Getting Ready for Turkeys

Of all the game I hunt, my friends seem to really enjoy wild turkey.  It is now time to get at it, and the two most important things I do is to remind myself of the habitat they live in and where they roam.  Since I have access to four different farms, I scout them out ahead of the season and visit with the landowners to find out where they have seen turkey activity.  That has not happened yet this year.

The weather is eastern Nebraska and western Iowa has been miserable to say the least.  The cold keeps hanging on and with it comes the humidity.  Periodic rain showers and lots of wind have made this one of the wettest springs I have ever seen.  Having said this cheery piece of news, there was only one thing to do.  Get out of town.  So my wife and I headed down to Savannah, Georgia for a little R & R, and to warm up our cold bones.  I am a little behind on getting my scouting done, but it is supposed to warm up and clear off this week.  Therefore, I will be going farm to farm visiting with binoculars and coffee.

The information below is from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources website, and it is an excellent source of information.  Reading all the DNR websites where a person hunts or fishes is a great way to gather information.  (http://www.iowadnr.gov/)

 Habitat

Wild turkeys are primarily birds of the forest. The eastern subspecies found in Iowa and most of the United States east of the Missouri River thrives in mature oak-hickory forests native to this region. Turkeys primarily eat nuts, seeds and berries (collectively called mast) produced in greatest abundance in middle-aged to mature stands of oak trees. Turkeys are large, strong-walking birds capable of covering a range of 1-2 square miles in a day, searching for suitable food items by scratching in leaf litter. These “scratching” – piles of leaves adjacent to a small plot of bare earth – are characteristic in good turkey habitat and indicate that turkeys have been feeding in the immediate area. 

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 In winter, turkeys rely primarily on mast for food, although in Iowa and other agricultural states they are capable of substituting waste grain in harvested corn and soybean fields, where it is available adjacent to timber. When snow covers their native foods, or mast crops fail, corn fields supply an important supplemental food capable of carrying turkeys through winter stress periods in excellent condition. Turkeys are often seen in crop fields during the winter taking advantage of the waste grain in the fields in Iowa. Large flocks of turkeys observed in crop fields have raised concerns of crop depredation by agricultural producers. Wild turkeys are actually beneficial to crop fields, since they primarily consume insects out of fields during the spring and summer

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In spring and summer, a turkey’s diet switches to a wide variety of seeds, insects and green leafy material. Protein derived from insects is especially important to rapidly growing poults during their first weeks after hatching and to adults replacing feathers after their annual summer molt. Hayfields, restored native grasses, and moderately grazed pastures are excellent producers of insects and are heavily utilized by turkey broods where they are interspersed with suitable forest stands. These grassy areas also provide suitable nesting sites. Turkeys roost at night in trees year around, except for hens sitting on a nest. Any tree larger than 4 inches in diameter at breast height may serve as a roost tree, but larger, mature trees are most often used. Eastern turkeys shift their nest sites almost daily, seldom roosting in the same tree two nights in succession. Certain areas of their home range (area a turkey occupies throughout a season) may be used more heavily than other locations (e.g. a ridge of large trees near a feeding area or a stand of large evergreen trees during very cold weather).

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In Iowa, the abundance of food and nesting areas in non-forested habitats (corn fields, pastures, hayfields, restored native grasses) has allowed turkeys to survive in areas where forests are limited. In traditional turkey range, minimum timber requirements of 10,000 continuous acres of mature forests are commonly thought to be necessary for wild turkeys. Research indicates that areas with a 50:50 ratio of forest with properly managed non-forested habitats is ideal turkey range, and a minimum of 1,000 acres of timber is ideal to allow a turkey population to thrive. Since the restoration of wild turkeys to Iowa, turkeys have been found in small 2-3 acre woodlots, much to the surprise of wildlife managers.

  

Good hunting, good fishing, and good luck.    Hank

 

Hunting Trophy Barren Ground Caribou

On my caribou hunting trip to northern Manitoba, I had the privilege of meeting one of the finest outdoors men I have ever met.  Adrian Skok is that person, and while I did not have the opportunity to have him for my guide, he provided great insight in the camp to all the hunters.  Besides blogging on the website Western Sportsman he guides and operates a consulting and safari business for hunters.  Telephone is 888-850-HUNT Ext 706, www.GSSsafaris.com, and e-mail is Adrian@GSSafaris.com.

I introduce to you Adrian Skok and his article  Hunting Trophy Barren Ground Caribou.

We spotted a really nice bull walking away from us, and I quickly evaluated the situation more carefully through my binoculars. The big bull was in a small band of caribou walking into expansive swampy barrens, almost 800 yards away, and not angling our way in the slightest. A client I was guiding couldn’t help but admire the impressive rack this caribou sported, only just recently stripped of its velvet. His bright red, still bloody antlers were sky lined against the horizon, and then lit up in the late afternoon sun. It was quite a sight.

Around this time my client couldn’t help but turn around and ask, “He sure is a dandy, any chance we can try going after that one?”

Lowering my binoculars, I replied, “Better forget about him bud. Unless you’re an Olympian, we’re not catching up to that one.”

We both knew it, and I certainly cannot blame my hunter for asking. I would have done the same thing. Every possible way to get within range of that great bull raced through my mind, but I came up blank. Sometimes, on the tundra, you just have to let certain bulls walk, or risk wasting a good part of the day chasing caribou rump; and if successful it’s an extremely long pack job back to the boat, or camp.

Successfully hunting trophy barren ground caribou is all about getting in front of the animals. Start by glassing from high vantage points, to both dissect the landscape and hopefully spot migrating caribou. These animals are always on the move, so upon locating them, determine where they seem to be coming from and going to, and what route they are taking. It’s there you need to find a concealed position that not only offers a view of the approaching caribou, but also where they will naturally walk into range. A natural funnel along a well-used travel corridor, in the middle of a migratory push, is the ultimate set up. If the stars align, an endless stream of caribou could walk by for hours on end.


Other times, caribou movement is sparse, sporadic and they move randomly about the landscape with no particular pattern. At times like these, I step up my game and conduct more intense glassing and spot-and-stalk hunting.

I notice many of the best caribou sightings are in the mornings, and making the right judgment calls keeps you from finding yourself hopelessly behind the caribou all day. Don’t get caught up desperately chasing them in circles across the tundra, like some starving wolf.

The key is spotting them early and, before anything else, determining if there is a bull good enough in the group worth a closer look. If so, interpret their body language and learn as much as you can about them before making any move. Knowing when there is a sense of urgency to close the distance before they slip away across the tundra is something that just comes with experience – and many failed stalks!

Field judging this majestic ungulate is not the easiest. There is so much to look at and they are constantly moving, often with multiple bulls in a group. Let’s face it – they all look huge; but velvet bulls appear larger yet. Sometimes peeling velvet can deceive you and you think you see extra points, and the oldest bulls have huge frames but little else. A trophy should carry long beams with several long points per top, and long matching “backscratchers” protruding from each. Big, palmated bez hopefully sport lots of points, and the bigger the shovel the better.

 At times overlooked due to the impressive size of the overall package, double shovels are only determined from a head-on view. If your caribou has everything else going for him, big double shovels should land you in the record book. If not, caribou hunts often allow you to “best your first bull” with a second tag!

A trophy, however, is in the eye of the beholder, and in this day and age, we should be thankful for any nice caribou we are lucky enough to harvest.

Aside from luck, what does it take to bring home a Boone & Crockett caribou? Well, you need to be able to judge them and know what to look for, be in peak physical condition and have knowledge of the landscape to intercept fleeing caribou. And finally, have the experience to make long-distance shots at moving targets, while out of breath in a windswept environment, under pressure. I’ll go with luck…

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Good hunting good fishing, and good luck.  Hank

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