Thursday, April 24, 2008
Where to hunt spring turkeys
Bill Cochran
Recent mail
BILL: I am new to the Roanoke area, and fairly new to turkey hunting, and I can’t find a decent place to hunt gobblers this spring. Any suggestion about finding a landowner willing to let me hunt?
C.S.
C.S.: With the spring gobbler season well under way, forget about private land. We are blessed in Virginia with an abundance of public hunting areas, and that is where I would recommend you address your efforts.
At the foremost is the George Washington and Jefferson National Forest. Maps are available at the supervisor’s office, 5162 Valleypointe Parkway in Roanoke. There are a couple million acres to choose from.
Thirty or so years ago, the national forest was the place to go for spring gobbler hunting. I killed my first several toms on forestland. Then hunting shifted to private land, leaving the national forest often under-hunted. Last year, nearly 900 toms were reported killed on national forest land. That figure could have been much higher with more hunting interest. I have seen a number of turkeys on national forest land this spring.
Virginia also has a number of wildlife management areas operated by the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. Good hunting can be found on a number of them. Gary Norman, DGIF turkey biologist recommends the following within a reasonable drive of Roanoke: Gathright, Goshen-Little North Mountain, Clinch Mountain, Fairystone and White Oak Mountain. Check the DGIF Web site for information on these.
BILL
BILL: Where’s last week’s column? You OK?
PENN
PENN: I stepped out of the way for a week to allow roanoke.com to exert its energies to covering the second anniversary of the shootings at Virginia Tech.
BILL
