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Turkey Hunting
2024 Georgia Turkey Season Dates
Kids, Mobility Impaired: March 23-24
Public-Land: April 6 – May 15
Private-Land: March 30 – May 15
* Two gobbler per season limit; one-gobbler-per-day restriction.
A wild turkey hen will typically lay nine to 12 eggs each spring. From 1980 to 1989, the average number of poults-per-hen in Georgia was 4.1. The next decade, from 1990 to 1999, the average poult count was 3.0. The average during the past 10 years was just 1.5 poults per hen. WRD has said…
The first nine days of the Georgia season has been a roller coaster ride! I spent Monday and Tuesday on Cedar Creek WMA and came close to connecting both mornings, but being close doesn’t help the mindset too much. I had one in range Monday morning, but there was a rise between us that saved his life.…
A long time ago, while working a bird on the side of a steep hardwood hill, I fell into a rut that took me an entire season to climb out of. This old bird was partial to hard, aggressive hen talk, and he wouldn’t have it any other way. I guess he gobbled 40 or…
Jacob Mullis, of Macon, experienced a once-in-a-lifetime turkey hunt on March 26 when he harvested a rare melanistic turkey in Twiggs County. The gobbler he took was a “black phase” melanistic turkey that WRD says is so rare that only one in 10,000 turkeys carry that trait. “There are three color phases of wild turkey in…
Henned-Up Gobblers For Georgia Opener The anticipation of a new turkey season is a special time, but due to the fact that I knew I would be at work instead of in the woods made last week almost unbearable. I spent most of the weekend reflecting on my trip with friends to Florida last weekend. Special memories…
Chasing Osceola Gobblers Thursday, March 23: For me, there’s nothing like opening up a new turkey season, and I started mine off in Florida with some close friends over the weekend. After three days of hard hunting, everyone scored except yours truly. Man, these Osceolas were some rude hosts! The birds just weren’t talking and were very…
This past weekend marked the fourth year Georgia has held the “Special Opportunity Season” for turkey. This two-day season gives youth 16 years of age and younger, plus mobility-impaired hunters, the opportunity to get out and hunt the weekend before the statewide Georgia turkey season. I have had the chance to turkey hunt the first three Special…
There was a brief moment in my life when I thought I had turkey hunting all figured out. With a few seasons under my belt, I was learning the ropes and getting pretty good at filling my two tags in my home state of Kentucky each spring. Most of those birds were taken on low-pressured…
I sat in the cool afternoon shade, watching the breeze sweep across the green grass of the field that I had pulled the big, timid gobbler across. It had been a spring turkey hunt at its finest. That is until I squeezed the trigger and watched the hefty longbeard take flight like a quail and…
Anyone who knows Sarah Tonsmeire will tell you she’s a force to be reckoned with. She is an active member of the Cartersville community and volunteer for both local charities and national wildlife conservation. At age 28, she’s fortunate enough to be able to unite her passion with her occupation as a NASCAR account manager…
Turkey Recipes
Peanut Butter Wild Turkey I must admit that I was apprehensive when a friend asked me to try his newly discovered dish. Once he showed me the ingredients, I realized it was a take on a popular Oriental chicken dish. And it is wonderful! 1 turkey breast 2 tbsp salt 2 tbsp white sugar 2…
Turkey Stuffed Bell Peppers 6 bell peppers 1/2- to 3/4-lb. dark-meat turkey 1 diced onion 3 cloves minced garlic 15-oz. can diced tomatoes 1 cup frozen whole-kernel corn 1 cup cooked white rice Shredded Pepper Jack cheese 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce 1 Tbsp salt 1 Tbsp black pepper Choose bell peppers that will stand up…
It can be downright chilly at the start of the turkey season, and that’s when most turkeys are taken. Why then not whip up a turkey stew that the whole family will enjoy on a chilly evening? 1/2 wild turkey, shredded 4 red potatoes, quartered 1/4 stick butter 1 large onion, diced 4 tbsp. garlic…