Recent Publications and Coming Appearances

My forthcoming turkey book will be out come summer (Stackpole Books). Stay tuned . . .

As print magazines go, a lot of you noticed my piece in the recent Ruffed Grouse Society magazine, so thanks again for the kind words. I've two turkey features in the current '07 Turkey Hunting Stategies annual (features on turkey shot/shotgunning, and 10 surefire setups with illustrations). Look for that on newsstands now. NWTF members will find my hunting features in the next two issues of Turkey Call ("Reading Turkeys Like a Book" and "Maine's Spring Gobblers"). I've a Wyoming Merriam's hunt piece in the current Realtree Outdoors Turkey Hunting Special as well (check your local newsstand for this super annual). I've two turkey hunting features forthcoming in Outdoor Life as well. My "Turkey Lingo" just appeared in the print mag Get in the Game (NWTF).

Let's see, what else . . . some of you just know of my weekly spot in Foster's Sunday Citizen (Dover/Laconia, NH), which is cool. I'm entering my tenth year in that space (I was the first columnist contacted when they started the Sunday edition in Nov. '97), and enjoy the regional coverage and your readership. My article "Crazy for Cottontails" was just posted on Realtree.com, and takes me back to my Pennsylvania rabbit hunting days with my dad, his beagles, and my brother Dave.

Plenty of other assignments underway for work to appear this fall on turkeys, waterfowl, upland birds, and gun dogs.

--S.H.

(Steve Hickoff photo)

Snow Setter

In Maine you can train dogs on wild birds year-round. A grouse bombed out of here moments later.

(Steve Hickoff photo)

The Waiting Is the Hardest Part

First stop, Texas: six weeks and five days.

(Steve Hickoff photo)

Mouth Calls Revisited

It might not be a bad time to revisit those diaphragms in cold storage (I've three plastic containers full of mouth calls in my refrigerator, for instance).

The fridge's chill keeps the reeds from drying out, while toothpicks can help latex stay in good calling shape (careful not to tear 'em, though). Calling practice these winter days in pre-spring mode is a way to pass time as well. Some guys do it in their basements, or bathrooms. Some in their pickup trucks as they drive to work. Others--my competition calling buds are like this--have soundproof rooms at home.

Does mouth "muscle memory" need to be worked on the same as a baseball player in spring training? Maybe . . .

--S.H.

(Steve Hickoff photo)

Waterproof Calling

As you might guess, I checked in with all my turkey buds last month at Orlando's SHOT Show. One industry trend is to provide friction calls that play when wet. Gone are the days of having to slip a box call into a plastic zip bag on rainy hunts.

Jerry Peterson and Gary Sefton of Woods Wise Products offered insights related to their Mystic Wet Box Calls (not only do they play when wet, but also require no chalk). Two are walnut, and provide raspy turkey yelps. Woods Wise’s strikers and pot-and-peg calls are also weatherproof. Apart from these friction calls, their Callmasters Pro-Staff diaphragms are made with individual side and back latex stretching. Check out www.woodswise.com for more information.

Quaker Boy’s Chris Kirby, Ernie Calandrelli, Dave Streb, and Bob Wozniak promoted their weatherproof Typhoon and Hurricane box calls (www.quakerboy.com), and Hunter’s Specialties’ National Pro Staffers Matt Morrett and Alex Rutledge shared their insights about the range of established turkey calls the company promotes. The H.S. catalog of offerings has never been better, best I can tell (www.hunterspec.com).

Known more appropriately for duck calling because they’re among the best, Haydel’s Game Calls is also offering a new innovative call called the Turkey Flute. It’s the shape of a dry-erase marker pen, contains a reed inside, and can produce the range of spring calls, including gobbles. Rod Haydel, well-known caller and hunter, demonstrated it for me, and it’s a winner (www.haydels.com).

--S.H.

(Osceola/NWTF photo)

Feeding Winter Turkeys

For the record, NH Fish & Game discourages individuals from actively feeding winter wild turkeys. Why? Such situations increase the possibility of human conflict, predation (from coyotes, for instance), and disease. What do they suggest? Plant grains, fruits, and seed-bearing food sources to sustain these wild birds.

Nevertheless, not a week goes by that a reader or someone on the street tells me about the turkey flock in their backyard. They routinely ask whether it’s okay to feed them. Biologist Mark Ellingwood makes the following suggestions:

If you choose to ignore official advice, feed wild turkeys cracked or whole kernel corn, oats, or sunflower seeds. (My note: wild turkeys routinely show up at backyard bird feeders as a result.) Ellingwood also says to broadcast food on the ground so all flock members can eat. Do so where you’ve seen turkeys feeding naturally in the past. If possible, keep it away from your house.

Wild turkey nuisance problems can occur with so-called “human habituation”—i.e. the birds, albeit wild, get used to your presence and haunt backyards, creating problems. (Me again: over the years one or two of you out there have told me about wild turkeys roosting on your parked vehicles!) As a result, human contact should be minimized.

—S.H.

(NWTF Photo)

Publication Update

My forthcoming turkey book will be out come summer (Stackpole Books). Stay tuned . . .

As print magazines go, a lot of you noticed my piece in the recent Ruffed Grouse Society magazine, so thanks again for the kind words. I've two turkey features in the current '07 Turkey Hunting Stategies annual (features on turkey shot/shotgunning, and 10 surefire setups with illustrations). Look for that on newsstands now. NWTF members will find my hunting features in the next two issues of Turkey Call ("Reading Turkeys Like a Book" and "Maine's Spring Gobblers"). I've a Wyoming Merriam's hunt piece in the current Realtree Outdoors Turkey Hunting Special as well (check your local newsstand for this super annual). I've two turkey hunting features forthcoming in Outdoor Life as well. My "Turkey Lingo" just appeared in the print mag Get in the Game (NWTF).

Let's see, what else . . . some of you just know of my weekly spot in Foster's Sunday Citizen (Dover/Laconia, NH), which is cool. I'm entering my tenth year in that space (I was the first columnist contacted when they started the Sunday edition in Nov. '97), and enjoy the regional coverage and your readership. My article "Crazy for Cottontails" was just posted on Realtree.com, and takes me back to my Pennsylvania rabbit hunting days with my dad, his beagles, and my brother Dave.

Plenty of other assignments underway for work to appear this fall on turkeys, waterfowl, upland birds, and gun dogs.

--S.H.

(Steve Hickoff photo)

Seven Degrees

"Feels like -1," the online weather service stated for our northern New England region this morning, but we went out anyway. Since my bird dogs refuse to wear those pad-protecting booties glossy magazines sell us (well at least ONE time), we keep our time outdoors under an hour these single-digit days. Between uninterrupted casts along treelines and through brush, they slam to a stop to chew at the ice forming between their furry toes, but otherwise return over and over, checking back, as if enjoying it. Like me, now gunless and daydreaming of past and future seasons, they need to cover ground other than asphalt.

(Steve Hickoff photo)

Bounty Hunters

Q.: What do northbound turkey hunters do in February?

A.: Attend National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF) fundraising banquets, of course.

My table buds display their recent take at the Southeastern New Hampshire Chapter NWTF dinner. For more information on this organization, and all matters wild turkey, check out www.nwtf.org.

(Steve Hickoff photo)

Radar, Downtime

I put Radar on planted Maine preserve pheasants during his puppy phase, as live birds develop such a dog's natural instincts, and sometimes stocked game is a more predictable option as you bring a pup along. Five years old in June, such a gesture now feels equal to shooting hoops at the local Y. It's not the real game, but something. Not sure if I will arrange for such a ringneck release on somebody's preserve property when the weather eases up. Maybe. Maybe not.

My heirloom Fox double in hand, we last got out on December 29, found four Pine Tree State grouse, but came home with none. Fact is, neither I nor my hunting buddy, took a shot. Each time the ruff eluded us, putting cover between it and our urgent glances at departing wings. No matter. His points came on birds just five or six steps away. Despite that, we never had an open shooting window to push a swarm of no. 6 shot through. We've found grouse since then on casual times afield: me, gunless, and Radar simply doing what he's bred for, and encouraged to do. He moves through cover like a point guard going to the hole, driving, slashing, cruising along in steady, flowing style. Sometimes witnessing that is enough. It's plenty.

Today--15 degrees F. with a stiff west wind running in palpable gusts of 25-35 mph that approach like high-speed trains, and run by our log house like humming rivers as they fade--we're inside. He watches my every move. When I go to tend the woodstove fire, he follows. On returning here, he's at my side, head resting on my right knee.

New York State offers a grouse season that runs through month's end (Feb. 28), but something holds me back. Wonder what would happen if the weather lifted?

Some Spring Turkey '07 Tidbits

Photo Credit: National Wild Turkey Federation







Hawaii's "spring gobbler" season starts the earliest in the United States, commencing on March 1. This begs the question: Is the Aloha State hunt actually a "winter" offering?

Maine's spring turkey hunt runs the latest in the country, ending June 2. Forget that most northern New England residents have traded shotguns for spinning rods by then . . . the male turkeys will still be gobbling, even within earshot of inland trout fishers and even coastal striper anglers.

Texas and Missouri weigh in with the most estimated turkeys, with roughly 600,000 birds in each state. Delaware (3,000 turkeys), and Nevada (2,000 birds) have the fewest.

What states allow sportsmen to take a handful of gobblers? A spring turkey hunter can take five in Alabama, and five in South Carolina.

A "New England Slam" might look like this: Connecticut (two bearded birds on state land, or three on private land). Massachusetts (one bearded turkey per day, two per season, or one per season if a fall bird is taken). Rhode Island (one bearded turkey). Vermont (two bearded turkeys per spring season; three bearded turkeys for youth). New Hampshire (one bearded turkey). Maine (one bearded turkey).

An adult hunter in this region could conceivably take ten birds this coming spring . . .

--Steve Hickoff