Don’t be a turkey: Start your gobbler preparations now

Success of hunt hinges on scouting woods weeks before season begins.

Turkey-hunting season is six weekends away, and Sam Stowe is ready to go.

We’re not real sure how well he’ll be sleeping, however.

“Some seasons, I think you get intrigued by one bird. It gets under your skin,” said Stowe, who grew up hunting on family farmland in Newton County. “I get to where I can’t sleep because of one bird. I’ll hunt one bird all season.

“It’s in my blood. I grew up hunting and fishing, and I’ve been deer hunting since 1959, but now deer is just something to pass the time until turkey hunting gets here.”

Despite the season officially starting March 22, it is turkey season as far as Stowe is concerned. The time to get in the woods is now.

“You can locate the flock, and you can pattern the flock right now,” he said.

Preseason scouting is part of the season, he says, and perhaps a reason why he has killed a turkey in 37 different states and has bagged four American grand slams (the four subspecies of wild turkey in the United States).

Stowe’s philosophy is that the first thing you need when trying to kill a turkey is a turkey. And the first thing you need to do to find one is get in the woods, which is where he’ll be next weekend.

“I’ll be up at 4:30 a.m. and out the door,” said Stowe. “I’ll probably be on a creek bottom before daylight, then sit quiet for the next hour or two, just listening and observing.”

Stowe will scout areas before he makes a hunting plan. He’ll look for trees used for roosting (just look for the droppings on the ground under the tree). He’ll look for scratchings on the ground showing where turkeys feed and have been during the day (turkeys roost at night).

Of course, he’ll listen, too. “I imagine they’ll start gobbling this weekend,” he said.

By: Scott Bernarde
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution