Pennsylvania Game Commission officials believe the upcoming gobbler seasons will provide good to excellent hunting opportunities for the nearly quarter million hunters who are preparing to participate.
The state's one-day youth spring gobbler season is April 21; the general spring gobbler season is April 28 to May 26. In both seasons, shooting hours are one-half hour before sunrise until noon.
"Spring gobbler hunting looks promising throughout the state and should be as good, if not better than 2006, which was an excellent season," said Mary Jo Casalena, Game Commission wild turkey biologist. "The statewide harvest density was above average last year. In fact, it was the fourth best on record. It followed sub-par hunting seasons in 2005 and 2004, which were the product of consecutive years of poor reproduction.
"Last year, hens came into breeding season in good physical condition - the result of a less-demanding winter - and consequently sustained average to above-average recruitment. Those young turkeys were further supported by warm, dry weather and an abundance of food. In all, it was great medicine for reproduction and recruitment woes that had caused backsliding in some local populations.
"Overall, there will be more jakes in the statewide population than last spring, said Casalena. "There also will be more two-year-olds than last year, but not as many as in 2002-2004. There will be fewer three- to four-year-olds than the past few years."
Wildlife Conservation Officers wild turkey summer sighting survey-work documented that recruitment was slightly higher than the three-year average, just not as good as in 2000-2002, when Pennsylvania's had its largest wild turkey populations.
The preliminary spring harvest for 2006 was about 42,652 (an additional 1,496 turkeys were taken with special spring turkey licenses that provided for the taking of a second gobbler); it compares with a 2005 preliminary harvest of about 38,820. The 2006 harvest marks the first time in four consecutive years that the harvest has increased. The preliminary harvest in 2004 was 41,017; and 2003, 43,900. In 2002, the preliminary spring harvest was 44,500. The preliminary spring turkey harvest has exceeded 35,000 since 1995.
The fall harvest, however, reflects a different harvest picture. The preliminary 2006 fall turkey harvest was 21,500. That compares with 23,321 in 2005; 25,868, 2004; and 27,400, 2003.
"Fall harvests haven't been as substantial has spring harvests, partly by management design and largely because fewer people are hunting in the fall," Casalena explained. "In 2005 - the latest year for which data is available - turkey hunters recorded more hunter-days afield in the spring, about 1,038,000, than in the fall, about 685,000. The number of turkey hunters afield in the spring was about 20 percent higher than in the fall, which has seen a substantial slide in participation over the past decade.
"Wild turkey populations are in very good shape in many areas of the state, but that never means they'll be easier to find, or hunt. The first chore is to pick a general hunting area, then scout it to determine where your best chances are for calling in a gobbler. Remember, there's four weeks to hunt; it isn't nearly over if you don't take a bird on the first day. Making in-season adjustments will help you to keep it interesting."
Hunters are discouraged from using turkey calls to locate gobblers prior to the start of season, because it can educate birds and cause them to be less inclined to respond to the early-morning calls of hunters in season.
"If you're trying to locate a gobbler, it's best to head out at first light to listen for calls," Casalena advised. "Now is a great time! On a still morning, a gobbler's call often can be detected up to a half-mile away or more by a person."
Pennsylvania again offered hunters - until an April 1 deadline - a chance to take a second gobbler with a "special wild turkey license." It entitles the holder to take a second spring gobbler in any Wildlife Management Unit. The cost was $21 for residents, $41 for nonresidents. The agency issued 8,045 second spring gobbler tags in 2006. This year's unofficial total was 7,353.
Research has shown that properly timed and implemented multiple-bird spring bag limits have not caused population declines in other states, according to Casalena. To monitor hunter success, all hunters who receive the special spring gobbler license are required to submit a report, regardless of whether they harvest a second spring gobbler.
Each year, more than 240,000 hunters head afield to participate in the spring gobbler season. The season is considered a challenging affair because it requires a hunter to place himself or herself in a position within calling distance of a gobbler - preferably still roosting - and then call the bird within shooting range using a mouth, box or slate call. Since wild turkeys have keen eyesight and hearing, the slightest slipup by the hunter will send an approaching bird scurrying in the opposite direction.
"Taking a spring gobbler is quite an accomplishment, regardless of how many times a hunters succeeds," Casalena noted. "Taking a mature gobbler is even more exhilarating. However, if you twitch or your stomach grumbles at the wrong time, your prize will be making tracks in the other direction, and it won't be half-stepping! When you do succeed, though, the experience is incredibly satisfying and you can rest assured you'll never forget a millisecond of the hunt.
"Even if you don't score while turkey hunting, spring is a great time to be outdoors. The woods are coming alive with new green growth and bird songs, and just hearing a gobbler while on stand makes your spine tingle. Spring gobbler hunting is the perfect cure for the cabin fever that sets in over winter."
Hunters are reminded that it is illegal to stalk turkeys or turkey sounds in the spring gobbler season. Given the wild turkey's keen senses, it's not a wise move anyway, but more importantly, it makes a tremendous difference for the personal safety of everyone afield. Over the years, too many hunters have been shot for game while approaching a hunter calling for turkeys, and callers have been shot in mistake for game by stalking hunters.
In 2006, five hunters were shot - none fatally - by other hunters during the spring season. In all but one case, the offender failed to properly identify his target. One victim was in the line of fire, another's wounds were self-inflicted and caused by a defective sporting arm. The remaining three were mistaken for game incidents. This compares with eight non-fatal hunting-related shooting incidents in the 2005 spring gobbler season.
"Safety must be the foremost consideration of every turkey hunter," emphasized Keith Snyder, Game Commission Hunter-Trapper Education chief. "If every hunter followed the state's hunting regulations and positively identified his or her target as legal game before squeezing the trigger, hunters wouldn't be shooting other hunters. Unfortunately, it doesn't always work that way.
"The Game Commission encourages all spring gobbler hunters to hunt safely and defensively. Consider wearing fluorescent orange clothing at all times - not just while moving as required by law - and treat every sound and movement in the forest as if it is another hunter until you can positively confirm it is a legal turkey. Wait until the bird is fully and plainly visible before you pull the trigger."
Legal sporting arms are: shotguns plugged to three-shell capacity in the chamber and magazine combined; muzzleloading shotguns; and crossbows and bows with broadhead bolts and arrows of cutting-edge design.
Shot size can be no larger than No. 4 lead, bismuth-tin and tungsten-iron, or No. 2 steel. Rifle-shotgun combinations also may be used, but no single-projectile ammunition may be used or carried.
Carrying or using rifles, handguns, dogs, electronic callers, drives and live decoys is unlawful. The use of blinds is legal so long as it is an "artificial or manufactured turkey blind consisting of all manmade materials of sufficient density to block the detection of movement within the blind from an observer located outside the blind."
Hunters are required to wear a minimum of 100 square inches of fluorescent orange material on the head (a hat) when moving through the woods. The orange may be removed when a hunter reaches his or her calling destination. While not required by law, agency officials recommend that hunters wrap an orange alert band around a nearby tree when stationary, especially when calling and/or using decoys.
Coyotes may be harvested by turkey hunters. However, turkey hunters who have filled their spring turkey tag or tags may not hunt coyotes prior to noon Monday through Saturday during the spring gobbler season. Woodchuck hunting is not allowed during spring gobbler season shooting hours.
Successful spring gobbler hunters must properly tag harvested turkeys and report their harvests to the Game Commission within 10 days, using the postage-paid report card provided when they purchased their hunting license. Hunters are reminded that if they can't find one of the harvest report cards that came with their license, they can tear out and use the harvest report card found on page 33 of the 2006-2007 Pennsylvania Digest of Hunting and Trapping Regulations.
Junior hunters who participate in the youth spring gobbler season are required to have a junior hunting license. Juniors under 16 years of age must be accompanied by an adult, who cannot carry a sporting arm. Accompanying adults may only provide guidance, such as calling or scouting. All other hunting regulations are the same as those for the general spring gobbler season, including the hunting hours of one-half hour before sunrise until noon and only bearded turkeys may be taken.
And, for the first-time ever, those youth under the age of 12 years are able to take advantage of the Game Commission's new Mentored Youth Hunting Program, and hunt with a mentor during either the one-day youth only season or the general spring gobbler season. Mentored youth do not need a hunting license or permit, but must be accompanied by a mentor who is a properly licensed adult at least 21 years of age. (For more information on this opportunity, please see the next article, titled "SPRING GOBBLER MENTORED YOUTH HUNTS," in this news release.)