Doing so tends to regularly finalize matters during the moment of truth.
My longest kill-shot ever, with any shotgun, is 32 yards, with the rest of the gobblers being taken at 30 yards or less. Although this shotgun and load can reach out a tad farther, I have always used a “30-yard rule” when turkey hunting, and I dearly enjoy the challenge of calling wily spring gobblers in as close as possible before touching the trigger.
On my shooting range, my Model 97 did a dandy job patterning 2 ¾-inch copper-plated lead number fives (actually my favorite pheasant load, too). I also wished to do the hunt with a vintage shotgun I had acquired a couple years ago, a 12-gauge Winchester Model 97 which features a butter-smooth pump-action and a very tight-patterning full-choked 30-inch barrel.
#Gobblers farm jigsaw puzzle license#
I purchased a “ZZ” turkey license which would allow me to hunt from April 17 through the whole month of May, allowing six weeks to accomplish my goal. Of course, where there are nesting hens, gobblers won’t be far away, and my goal this spring was to bag a “homegrown gobbler” on my farm, the first ever, or bust. Turkey chicks, just like pheasant chicks, require a high protein diet which the insects provide. I’m certain that besides the cover, the available insects which turkey hens require when rearing broods of chicks, are a key attractant. I began noticing that hen turkeys appreciated nesting near, and even in, my prairie grass fields several years ago. My main focus is in providing proper habitat for wild pheasants, which overall has proven to help all wildlife on my property including songbirds, deer, waterfowl, insects and even wild turkeys. The vast majority of my family farm is in the Conservation Reserve Program and features prairie grass core areas surrounded by evergreen shelterbelts, and even includes a couple ponds. The fact that you can easily purchase a spring turkey hunting license over the counter or online for hunting in the Thumb today speaks volumes. Since the hunting only targeted surplus male turkeys, it did not curtail the steadily expanding bird numbers in any way. The end result was successfully creating a thriving wild turkey population that was able to sustain limited spring hunting by the early 1990s. The birds would quickly adapt and thrive in their new home, and as their numbers increased, the MDNR would live-trap some and transplant them to various suitable areas in the Thumb. The turkeys had been live-trapped in Iowa, for which the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) had traded live-trapped ruffed grouse, with some major funding provided by the National Wild Turkey Federation. I can readily remember witnessing the first release of wild turkeys in the Thumb during the mid-1980s, which took place in Huron County.
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