Outdoors with Don

On the final morning of Indiana’s turkey season last week, I looked at my gun and noticed something covering its muzzle. As I reached down to wipe it clean, I realized it was a tightly woven spider web, stretched neatly across the business end of my gun.

    There were cobwebs forming on the barrel of my gun.

    After 16 days of turkey hunting, I had not heard a single gobble or seen a single male turkey.

    Had I been hunting in a county with few or no birds, I would have simply accepted my defeat. But I was hunting in Greene County, only seven miles from Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center. Crane was the location the Indiana Department of Natural Resources used for years to trap and supply wild turkeys for the rest of Indiana.

    It is a 100-square-mile property that consists of some military buildings and a whole lot of prime wildlife habitat. My nearby hunting grounds consist of 500 private acres — all of which is prime turkey habitat.

This hen was the only turkey Don Mulligan saw in Indiana this year. He thinks it’s time to rethink turkey season. (Photo by Don Mulligan)

       Since I had so much time to think as I sat in the woods this year, I wondered how such a grand place could be home to so few turkeys, and whether the rest of Indiana was having the same experience I was this season.

Phone calls to check stations in both southern and northern Indiana revealed an interesting trend.

    It is important to note that my phone survey was not scientific since I contacted only 20 of the several hundred Indiana turkey check stations. After all of the stations have reported their results to the IDNR, we will get a more complete and accurate picture of the statewide trend.

    So, instead, this is more like an exit poll. The information it provides may apply only to the areas polled, though it also is possible it reveals a statewide trend.

    Spencer Bait and Tackle in Owen County is always one of the busiest turkey check stations in Indiana. Not counting the 12 birds they checked during the first annual youth season, they ended up with 185 turkeys this year. That is one more than last year.

    Every other southern check station I called fared much worse.

    Howard’s Service Station in Greene County reported “a tad fewer birds” than last year; Buddy’s Bills in Monroe County reported “considerably fewer birds” than last year; and J and K Taxidermy in Greene County reported checking only one-third the number of turkeys from last year. Five other check stations in the same area followed the trend.

    In contrast, northern Indiana turkey hunters reported seeing more turkeys than last year. The final numbers at northern check stations supported their claims.

    Pigeon River Fish and Wildlife Area in Mongo broke last year’s record with 48 turkeys checked this year. The Hole in the Wall Bait and Tackle shop in Hamilton checked more turkeys than last year, and Jack’s Service Station in Fremont checked 50 birds, saying this year was “very successful and way up in numbers compared to last year.”

    Three other northeast Indiana check stations reported increases over last year as well, as did check stations in Starke and Marshall Counties.

    It is difficult to pinpoint the reason more turkeys were killed in the northern counties I surveyed versus the southern ones. It is easy, however, to say what was not to blame. It wasn’t the weather.

    Turkey signs in the form of droppings, roost feathers, tracks and dustings tell a more accurate tale. In my hunting area, they revealed a lack of turkeys.

    And it is impossible to call in a turkey that doesn’t exist, regardless of the weather.

    What, if anything should be done? In places where the harvest was very low, and there were few sightings of jakes as well, the fall season should be halted. I realize less than 700 turkeys were killed statewide during last year’s fall season, but some of those were hens. And when a population is declining, every single hen should be sacred.

    If northern counties continue to show the ability to absorb the spring and fall harvests and still produce several age classes of birds, then there is no reason to change anything.

    There clearly is a problem with our turkey population in parts of Indiana. It’s time to recognize those areas and back off of the continued liberalization of turkey season. The fall season, for starters, was premature and a mistake. It may be a tough pill to swallow, but we need start limiting tags in places where the turkeys can’t keep up.