Spring turkey hunt looks like a big one | The Courier-Journal

By Gary Garth • Special to The Courier-Journal • April 12, 2009

Wild turkeys remain largely a mystery to both the people who hunt them and the wildlife workers who try to manage them.

Gobblers have a marble-size brain and apparently no natural curiosity. They can appear arrogant, ignorant, fretful, focused, frightened and oblivious, all at the same time.

They are large, clumsy birds that can barely fly, spend most of their lives on the ground, run with an awkward, almost comical gait, can vanish in an instant and can duck a shotgun blast from 20 yards.

Kentucky wildlife officials are unsure how many turkey hunters are in the state, and they also are largely guessing about the number of turkeys.

Last year the Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources sold about 17,000 resident turkey permits and another 5,300 nonresident permits. But nearly 40,000 hunters bought a sportsman’s license, which includes a turkey permit. Factor in license-exempt landowners and tenants, and the number of gobbler hunters probably spikes to around 80,000.

“I’d be comfortable with an estimate of our turkey hunters between 75,000 and 85,000,” said state turkey specialist Steven Dobey. He puts bird numbers “probably somewhere between 215,000 and 225,000,” a large percentage of which are 1 and 2 years old.

Regardless of the precise number of turkeys or hunters, the woods will be packed with both when the spring season opens Saturday. The opportunity to bag one has never been better. Click Link Below for Full Story!

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