TURKEy HUNTING on - Alabama Department of Conservation and ...

Alabama has 27 Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs)
with huntable turkey populations, as well as National Forest
lands, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers property, and other
government-owned lands.
For those willing to make the effort, those public lands
can hold some of the best turkey hunting Alabama has to offer.
According to Larry Norton of Butler, a two-time World
Champion turkey caller, the key word is effort.
“There is some great turkey hunting on public land in
Alabama if you want to get out and do some scouting, do
some walking, get some exercise, get away from the roads
where you’ve got easy access,” said Norton, who has hunted
public land from Alabama to South Dakota. “The best thing
to do is look at the map and find one of the toughest places
to get to. You’ll probably find a bunch of birds that haven’t
been called to.”
by david rainer, Staff Writer
Turkey hunTing on
Public
lands
Increase huntIng success by doIng
your homework beforehand
When it comes to chasing the Eastern subspecies of wild turkey, hunting
in Alabama provides one of the most challenging and rewarding
experiences possible. When it comes to hunting turkeys on public land,
the “challenging” aspect of the hunt gets kicked up a notch.
Internet Is A Good resource
When Norton is not familiar with the public land he’s preparing
to hunt, the first thing he does is get on the Internet
and start searching for information and feedback from hunters
on the different areas.
“The Internet is the best thing that’s happened to people
hunting public land,” he said. “Wherever we go, we call the
DNRs and get the maps for the public land. Then we look at
the geographical structure. You’ve got to do a lot of homework.
Hunting public land in Alabama is the same. You
can pretty much find it all on the Internet (www.outdooralabama.com).”
Steve Barnett of the Alabama Department of Conservation
and Natural Resources’ Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries
Division echoed Norton assessment of gaining as much
information as possible before the season begins.
www.outdooralabama.com 7

“Public land hunters really need to
do their homework on preseason scouting
and getting out on the management
areas a couple of weeks before the start
of the season,” said Barnett, who teamed
up with his wife, Victoria, to write The
Wild Turkey in Alabama. “They can drive
along the management area roads and
stop at high points and listen for gobbling
turkeys at daylight. Hunters can
use a GPS to take waypoints to pinpoint
turkeys for opening day. That doesn’t
mean the turkey is going to roost in the
same place every day, but it gives hunters
a starting point.
“Use Google Earth, topo maps and
become familiar with the terrain and any
obstacles that you may encounter when
trying to set up on a turkey. That’s part
of knowing the lay of the land or woodsmanship
skills. So it really means more
than riding the roads, it means getting
out into the woods. I don’t mean going
out and bumping a turkey, but find out
what kind of habitat he’s using for roost
8 OutdOOr AlAbAmA | APRIL 2011
areas and strutting zones. It might be
wildlife openings or just a natural opening
in the woods. We’ve got habitat that
ranges from the Appalachian Mountains
to the Mobile-Tensaw Delta. The turkey
activity on those different habitat types
can go from turkeys scratching around
the mountains for acorns in the early
spring to, down here in the Delta, turkeys
walking mud flats looking for crawfish.”
AlAbAmA’s PublIc lAnds
Barnett said anyone interested in
hunting Alabama WMAs can get in touch
with the wildlife biologist assigned to
the area to get more specific information
on hunting pressure, turkey populations
and habitat types. Follow the hunting
link on outdooralabama.com to find general
public hunting information, WMA
maps and contact information for the
area biologists.
When a hunter is trying to decide
where to pursue a wily gobbler on public
land, Barnett said there are a couple of
two-time World
Champion turkey
caller larry Norton
of butler.
ways to assess the land available.
“If you can kill a turkey in 10 or less
days of hunting, that’s pretty good turkey
hunting,” he said. The WMAs that met
that threshold of 10 man-days or less to
take a turkey in 2010 included: Barbour
County at 9.1 days, Choccolocco at 5.0,
Geneva State Forest at 10.0, Lowndes at
8.6, Oakmulgee at 9.4, Perdido River at
9.0, Upper Delta at 5.7 and Wolf Creek
at 10.0.”
Meanwhile, the harvest data from the
2010 season shows the highest total number
of birds taken came from Oakmulgee
at 85, Sam Murphy and Blue Spring at 80
each, Black Warrior at 70, Freedom Hills
at 57 and Barbour County at 55.
“Now to get the best of both worlds,
some of those – Barbour, Choccolocco
and Oakmulgee – fell into both categories,”
Barnett said.
Several of Alabama’s WMAs are
located within National Forests – Bankhead,
Talladega and Oakmulgee divisions
of Talladega National Forest, Tuskegee
and Conecuh. Barnett points out that all
WMA turkey hunts must end by 1 p.m.
For National Forest lands that are not
inside a WMA boundary, hunting is allowed
all day.
Barnett said hunting pressure on those
27 WMAs can vary widely during the
season, although almost all of them with
decent turkey populations will be heavily
utilized during the first few weeks of
the season.

AlAbAmA WIldlIfe mAnAGement
AreAs WIth turkey huntInG seAsons
LAMAR
PICKENS
SUMTER
CHOCTAW
WASHINGTON
MOBILE
11
8
14
LAUDERDALE
COLBERT
LIMESTONE
LAWRENCE
FRANKLIN MORGAN
MARION
GREENE
17
22
25
21
9
FAYETTE
WINSTON
TUSCALOOSA
HALE
MARENGO
23
7
CLARKE
BALDWIN
20
26
2
19
WALKER
18
PERRY
WILCOX
MONROE
BIBB
DALLAS
ESCAMBIA
CULLMAN
JEFFERSON
4
CONECUH
MADISON
BLOUNT
SHELBY
CHILTON
AUTAUGA
16
LOWNDES
BUTLER
MARSHALL
JACKSON
ETOWAH
DE KALB
ST CLAIR CALHOUN
TALLADEGA
COOSA
ELMORE
MONTGOMERY
CRENSHAW
COVINGTON
3
24
6
13
10
12
PIKE
CLAY
CHEROKEE
RANDOLPH
TALLAPOOSA CHAMBERS
27
COFFEE
MACON
BULLOCK
GENEVA
15
5
CLEBURNE
DALE
LEE
1
BARBOUR
RUSSELL
HENRY
HOUSTON
Find more information on all of the
Alabama Wildlife Management Areas at
www.outdooralabama.com/hunting/wildlife-areas
WHErE tO GO GEt
YOur GObblEr!
WILDLIFE
MANAGEMENT
AREAS
1 Barbour
2 Black Warrior
3 Blue Spring
4 William R. Ireland Sr.
(Cahaba River)
5 Choccolocco
6 Coosa
7 David K. Nelson
(Demopolis)
8 Frank W. & Rob Boykin
9 Freedom Hills
10 Geneva State Forest
11 Grand Bay Savanna
12 Hollins
13 James D.
Martin-Skyline
14 Lauderdale
15 Little River
16 Lowndes
17 Mobile Tensaw-Delta
& W.L. Holland
18 Mulberry Fork
19 Oakmulgee
20 Perdido River
21 Riverton
22 Sam R. Murphy
23 Scotch
24 St. Clair
25 Upper Delta
26 Wolf Creek
27 Yates Lake West
www.outdooralabama.com 9

“You can’t just avoid the weekends during
the early season,” he said. “You’re still
going to be dealing with a lot of hunters
for the first few weeks. After a few weeks, it
drops off considerably on some of the areas,
especially during the week. Then there are
some areas with heavy hunting pressure
from opening day to the end of the season
– areas like Oakmulgee and Blue Spring.”
While most people think of public land
in terms of WMAs, Norton said the tracts
of land under Corps of Engineers control
are located alongside the Alabama River
and Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway and
can be some of the best hunting around.
However, regulations for each tract must
be checked to see what type hunting and
weapons are allowed. A good portion of the
Corps land is bowhunting only.
“The thing about hunting Corps land
is most of the time you’re going to have to
have a boat,” Norton said. “Second, when
you’re hunting WMA land, most of it is
walking. You’re either going to have a bicycle
or you’re going to be hoofing it. And
some of your better hunting land, especially
on the National Forest lands, is way back
up in there, because most people won’t go
to the effort to walk that far or invest in a
good mountain bike to ride that far. That’s
what turkey hunting is about anyway – getting
your exercise. You’ve got to get far back
enough to where you don’t see yelp tracks.
You know what those are – where somebody
has been walking and yelping.
chAnGe tActIcs
Norton also changes up his hunting
tactics when on public land, especially on
land where there’s evidence of lots of human
activity. “When I see traffic, where I
know people have been hunting, I’ll pretty
much stay away from box calls and slate
calls because that’s pretty much what everybody
is using,” he said. “I try to have several
different mouth calls that sound a little different.
I’ll use a push-button call. That’s a
call most people don’t like to use because it
doesn’t sound good to them. But, if you’re
in the woods 100 yards away from it, it
sounds like a turkey. Try to find a few calls
that people don’t normally use when you’re
10 OutdOOr AlAbAmA | APRIL 2011
hunting public land, like a tube call.
“To a certain extent, they will get call
shy. But turkey hunting is turkey hunting.
You’ve got to feel one out. If you start
calling a little aggressive and the hens
start cranking up around him, you’d better
calm down. That’s the rule of thumb
anywhere you’re hunting – public land or
private land.”
As any turkey hunter who has fooled
with an ornery gobbler for several hunts
knows, sometimes it takes a different approach
to make any headway.
“One suggestion is that if you’re going
to hunt close to access roads, don’t go off
that road straight to that gobbling turkey,”
Norton said. “When you go to him, go
to his left or his right, or even circle all
the way around behind him. Because 95
percent – no, 100 percent – of the people
will walk straight to him and he’s probably
been yelped to dozens of time from
that position.”
Barnett also suggests that hunters on
public land be conservative with their calling
methods. “Hunting pressure definitely
impacts how a person sets up on a turkey,”
Barnett said. “Hunting pressure can affect
gobbler behavior. I think it tends to make
them gobble less at times and be call shy.
So a public land hunter is probably better
off calling less, for the most part. A private
land hunter can get after a turkey that hasn’t
been hunted much and can call a lot.
“You can gauge a turkey’s temperature
by how much he gobbles. If he gobbles a
lot on the roost and flies down and gobbles
a lot, you can probably call a fair amount.
If he doesn’t gobble much on the roost or
after he flies down, you may want to tone
it down. You have to gauge how much you
call and how loud you call. Every gobbler
is different. As a general rule, you call less
on public land. It might be a good idea
to avoid calling at all while they’re on the
roost. My own experience is it’s best to wait
until he flies down to start calling. You can
gauge his temperature then.”
sAfety fIrst
Probably the main difference between
hunting turkeys on private land versus
public land is the number of hunters in a
certain area. Whereas private clubs restrict
hunters to areas they’ve signed out for,
there is no such restriction on public land.
“You have to be cognizant of other hunters
in the area on private or public land,”
Barnett said. “You may not be the only person
going to a gobbling turkey and setting
up on a gobbling turkey. In terms of hunting
safety, maintain a mindset that there
may be other hunters chasing the same
turkey you are.”
Norton also emphasizes the safety
aspect of hunting turkeys, especially on
public land, because there’s really no way
to determine how many people are in the
woods with you.
“The main thing about hunting public
land is being careful,” Norton said. “I recommend
using that hunter orange flap on
your vest when you’re walking to a turkey.
Or after you’ve fooled with one, wear it
back to the truck. Heck, wear your deer hat
and stick it back in your vest. You know
where the bird is; wear the orange hat until
you get within a couple of hundred yards
from the bird.
“Be sure you don’t have anything on
with white, blue or red in it, and dark colors,
too – real black colors. The regular
army fatigues with black is what I’m talking
about. An old gobbler is black. When
you blend that black in with some foliage,
it can be hard to tell. The reason I say that,
I watched a buddy of mine one day and
would have sworn up and down he was a
strutting turkey until he finally stood up. It
was that black in those army fatigues.”
Norton said there’s no turkey in the
world that is worth you getting shot or
injured. “When you go to a turkey and you
hear somebody call to him, back away,” he
said. “Don’t fight over him. There’s another
day. Go find another one. Somebody’s already
beat you there. Be courteous enough
to let him fool with that turkey.”

1. Leave the area if you suspect there’s
another hunter already working the
same bird.
2. Resist the urge to stalk turkey sounds.
It is nearly impossible to sneak up on
a turkey. It is also unethical and could
lead to an accident.
3. Select a spot that is in open timber
rather than thick brush: wearing
camouflage clothing and eliminating
movement is more critical to success
than hiding in heavy cover.
4. Sit against a large stump, blow-down,
tree trunk or rock that is wider than
your shoulders and higher than your
head when calling wild turkeys.
5. Never wear bright colors, especially
not red, white, blue or black
because these are the colors of a wild
turkey gobbler. Watch out for red,
white or blue on your socks, t-shirts,
hooded sweatshirts, hats, bandannas,
etc. Wear dark undershirts and
socks, and pants long enough to be
tucked into boots.
SAFEtY FIrSt!
Safety is a key element when you’re in the woods mimicking the sounds of
wild turkeys. A safe turkey hunter is much like a safe driver – you must be
defensive minded. Also, keep in mind that a safe hunter is an effective hunter.
Here are 10 tips to consider when you’re in the woods:
6. Remain still and speak in a loud,
clear voice to announce your presence
to other hunters if necessary.
Never move, wave or make turkey
sounds to alert another hunter of
your presence.
7. Keep your hands and head camouflaged
when calling.
8. Maintain a clear field of view when
using a camouflage blind or netting.
9. Ensure your decoy is not visible when
you are transporting it. Stash the
decoy in your vest and make sure
the head is not sticking out. If you
harvest a wild turkey during your
hunting trip, you also should cover
the bird’s head and body when carrying
it out from your hunting spot.
10. Put your gun’s safety on and
approach the downed bird with your
firearm pointed in a safe direction
after firing. Never run with a firearm.
Courtesy of the National Wild Turkey Federation
www.outdooralabama.com 11