1. Wild turkey breaks into Rhode Island woman’s home

There is something magical about rattling a big deer close enough to shoot with either a rifle or a bow.

It can happen in the blink of an eye, and the hunter has to be prepared to make a split-second decision on whether to shoot or not.

It is not easy, and in most places that are not South Texas, hunters seldom get to see the cream of the crop come in.

Calling in a turkey during the spring season, which opens Saturday in South Zone, April 4 in North Zone and April 15 in East Texas, is much the same challenge. It might be even harder because in the real world calling in a gobbler is completely opposite of what happens in the wild where a hen goes to the tom.

It seldom happens instantly, though, and the approaching gobbler is often anything but stealth. It is more likely to come in with all the bluster of a marching band.

That would be normal and on a good day. Turkeys being turkeys, there are also mornings they will gobble their brains out from the roost, but then hit the ground and never make another sound as they walk away in the opposite direction.

It is on those mornings that just about the time a hunter is ready to give up and move, another old tom comes waltzing in from another direction.

Watching and waiting on any gobbler to get into shotgun range of 25 yards or less creates the same chest-thumping, hand-shaking buck fever that a big deer can, especially those last few steps. Making it even more challenging is that a turkey has much better eyesight and hearing than a deer. The slightest movement or sound and an hours’ work can be over.

I have been on both ends, victory and defeat, when it comes to calling turkey. For a bird that isn’t considered the animal kingdom’s brightest, it is amazing how often it wins.

The last losing encounter was last spring in Concho County. The birds weren’t gobbling like they should have in early May. The toms, both young and old, were still in groups and gobbling activity was limited, but I got on one bunch of five that was vocal.

Thinking I was in the perfect location no matter which way the birds came after flying down from their roost, I began yelping back and forth with my box call to their gobbling. Slowly they made their move toward me, gobbling almost continuously along the way.

Even before I could actually see the birds, I felt I had them on a string and quit calling. They continued to gobble and move closer.

Then there they were. Close enough to see everything about them, but just outside range. I had my gun to my shoulder ready for the biggest of the birds to move five yards closer. That five yards might as well have been a mile because they never came any closer. They stood and gobbled for a few minutes, and without seeing a hen, they turned and walked off unscathed through the woods.

Had I not won an earlier encounter with a gobbler in East Texas, I really would have felt the agony of defeat. In this case I just chalked it up to the birds’ turn to come out on top, and still considered it a great morning.

Calling turkeys is not difficult, but it does require more skill than sitting in a blind. The key is to know where they are roosting the night before and then move within a 100 or 200 yards of that site in the dark the next morning. A good location is one that does not have any obstacles like a creek or fence between the roost and blind.

Turkeys are very vocal, but hunters can typically get more just by learning a hen’s yelp, cackle and maybe a purr, then use it sparingly once the tom starts responding.

When the bird is approaching it is important to be concealed, don’t make noise and don’t move.

Hunters in the Rio Grande turkey range could have a good spring season.

“We should be looking at an average season,” said Jason Hardin, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s turkey program leader. “We had fair production this past summer and the summer of 2012. Hunters should see a decent numbers of jakes and 3-year-old gobblers. There was decent production in 2013 in the eastern portion of the Rio range, but less in the central and western ranges.”

Hardin added turkey numbers are coming back in the Panhandle as well where they have been decimated by drought in recent years.

Hunters could be facing a situation where the best hunting is early. Although breeding activity is triggered by the amount of daylight, soil moisture is also a factor for Rio Grande turkeys.

“There has been good soil moisture this winter. That should lead to early breeding activity since the hens will be in good condition with green weeds and grass beginning to emerge. If the wet weather continues we will be set for great production, but that remains to be seen,” Hardin said.