HARRISBURG – Although our somewhat unyielding winter has been less than kind to most hunters thinking about spring and gobbler hunting, the prospects for hunters heading afield for Pennsylvania’s 36th spring gobbler season – April 26 to May 24 – are very promising.

Gobblers were beginning to call for mates in early April, but an unexpected winter storm that smothered much of the state with a fresh blanket of snow put a damper on their amorous efforts. Calling has resumed with the return of more seasonable weather. And as a result, hunters are beginning to call birds and talk more and more about the upcoming season. Excitement is building for this annual stepping-out season.

“Turkey hunting is one of the finest hunting opportunities Penn’s Woods has to offer,” said Vern Ross, Pennsylvania Game Commission executive director. “Once you get past the early wake-up call – usually between 4 and 5 a.m. – you get a front-row seat in the woods to watch the rest of Pennsylvania shake off the night. If you’re lucky, you’ll hear a gobbler calling, hopefully, close by. Then it’s up to you to call him in.”

Pennsylvania’s wild turkey population is expected to provide good to excellent hunting in the upcoming season, according to Game Commission biologist Mary Jo Casalena.

“It’s a product of four consecutive years of excellent reproduction, three years of mild winters and two successive light harvests,” said Mary Jo Casalena, Game Commission wild turkey biologist. “Although the recently concluded snowy winter may have slightly impacted survival, our turkey populations were at record levels going into winter, and winter mortality is not expected to seriously decrease the state’s incredible population of turkeys.

“Last year’s young males, or jakes as they are commonly called, may be less abundant than in recent years, if winter mortality has been a factor, because these inexperienced birds are more susceptible to winter mortality. But hunters should have a good selection of two- and three-year-old gobblers. There are quite a few trophy birds out there, but you’ll likely have to be very patient to call in one of these more experienced gobblers.”

There was concern that late frosts in spring 2002 would impact turkey reproduction, but bird production was in line with that of the previous three years, which were all record years. Summer survey work conducted by agency Wildlife Conservation Officers has since shown that turkey populations are stable or increasing in most areas of the state, with the exception of the Adams, Cumberland and Franklin counties area, where the Game Commission has been studying turkeys for the past three years. Since spring gobbler hunting is permitted statewide, hunters may hunt in the study area. If you harvest a bird or find the remains of a bird with radio-transmitter or leg-band, please contact the agency at 717-787-5529, or toll-free at 1-877-877-9107.

An estimate of last spring’s harvest places it at a preliminary total of 44,500 gobblers, which is up from 2001’s preliminary spring harvest of 39,471. The final 2002 spring and fall harvests will be reported at the conclusion of the agency’s annual Game-Take Survey, which currently is being conducted. For comparisons, the 2001 preliminary spring harvest went from 39,471 to a final spring harvest of 49,186 following input from the Game-Take Survey.

The statewide turkey population is very healthy and has increased from a low of 3,000 birds in the early 1900s to more than 320,000 today. Pennsylvania' s first spring gobbler season was held in 1968. An estimated 1,600 gobblers were taken in the six-day season. In 1972, spring gobbler season expanded to two weeks; in 1975, three weeks; in 1984, four weeks.

About 250,000 hunters head afield during the spring gobbler season. Success varies for these hunters, depending upon which turkey management unit they hunt in, weather and hunter experience.

Hunters are encouraged to scout for turkeys before season. Key on areas providing food and cover and then look for turkey sign. Areas with residual acorns on the ground; spring seeps where vegetation greens up early; southern slopes; hemlock thickets and woodlots bordering farms are all worth checking. In agricultural areas, gobblers like to work along the edges of fields feeding and displaying for potential mates. However, hunters are reminded to obtain landowner permission prior to scouting or hunting.

During the spring season, hunters are permitted to harvest one gobbler, or bearded bird. The beard must be seen on the bird’s chest. Legal hunting hours are one-half hour before sunrise until noon. Hunters should be out of the woods by 1 p.m.

Legal sporting arms are: shotguns plugged to three-shell capacity in the chamber and magazine combined; muzzleloading shotguns; and bows with broadhead arrows of cutting-edge design. Shot size can be no larger than No. 4 lead, bismuth-tin and tungsten-iron, or No. 2 steel. Rifle-shotgun combinations also may be used, but no single-projectile ammunition may be used or carried.

Carrying or using rifles, handguns, dogs, electronic callers, drives and live decoys is unlawful. The use of blinds is legal so long as it is an “artificial or manufactured turkey blind consisting of all manmade materials of sufficient density to block the detection of movement within the blind from an observer located outside the blind.”

Hunters are required to wear a minimum of 100 square inches of fluorescent orange material when moving through the woods. The orange may be removed when a hunter reaches his or her calling destination, but it is recommended that hunters wrap an orange alert band around a nearby tree when calling and/or using decoys.

Successful hunters must properly tag harvested turkeys and report their harvest to the Game Commission in Harrisburg within 10 days, using the postage-paid report card provided when they purchased their hunting license. On the report card, hunters must identify from which Turkey Management Area the bird was taken, as well as the township and county.

Coyotes may be harvested by turkey hunters. However, turkey hunters who have harvested a spring gobbler may not hunt coyotes or any other species prior to noon Monday through Saturday during the spring gobbler season