Spring Turkey Hunting For Fun and Profit

By Burt Rutherford

It began as a gobble so faint, it was barely distinguishable in the daybreak twitters and tweets as the Eastern Panhandle turkey woods woke up. “Did you hear that?” I whispered to Gerald Sitton, taxidermist and hunting guide with Salt Fork Outfitters of Wellington, Texas.

Gerald’s answer was to hit the slate call again. Hard. His hen yelps rocked the early morning and this time, there was no mistake. “Get ready,” Gerald whispered back. “He’s a’comin’.”

Time takes on a different cadence in the springtime dawn of the turkey woods. The human-imposed restraints of minutes and hours are, in fact, meaningless when a big gobbler struts his stuff, puffing and drumming in hopes that the hen decoys will be impressed. The sights and the sounds and the heart-thumping excitement of a spring turkey hunt are unparalleled in a hunter’s world, and they are adding extra dollars to the bottom line of many Texas landowners.

Hunting is “a big part, a really big part” of the annual income for Quincy Weatherly, rancher, farmer and owner of Salt Fork Outfitters. “To me, it pays the bills.”  Weatherly primarily runs stocker cattle in a grazing operation that backgrounds yearlings prior to a trip to the feedyard. “I’d say I make 25 percent of my income total, if not a bit more” from hunting, Weatherly says. “I have to have it to function.”  

And spring turkey hunting is a big part of the mix of hunting opportunities he offers his clients. “It’s a big money maker,” he says of spring turkey hunting. “It’s probably second in line behind white-tailed deer.” Weatherly also offers quail, dove and exotic hunting, but his take-home, keep-the-banker-happy paycheck comes from deer and turkey hunters.

He likes turkey hunting for several reasons, the first being that he likes to hunt. And for a pure hunting experience, a spring gobbler is hard to top. Dr. Dale Rollins, Extension wildlife specialist in San Angelo, describes it like this: “I often say that, compared with turkey hunting, deer hunting is black and white reruns of C-SPAN. And turkey hunting is MTV in Technicolor. It’s that much different.”

Indeed it is. In addition, “there’s really nothing else going on at that time, so it works really well. It fills a little gap there,” Weatherly says.

But mostly, Weatherly likes spring turkey hunting because he can depend on the birds being there, year in and year out. “For me, they’re a reliable source of income.” You can do everything within your power for quail, he says, but if you don’t get spring rains, they don’t have a good hatch and you don’t get the hunters.

“I’ve never seemed to have a problem with having turkeys, though. There are always gobblers out there. With quail, you’re depending on the hatch. With turkeys, you’re depending that there are some old birds out there. And if you manage for them and don’t shoot everything every year, you’ll have them.”  

Cattle and wildlife habitat

Weatherly manages around 3,500 acres of his own land for both agricultural and wildlife production, and leases the hunting rights on about that much more habitat. He finds that managing for both cattle and wildlife isn’t a major problem.

“It all kind of works together, if a guy will let it. We farm wheat and I have to have the wheat for the cattle. Then, in turn, I need the wheat for the deer and the turkeys. So it all kind of runs together.”

Plus, with yearlings, he has plenty of flexibility to move cattle as grass dictates. “We’ve got parts of fields that I can shove cattle off at certain times of the year, rotate them around. And we try not to overgraze anything so I have quail and turkey nesting cover.” On some properties, he actively manages for turkey production. On other places, they’re there whether he wants them or not. “As long as you’ve got trees and water and a little feed, the turkeys will be there.”  

Spring hunting

And so will the hunters, which Gene Miller says is a good thing indeed. Miller, an avid turkey hunter and technical guidance biologist with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department in Canyon, agrees with Weatherly that spring turkey hunting is a sound addition to a landowner’s wildlife and agricultural mix.

“Spring turkey hunting happens at a time of the year when no other hunting is going on and it’s a chance for landowners to diversify and add to their overall farm and ranch income,” he says. It’s also a biologically safe enterprise. “All of the gobblers are basically surplus after they’re done breeding. So it’s a sound practice in terms of being a good steward, because that’s a harvestable, renewable, sustainable wildlife resource.”  

And the money it generates for a landowner, whether he or she handles the hunters or leases to a guide and outfitter, can be important. There may be some limiting factors on the ranch, such as brush management or additional fencing to refine a grazing program or additional water development that could improve the aesthetics as well as the overall habitat quality of the property.

“Maybe spring turkey hunting has the potential to generate enough income to serve as that landowner’s portion of the cost-share necessary to participate in one of these state or federally-funded habitat programs that helps him further improve the landscape.”  

That has dual benefits, Miller says, for livestock and wildlife alike. “Maybe it’s money to do permanent fireguards or conduct a prescribed burn,” management practices that improve the landscape for all animals. “So that’s another way to help make the world go around for that rancher.”

Market potential

Turkey hunting is one of the most popular and fastest-growing types of hunting in the United States, according to the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF), with nearly 2.6 million sportsmen and women who consider themselves turkey hunters. Texas is the second-largest state in the turkey hunting universe, according to a 2003 NWTF study, with nearly 74,000 turkey hunters.

Hunters are attracted to spring turkey hunting for a variety of reasons, the NWTF study found, with most saying they hunt primarily for recreation and to spend time with family and friends. Since putting a gobbler in the bag isn’t the main motivation for turkey hunters, they tend to get a lot of enjoyment from their spring turkey hunting experience, with 39 percent rating spring turkey hunting as much or somewhat more enjoyable than other hunting activities. And 49 percent rated their enjoyment of spring turkey hunting the same as their enjoyment of other hunting activities.

That enjoyment leads to satisfaction. Eighty-one percent of spring turkey hunters surveyed were very or somewhat satisfied with their spring turkey hunting experience.

And enjoyment and satisfaction leads to hunters laying their money down to pursue their sport. The 2003 NWTF study revealed that turkey hunters spent an estimated $1.8 billion on gear alone for the thrill of seeing a gobbler. Dividing that by the estimated number of turkey hunters in the U.S. reveals each hunter spends an average of nearly $700 to equip him or herself to go turkey hunting. And that’s not counting the money spent on food, lodging, gas and leases or payments to outfitters.

What’s more, it appears that turkey hunting is a growth industry. “Based on the study, spring turkey hunting appears to be the next big thing in hunting,” says Tammy Bristow Sapp, NWTF’s vice president of communications. “The study shows that most spring turkey hunters have hunted turkeys for fewer than 12 years, a short time relative to how long most hunters have been hunting in general. This, and the fact that most hunters are spring turkey hunting an average of 7.6 days every year, suggests a young, dedicated hunting movement with lots of growth potential for the future.”  

That’s good news for Texas landowners, Miller says, because the Lone Star State is a prime destination for hunters looking to harvest a Rio Grande bird as part of a Grand Slam — harvesting one each of the five major subspecies of wild turkeys — the Osceola found in south Florida; the Rio Grande; Eastern; Merriam’s; and Gould’s.

The Texas landscape provides a home for the largest population of Rio Grande wild turkeys in the country. “Since we have such tremendous populations, especially in Central Texas, the Lower Rolling Plains and areas of South Texas, there are many opportunities for landowners to develop spring turkey hunting enterprises.”  

And now Texas has the added dimension of a new population of Eastern wild turkeys, thanks to restoration efforts by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, National Wild Turkey Federation, landowners and sportsmen. “We’re now hunting them in 40 some-odd counties. Parts of East Texas have all the right ingredients to become yet another good turkey hunting destination for many people in years to come.”

Perpetuate the ethic

But it’s more than that. Not only does Miller care deeply about the land and the people and animals that live on it, he has a deep appreciation for the special connection that exists between hunters, other outdoor users and private owners who, by their actions, can perpetuate a land stewardship ethic in Texas. “It is important for us to acknowledge the unique bond that exists between people who own and manage land for production of natural wildlife and their provision of access to Texans for sport hunting and other appreciative uses like hiking, birding and camping.”

And it doesn’t matter whether people want to appreciate wildlife through binoculars, a camera lens or down the barrel of a shotgun, Miller says. “If spring turkey hunting is another way to get youth, which are the future of hunting and wildlife conservation in Texas, excited about seeing the diversity of wildlife out there on the landscape, so be it.”

Enhancing that appreciation is important, Miller says, because Texas is becoming more and more urbanized. “We have this disconnect (among many Texans) between natural wildlife and production of food and fiber. We’re not rural anymore,” and what seems intuitive to many rural folks, like the concept that good land management can benefit livestock production and wildlife habitat, is lost on many urbanites, as is an appreciation of the hunting tradition.

Hunting, especially spring turkey hunting, can help bridge that gap, he says. “Maintaining a sense (with our younger generation) of who we are and where we came from, and relating that to an understanding about land management, agriculture and the fact that wildlife is a natural byproduct of the landscape, is one of the most important messages we can deliver.” It also relates to the traditions of Texas, he says, respect for private land, private property rights and good stewardship of resources. “It’s like threads in one big ball of twine that weave and fit together.”  

And the lockstitch gets snugged up tight as day breaks in the turkey woods and a big gobbler rocks his world with the announcement of his availability. “Some people get their thrill from harvesting a big desert bighorn ram or a really nice white-tailed buck or seeing a covey of birds flushing in front of some good quail dogs or with waterfowl circling on the wing coming into a decoy spread or catching a big largemouth bass,” Miller says. And as one who has done some of those things, he fully appreciates the soul-satisfying potential of the experience.