Playing The Gobbler Game: Fall Turkey Hunt Preview

The following appears in the November issue of California Sportsman:

By Cal Kellogg

It was probably the fall of 1974 or ’75 when I was around 7 years old, but I remember the day vividly.

Even at that young age, I was an avid outdoorsman who accompanied my dad and Uncle Bob on frequent hunting and fishing adventures.

I’d heard the grown-ups talk about California’s wild turkeys with fascination, as if they were pondering something as exotic and elusive as a cougar or grizzly, but up to that point no one in our circle had ever seen one.

Dad, Bob and I had spent the weekend deer hunting in Northern California near Paynes Creek in Tehama County. We were in the process of driving home on Highway 36 when Dad caught sight of two wild turkeys standing in a clearing on the far side of the road.

Dad pulled the Toyota pickup to a stop beside the road and the three of us stared at the hens in amazement. The stories we’d heard were true; turkeys did roam the wildlands of Northern California!

Fast forward 10 years and spotting wild turkeys had become a regular part of our annual deer hunts in Tehama County. I recall one afternoon in particular when more than 60 hens walked past my dad and I as we sat in a treestand.

The point of all this is that the turkey population expanded so quickly in a decade that seeing them went from being notable to commonplace. Over the past 30 years the California turkey population has steadily expanded and evolved. In some areas, turkeys are so plentiful they’ve become a nuisance to farmers and homeowners. There are other locations where turkeys have only shown up recently.

I have a friend living in far Northeastern California, where the forest environment transitions to desert. He isn’t a hunter, but one day while we were catching up on the phone he reported that there were three gobblers standing in his driveway.

Because that proclamation naturally caught my attention, I pressed him for details. Long story short: He’d never seen turkeys in his area until three years ago; now they are semi-regular visitors to his property. I haven’t hunted there yet, but the area is on my to-do list come spring!

INCREASING WILD TURKEY POPULATION

Attempts to introduce turkeys to California date back to 1877. All of the early releases, including stocking domestic birds and wild birds from Mexico, failed for a variety of reasons.

It wasn’t until 1959, when the California Department of Fish and Game (now CDFW) released 62 wild Rio Grande turkeys imported from Texas, that a successful population was established in San Diego County.

Throughout the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s, the state continued planting turkeys in various areas of California and relocating problem turkeys to new habitats.

Today, there are nearly 250,000 wild turkeys residing in the state. Most of them are Rio Grandes, but Merriam’s turkeys also exist. The Rio Grande was thought to be mostly a valley and foothill dweller, while Merriam’s tend to live at higher elevations. Merriam’s turkeys were introduced with the idea of establishing a turkey population in the middle elevation portion of the Sierra.

According to CDFW, wild turkey populations are now firmly established in the lower-elevation oak woodlands of both the Sierra and Coast Ranges, along the NorCal coast throughout Mendocino County, along the central and southern coastal areas all the way to San Diego County, and to the far north in both the Klamath and Cascade foothills.

FINDING BIRDS

All the known areas of turkey habitation listed above are good areas to pursue turkeys in fall and spring. Hunting these areas is nothing new, but areas where the turkey population has expanded and continues to expand are of special interest to me.

It stands to reason that areas where the population is expanding will have less hunting pressure than regions that have traditionally held turkeys. I find it very exciting to hunt uneducated birds few hunters know exist!

While CDFW has no data they’re willing to share, there is plenty of anecdotal evidence of the turkey population expanding eastward. There are enough stories and photographs online to confirm wild turkeys are making a push into the eastern reaches of far Northern California – say, from Sierra County northward to the Oregon border. These areas have small human populations, lots of public land and are ripe for exploration by adventurous turkey hunters.

I live in the north-central Sierra outside of Auburn. Being an avid turkey hunter I make it my business to keep tabs on the turkey population. Twenty-five years ago, the vast majority of the huntable turkey population in my area was confined to the oak woodlands of the San Joaquin-Sacramento Valley and the Sierra foothills. Since then, I’ve watched the population steadily seep eastward into higher-elevation areas.

Several years ago while deer hunting, I came upon a concentration of turkey sign in the Tahoe National Forest at about 4,700 feet in elevation.

This is far higher than I’d ever seen Rio Grande turkeys, so I was hopeful I’d found a pocket of Merriam’s turkeys. I’ve never harvested a Merriam’s, and I thought the chance to bag one had fallen into my lap.

In spring I worked the area hard for the first few days of the season without results. When a cold spring storm moved in and dropped a few inches of snow, I was ready to give up on the area, but I decided to give it one last try before moving lower. That’s when I found a lone turkey track in the snow while walking an overgrown logging road.

The next day, I was standing in the chilly woods before dawn near where I’d seen the track. When I heard a gobble a few hundred yards up the ridge, I moved fast to close ground before the bird or birds flew off the roost.

When I figured I was close enough I settled in, made some hen noises and the gobbler answered. Forty minutes later I was standing over a really nice 2-year-old Rio Grande gobbler with a 9-inch beard.

Rios weren’t supposed to venture up that high in elevation. I inspected the bird closely for any tell-tale signs that it was a Merriam’s hybrid, butasnearasIcouldtellitwasa 100-percent Rio Grande turkey.

Since then, I’ve seen other Rio Grandes up above 4,000 feet. My personal belief is that the birds are beginning to adapt and expand into higher-elevation habitats. Turkeys are generalists in terms of their diet, and it is very possible they have identified food sources at higher elevations that sustain them.

I’m also convinced that the birds I find up at higher elevations are migratory and drop down to areas below the snow line during the winter, then climb back up in elevation as winter gives way to spring.

Moving on, there is a huge population of turkeys in the Sacramento Valley and throughout the Bay Area and surrounding area. I’ve even seen huge gobblers feeding along the shoreline of San Francisco Bay in the Berkeley Marina, where they look oddly out of place.

Certainly, there are places in the Bay Area and near Sacramento where you could safely hunt turkeys. The problem is that there is very little public land in these areas that allow hunting. The trick to get at these birds would be to find a private landowner who would give you access.

Of course, gaining access is a tough mountain to climb, but not impossible. Not everyone is thrilled with having turkeys around their property, standing atop their expensive cars and scratching them or peeling back lush green turf as they look for worms and other goodies.

I would think if you were hunting with a bow or airgun as opposed to a shotgun, it would help your cause infinitely.

BAGGING YOUR FALL GOBBLER

California turkey hunters can consider themselves lucky because we have a fall turkey season. There are some states that only offer spring hunting. To be sure, the spring season is more glamorous than fall hunting. And one of the cool things about the fall season is that it’s an either-sex hunt. Hens, gobblers, jakes and jills are all fair game during the fall.

Calling a 15- to 20-pound lovesick tom within range is indeed an apex experience, but fall hunting is also challenging and satisfying. While calling is an important part of spring turkey hunting success, it’s mostly woodsmanship that puts birds in the roaster during the fall.

Scouting and covering ground are the key features of fall success. While scouting you don’t actually have to see turkeys. During daylight hours, tracks, droppings and the odd shed feather all betray the presence of turkeys.

Early and late in the day, you can also stand a listening post on a prominent high point and listen for birds. When the turkeys go to roost in the evening and come off the roost in the morning, they tend to get very excited. Hens yelp as loudly as toms, but toms gobble too. Gobbling just isn’t a vocalization made during the mating season.

If you are lucky enough to hear gobbling in the fall, you may have really hit the jackpot. Harvesting a mature gobbler in the fall is quite an achievement. During the fall and winter, gobblers often form into bachelor groups. When you hear gobbles at this time of the year, there are likely multiple toms traveling together.

IT’S YOUR CALL

Getting within range of jumpy gobbler during the spring can be tough, but getting within range of a group of fall toms without the edge calling provides is indeed a challenge. I’ve taken dozens of fall turkeys, but only one of them has been a mature gobbler.

Once I locate an area that is holding fall turkeys, ambush hunting has proven to be the best tactic for me most days. Turkeys don’t like to move through thick woods, so old roads and firebreaks are good spots to set up for a long wait. Just make sure your hide is comfortable and within shooting range of the spot you expect the birds to travel through.

While waiting, feel free to make a few light yelps, but don’t try to do too much. Two or three light yelps every 20 to 30 minutes are plenty. And you must sit still. If you can’t sit still for a long period of time, your chances of success decline sharply.

On rainy days turkeys will still feed, but they also spend extended periods of time standing under the shelter of trees waiting out the showers. If you want to still hunt and sneak within range of a bird, the best time to do it is on a rainy afternoon. When the birds come off the roost, they will move and feed for a few hours in all but the heaviest rain. By the time the afternoon rolls around, they’ve eaten and are content to spend their time huddled under trees trying to stay as dry as possible.

Since fall turkeys tend to travel in groups, be they groups of hens or bachelor groups of gobblers, chances are the birds will detect you before you actually get off a shot. That means you’ve got to be prepared to cut down a moving bird at longer average distances than during the spring, when you are able to call a lone gobbler close to your location.

During the spring, I often utilize magnum 12-gauge shells loaded with No. 71?2 tungsten shot in order to deliver as many hits as possible to a gobbler’s head and neck at close range. Heavier No. 4 or 5 shot is a better choice during the fall since the large shot hits harder and penetrates better at longer range.

Steel shot will certainly kill a turkey, but at longer ranges tungsten shot will kill birds faster and more reliably.

ALWAYS ON MY MIND

The most successful turkey hunters are the folks who think turkey hunting all year long. One of the overlooked attributes of fall hunting is that the season gives you an opportunity to locate areas holding birds. Those same areas are a good starting point for your spring hunting adventures.

Good luck, get out in the field, read the sign and drop the hammer on a Golden State turkey this fall! CS

Editor’s note: California’s fall turkey season runs from November 9 through December 8. Cal Kellogg is a longtime Northern California outdoors writer. Subscribe to his YouTube channel Fish Hunt Shoot Productions at youtube.com/ user/KelloggOutdoors.