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Turkey Hunting
2025 Turkey Seasons
Kids, Mobility Impaired: March 22-23
Private-Land: March 29 – May 15
Public-Land: April 5 – May 15
* Two gobbler per season limit; one-gobbler-per-day restriction.
Talbot County’s Michael Barnes was just looking to get his first turkey of the season last Sunday morning. He never dreamed he’d get a turkey that even the experts say the likes they’ve never seen before. “When I shot it and got to it, the first thing that I noticed was that it didn’t have…
The 2023 Georgia turkey season marked the second year for the state’s shorter, more restrictive season structure, and according to WRD’s Game Check data, the statewide harvest increased more than 21% from 2022. That sounds like great news for turkey hunters, but don’t start celebrating a return to the good old days of Georgia turkey…
Season dates and regulations have been set for the 2024 Georgia turkey season, and the season structure and regulations are nearly identical to last season. The 2024 Georgia turkey season will open Saturday, March 30 on private lands and Saturday, April 6 on public lands, and will wrap up May 15 statewide. Keep in mind…
With WMA quota-hunt drawings being held a few weeks ago, some hunters have already put in for a vacation day or two in preparation for warm weather and hopefully gobbling birds. However, as low turkey populations across the Southeast continue to get the focus from biologists and researchers, there’s a big question mark on how…
It was Thursday morning before opening day of the 2023 season. I stood in the pre-dawn darkness in anticipation of the first gobble of the season. I did not have to wait long as the horizon started to lighten and a barred owl awakened the woods followed by the first gobble of the season. After…
Deer season has come and gone. Bradley Carpenter had a typical season harvesting a couple of does and one nice 3.5-year-old 8-pointer, all on public land in north Georgia. It was a mild Saturday morning in the middle of February, and Bradley was out walking on Lake Russell WMA. He was there before daylight, listening…
It had been a half hour since my last call. I had no idea if the bird was even still in the neighborhood or not. He hadn’t given me any reason to believe he was, and when he had last gobbled, he was still in the same vicinity as he had been when he first…
Turkeys sure do have a tough time. It’s a wonder that they can survive at all in the wild, with the ongoing habitat destruction, the seemingly endless predation, Mother Nature’s unpredictable hazards and conservation-oblivious humans. But then, there is more that we may not necessarily think much about in our native turkey flocks. For me,…
The drift of smoke from a chimney somewhere distant instantly grabbed my attention and caused my mind to rewind to years a long time ago. It reminded me of my boyhood as I walked this very logging road I was now on, but I was a kid then, likely still shy of my teens, and…
I missed the first turkey I ever shot at. It was 1995, and it would be another eight years before I killed my first one. Turkeys are merciless teachers. I’d come home and complain to my wife and tell her I was quitting and was going to sell my gun. She’d just laugh and ask…
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…