The wild turkey was almost exterminated by 1900. While pioneers and market hunters played a role in the demise, the predominant factor was habitat obliteration due to cutting forests and clearing land. Beginning is the 1950s state fish and game departments funded Pittman Robinson grants. Today, 43 states have a turkey season. New Hampshire has a spring season where the shotgunner and archer can harvest a bearded turkey and the archer can take a second turkey of either sex in the fall. There are less than 500 turkeys taken in the fall hunt and this has no impact at all in the expansion of the statewide flock.

Many have questioned why there is a spring season. The answer is rather simple: Turkeys mate in the March-April period, and sometimes - depending upon weather conditions - the mating process continues on into May. At the end of the mating season, toms are total surplus and can be successfully hunted without damaging the overall health of the flock. A friend of mine who works in Canterbury related to me a wonderful sight he viewed this week. There were two hens, a large tom and 25 poults. The two hens have merged their charges into one more manageable group. What the tom was doing with this group was somewhat of a mystery, as he has no role in bringing up the poults. The most important daily function the poults engage in is feeding. Insects and grasshoppers provide an excellent source for protein. Not all of the 25 will survive; predators will take many, and disease will take a few. As they head into the fall they will take on coloration of redheads and blueheads, differentiating male and female turkeys.

Given the current turkey kill per square mile, many wildlife management units exceed .5 per square mile. A fall season would not be a revenue generator as the fall archery tag come with the turkey permit. In addition to the current archery season, I can envision a one-month fall shotgun season for turkeys. The timing of the season will make for an interesting debate. Should the fall season be before or during the regular deer season?

Another interesting element in a fall turkey season will be to allow the use of turkey dogs. Currently, 24 states allow the use of turkey dogs during the fall turkey hunt. To understand why a dog works in a fall season and not in the spring season you have to understand the difference between the two seasons. In the spring the hunter attempts to fool the tom into thinking a hen is calling him in. In the fall, the hunter busts up a flock of turkeys and attempts to call them in to regroup. The dog comes into play as the one who busts up the flock. The hunter will locate the flock and send the dog in to bust up the flock. The dog returns to the hunter and the hunter proceeds to call the turkeys. Most turkey dogs I've seen are either Jack Russells or a mixed breed including Jack Russells. Given the potential speed of a running turkey, the use of a dog adds to the sport of fall turkey hunting.

The close correlation between New Hampshire's farming community and our wild turkey population has long been a unique relationship. Turkeys gravitate towards dairy farms to feast on undigested corn in manure piles. They also feed on silage intended to be fed to cattle. A concern was raised over the possibility of transference of salmonella from wild turkeys to dairy cattle. Four hundred and seventeen wild turkey droppings were collected on dairy farms during the 2005 winter with all testing negative for salmonella. In addition to the testing, 22 dairy farms were surveyed and certain farm features were mapped. The survey indicated that 82 percent of farmers had a positive or neutral attitude towards turkeys. Regionally, 25 percent of northern farmers and 10 percent of southern farmers had negative attitudes toward turkeys. The two main concerns were disease transmission and fecal contamination of silage intended for livestock feed. Farmers considered blackbirds and starlings (55 percent), pigeons (41 percent), and black bears (41 percent) as being a threat to farm property.

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There is a growing tendency of firearms manufacturers to mate magnum calibers with lightweight rifles. In a hunting scenario, this is an excellent combination as the weight of the rifle can be a tiring event if you are walking 5 to 10 miles a day. You rarely feel any recoil when taking a shot at a deer as you are concentrating on the deer and wearing heavier clothing. The felt recoil is the problem when you are sighting in a rifle or a shotgun using slugs. Some manufactures provide a permanent solution by porting the barrel or by using a muzzle brake. Unfortunately, once a rifle has been permanently altered, you are required to wear ear protectors whenever you fire the rifle, be it in a target practice situation or hunting. The problem with recoil is that it tends to cause the development of a flinch when you shoot. Caldwell Shooting Supplies has come up with an alternative solution. It's called the Lead Sled. It gains that name from the two bags of lead shot that is used to both anchor the portable rest and to absorb the recoil. Caldwell claims the Sled will absorb 90 percent of the recoil by trapping recoil energy in the frame of the rest. This might be worth checking it out.

(Bob Washburn can be reached at hunterscorner@aol.com.)