|
|
November 20, 2009 by
You’ve put some venison in the freezer, and need something to do. Spring turkey seasons are a winter away. Check your state’s website because there might be an opportunity available right now. For starters, Strut Zone’s Fearsome Threesome of fall/winter turkey hunting might give you some road-tripping ideas.
Virginia, for instance, has wide-ranging regional opportunities for fall wild turkeys, including a special Thanksgiving Day hunt November 26. Is that cool or what? Other hunting zones are available in December, even into early January.
Check out: http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/HUNTING/regulations/turkey.asp/
Kentucky is another great state to consider. Autumn/winter turkey opportunities here include these remaining season dates—shotgun: Dec. 5-11, 2009; archery: open through Jan. 18, 2010; crossbow: available until Dec. 31, 2009.
Check out: http://www.fw.ky.gov/
Wisconsin might be the great secret in fall turkey hunting opportunity. The 2009 fall turkey hunting season ran from September 12 - November 19. That was until the proposal to add an extended fall season for Zones 1-5 was approved. The 2009 fall (winter) turkey extended hunting season for Zones 1-5 only will now run from November 30 - December 31, 2009. Go here for more info: http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/land/wildlife/HUNT/turkey/
Got a state we should have added here? Let us know.
[ Read Full Post ] November 15, 2009 by
Regular Strut Zone commentator “charlie elk” sent along some questions after our “Finding a Turkey Dog” post. My answers follow here:
Q. When you pick out a pup are there any indicators one should look for? Or is it the luck of the draw?
A. I tend to take bird (turkey) dogs as I choose them, then find a way to utilize their strengths and underplay their weaknesses. Again, I’m just one guy with my own experiences. Breeding is key with other sporting dogs, and it may be true with turkey dogs too — at least solid bird-dog hunting lines can help. I've seen exceptional lines prove out and others fail to live up to the promise no matter what bird dog guys hunt. I imagine this is true for many if they’re honest (and experienced); Labs, hounds, whatever.
Three of my English setters have been from New England woodcock/grouse lines — two were sired by a former National Grouse Field Trial Champion, though I also use(d) them for fall turkey hunting. As with other gun dogs, luck in your pick is a factor. If possible, try to look at the pup early (and as often as possible), then at 7 or 8 weeks old or so if the litter choices haven’t been spoken for. Take a walk with the pup through hunting cover if the owner will allow. Does the little dog key in on you? Is it confident and eager to find scent? If so, flash that checkbook ASAP! Again, all my English setters have had different hunting styles, but I've found a way to hunt autumn turkeys with them all as well (I don't train my dogs to be steady to wing or run, for instance — a factor in turkey dogging; I train them plenty otherwise). My Luna, a California girl, is a work-in-progress, but I like that. She's full of promise, and natural "prey drive." Byrne dogs, bred and trained for fall turkey hunting, are a reliable bet, but also in much demand. There’s a list of interested owners as always. Other guys have success with other breeds, even mixed (the Byrne dogs are of a setter/pointer/Plott hound line of course). I think it’s equally important that the dog handler is also a fall turkey hunter. In the end, turkey dogs find and flush the flock. If you happen to find the flock on your own, the canine flushes it under your direction. The companionship is a factor for me as moving through hunting cover with a gun dog is a pleasure.
Q. Are your dogs able to break up a flock of turkeys in an open snow-covered field? Or does the flock still have a tendency to fly off the same way together? Those birds see me coming and always leave together. Wondering if a dog is helpful with this problem?
A. Snow or no snow, field breaks are generally bad, because the turkeys do exactly as you describe: they move off together as they can see each other moving off. It’s often best to encourage the flock to ease into the woods, which they often do on their own anyway, then bust the group in as many different directions as possible, or to simply find them there in the big woods, and scatter (tougher to see their departing flockmates). Dogs can cover the distance and do that under your direction. That’s the cool thing about turkey dogging — more hunting tactics as part of the tradition we all love.
[ Read Full Post ] November 9, 2009 by
English setters and pointers (especially those that won’t hold point), Labrador retrievers, hounds such as hard-running beagles, Brittany spaniels, and even mixed breeds are capable of becoming decent turkey dogs, assuming you take the time to hunt that dog where it’ll find flocks. Boykin spaniels were bred historically in the Carolinas for turkey dogging, though ironically South Carolina offers no modern fall season, and North Carolina provides only a winter option. Still, this breed is used in other parts of the country where the tactic is legal, and is particularly effective in smaller woodlots where this short-legged canine can find and flush flocks.
Sometimes the intention is more deliberate. Bred by John Byrne and his son J.T. of Lowry, Virginia, Appalachian turkey dogs are from a pointer/setter/Plott-hound line developed specifically for fall turkey hunting. Apart from this willful breeding effort, turkey hunters can still chance at finding a cast-off dog that possesses the nose to find flocks, and the desire to flush them. Training a turkey dog — any bird-finding canine for that matter — is based on two things: showing the dog what you want it to do, and reading that animal’s natural abilities for what it might offer in the field. The marriage of these two components makes for a reliable hunting partner.
Are you a serious fall and winter turkey hunter? Do you live in or near a state that permits the strategy? Do you have locations where you can condition and train your dog in the off-season? To use your dog as a tool during the hunting season, you have to spend the rest of the year training it, and enjoying that canine's company.
Ideally a turkey dog should cast ahead, check back to your position, and find flocks. When it locates birds — either by foot, airborne scent, visual contact, or all three — the dog should run at the birds, bark to declare the flock’s position, then chase down singles, and lingering turkeys into the air. After the flush, the dog should consent to blind time as you call birds back. Concealed in a camouflage bag (a John Byrne innovation) or behind blind material or both, the dog should rest calmly as turkeys approach your position. Trying to hide the dog in the blind from the wary eyes of regrouping turkeys sometimes offsets the flushing advantage. That’s part of the challenge.
[ Read Full Post ] November 4, 2009 by
New York turkey camp was pretty much history. Handshakes, photos, and good wishes all around; many of the guys were heading off to hunt Ohio turkeys; problem is, we still had a little gas left in our tanks, Daryl and I did. And a couple New York tags to spare. A plan was hatched.
Pete had his big running male Byrne dog Clyde along. When we heard the gobbler yelping in the woods—cronk, cronk, cronk—it wasn’t long before our canine partner was on that assignment.
Barking followed, then flushing turkeys, more barking up the hill, and even beyond that. Now that the flock was separated, we’d set up at the break site to try and call them back to the guns. Mr. Clare installed Clyde in the blind. Scott Basehore did the same with his dog Jenny. Mr. Stubbs overlooked one side of the setup, and I did the other. We had it covered.
You fall gobbler hunters know a wait can be involved. They can come back gobbling and yelping after a break, even strutting. Sometimes it happens instantly; often enough not. This one took nearly two hours. Pete gobbled and Scott tagged jake yelping on the end of it. We heard one turkey fly down off near Clyde’s second round of barking; then another. We waited a bit more.
Then suddenly Basehore hissed: “Turkeys, to your left. Don’t move.” Two gobblers cruised down the incline, stalking the calls. Stubbs had the shot, a tough one. Bird down, but not out. The second poke did the job. The survivor sprinted down the far hillside.
After a fist bump or two, Daryl and Pete left while Scott and I hatched a plan. “I’m ready to wait here all day if you want,” Basehore, who had put a tag on a bird days before, offered. It was game on.
Another long sit, but I could live with it. The scene was something out of a Ned Smith painting—a gorgeous hardwood hillside in turkey heaven. My pleasure increased as Scott floated some well-timed gobbler yelps then laid on some silence. Then, from the direction the surviving gobbler ran, came yelping, coarse and steady. We both heard it. I readied myself in that direction. That was when another gobbler started yelping from above, the site of the Clyde’s third round of barking. It sounded closer. I wheeled, set up, shotgun facing that direction.
No sooner had I done that, movement up the incline, through saplings: a black body and the sight of a gobbler coming. The bird bobbed and weaved through ground cover, stalking the setup, and likely the sound of the other turkey. I picked my window of opportunity. The gobbler stepped out, looked. What a beautiful thing. I pulled the trigger. We closed the deal on the ultimate experience in the fall turkey woods.
[ Read Full Post ] November 2, 2009 by
CANDOR, NY—New York’s first modern wild turkey hunting season commenced back in the fall of 1959. Spring hunts didn’t begin until 1968. Pete Clare of Turkey Trot Acres wanted to honor that inaugural hunt 50 years later.
No blinds, decoys or as Clare says, “supersonic-hearing enhancers,” would be permitted. Vintage shotguns were highly approved of. While Realtree and Mossy Oak camouflage could be found on vests, boots, seat cushions and even guns, nostalgic retro garb was strongly encouraged.
Over the three-day hunt, 10 turkeys were taken; two hunters tagged two. Neither heavy winds, slanting rain, nor well-fed, acorn-enriched turkeys finding heavy mast edibles over widespread upstate NY hillsides and ridge tops, could keep Clare and his Team Retro from their appointed task. Credit John Byrne’s storied line of Appalachian turkey dogs—Luke, Clyde, KeeKee and Jenny, among other canines in camp—as well.
The dogs found and scattered many flocks during the recent hunt. Guides and hunters called every bird taken back to the gun. Some flocks numbered in the ‘teens, along with smaller groups of 8-10 birds. Fresh scratchings indicated that roving fall turkeys were covering the hillsides. Mid-hunt, a storm front rivaling something out of The Wizard of Oz blew through and flushed some turkeys from the woods where they could be seen in the Tioga County farm fields.
The New York autumn turkey season remains open in some areas, including those Clare hunts, until Nov. 16. For more on Turkey Trot Acres, check out: www.turkeytrotacres.com/
(Later this week, NY fall longbeards here at the Strut Zone . . .)
[ Read Full Post ]
|
|
