Turkey season looks promising

It's turkey time! With some cooperation from the weather, this could very well be another record season for Missouri hunters looking for that big tom as the first of four turkey hunting seasons gets underway with the Youth Hunt this weekend.

The other seasons include the regular spring firearm season April 24-May 14, fall firearms the entire month of October and the archery season in the fall.

The Youth Hunt is for residents ages 6 through 15 only, with a season limit of one bird with a beard. The young hunters should find plenty of toms in the woods this spring. With a mild winter and early spring the gobblers have been sounding off for several weeks.

Unlike the fall season, in the spring the toms sound off at the first light of day and many hunters say if turkeys didn't gobble they might not hunt because they like to hear them and the challenge they offer for a hunter to call one within gun range.

Many spring turkey hunters think the season is going to be too late this spring. The regular season doesn't open until April 24 and by that time the underbrush will hinder hunting.

Larry Spencer, Joplin, has hunted turkeys for more than 20 years and said, "I think the season is too late this spring because we have trees leaving out already and by the time the season opens the cover will be much too thick. The big toms already have a big advantage. It's hard to believe that a bird with a brain the size of a pea can outsmart a hunter, but it happens a lot."

Spencer noted that the large flocks of turkeys he saw during the winter have broken up and are now in smaller groups of hens or gobblers.

"I have been hearing gobbles for several weeks now and have seen many toms strutting in open fields. The peak of gobbling has started, but the toms also do a lot of gobbling after breeding has ended. We, in Missouri, have the best turkey hunting in the nation. The daily shooting hours from a half hour before sunrise to 1 p.m. have always worked well for me. I spend the rest of the day looking for morel mushrooms or go crappie fishing. It's a great time of the year to be outdoors," he said.

Last year Vern Martin, Springfield, was guiding his grandson on his first turkey hunt and said, "We were hunting near Table Rock and had a big tom working, but just when we thought we had him, he slipped away, but that's the way turkey hunting goes sometime. At least we both had the experience of calling a tom and heard him gobble for a while. My grandson did get a bird during the regular season and he has been looking to this year's youth hunt."

Turkey hunting is full of surprises. Many times just when everything looks great, it changes. Each year there are always stories of how a gobbler escaped just when the hunter was sure the bird was his. However, there are also times when everything goes as planned. Harold Duncan, Carthage, put it like this, "It's a lot like fishing. Some days you can't get a bite, but there are days when you might catch your limit. You need a good day once in a while to offset the dry days. Just to be in the woods with the possibility of calling in a big tom makes it all worth while."

A lesson is learned from hunting big toms. Successful hunters play an active role in how the hunt unfolds. They think out a hunt and act fast if necessary. Duncan said, "You have to go to gobbling birds, and set up on them before they get distracted by real hens. Try to pattern their movements and intercept them. Hunt hard and long. Hunting gobblers is definitely not a passive pastime."

Missouri is at the top in turkey hunting and it shows no sign of slowing down.