Tuesday, April 15, 2003

Gobblers have early-season edge

By MARK TAYLOR
THE ROANOKE TIMES

    Silence and gobbles.

    Spring turkey hunters have heard some of both - but mostly the former - during the first two days into the spring season. As is so often the case, it has been a matter of being in the right place at the right time.

    I covered some ground in the national forest near Arcadia on Saturday morning and didn't hear a thing. Several other hunters I spoke to offered similar, disappointing reports from their hunts in the northern Botetourt County area.

    Things were apparently a little different in Craig County.

    Though mid-morning Monday, The Hunter's Den in New Castle had checked in 26 gobblers.

    "That's good," Hunter's Den owner Ellen Horn said. "It's a little more than last year."

    Being ahead of last year's pace isn't a bad thing. Last year's statewide kill of 18,345 birds was an all-time record.

    "There have been some nice birds," Horn said of this year's kill, "including some 21- and 22-pounders."

    The biggest of the bunch was a gobbler taken by Paris Parsons in the Sinking Creek area Monday. It weighed 22 pounds, 5 ounces and had a 10 1/2 -inch beard and 1-inch spurs.

    At Southeastern Outdoor Supplies between Collinsville and Martinsville, Jonathan Hundley said he'd heard a lot of complaints about the wind from hunters on opening day.

    "It was rough," Hundley said. "People couldn't hear."

    Still, the store checked in 18 birds on Saturday.

    "That's two more than last year," Hundley said.

    The opening-day harvest often can set the tone for the season's total kill because it typically accounts for a large percentage of the total number. Last year's opening-day count was 15 percent of the total take.

    Check stations typically stay busy during the first week of the season as hunters pinpoint gobblers then figure the wily birds out. Last year, more than half of the gobblers taken were killed during the first seven hunting days of the season.

    One of the more interesting complaints I've heard since the season started had nothing to do with shut-mouth gobblers or bothersome breezes.

    "I hate deer," friend and occasional hunting partner Freddy McGuire from Goodview told me.

    Hunting with his wife, Amy, McGuire was successfully calling in some gobblers Saturday when four deer cut between them and the birds. The deer got within 10 yards before smelling the couple and bolting - right toward the turkeys.

    "It's the only reason she didn't kill a bird," said McGuire, who's on the pro staff for Primos Hunting Calls.

    I don't feel too sorry for them. The two have already had some incredible out-of-state hunts this spring. Monday morning McGuire called in a gobbler for a visiting friend during a hunt in Bedford County. The bird turned out to be huge, weighing 24 pounds, with an 11 1/2 -inch beard and 1 3/8 -inch spurs. McGuire even managed to get the exciting hunt on videotape.

    "If I had a better camera it could have ended up on the 'Truth 14,'" McGuire joked, referring to an annual video series produced by Primos.

    Instead, McGuire will probably settle for publishing the clip on his excellent Internet site (vaturkey.com).

    McGuire said he thinks hunting conditions generally have been tough because many gobblers currently are preoccupied with real hens. He's hearing a little gobbling from roosting birds, but not much after the turkeys hit the ground. He believes things will improve over the next couple of weeks.

    "It's only going to get better," he said.

    From my vantage point, I think he's right.

    NATIONAL FOREST PLAN: How do you manage 723,000 acres of public land to best serve a wide range of people and their interests?

    That's the challenge facing the U.S. Forest Service as it works on its plan for managing the Jefferson National Forest, which stretches for more than 200 miles across Virginia.

    Forest officials recently completed a proposed, revised land and resource management plan for what's often referred to as "The Jeff." Now they're seeking public comments on the plan.

    The document isn't something you'll be able to review over breakfast one morning. It's 1,342 pages long. The Forest Service also has prepared summaries of the plan that are much more digestible.

    Copies of the plan are available online at southernregion.fs.fed.us/gwj/forestplan, on CD and, in limited quantities, in hard copy. Requests for CDs or the hard copy should be mailed to the agency's office at 5162 Valleypointe Parkway, Roanoke, Va. 24019-3050. Copies also will be available at many public libraries in the region, as well as at all Forest Service offices.

    The Forest Service also is holding an open house to discuss the plan from 6-9 p.m. Thursday at the Roanoke office. For more information call 265-5100.

    ART FOR THE ENVIRONMENT: Gallery 108 in Roanoke will hold its second annual benefit auction for the the Roanoke River Group of the Sierra Club on Saturday.

    The fine artwork up for bid will be on display at the Earth Day celebration area at the SunTrust Plaza and at the gallery, which is on the corner of Salem Avenue and Market Street. Bids may be made at either location from 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

    For more information on the art, contact Susan Egbert at the gallery at 982-4278. For more information on the Sierra Club, contact Bob Egbert at 384-7448 or rsegbert@adelphia.net.

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