Gobblers Hit the Ground Runnin’
From the first gobbles off the roost until the last minutes of daylight spring turkeys are out in full force.
Story and Photography by Nate Skinner
Spring turkeys are a lot like attendees of a high school prom. There’s drama and emotion, not to mention the testosterone and ego is through the roof as far as the male behavior goes. By April the turkey breeding season is in full swing. With the excellent recent hatches hunters can expect to find hoards of Rios strutting, drumming, and doing their spring thing along the fields, hills, and brush laden bottoms of the Lone Star State.
As the grasses and trees turn green, and wild flowers bloom tons of jakes with some seasoned mature Toms mixed in will be pursued by hens desiring to mate from sun up to sundown. Like a group of teenage jocks, these gangs of jakes will galavant around trying to stake their claim on territories where hens frequent, while mature gobblers will fend them off when the time is right and choose a receptive hen to continue their biological legacy. Hunters willing to hit the ground running and get out amongst the madness unfolding within the woods will have the best shot at harvesting a long beard with a set of trophy spurs.
Before beginning their ground assault for a mature gobbler, hunters must first know where to start. Texas Outdoors Journal’s founder/publisher/editor, Bill L. Olson, has been running and gunning after spring turkeys for over forty years and suggests using shock or locator calls to find where a concentration of birds are located.
