Tennesee’s Wild Side Weekly Article

Turkey Time in Tennessee

Richard Simms - www.ScenicCityFishing.com/

In the words of a famous Tennessean, “It’s turkey time in Tennessee!”

Well, maybe that’s not exactly how it went, but it’s true. It really is turkey time... unless you’re a fisherman. But that’s a story for another day.

If you are a turkey hunter, you remain cloaked in camouflage, cranking up the calls, and counting your copper-plated #4 Magnums for the 12-gauge almost year-round.

“Turkey hunting is a disease. You either catch it or you don’t.”

Those are wise words from Jim Stansel, a member of the Cherokee Chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation. Stancel, from Cleveland, says he got the fever more than a decade ago, and it hasn’t cooled off yet. Like many others, Stancel caught turkey fever while he was hunting something else. “I had three turkeys walk in on me while I was deer hunting,” said Stancel. “It got me kind of excited and I decided to try hunting them.”

He hasn’t quit since.

Stancel says a decade ago Tennessee turkey hunters killed about 3,300 birds a year. Now they take ten times that many, and the number grows every year. That’s because turkey populations grow every year.

“It used to be you’d never see a turkey driving around Bradley County,” said Stancel. “Now people see them feeding in pastures all over the place.” And this is one of the first years that turkey season is open in EVERY Tennessee county.

The high visibility has lots of budding gobbler-chasers getting excited just like Stancel did years ago. But he says the extra company in the woods really hasn’t been a problem. “With so many places opening up for turkey hunting every year, the hunters are more spread out,” said Stancel. “As a matter of fact, where I hunt, I probably se fewer turkey hunters now than I used to.”

Part of that is because he hunts the rugged terrain in the Cherokee National Forest. “A lot of guys would rather hunt where they don’t have to walk so far,” said Stancel.

Of course, seeing lots of turkeys during deer season doesn’t necessarily translate into turkey dinner in the Spring. “They tend to run in big flocks during deer season,” said Stancel. “I think they’re a lot less wary in big groups. As long as I was fairly quiet, I’ve walked into the middle of flocks in the Fall. But they break up in the Spring. I think individual birds are a lot more wary.”

Stancel says he’ll get the chance to “work a bird” about one out of every three or four trips into the woods. “Working” a bird, doesn’t mean you kill it. It simply means the gobbler was acting interested in whatever you were saying.

There’s a half-billion different kinds of turkey calls... a half-million kinds of camouflage... regular decoys, and not to be outdone by the duck hunters, yes, you can now buy motorized turkey decoys which tip up and down as if they’re feeding. All the gadgets and tricks will not provide you with the “magic bullet.” Stancel says the only real secret to turkey hunting success is simply spending in the woods. “You don’t kill turkeys sitting on the couch watching a video” said Stancel.

These days you hear more and more stories of people killing turkeys in an “ambush.” That’s when you don’t call them in. They just happen to walk or feed nearby. Stancel said, “I don’t know that I’d kill a bird that didn’t gobble. Matter of fact, I had a chance to go on a winter hunt and passed it up for that reason. I just like to hear them gobble and watch them strut.”

If you want more info on turkey hunting, visit www.tnwildlife.org or www.nwtf.org.

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