Outdoors

Spring turkey hunt could turn out well

April 04, 2006|by BILL ANDERSON

It's getting close to spring turkey hunting time. Common sense indicates this will be a good season, because we are coming off of a mild winter. The reports from around the area seem to indicate that birds are generally doing well and it is likely that a decent population of birds are within easy driving distance no matter where you live in the area.

This spring, the Maryland season will begin April 18 and end May 23. The bag limit is one per day and two per season, provided you did not take a turkey last fall. If you bagged a fall turkey, you are allowed one bird during the spring season.

As most hunters know, the spring season is a very efficient wildlife management tool. The harvest of gobblers has little impact on the overall population. One gobbler will mate with many hens, so the other gobblers in a given area are expendable. The fall season is a very different matter because most of the harvest is young birds, including hens, which could adversely affect the population if too many hens are taken.

Everything seems to point toward another good spring season for turkey hunters. The mild winter weather should mean a high number of birds survived in good condition. This early spring period is important because it is the time to scout out the areas you plan to hunt when the season opens.

Turkeys move into open fields with the first signs of spring and are relatively easy to spot. Even though the actual mating period may be several weeks away, the gobblers will be strutting for hens and jockeying for position with other gobblers, and you can tell just how many gobblers are to be found in a given area.

The one area of concern for turkey hunters is safety. When you hunt turkeys, you need to wear camouflage clothing and make sounds that imitate other turkeys. The result is that accidental shootings do happen and safety measures are very important.

Spring turkey hunting is now one of our most popular and important sports. Preseason scouting and attention to safety precautions can help make sure we all have another successful and safe season in 2006.

Bill Anderson writes a weekly outdoors column for The Herald-Mail.

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