Attention - Turkey Season begins in the Lowcountry

A turkey harvest from 2012

Pre-season scouting is now complete, with wild turkey hunting season beginning at dawn on March 15 – be there or be square. Although March came in like a lamb, cooler temperatures have continued, which bodes well for hunting in March. With a wet month of February, mosquitoes will be present with warmer weather. Insects and migratory songbirds are just part of the sights and sounds of spring, which are punctuated by the strutting and gobbling of wild turkeys. With the cooler temperatures, it seems that the larger flocks of turkeys have yet to break up. With the onset of mating season the gobblers will break off into bachelor groups. For instance, during the mild winter of 2012, this automatic split up and ranking of the top gobblers and hens was already underway. Until the flocks disperse, hunters can expect to see multiple turkeys when hunting, including jakes, hens and gobblers. Making memories of positive experiences in the turkey woods is what it’s all about and one favorite story involves roosting three gobblers before the opening day of the 2004 season. Those three longbeards decided to roost in the trees right alongside me, and I ended up face down in the dirt and throwing a sufficient number of fallen leaves over me to blend in until I could execute a stealthy escape from the woods at HARD dark. My father and I harvested an opening day gobbler that year, but the heart-pounding close call on the eve of that season is the sporting memory that sticks with me.

To read the rest of this feature article click on Colletonian.

To view past blog entries about hunting wild turkeys click here.