2008 Gobbler Gallery

The clock is winding down on another Georgia turkey season, and judging from the reports received by GON it has been a pretty good one.

Across the state, hunters are reporting gobbling birds, eager to play. And, despite frighteningly low numbers from last year’s WRD poult count, hunters are reporting plenty of jakes in the woods, which will hopefully lead to lots of gobblers next year.

GON freelancer Drew Hall was on an April public-land hunt in Oglethorpe County when six jakes came in to calling. Atlanta hunter Dawson Strickland, whose bird appears on page 57, said he saw a total of 30 jakes on two different pieces of northwest Georgia property the weekend he killed his bird. So, all the doom and gloom from the poult count and the VOTES gobbling reports on page 136 may not be the final word. As one GON employee put it, “Nobody knows what’s going on.”

But, enough jake talk — bring on the gobblers! The next four pages are just a sample of the hundreds of happy-hunter photos sent in by our readers. And, with turkey season ending May 15, there’s still time.