While fall turkey hunting isn’t as popular as chasing spring longbeards, hunters in many states find pursuing these birds in the late season a fun and challenging hunt.
Mention turkey hunting to most folks and they immediately think of the gobbling longbeards of spring. But, for hunters in 42 states and a few Canadian provinces, there’s another season for chasing turkeys.
Fall turkey hunting doesn’t get the hype the spring season does, but turkey hunting actually started out as a fall pursuit.
Steve Hickoff, author of Fall & Winter Turkey Hunter’s Handbook and Realtree.com’s turkey hunting editor, started his turkey-hunting career on fall birds. “The turkey-hunting tradition has its roots in autumn and winter hunting,” he explained. “Before the notion of ‘spring is for beards, fall is for antlers’ came about, flock-seeking sportsmen sought out their game during the woodstove months. Back then, there was a prevailing notion that taking a breeding-minded gobbler in the spring was easy, even unfair.
“A Pennsylvania native, I first hunted wild turkeys in 1971. As a kid, I remember old-timers (guys my age now!) talking about how turkey hunting in the spring was just flat-out wrong. They were all avid fall turkey hunters. Back then, Pennsylvania had legalized spring turkey hunting only in 1968.”
Thanksgiving is a beloved American holiday centered around food family, and gratitude. The traditional main course is turkey and many families serve a turkey dinner complete with stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie. But where does this tradition of eating turkey on Thanksgiving come from?
The History Behind the Turkey Tradition
The first Thanksgiving in 1621 included wild turkey on the menu. The colonists at Plymouth and the Wampanoag Indians who joined them dined on venison, lobster, goose, and of course, wild turkey. Hunting wild turkey in the fall was common for the colonists and natives. When Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863, the tradition of eating turkey for the celebratory meal was already well established.
Can You Still Hunt Turkey Today for Thanksgiving?
While the first Thanksgiving included wild-caught turkey, today most Thanksgiving turkeys come from commercial farms. However, regulated fall turkey hunting seasons allow hunters in many states to still harvest a wild turkey for their Thanksgiving feasts.
Timing of Fall Turkey Seasons
Fall turkey seasons vary by state but generally run from late September through December. Season dates are set to avoid overlap with nesting seasons, allow for sufficient hunting opportunities, and manage wild turkey populations. Many states intentionally schedule certain fall turkey hunting days around the Thanksgiving holiday to allow hunters to source wild turkey for their family meals.
For example, New York recently expanded fall turkey hunting season in some regions to include Thanksgiving day. This gives hunters the chance to bag a Thanksgiving bird but also helps control the wild turkey population that has been growing exponentially in New York.
How to Hunt Wild Turkey in the Fall
Spring turkey hunting focuses on calling to elusive gobblers during breeding season. In the fall, the tactics shift to hunting whole flocks of birds. Common tips for a successful fall turkey hunt include:
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Scouting for signs like feathers, droppings, dust baths, scratchings, and roosts to locate turkey flocks.
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Using flock calls like kee-kees, clucks, and yelps to draw in groups after roosting or scattering them.
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Targeting lone stray birds that are more receptive to calls.
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Being properly camouflaged and still when birds approach.
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Using decoys to attract feeding or regrouping flocks.
Is Wild Turkey Better for Thanksgiving?
Wild turkey has a richer, more dynamic taste than commercial turkey. The lean meat has a pleasantly gamey flavor. The free-ranging diet and active lifestyle of wild birds affect the flavor profile. Smaller wild hens tend to be especially tasty. Serving wild turkey demonstrates tradition, self-reliance, and culinary sophistication.
How to Prepare and Cook Wild Turkey
Once harvested, wild turkey should be field dressed immediately. It can be prepared similarly to domestic turkey by roasting or frying. Adjust cook times slightly shorter for smaller wild birds. Take extra care to avoid drying out the naturally lean meat. Ideal techniques include brining, barding, and cooking to just 165°F internal temperature. Letting the meat rest is also important. Enjoy your wild Thanksgiving turkey!
How It’s Different Than Spring Hunts
While fall turkey hunting requires much of the same gear as the spring season, the later season’s hunting strategies might seem a bit odd to hunters used to calling to gobblers during the breeding season. Unlike the small flocks and individual longbeards of spring, fall turkeys tend to travel in large groups, often a mix of mature hens, nearly grown poults of the year and sometimes young or even mature gobblers. These flocks have one thing on their mind: filling their stomachs and putting on as much weight as possible before the coming winter. Keying on food sources like harvested or standing crop fields, mast-producing hardwoods and seed- and insect-rich grasslands can be good bets for locating fall birds.
Many hunters take advantage of the flock’s natural desire to stay together this time of year by locating and scattering the flocks, then sitting quietly and calling to draw the birds back together. “As strategies go, there are two primary fall turkey hunting approaches,” said Hickoff. “You can passively wait for patterned wild turkeys to show up in range or actively find a flock and attempt to scatter them. This traditional find-and-flush approach is full of action. Flocked-up turkeys want to be together, so you can scatter birds, then set up to try and call them to your position. I love it as much as spring turkey hunting!”
While hen yelps, clucks and purrs dominate the spring turkey hunter’s vocabulary, fall calling can be more complex.
“In short, fall call like the turkey you want to kill,” said Hickoff. “If you’re hunting a family flock of scattered birds, a kee-kee or kee-kee-run can work to pull one in. The brood hen, on the other hand, is less likely to come to your plain hen clucks and yelps, as her focus is on keeping her juvenile charges assembled—and you probably want to leave her be anyway. However, if it’s a group of brood-less hens you’re chasing and either-sex fall birds are legal where you hunt, then hen yelps and clucks you used in spring to lure gobblers will work now for these birds.
“As autumn male-only flocks go, use gobbler calls: low-pitched clucks, deep, raspy yelps, gobbles and even fighting purrs can stir things up. You can also call up an entire intact flock using vocalizations of the birds in that group.”
How to Hunt and Kill a Raw Vegan Turkey (Thanksgiving Special)
FAQ
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Should you eat turkey on Thanksgiving?
For those committed to eating turkey on Thanksgiving but are squeamish about hunting, don’t have a license or the time to hunt, or don’t know a hunter who can give them some of their meat, Shaw says heritage birds are the next best thing.
Do turkeys Hunt in the fall?
Before their population declined, wild turkeys were typically hunted only in the fall. When the spring seasons were introduced, fall turkey hunting became less pursued. In recent years, as populations have climbed and then stabilized, many states reintroduced fall turkey seasons. Currently, more than 40 states have a fall season.
Are turkeys difficult to hunt?
Often called the last real hunt in America, turkey hunting is notoriously difficult: The birds have great eyesight and travel in flocks. “When deer hunting, you have two eyes to worry about that don’t see color,” says Jen “The Archer” Cordaro, a bow hunter from San Diego. “With turkeys, there are 30 eyes to worry about, which see in color.
Should you hunt Your Own Birds for Turkey Day?
For months, hunters across the country have plotted to kill their own birds for Turkey Day rather than buying an enormous Butterball from the store. And with good reason: Though hunting may seem counterintuitive for animal lovers, it can be a more eco-friendly and humane option for Thanksgiving feasts.