Talking about turkey hunting

Spring turkey hunting season in Oklahoma opens in less than a month.

It opens April 6 and it runs through May 6 statewide except for several counties in the southeastern portion of the state. In the eight-county Southeast Region, it opens April 20 and closes May 6.

I never hunted wild turkey when I was a kid. Dad just wasn’t interested. He didn’t even talk about it when I was growing up and I don’t think there were many turkeys in Oklahoma during those years.

He focused, so I did as well, his attention on doves in September, ducks in the fall that later gave way to quail hunting beginning when I was about 12. We hunted pheasant some in the fall, but not often, though dad and I did manage a couple trips to the panhandle, and one time each to Kansas and South Dakota.

In all the times throughout the years when we were out in the woods hunting doves, ducks, quail, and other wildlife, I don’t recall coming across wild turkeys.

It wasn’t until I was a young adult that I remember even seeing them.

I bagged my first gobbler in 1985, about three years before my dadpassed away. I was hunting north of Slapout in the Panhandle near the Beaver River. It was a young Jake.

I haven’t missed many turkey seasons since, usually hunting fall and spring. I didn’t have the chance to hunt last spring, however.

The one I had mounted and is in our house, much to the chagrin of my wonderful wife Pat, I bagged in the Spring of 1990. It weighed 21½ pounds, had an 8½-inch beard and had 1-inch spurs.

The guy I was hunting with that day, who grew up and lives out in that area, called up the gobbler within about 20 yards and I downed it with one shot.

To me, the wild turkey is the most elusive game bird I’ve ever hunted. I thought that ducks were hard to hunt and they are, but nothing like turkeys. They just have a way most ofthe time sensing any kind of movement.

I’ve done most all of my turkey hunting with my good friend Steve Buoy of Meeker. We’ve been hunting doves, quail, turkeys and deer for more than 30 years.

We’ve been on a lot of out the years. I’ve really beenprivileged to hunt with him all this time. I enjoy hunting quail and turkeys the most anymore, though I like being out hunting most anytime.

I’ve actually bagged several turkeys larger than the one I had mounted back in 1990.

I kept their beards, but I’m wise enough to know one of those in our house is all my wife will dare tolerate.

Steve and I are planning to go out early in the spring season next month.