Scouting is still the top turkey hunting tip
For home-bound hunters who have contracted cabin fever, Pennsylvania’s spring gobbler season is what the doctor ordered and what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended. With no changes to the season, the four-week hunt, which opened Saturday, can provide exercise, outdoor recreation and for successful hunters, eat-athome food.
Although the Eastern wild turkey’s brain is about the size of a pea, the bird has advanced motion-sensitive color sight and razor-sharp instincts. Hunters can improve their chances of bagging a long-beard by honing skills and enhancing their knowledge of the animal. Here are a few practices that will improve the odds.
• Time to scout: Temporary layoffs and work-fromhome arrangements might make it easier for hunters, especially students, to get out and find areas where wild turkeys roost. Before walking out before noon during the season’s first two weeks, hunters can scout the area. The birds particularly like trees along streams and rivers near field edges where they appear at daybreak. Trail cameras can help. If you find hens, toms will be nearby. During the final two weeks when all-day hunting is legal, an afternoon walk before settling in for dusk could make all the difference.
• Time of day: When disturbed, hens incubating eggs are less likely to leave their nests and more likely to return if they do. In Pennsylvania, the average incubation date is May 1. That’s the logic behind the opening date and split spring season. On May 2-16, hunting is permitted a half hour before sunrise until noon; on May 18-30, hunting is allowed from a half hour before sunrise to a half hour after sunset.
Be patient and if you’re not scouting, stay put. If they hear you or sense a predator, the morning fly-down could be delayed. Many hunters give up on turkeys when there’s less gobbling during the season’s second half, but toms are still cruising for receptive hens through the afternoon and particularly just before dusk.
• Blinds and a patterned gun: “Pattern” your shotgun by firing your intended ammunition into 3-by-3-foot blank paper targets at distances from 10 yards to 40 yards at 10-yard intervals. At what distances are shot distribution patterns tight enough to ensure the bird’s head is not missed? That will determine your prime kill zone and if using a blind, where to set it up. Minimal blinds that are quick to pack and easy to carry are recommended. No need to have pitched a blind early. Turkeys are more interested in movement.
• Decoys and setup: The actions of a hen or group of hens can determine a tom’s reaction. Use fewer decoys in cover. In fields set up a larger distribution, possibly including a tom in a strut zone placed well within your maximum firing distance.
• Ca-ca-calling: Overcalling is the biggest mistake by turkey hunters. An occasional crow call or owl hoot shortly after dawn might get the gobblers going. Big dominant toms hate to be ignored.
If you hear a gobble, reply once or twice and then play hard to get. A distant longbeard might race to your decoys if he thinks you’re a male interloper. Call less often but more strategically later in the season when males are looking for hens still in need of servicing. A young hen yelps to signal availability; a tom gobbles sparsely in reply.
Proposal to reopen outdoors clubs
Hunting and fishing clubs and some outdoor shooting ranges would be reopened, exempt from business closure orders, under proposed legislation announced Wednesday by state Rep. Bill Kortz, D-Allegheny.
“Our lives have significantly changed in the last two months here in our state, with many of us staying at home and following social distancing rules,” Mr. Kortz said in a statement. “At the same time, I believe that we can now safely reopen these clubs, while also following the state health department’s guidelines. My bill would accomplish this, allowing for our residents to enjoy spending time outdoors [while keeping] them and the club’s employees safe.”
The bill has not been introduced. In a memo seeking co-sponsorship, Mr. Kortz said the measure would provide health-based standards requiring outdoor club employees and members to wear masks, practice social distancing and permit five people at a time on outdoor shooting ranges.