp, cluck.

Those last calls were a whole lot closer with some mind clearing directness bringing my attention fully back to the present, the shafts of sunlight are lighting the woods glistening through the rising mist. The canopy is thick late in the season limiting visibility for that turkey and me. The early morning wet dampened the woods allowed me to move quietly and get real close to this gobbler, him and I have a little contest to settle. The hen quietly flew off to her nest some time ago, so I took over her clucking without the old gobbler realizing the change. His gobbles had an urgency to them now at times he sounded like he was moving away and the next sound like he was in range, but I had not heard him fly down yet. Oh, of course, he is hopping from tree branch to branch trying see me through all the leaves. The gobbling sounded closer and farther depending on which direction he pointed his beak during the gobble.

For a moment all went quiet and then the tell-tale thud, he is on the ground and my gun is pointed at exactly that location. I cannot see him only his feathers are making noise as they shake and rattle with his movement. The turkey is in range all I need to do is see him. Tension has a way of building in these situations; I dare not move, or the turkey may periscope me and then fade away as he did on so many other mornings this season. The gun is comfortable on my knee as I grip the striker for one last cluck while hoping he is not looking directly at me. There is no reaction to my cluck; all is quiet until that red, white and blue pulsing bulb of a head appears as if floating up a little draw in the hillside, it’s all I can see moving along. The turkey’s body is not visible only the head; it’s in range… At the blast, the bright head disappears being replaced by a wing tip skidding down the draw. I race to grab him to avoid joining his slide all the way to the bottom for retrieval.

A genuinely fine bird, double beard, 1 3/8” spurred gobbler. Heck, they are all fine birds I just love turkey hunting.

Turkeys are Hatching in West Central Wisconsin

June 12, 2016 by Charlie 5 Comments

Turkeys are hatching in West Central Wisconsin

This photo was taken one day before the next one which shows four eggs.

In spite of wet, chilly weather wild turkeys are hatching all across West Central Wisconsin. Ground temperatures are more important than the air temperature in determining the timing of laying, setting and hatching. Recently hatched poults are being reported near their nests with the brood hen nearby watching over them.

Recently hatched wild turkey poults in West Central Wisconsin. June 11, 2016

Turkeys lay eggs one at a time, one per day in open woodlands or along the edges of fields.

Other broods that consist of fully feathered poults with limited flying skills have been seen along roadsides and in ditches feeding on insects. Insects are the most important first food items for the newly hatched turkeys. These poults are roosting in trees at night; this provides them much more safety than huddling on the ground with their brood hen.

When poults are a few days old and flightless, they remain frozen in place as their primary defense.

Poults can be very hard to see in all the lush springtime growth. More than likely poults have been hatching since early May when ground temperatures rose to 50 degrees.

Three wild turkey poults in this picture. Notice how well they blend into their surroundings.

If a brood or nest is destroyed, hens will re-nest until late August to early September, and this is why hunters sometimes see grouse sized poults in October.

Hens store sperm for about 90 days to make re-nesting possible. Gobblers can continue to breed hens through July; occasionally strutters will be spotted in fields during July with hens present.

Brood hen with poults. Courtesy of D Gordon Robertson

If you like what you see, I urge you to get out and see what is going on in your area and then let us know here in the comment section. I really enjoy being out at all times of the year.

Wisconsin 2016 Spring Wild Turkey Beats 2015 Registrations

June 5, 2016 by Charlie 3 Comments

Wisconsin’s spring 2016 wild turkey registration total is 11% higher than last year. Preliminary total harvest has 45,496 turkeys registered spring 2016.

Unit 1 had the highest turkey harvest 13,862 for a 22% success rate.
Unit 2 registered 11,083 turkeys 23% success rate.
Unit 3 registered 10,348 birds 20% success rate.
Unit 4 registered 6,698 birds, success rate 21%
Unit 5 total 2,071
Unit 6 total 813
Unit 7 total 510
Fort McCoy checked in with 111

Total 2016 turkey permits issued 213,672 compared to 2015 issued permits 208,250. About 26,000 applicants who were drawn did not buy their license.

Keep in mind the number of turkey hunters is less than the number of issued permits because each hunter is allowed to buy more than one tag. The total number of spring turkey hunting licenses sold each spring in Wisconsin ranges between 100,000 to 120,000.

How should hunter success rates be calculated?

Currently, WDNR calculates the state success rate using the total number of permits issued giving Wisconsin hunters a statewide success rate of 21.3%. If the success rate calculation is done using the number of hunting licenses sold, which would accurately represent the number of individual hunters, the success rate is 41.36% assuming 110,000 spring hunting licenses were sold.

If the average hunter in Wisconsin buys two permits; And that hunter shoots one turkey are they successful? Or do they need to fill both permits to be successful?

What about the obsessed turkey hunter who purchases at least one permit per weekly season, perhaps more than one permit in the later seasons, so they have 7 or more permits to hunt. How many of those permits do they need to fill to be considered successful?

Other hunters buy extra permits in other units and time periods so that they can spend time hunting friends or family in those areas. Perhaps they only hunt a day for two or don’t hunt at all due to personal scheduling conflicts.

Bottom line. Does the success rate percentage really matter?

Hunters can apply now for their 2017 spring turkey tags. Log into your account on www.GoWild.gov, “Buy permit application”, under application and points. Applications can be changed anytime and as many times as needed until the December 10th deadline.

Grandson on The Wisconsin Youth Hunt

April 28, 2016 by Charlie 9 Comments

“Grandpa I see turkeys coming.”

“Where son?”

“Coming down the hill behind us.” Boy, does he have a good game eye, a gaggle of turkeys was weaving its way downhill in our direction.

As excited as we were to get started turkey hunting on Saturday it seemed life was conspiring to keep us from it. The game of turkey hunting is supposed to commence in the early morning dark and span the day, and that was not the way the 2016 Wisconsin spring wild turkey hunt began for us.

10:00- Found us set up in a small woodland bordered by some Ag fields. A lot of hunters would prefer setting up a blind and spread of decoys in an area like this. My grandson, like most young hunters, prefers to be outside a blind rather than in one. Within a half hour, the craggy bark of that old tree bit into our backs making the idea of moving very appealing. Or was it the lack of the turkeys? We moved, several miles away.

Nugget the turkey decoy. Keeps it interesting for the young ones.

10:45- We left the parked truck to hike across a prickly pear littered sand barren field, clearly an area that did not look like it would hold any turkeys, at least to the casual passerby. Down an embankment along the edge of a swamp with too much water for easy walking we headed up to a hillside step and for no other reason than there were fresh turkey scratchings everywhere we setup Nugget, (yes, he named the new decoy). We situated ourselves in a decaying blow down. Walker on my left.

A tom like this gets the most seasoned hunter’s heart beating overtime.

11:10- Walker’s picked those turkeys out, and he knew immediately they were gobblers with a gang of jakes bringing up the rear. With all those turkeys meandering a line towards us his excitement was quite contagious. I must admit my heart skipped a beat or two when it becomes clear exactly how big the lead gobbler was, and he was heading directly towards Nugget.

For some reason, turkey decoys don’t usually work for me. In spite of all those past failures a few days ago I purchased a Scheel’s decoy that had been on sale for $17.89 figuring Walker would like it. Apparently, the lead gobbler liked her too because his focus was on Nugget and seemed not to care in the least there was a trembling 13 year old trying to get a bead on his pulsing head only 12 yards away.

For me, it was an eternity from the time that old gobbler stopped, extended his head high to get a better look at Nugget and the roar of Walker’s 20 gauge. Then inside the scream, NOOOOO… as those big wings clawed air carrying that very large turkey up above the trees and out of our lives. Shots at turkeys do not come much more perfect than that, how could he miss? Outwardly, I whispered, “your turkey nuggets flew away, stay still and be ready.”

The following turkeys had scattered at the shot. Turkeys have short memories and can’t rationalize what happens, they just react. In short order, my calls calmed them down, and they started to stroll back to us. Now you must understand the turkeys have calmed, but my grandson is still shaking from the first encounter, there is no doubt he is rationalizing the situation.

They’re back…

Four turkeys move back into shooting range if Walker was shaking before; this time, it’s an earthquake allowing the turkeys to bust our position and retreat. Again I call to them, for some reason, my turkey calling calms the turkeys but still does very little to calm Walker. Six turkeys come back in range to mill around clucking and purring their contentment. But as turkeys are prone to do given too much time they bust us and fade away again. At this point I remind Walker about how much fun this is, he agrees grinning ear to ear. I ask him if he is hungry for some turkey nuggets, of course, he replies. Then let me know when you are calm, and I will call those turkeys back, again.

After about 15 minutes Walker assures me he is ready to try again. Soft yelps and purrs waft thru the woodland soon the turkeys eagerly answer, and I amp up the calls causing the toms to do about faces and march in; who can blame a 13 old for all his excitement, we had no blind, so there was nothing between the turkeys and us. We were sitting on the ground, so when those birds were in close, they looked down on us. Heck, I know some veteran turkey hunters who’d crack too.

It was important to figure out why my grandson missed that first gobbler, so I measured the distance, exactly 12 yards. Later at the gun range he never missed a turkey target at that range and then it occurred to me; the target was just a turkey head, not the whole bird. I forgot to tell him to make sure he picks out only the head when he shoots at a live turkey.

Wisconsin 2016 Spring Turkey Hunt Forecast

March 30, 2016 by Charlie 2 Comments

The following 2016 Wisconsin spring turkey hunt forecast or if you prefer “prediction” is based on observations reports from my network of year-round turkey hunters. Not only do we hunt spring, summer, fall and winter; During the offseason, we explore all 7 of Wisconsin’s turkey units noting habitat condition, flock composition, and numbers. We get out from behind the windshield to hike and glass the areas.

Admittedly this preview is subject to a lot my perception based on the field reports, experiences and years of turkey hunting. Before the 2014 Wisconsin spring turkey hunt, I wrote a forecast based on my hunter network field reports. At that time nearly everyone, including the current WDNR Wildlife managers were predicting a horrible spring hunt, it was supposed to be so bad they cut tags by 25%; this was the first time in state history the number of available turkey tags slashed. I stuck my neck out as a contrarian with a forecast of an above average hunt. Wisconsin’s spring turkey harvest was the second highest in the nation.

2016 Wisconsin turkey habitat is about as full of turkeys as it can get. No one “counts” turkeys in Wisconsin so it’s left to a variety of opinions. I think a reasonable estimate of statewide turkey numbers is around 600,000 birds perhaps approaching 650,000; this makes Wisconsin the number one turkey state in the nation based on population.
Wisconsin appears to be at carrying capacity statewide and is some southern areas turkeys may be over their carrying capacity. Wisconsin has experienced back to back mild winters followed by excellent springtime nesting conditions making excellent recruitment.. 2015 fall turkey hunters found high numbers of bird groups with diverse age structures.

2016 Spring Turkey Forecast for Wisconsin Turkey Management Unit 1, 3 & 4

In particular, these units have abundant turkey populations. With the exception of northern unit 4, turkeys numbers may be over carrying capacity. Carrying capacity is the number of a species the habitat can support during worst case conditions. i.e. severe winter.

Active fall turkey hunters reported encountering unprecedented bird numbers. Official WDNR kill stats show a decrease in the harvest. I believe this is due to hunter effort. The number of fall turkey hunters has been in steady decline for several years; perhaps there are only 27,000 fall turkey hunters statewide. My point is fall hunter harvest is not a reliable indicator of the turkey population.

2016 Spring Turkey Forecast for Wisconsin Turkey Management Unit 2

I have no experience hunting in unit 2. Tags are limited there versus the population of turkey hunters, so I leave the available tags for those hunters. The network reports nearly the same abundance as the 1,3, and 4. So it will be an excellent spring hunt in zone 2.

2016 Spring Turkey Forecast for Wisconsin Turkey Management Units 5,6, & 7

Again reports are indicating unprecedented high numbers of wild turkeys. There are so few tags available in these units that I have not tried to get any. For the most part, it appears residents are the primary purchasers of these rare turkey tags. Hunters should see excellent success this spring.

charlie elk’s 2016 Wisconsin Spring Wild Turkey Hunt Forecast Summary

Can’t wait to start hunting! This spring 2016 is set to be a record-setting season. Unless there is significantly bad spring weather that keeps hunters out the field, the total ’16 turkey harvest will exceed 51,000 turkeys.

If you’d like to join the charlie elk turkey reporting network please fill out this form. Even if you don’t want to join the network please leave a reply regarding your thoughts.

2 year old turkeys are the bread and butter of spring hunting. There should be more of turkeys found this spring.

2 year old turkeys are the bread and butter of spring hunting. There should be more of these turkeys found this spring.

Wisconsin 2016 Spring Turkey License Procedure is Changing

February 2, 2016 by Charlie 2 Comments

Regular phone call will no longer work to purchase a license or permit from WDNR starting March 2016

Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is changing the way hunters and all outdoor users buy their permits and licenses. The first test of this new system Go Wild will debut for the 2016 spring turkey licenses. Beware this includes the purchase of leftover over the counter tags which go on sale March 21, 2016 on a first come first serve basis. Starting spring 2016 The leftover spring turkey tags and turkey license can only be purchased online or at license vendors. Telephone sales are no longer available except via the phone app which provides online access for smart phones. All permits, licenses and tags must be purchased at the new gowild.wi.gov starting in March 2016. The site is not active yet there is just a coming soon landing page.

The Go Wild system replaces the current Automated License Issuance System (ALIS) that has served Wisconsin’s outdoor enthusiasts since 1999. As most longtime avid turkey hunters remember the ALIS system has not been perfect. In its early days it crashed system wide during the over the counter turkey permits sale period. The current system needs updating but it has been working well during spring turkey OTC sales. So it would be nice, I think, to have waited until after the spring turkey permit sale. Just call me paranoid.

There could be one advantage to the new Go Wild system for those who are very dedicated turkey hunters paying attention to any and all new developments. A certain number of hunters will not be made aware of this change until they are on their computers scrambling to purchase a leftover permit. Those precious seconds they spend trying find the new deal will give those in know a critical advantage to land one of the more hard to get permits. However, because there is a phone app available there could a lot more folks able to join the buying rush. So who knows?

That assumes of course that this new Go Wild system works as advertised. Sure hope it does. I will be testing it as soon as it opens on March 2. I always purchase a Conservation Patron license and apply for my fall turkey license and spring 2017 license early March each year. That prevents me from becoming busy thus forgetting to submit application. Once an application is submitted it can be edited up until the deadline has passed.

Take The Wisconsin Slam Challenge

December 28, 2015 by Charlie Leave a Comment

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?

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

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.

Wisconsin’s 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.