Turkey time
As the snow melts and the days get longer, thoughts of warmer weather come to mind. In my opinion one of the most exciting things to do in the spring is to hunt wild turkeys, hearing the thunder of an approaching gobbler and seeing it all fanned out gets the adrenaline flowing and my heart racing. It’s also a great chance to get outside and possibly bump into a patch of morels or stumble across and shed deer antler. Wild turkeys can be wary, wiley and downright frustrating but they can also be incredibly exciting and downright tasty with success. Benjamin Franklin proposed that the wild turkey would have been a much better national symbol than bald eagle, and I think a fanned out tom would look pretty good on the back of a shiny quarter. One of teh amazing things about wild turkeys is the vibrant colors of their heads being red white and blue when in full strut, it doesn’t get much more american than that.Turkeys were once prevalent across the united states but populations shrunk down to critical levels , thankfully wild turkey populations have bounced back and turkeys can be found in every state in the lower 48.
The spring hunting season in Minnesota is about six weeks long and also coincides with the mating timeframe for turkeys, usually mid April through the end of May. This mating window is dependent on photoperiod or how much daylight we gain, so some years you may be turkey hunting in the snow and other years it might be in a t-shirt. Depending on where you hunt you may be able to buy a license over the counter or you may have to put in for a lottery tag depending on the zone and timeframe you want to hunt, there are six weeklong hunting seasons and unsuccessful early season hunters can get a second opportunity for the last season at the end of May. There is also a fall turkey season that involves a little different strategy. Here is a link to the MN turkey regulations
I think turkey hunting is fairly inexpensive compared to other outdoor activities, and all the gear you need can usually be carried in a backpack, vest or over your shoulder.
Here is a basic list of the equipment I like to use; First off you are going to need a shotgun unless you are using archery equipment. I like a 12 gage with a sling to make carrying easier in the field, I also put an extra full choke in to make the tightest pattern I can get, turkeys are tough and unless you shoot them in the head/spine they probably won’t die very easily. There are some high powered turkey loads designed just for turkey hunters with shot sizes 4 or smaller, make sure to pattern your gun at 25-40 yards, if you aren’t getting enough pellets in the head zone you may have to change loads or chokes. There are lots of free turkey targets to print out online Next you need some camoflauge clothing, head to toe including gloves and a facemask, turkeys have excellent vision and can see colors so you’ll want to blend in with your surroundings, it’s also not a bad idea to have some camouflage raingear for spring showers, preferably something that isn’t too loud while moving.If it’s warm outside I tuck my pantlegs into my socks to keep ticks from crawling up my legs. The next thing you’ll need is a good set of calls,I’d say more than one to offer some variety, there are lots of them out on the market and some are easier than others to use. Push buttons and box calls may be the easiest to use but I think it’s worth having a slate and I highly recommend getting some mouth diaphrams and learning to use them because you can be hands free while operating the call at close range. Find some audio or video on calling and learn different calls like yelps, clucks, putts and purrs and practice often, I like to practice while driving around scouting or doing errands, some days my passengers aren’t always a fan of it but the dog never seems to mind. Another good call to have is a locator like an owl hoot or crow call, these work well for locating turkeys on eth roost the night before your hunt. Next you’ll probably want a decoy or two, there are lots of them on the market but I like ones that are collapsable and easy to carry usually a hen for early season and or a jake for later in the season, some of the new decoys have special UV paint or are photorealistic. A lot of turkey hunters will have a seat cushion for sitting on wet or hard ground and many vests have seats built in them. For early season cold weather hunting, I like a portable blind with a chair and a propane heater, this allows me to sit most of the day with another hunter while keeping our movements hidden.
Ok you have the gear now it’s time to talk scouting strategies. Spend some time driving country roads in the mornings or on sunny afternoons and you should soon find out where there are concentrations of birds. Many farmers aren’t fans of turkeys eating their crops or pooping on their hay so obtaining permission isn’t very difficult, just remember to be respectful and ask nicely. If you are lucky enough to get some permission make sure to ask the landowners where they see the most birds after all they live out there and can probably point you in the right direction. Learn the landscape and make notes of where the large openings, fences, potential roost trees, hills and gullies are. OnX digital mapping is really helpful for this information as well finding landowner names to obtain permission. Once you’ve found some ground to hunt it’s a good idea to scout the night before by walking or driving around the edges at sunset and blowing an owl hoot, on calm evenings roosting birds will gobble back to warn others and you can get a general idea or pinpoint where they are spending the night. The two main schools of thought are to “run and Gun” by making calls calls and hustling over to where you think the birds are or set up and wait and hope they come your way, both will work if done properly. Make it a point to get to an open space nearby well before sunrise. I like to get out to my spot before false dawn so it may be 4:30 or 5 am and I usually walk in in total darkness or with a red light on a headlamp to avoid spooking any roosting birds. If the birds are already talking you may be out too late and it may be difficult to get set up without being seen, usually right at first light is when the first tweety birds start chirping and the turkeys will up and gobbling shortly afterwards. I try to find a tree to lean against and set my decoy about 25-30 yards away in an open area where birds can see it from a distance. After that it’s a matter of calling them into the decoy, it’s possible to both overcall And undercall but as long as I hear a gobbling tom getting closer I’m doing it right, as the bird gets closer my calls get quieter to make the bird curious and come looking for you. In the natural world hens will come to a gobbling tom so in our game we have to make the tom turkey do the unnatural thing and come find the hen. Sometimes they come part way in and can get hung up because they don’t want to cross fences, water or gullies so try to set up and give them a straight path, other times they may just happen across a real hen that is probably a lot more appealing than my synthetic decoy, that’s where the frustration comes in but it’s all part of the fun. Wind and heavy rain can also be limiting factors, turkeys tend to sleep in or stay quiet on nasty days and strong winds will make it difficult for them to hear your calls or you to hear them gobble. If a bird gets hung up or turns the other way you can pack up your gear and try to cut it off or reposition and often there are other birds not far off and sometimes toms will in without gobbling at all, so make sure your movements are slow and you are ready at all times because some days they seem to show up out of nowhere. My absolute favorite part of turkey hunting is hearing the loud drumming of a strutting tom, it sounds like a bass drum and you can feel it in the air. If you have birds coming make sure your gun is in position and many hunters will rest it on a knee because it may take awhile to get eth bird within range, I have made the mistake of shooting at birds too far away and it never turns out well so stay calm and make sure you get the bird to within 35 yards before taking the shot, and make sure can take your safety off quietly and make a solid head shot.
Hopefully you made a successful shot and have a bird down, be carefull approaching a flopping bird because their spurs can be pretty sharp! Birds are usually ranked by the length of the beard or the length of the spurs, a true limb hanger can be hung on a tree limb and supported by it’s spurs, then again there is nothing wrong with a jake , they taste the same and any turkey is a tasty trophy!
Once the bird is down it’s time to start processing it. There are two schools of thought, you can pluck the bird or skin the bird and break it down. If plucking hang the bird and start plucking, be careful to keep the skin in tact to seal in moisture for roasting and many people use roasting bags to keep the moisture in the bird. Often people complain about wild turkey being dry for roasting so do your homework, there are plenty of recipes and resources online. I guess lately I prefer to break it down for smoking or frying. Many turkey hunters just take the breast and leave the rest, I have found that all of the turkey is worth keeping and utilizing in a variety of ways. I shot a turkey last fall and split it down the middle front and back, also called spatch-cocking, this makes it easier to smoke the two sides evenly instead of having a hollow cavity. I brined the bird and thoroughly enjoy smoked turkey especially slicing the breast meat thin for sandwiches or a snack. The breast are usually good size so I will cut each breast in half or thirds and freeze them in ziplock bags full of water to prevent freezer burn. They can be cooked any way you enjoy poultry but I like to slice them thin, pound them with a meat hammer and bread them like chicken fried steak, dip the strips in a sauce made from homemade jelly and horseradish and you are in for a treat. As for the legs they have tendons in them which can make them tough, one of my favorite ways to deal with the legs is to grind them into burger and mix with pork fat or bacon for some of the best burgers around, serve them on a pretzel bun with some morels and it’s a meal fit for a king! This year I made breakfast sausage from the “meateater” cookbook using bacon, apples and cinnamon and was a tasty treat to share with friends and family, in fact all of the turkey recipes I tried from that book were great including the posole I like to fry the liver up with some brandy and butter and the hearts and gizzard can be fried or pickled for a unique treat. As for the carcass I like to put it in a roasting roasting pan or crock pot full of water and root vegetables to make a blonde cooking stock, let the meat fall off the bones and make a turkey noodle soup or save the stock for future recipes, there’s nothing better than a healthy stock or soup on a cold and rainy day.
You may also want to keep part of your bird to display as trophy, many people will take the fan off spread it out on some cardboard and pin it into place and then put some borax on the meaty base to dry it off, you can make a display out of wood or make a reaper fan to be used for future hunts. Many hunters will also save the beard and you can use the empty shotgun shells to make a cool ornament from the beard. Some times I’ll save the legs and position the feet to dry out as a keyholder and I have even skun out a jake I shot and then dried the hide out and sewed and glued it around a decoy to make a live feather decoy, it was a lot of work and I still haven’t gotten solid results from it but maybe this year. One final project you can do is take the wing bone and make a turkey call out of it, these have been used for many years by natives and pioneers.
Well there you have it, I hope that if you are new to turkey hunting that this article will point you towards success and if you are already an experienced turkey hunter that this article may have given you some new ideas to hunt birds or process your kill afterwards. I will wish all hunters a safe and productive hunt, get out and enjoy the spring and I hope you too may appreciate the majestic wild turkey much like Benjamin Franklin! Happy Hunting!
