Huntin’ All Day Long

By: Bob Eriksen, NWTF Regional Biologist

The gobble came from three or four hundred yards away. I had been in position for more than two hours, dozing occasionally because things were pretty quiet. I adjust my face mask settled back against the large oak and yelped loudly on the mouth call. The response was instant. Fifteen minutes later a trio of nice toms made their way in to my set-up. They had gobbled perhaps ten or twelve times on the way in, enough to let me track their progress. They didn’t answer every call, but they made it clear they were interested. As I placed my tag on a fine three year old South Carolina gobbler, I glanced at my watch and it read 5:40 PM.

I have had the opportunity to hunt spring gobblers in the afternoon in South Carolina, Texas, and Montana. Many states in the south, Midwest and West allow spring turkey hunters to hunt all day. Some states have always provided all day hunting, others have made changes more recently. Hunters occasionally ask what the reason is for the noon closure of hunting hours in the northeastern states. As a state agency wild turkey biologist, I designed spring hunting seasons and wrote regulations for two states. Both states had a noon closure. I grew up turkey hunting in Pennsylvania and remember when the hunting hours for the spring season closed at 10 AM. In 1973, the hours were lengthened to close at 11 AM and since 1990, hunters have been able hunt until noon.

Much of the rationale for half day hunts in the spring is tradition based on the conservative regulations that were developed when spring hunting was a new option in this part of the country. Biologists and hunters like to approach the harvest of wildlife conservatively. That is a wise approach until good data is available and you have some experience with a newly designed season. Back in the 1960’s when several mid-Atlantic states opened spring seasons, biologists made the assumption that a noon or earlier closure would reduce the potential for over-harvest and result in less disturbance of breeding and nesting activities. Without hard data on hen nesting behavior, we believed that hens might be more active in seeking food in the afternoon so they might need an extra measure of protection from disturbance and accidental harvest. We biologists sold the idea of conservative spring hunting hours very well to the hunting public.

Today 49 states and the province of Ontario offer spring gobbler hunting opportunity. Twenty-eight states allow all-day spring hunting and 21 states limit hunting hours to 12 noon or 1 PM. Virginia is the most recent convert to all-day hunting. In 2004, the Virginia Game Department began to allow spring hunters to hunt all-day in the last two weeks of their five week season. Ontario is considering liberalizing the spring hunting hours for next year.

States with all-day hunting report that 10 to 25 percent of the harvest occurs in the afternoon. They cannot say for sure whether the afternoon harvest increases the number of gobblers that might have been taken if hunting hours closed at noon. However, they speculate that afternoon hunting might result in a 10 to 15 percent increase in the harvest if a state changed regulations to allow all-day hunting. Afternoon hunting might increase the harvest of gobblers in Pennsylvania by 10 percent. Studies have shown that the harvest of gobblers in the spring has little impact on population levels in subsequent years. Increased hunting mortality among gobblers in the Keystone State would not have detrimental impacts on the turkey population.

Another concern about all-day hunting is the potential impact on nesting hens. Allowing hunters to be afield all day would increase the number of hens flushed from nests. West Virginia biologists reported that lengthening shooting hours from noon to 1 PM resulted in an increase from 7.8 to 11.2 percent in the number of hunts in which hens were flushed. So, an increase in hunting hours would likely increase the disturbance of hens here too. Would the increase be significant? That’s hard to say, but the Pennsylvania spring season is timed to occur when hens are laying or incubating. The season opens later than the West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia, Ohio and New Jersey seasons. The later opening date provides an extra measure of protection to hens that helps keep impacts of nest disturbance to a minimum. Hens flushed from their nests are much less likely to abandon if they have begun to incubate eggs. Even so, most hens that abandon after disturbance by a predator or hunter will attempt to re-nest.

Some hunters worry about the potential for “roost shooting” of turkeys associated with all-day hunting. States in which all-day hunting is legal do not report significant problems with illegal activity. Thirteen states have regulations prohibiting roost shooting and the others do not. Interestingly, many states with all-day spring hunting have no law regulating the shooting of turkeys on the roost. These states do not indicate that roost shooting is a major concern. I have turkey hunted for many years and can count on one hand the number of times that I have accidentally moved in close enough to a roosted gobbler to have him within shotgun range. Of course, I am not trying to get that close! Turkeys will flush from the limb in near-darkness if anyone approaches too closely. Roost shooting is just not all that easy to accomplish. Regulations prohibiting the practice can be passed by the Game Commission and enforced by wildlife conservation officers.

What about hunting pressure? Will afternoon hunting make gobblers all the more wary and keep them quiet? This issue has not been studied extensively, but hunter surveys in states with longer hunting hours do not indicate any dissatisfaction with the amount of gobbling among their hunters. Usually about 20 percent of spring hunters take advantage of the afternoon hunting option. Most do not hunt every day because of other obligations.

Why would the Pennsylvania Game Commission consider extending spring hours? The main reason to consider such a change would be to increase recreational opportunity for spring hunters. Hunters who must get to work early in the morning have little opportunity to hunt before work in the spring. Such hunters would benefit from an increase in the length of shooting hours and might be able to hunt a couple of extra times a season instead of being restricted to Saturday mornings.

Young hunters would be able to hunt after school instead of rising early and falling asleep on their desks during the spring season. This would provide adult hunters with more opportunities to take young hunters out when hunting would not interfere with school and other activities. The change in hunting hours might increase the chances of hunter retention. Give children more opportunity to hunt at convenient times and more of them might stick with the sport. Allowing some hunters the chance to get out in the afternoon or evening might actually reduce hunting pressure in the morning to the relief of morning hunters.

When you think about the option of all-day hunting and develop an opinion of the idea, remember your own experiences. Gobblers will always be more active and gobble better in the morning than in the afternoon, though some afternoons can be great. A morning hunt can be more than seven hours long if you hunt till noon! Hunting all day can make for a really long day. Most hunters still prefer to hunt in the morning if the afternoon option exists, I know I do. But would it be good to have the option available? Remember that most of us would hunt in the afternoon only when we had a day off, had to work early or were hunting away from home. In the long haul, you might be less tired toward the end of the season if you hunted a couple of afternoons a week instead of every morning.

The option of all-day spring hunting is being reviewed in several northeastern and mid-Atlantic states. It will be interesting to see how the issue develops over the next couple of years. Wild turkey biologists have relaxed a number of regulations about spring hunting such as restrictions on decoy use in certain states, bag limits and lengthening shooting hours. As biologists learned more about the impacts of spring hunting, they were able to make changes to provide more opportunity to hunters. This process has taken place throughout turkey range and will continue unless negative impacts are observed.