QUALITY, NOT QUANTITY

By Linda Gallagher

With what looks like another record Michigan spring turkey season on the horizon, you’ll find hundreds of articles out there right now in various outdoor magazines and newspapers, all advising you on what gear to wear, what calls to use, decoys to set-up, and techniques to employ to lure the wily gobbler in to your shotgun or bow. What you won’t find, unfortunately, is anything at all on what serious spring turkey hunters consider most important in their pursuit of our largest upland game bird-the quality of the hunt.

With more and more hunters trying out the fourth fastest growing hunting sport in the country every year, this year an additional 5000 or so in Michigan alone, the quality of our hunts is something that should be first and foremost in everyone’s mind-for safety’s sake, if nothing else.

So what am I talking about? The ability to head out into the turkey woods on a spectacular spring day, and enjoy a premium, one-on-one experience with only two participants (three if you hunt with a buddy)-you, and that wild turkey gobbler.

Spring turkey hunting is an American tradition, perpetrated by the likes of Tom Turpin, where a wild turkey is enticed to the hunter through the use of seductive, alluring calls, reversing nature by bringing the gobbler to the hen, a process honed to perfection through the years by scores of equally dedicated admirers of the wild turkey.

There are no other techniques for the traditionalist hunter, who probably harvests more wild turkeys than anyone else. You won’t find him hunting in areas where a dozen other hunters are also competing for that one gobbler-if he(or she as the case may be), finds someone hunting in a spot he has chosen, he moves. As more and more hunters take up the sport, you’ll find him walking increasingly further into untouched, untrodden ground that’s usually only a half mile’s walk or so away.

Note that the key word to this type of hunter is "walk". This hunter cannot even conceive of the practice, however illegal, that is increasingly tempting so many Michigan permit holders-roadhunting. Driving down little used, and in some cases, very well traveled roads, looking for gobblers strutting too close to the pavement. Often, it’a simple matter, and an overwhelming temptation, to stick the shotgun out the window, then jump out, grab the poor maligned bird, and go home regaling your family and friends about your "trophy" hunt, after creating a thrilling story to tell them.

To the traditional turkey hunter, this is not hunting in any sense of the word-it’s poaching, plain and simple. Equally abhorrent is the use of a vehicle to rodeo, or chase a flock of birds to a waiting ambush-for that matter, pushing or chasing the birds in any way is considered highly unethical.

And although this hunter may occasionally hunt private land, he doesn’t have the interest or the money to hunt private preserves-he’s usually out there on public land, just like the rest of us. Often with only one or two calls in his pocket, and many times without the aid of decoys.

Although this hunter, again, probably takes more birds than anyone, that may be because his primary reason for hunting the wild turkey is NOT to harvest a gobbler. If he really has to have a turkey, the grocery store is right down the road. It may not have quite the flavor of a wild bird, but it will feed his family just as well.

He doesn’t need a trophy gobbler to prove he’s a turkey hunter, he doesn’t need a fortune’s investment in calls, decoys, hunting clothes, or weapons, he doesn’t need the "guarantee" of a preserve or hunting guide.

The traditional turkey hunter is out there for the quality of the hunt-for the experience of a beautiful April dawn, the beauty and peace of being alone in a Michigan forest ablaze with renewal, and the ultimate challenge of matching wits with one of Mother Nature’s grandest creations. And he’ll be out there every day, regardless of the weather, even after he’s harvested his gobbler, when he may hook up with someone else, or just enjoy more hunting, without a weapon. You see, he loves being with these magnificent creatures, and whether he wins the battle or not isn’t the question at all-it’s how he plays the game.

Think about this when you head out there this spring to "play the game". Turkey hunting in Michigan is increasingly becoming a process that requires time, extreme patience, a certain amount of stamina, and more and more, experience.