Archives for September 2014

A Thought about Learning Turkey

September 29, 2014 by Charlie Leave a Comment

Learning about turkey hunting is not to know everything about turkeys – It’s to enjoy life more.

This popped into my head while turkey dogging the other day. For those who don’t know about turkey dogging- that is when you hunt with a dog to flush and scatter flocks of turkeys in order to call them back. Anyway, I read and talk a lot about turkeys and their hunting so I’m not sure if this is something I read somewhere or an original random thought that flowed in from the spirit of the hunt. If someone knows who wrote or said that quote please leave a comment to credit them. Good hunting.

Take your dog turkey hunting. You’ll both be the better for it.

Wisconsin Wild Turkey Slam

September 15, 2014 by Charlie Leave a Comment

What is a Wisconsin Wild Turkey Slam?

During the fall 2007 wild turkey season it occurred to me Wisconsin has a turkey season during all seasons; spring, summer, fall

Spring gobbler

and winter, there is no end to the turkey hunting opportunities in Wisconsin. I’m sure some enterprising employee in the state’s tourism department will declare Wisconsin the “Wild Turkey Capital of the Nation” or maybe even the World! Hmm, perhaps that would not be good and I should post about the lack of turkeys on a opening weekend 2014? But I digress.

Summer turkey

Back to the Wisconsin Wild Turkey Slam.

In an effort to get away from the pressure of shooting the biggest, longest bearded and spurred turkey in the woods. Instead attempt to kill a turkey in every season of the year. The concept begin to glow and the more I thought about it the more I liked it. Nothing wrong with bagging the oldest, biggest and most dominate bird in the woods it’s just that “trophy hunting” sometimes does things to hunters and not all good. Above all hunting should be fun and if you are not having fun go do something else.

Here’s how the Wisconsin Slam Works:
Tag a turkey in each season- spring, summer, fall and winter in the same year, any wild turkey counts.
When the spring season is open it is spring, no question there.
Summer lasts until September 22 in 2014 so the window to get a summer turkey is opening day Sept. 13 to Sept. 21.
Fall starts Sept. 22 and continues to December 31. Lots of time to get the fall bird except there are many other distractions as in other things to hunt.
Winter starts December 21 and goes to the December 31 when the Wisconsin turkey season closes. Vic and I go a New Year’s Eve turkey every year.

You can double check my dates here.

Fall turkeys . Most turkey hunters do not realize toms gobble and respond to calls in the fall too.

Winter turkey

Why even do this slam?

In my case I became immersed in trophy deer hunting for a couple of decades and yep quite successful at it. Walls are full and there are boxes of big antlers in the shed. Same thing with spring bearded turkey hunting. Yes, I had lots of fun and I’m not about to discourage anyone from pursuing trophies. It is more of a personal thing for me as it slowly dawned on me that focusing like that was changing me and I did not like what that was doing to me, as in what I was becoming. Now a days I don’t compete in any hunting related contest. Rather I create my own goals. Humans need some goals for motivation and I’m no exception in that department.

Please remember while hunting – have fun however that is defined by you and only you.

Wisconsin Electronic Deer Registration

September 2, 2014 by Charlie 3 Comments

During Wisconsin’s 2014 deer seasons some hunters have been selected to test the new electronic deer registration system. These hunters can voluntarily use the pilot program to register their deer via internet or phone call in. They also have the option to continue in person registration.

Selected hunters may receive a survey about the electronic registration experience. The DNR will use the survey results along with the data from the 2014 registrations to fine tune the system so that it will be ready for all hunters starting in 2015.

Charlie elk is proud to have been selected for this test and looks forward to registering all his 2014 deer using the electronic registration. In person deer registration has always been extremely inconvenient; time/gas consuming and in some warm weather late night recovery situations just plain hard work. There are no direct roads to the registration stations where charlie hunts.

How did charlie get selected?

Not sure. charlie does kill more deer than the average hunter each fall. However charlie has no inside knowledge whether or not that was a factor. charlie never wins any drawing. Even if his name were to be placed in a hat 99 times with only 1 other entrant, that other would be drawn first. This was proven years ago at a MNDNR Advanced Hunter Rendezvous when 100 instructors names were drawn to determine the order of selecting from 100 paintings donated as instructor rewards. Guess what. charlie was picked number 100. They are all nice paintings and charlie’s hangs in a place of prominence just so charlie is always reminded he must work for everything he gets.

Perhaps a new day is starting with charlie’s luck and that world record big bugger better look out.

May your season provide a mindful of great hunting memories and check back for updates on e-registration.