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CLOUDY Temp: 45 °F Wind: N at 4 mph Monday, April 21, 2003 SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA HomeLife Magazine W3 Magazine Jobs @ Mail Tribune Tempo A & E Oregon CarZone Wellness Connection Real Estate Newspaper in Education Prime Times Outdoor Journal Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find Everything E SOUTHERN OREGON Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar ABOUT US FAQ What's New Advertise Home Delivery Classified Ad Contact Us Media Kit Email Story to a Friend April 10, 2003 Hunters gearing up for the start of turkey season By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune Don Turcke is a Medford physician who gets his kicks out of matching wits with a bird whose brain is the size of a peanut. But don’t call him bird-brained by any means. For Turcke, imitating the calls of a wild turkey well enough to lure it into shotgun range without being detected elevates hunting into part chess, part stealth and part art — whether he takes a shot or not. "It’s a thinking man’s game, not like just sitting there waiting for a deer to walk by," says Turcke, 66, of Medford. "You need to go through all your bag of tricks sometimes to call him in." The bag of tricks opens Tuesday for thousands of Oregonians who make the spring turkey season a growing success statewide. The traditional tax-day opener typically is the most successful and most well-attended day of the season because the first chance to coax a big tom turkey into a shotgunner's range is often the best. The statewide spring season runs through May 31, and the season no longer is a limited-entry affair. In fact, tags may be bought until the season is over. The April 15 date was chosen because it's a point in spring when most of the hens have either mated and nested or are about to nest. At this time, hunters still can take advantage of the sex-crazed toms without thinning their numbers enough to hamper spring mating. The statewide limit remains one male turkey a day and two for the season. However, hunters may opt for a bonus tag to kill a third turkey while hunting in the 10 most turkey-laden counties, Jackson now included. In previous seasons, the bonus tag could be used in just Douglas, Coos, Curry and Josephine counties. Everything from shotguns to muzzleloaders to bows are used to hunt turkeys. It’s a sport that is expanding as fast as the turkey population. The season in 1989 sported 2,600 hunters shooting 313 birds. Ten years later, the number of hunters more than tripled and the harvest hovered around 2,500 birds statewide. But nothing tops last year, when the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife sold about 33,500 turkey tags, with 13,072 hunters eventually spending 55,681 days in the field to kill 3,699 turkeys. All those numbers are state records. Indications are that 2003 could be a repeat. Southwest Oregon had a good hatch two years ago, which has led to the strong population of adult birds. There was an above-average hatch last year and a fair number of jakes for this hunting season, says Steve Denney, the ODFW’s southwest region manager in Roseburg. Despite the high harvest last year, there also remains a good carryover of gobblers from 2002, Denney says. While the birds and the interest are here, hunter success will remain hinged on the X-factor. Denney says the weather will be a driving factor on hunter success, with calm and warm mornings the best times when turkey calls lure in the birds. There also is a strong contingent of gobblers in the northeast areas of the state, such as the Ochoco Mountains east of Prineville. Most turkey flocks statewide are found on private land, with the highest densities in the Melrose wildlife management unit around Roseburg and in Jackson County. Last year, the Melrose, Rogue, Applegate and Dixon units accounted for 1,448 bagged turkeys, almost 40 percent of the statewide harvest. Just one of those turkeys carried Turcke’s name on it last year. But he used his bag of tricks — a series of turkey calls, good camouflage clothing and 25 years of turkey-hunting experience — to lure in birds for three other hunters during separate mornings in the woods. Turcke now spends much of his turkey-hunting outside of Oregon, traveling to most Western states in pursuit of their version of the wily tom. Regardless of which state, the birds have many things in common, particularly their instincts. "They’re not a thinking bird, but they have tremendous instincts," Turcke says. "They need them to survive." But lately, turkey flocks are starting to show up in rural-residential neighborhoods and live almost like pets in some locales where people actively feed them. Turcke calls these turkeys "welfare birds," but they can be just as wary of hunters as the real McCoys. Turcke recalls an incident in the China Gulch area where he and a fellow hunter were invited to bow-hunt for turkeys on the property of a woman who reported heavy damage from the turkeys, which she wanted gone. When the men pulled up in camouflage clothing and stepped out of their truck, "the birds saw two guys in camo and took off," Turcke says. "The lady called that night and said how great that they were all gone and asked how many we shot. But we didn’t shoot any." Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] Printer Friendly Version Email Story to a Friend Subscribe Archive: Click to Search M Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2003 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy Website Feedback A D V E R T I S E R S