Archive for Turkey

Archery Hunting Wild Turkey

Have you ever considered bow hunting Wild Turkey? It is said that Wild turkeys are not the smartest or the fastest animals, though I beg to differ. Wild Turkeys are easy to track and believed to be non-intelligent! Having said that, bow hunting Wild Turkeys makes for a more challenging hunt than harvesting them with a Shotgun.

Bow hunting has been around for centuries and one of the many benefits to bow hunting is that you get to use the equipment over and over again. Imagine no more need to purchase shot-shells. In addition, the bonus of reusing an arrow and broad-head makes you “Eco-friendly” thereby avoiding the use of potentially toxic lead shot that the Environmentalists are so adamant about reducing in natural environments.

When stalking Wild Turkeys, the hunter must make every attempt at being quiet. Wild turkeys are easily spooked. However, they tend to be easily brought into the Archer’s bow range using an assortment of Wild Turkey calls. Turkeys tend to lack the sense of smell that other animals possess, so staying downwind is nonessential in hunting this type of game bird. Turkeys rely heavily on sight. They have heads that can rotate 180 degrees and can easily pick up movement and color.

Camouflage is mandatory when hunting Wild Turkeys. There are many options for concealment available to the turkey hunter nowadays. It is recommended that the Wild Turkey hunter be dressed from head-to-toe in camouflage that matches the surrounding environment. I personally use Realtree AP camouflage when bird hunting as I routinely sit at the base of trees and find this pattern to naturally break-up my body-shape and blend into the tree very well. Other hunters choose to hunt from a blind. Many blinds are available today in a multitude of patterns and designs and many have shoot-through materials that maintain your concealment throughout the shot. Remember, proper concealment is a must to “bag” that trophy bird.

The Archer will need to practice considerably in order to make an ethical harvest of the animal. You may very well need to draw your bow and maintain that “drawn” posture for several minutes while the bird moves to within your bows effective range. It is essential that this action be completed with as little movement as possible to avoid “spooking” the turkey.

Bow hunting for wild turkeys can be a very fun and rewarding way to break from the normal gun and ammunition style of hunting. Wild Turkeys are not the most elusive creatures. They respond more to sight and sound than they do smell. Remember, a hunter must master his bow, camouflage, and turkey calls to attract a prize turkey to within his/her shooting distance.

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Categories : Archery, Hunting, Turkey

Do you know your tracks?

How well do you know the tracks left behind by the species you covet? Check out the article by “Kevin Wilson – Author and freelance outdoors writer and professional big game & waterfowl guide/outfitter from Alberta, Canada”.

Read it!

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Categories : Antelope, Bear, Black Bear, Brown Bear, Coyote, Deer, Elk, Hunting, Mule Deer, Predators, Pronghorn, Turkey, Whitetail Deer, Wolf

Getting Your Wild Turkey Dressed For Dinner

Turkey hunting is a demanding sport with many variations .  You have the have the will to sit out in the wildness in all kinds of weather for hours on end, often without flinching .  You have to have the dexterity to properly operate turkey calls so that they replicate all the yelps, coos, and grunts of real turkeys .  You have to have keen eyes and sturdy hands to get your shot off.  Finally , you have to have a strong stomach so that you can properly field dress your game .

Field dressing guarantees that your meat won’t go bad before you can get it home and correctly clean the wild turkey .  However, if your turkey is going to be taxidermed for show rather than stuffed for the lunch table, do not field dress the turkey .  For the purposes of this article , however, we will decide that you want to eventually eat your turkey .

After you have killed your turkey , you need to take out the guts and organs.  It makes the meat to cool faster , and therefore halts the growth of bacteria.  It also keeps any gut “juice” from spoiling the meat.  It is important that you only sever the dermis of the turkey and don’t puncture any organs, or your work may all have been worthless .

Start out by making a shallow incision from the chest bone to the anus of the game bird .  Then remove the heart and lungs and any other entrails that you can see.  Carefully cut around the rectum and take out the guts .  This is where you need to be the most careful , as the contents of the entrails can easily spoil your meat.  Finally , you need to make a cut in the neck of the turkey to take out the crop, a stomach like sac with half digested food .  Clean up the inside of the wild turkey with cool water and then keep it clear of insects and debris until you get it home for proper cleaning and dressing.

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Categories : Hunting, Turkey
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Wild Turkey: The Hunt Continues

Wild turkey hunting is a passionate American tradition.  These game birds are found throughout the continental United States , all the way from Canada to Texas and everywhere else in between.  They can be found in forests , fields, and bushy land.  The first settlers on the continent found enormous flocks of wild turkey everywhere they went.  Unregulated hunting soon depleted the numbers of these amazing animals , and like so many other forms of wild animal , turkeys were almost hunted to extinction .  However, turkeys have made such a comeback that now there are two regulated hunting seasons in nearly every state in the United States .

Turkey hunting starts in the early spring and the late fall and it is almost always restricted to Jakes and Toms .  Every state has different hunting seasons, and often specific regulations vary from township to township .  So , if you are thinking about going wild turkey hunting, you should check with your local DNR to see not only the times of your seasons, but also your regulations and bag limits .  Some places will only allow you kill one turkey per season, while other places may allow two or three.  If you try to hunt without a license or break any hunting regulations you can be severely fined or even placed in jail .

Once you obtain your license, you’ll need a few items of equipment to successfully hunt the wild turkey .  First of all, you need to be properly attired for the weather.  You also need to be cleverly camouflaged, as turkeys have very penetrating eyesight and can even see in color .  You will then need to get a good appropriate and legal bow or shotgun as well as the proper ammunition.  probably , the most important thing that you need to hunt the wild turkey is a collection of turkey calls.  You lure the turkey in , and there is no more effective way to do that than with calls.

Lastly , after your hunt is done , you need to preserve your turkey , either mounting or through field dressing.  Just be sure that you register your prize with the local law officials so they can keep an reliable count of all the wild turkeys in the field.

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