Outdoors With Mat Taylor
Plenty of turkey action predicted

Rio Grande spring turkey hunting season opens Saturday in the North Zone, which includes Lampasas and surrounding counties. The season runs through May 11.

In the South Zone, the spring season opened last Saturday and will continue through April 27.

A special youth-only season is May 17-18 in the North Zone and May 3-4 in the South Zone. Check the Texas Parks and Wildlife Outdoor Annual for hunting information in each county.

Field reports from TPWD biologists indicate turkey hunters should get plenty of calling action this spring. Those reports show an abundance of Rio Grande gobblers.

"I have been getting reports from many of our field biologists, and they all agree this is going to be a good season in Rio Grande country due to the 2007 spring and fall rains and mild temperatures," said Jason Hardin, TPWD turkey program coordinator.

"Some of the guys mentioned last year seeing new poults as late as August. That probably means these birds had ample opportunity to re-nest two to three times over the summer. So there should be lots of jakes seen, making it a fun year to call in lots of birds."

Sometimes TPWD predictions are overly optimistic, I believe. Turkey hunting is a lot like the white bass fishing I mentioned in a previous column: There is either a lot of activity or none at all.

Luck is involved in pursuing a gobbler. If there are no birds in the area, the best turkey callers in the world will go home empty handed.

As an example from our family ranch, some years we see a lot of turkeys and some years none at all. In the last 12 months, I have seen only one small flock on our property.

Although turkey hunting is not as popular as deer hunting, TPWD harvest surveys estimate nearly 88,000 residents participate in Texas' spring turkey season and take about 23,000 gobblers. Most activity occurs in South Texas and in the Hill Country, where Hardin said timely rains could give bird populations a boost.

Many areas of the state have been extremely dry, and rain would help give herbaceous plants additional growth.

Dedicated spring turkey hunters take to the field dressed in full camouflage, armed with a 12- gauge shotgun loaded with magnum loads. They try to call up a gobbler with a variety of turkey calls.

Although looked down upon by devoted turkey hunters, statewide regulations allow the use of rifles, handguns, legal archery equipment and crossbows to take Rio Grande turkeys. Individual landowners and public hunting areas, however, may restrict turkey hunting to shotguns only.

Bag limit for Rio Grande turkey is four per license year. Regulations and bag limits vary by county, so check the rules where you hunt. Only gobblers are allowed to be harvested during the spring season.

There are five species of turkeys. In addition to Rio Grande are the Eastern, Merriam, Osceola and Gould. Osceola wild turkeys are found only in Florida.

Forty-three Texas counties have an Eastern turkey season from April 1-30. Eastern turkey hunting is limited to shotgun, archery equipment or crossbow, with a one-gobbler bag limit.

Small pockets of Merriam turkeys can be found in some of the high-mountain areas of far West Texas. There is no season for these birds.

I have bagged several Rio Grande turkeys in the past. All were taken during the fall hunting

during the fall hunting season using a 22-rimfire-magnum rifle.

At my age, I do not plan to hunt again the bird that in the 1770s fell one congressional vote short of becoming our national symbol.

I have done some calling during previous spring seasons using a cedar box call and have lured some gobblers within shotgun range. It was for fun, however, and not to kill one.

I now let younger hunters pursue the turkeys. From past experience, I have learned that once you kill a turkey the fun is over, and cleaning the bird is not a pleasant task.

Former Soil Conservation Service employee and longtime writer Mat Taylor offers his outdoors column for Dispatch Record readers. He can be contacted at (254) 518-2262 or via email at mntaylor@agristar.net.