badshotbob

This will be my first season turkey hunting. Here in Michigan, we have three spring seasons - they all last 2 weeks each and start April 12, running through the end of May. MI has a lottery system to draw turkey permits. In order to get prime early season, one has to pick an area to hunt, and hope to get drawn for a permit for that area. The other option is to buy whats called a guaranteed tag which is only good for the last two weeks of season (May 1 - May 31) and covers quite a bit of the entire state, not just a certain area. My question is this: missing the first two "prime" weeks of the season, is this a bad thing or deosn't it really matter? Do turkeys have a prime "rut" so to speak, like deer do? Thanks for any input.

Also, dumb question maybe, but is wild turkey meat all dark?

snowdog2

I think there are better times and worse times to harvest a turkey throughout the spring turkey season, but any time you can hunt during the spring turkey season is a good time.

I've killed turkeys the first day of the season and the second to last day of the season, in late May. Surprisingly, that late May day featured three (scattered) toms gobbling from the roost, and my tom strutted and gobbled in a field (alone) for probably an hour or more before he strolled over.

I think early seasons are generally better because there's more birds and they haven't become as "hunter wise". But in some early seasons I've seen that the birds are still largely flocked up and not quite yet in their prime "rut." To me, there are many variables that go in to the equation of when a "prime rut" is for turkeys--weather, amount of daylight (the principal factor), temperature, number of birds, by age and by sex, harshness of the prior winter, and probably many more or other factors I'm unaware of, as well.

Overall, I prefer the earlier seasons, but that is mostly because I CAN'T WAIT!!
Having a greater area in a later season is better than not getting to go at all, in my opinion, especially if you find a quality area.

As far as eating, wild turkey is just like the commercial butterball turkey you buy in a grocery store, only far leaner, tastier and more satisfying, with both white and dark meat, IMO.

Borch

I've had good luck in the month of may. The toms are still eager and the hens are less of a problem. But like snowdog said, There are less of them and they are a bit more educated by then. A lot depends on hunting presure in the areas you plan to hunt. If there's not a lot of hunting pressure I wouldn't think twice about taking the guaranteed liscense.

God Luck!

Adrian J Hare

If I had apick it would be either the first week or the last week, There seems to be a time that turkeys are harder to hunt and here it tends to be the 2nd week. Seems after the presure the birds tend to slow, then they'll get used of the presure and , the hunters faid off, the birds seem to get sloppy again. With the amount of birds in MI I would think you wouldn't have trouble at all being succesfull the last week. Keep in mind that the last week will have bugs bad , if you can handle it , you'll have a hunt...BT