Turkey hunt allure rivals bear, moose

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OLD TOWN – Call it beginner’s luck.

Zane Byron didn’t expect to shoot a wild turkey on the third morning of the season, but by 8 a.m. Wednesday, he was posing for a snapshot with an ungainly 14-pound bird in front of the Old Town Trading Post.

Byron’s first turkey hunt took all of 25 minutes.

“They were gobbling all around me this morning,” the Milford hunter said. “I started peeping [on a turkey call], and I saw him stick his head out looking for the hen … Once I knew what it was, my heart just started pounding.”

Byron’s experience is becoming increasingly common as Maine’s once-rare wild turkey continues to make a tremendous comeback.

Before 1977, wild turkeys hadn’t existed in Maine since the turn of the century. Today, with intensive management by state biologists, the population has swelled to about 20,000 birds, doubling in just the past two years, according to the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

Flocks as large as 100-strong can be seen wandering the farmlands of western Maine, whetting hunters’ appetites for the monthlong spring season, and a new fall archery season, scheduled to begin this year.

The spring season, limited to regions south and west of Lincoln, began Monday and will continue through June 1. The DIF&W has proposed Oct. 21 through Nov. 1 for the fall archery hunt, which will be restricted to a smaller region, south and west of Dedham.

Nearly 26,000 people applied for permits in this spring’s turkey lottery – a 44 percent increase over last year.

The number of lottery winners was capped at 9,000 this spring, a seventeenfold increase since hunting began in 1986.

Barring a catastrophic population crash, the upward trend is expected to continue for the foreseeable future, DIF&W spokesman Mark Latti said.

Along with the constantly increasing number of birds, the hunting success rate has nearly tripled in the past decade, peaking at 41 percent last spring, according to DIF&W survey data.

The turkey hunt can’t compete with the traditional white-tailed deer season, but the pastime is poised to overtake bear as Maine’s second-largest hunt. And unlike the state’s famed moose and bear hunts, which draw large numbers of out-of-state hunters, the vast majority of turkey hunters are Maine residents. Most states can now boast a native turkey population, Latti said.

“Turkey populations are booming throughout the lower 48 states,” James Powell, a spokesman for the National Wild Turkey Federation, said.

More than 2.6 million people nationwide participate in the growing sport, and more deer hunters are enticed to try turkey hunting every year.

George Feero of Old Town this week identified himself as a deer hunter who has become a “turkey nut.”

“You have to outsmart them,” said the hunter, who did not receive a permit this year, but stopped by the trading post Tuesday to see how others fared during the first week of turkey hunting season.

Feero isn’t alone in his newfound appreciation of the gawky bird, which Benjamin Franklin proposed as the United States’ national symbol.

“It’s just a big, imposing, majestic animal and it’s magnificently colored,” Powell said.

Wild turkeys are about the same size as domesticated species, topping out at about 25 pounds, but the wild birds are a heck of a lot smarter than a Butterball butchered for the Thanksgiving table, he said.

Wild turkeys roost high in the trees and have “phenomenally sharp eyesight and hearing.” Unlike their domesticated cousins, they can fly several miles and even swim short distances.

“A hunter is at a disadvantage any way you look at it,” Powell said. “You really have to be a woods person and a naturalist. You could spend a lifetime studying turkey habits.”

Turkey hunters can also spend several hundred dollars outfitting themselves with everything from a $5 turkey call to an expensive camouflage blind, said Sandy Hanson, co-owner of the Old Town Trading Post.

No specific studies of turkey hunters’ economic impact have been done by the state, but the lottery and license fees alone raised more than $319,000 this spring. It costs $5 for residents to enter the lottery and an additional $21 for a big-game license. For nonresidents, the figures are $10 and $87.

If each hunter dropped just $50 on turkey calls and decoys at a local outfitter, nearly a half-million dollars would be contributed to Maine’s economy.

“There’s always a new gadget to buy,” said Latti, who caught the turkey bug on his first hunt, but has recently been unsuccessful in the permit lottery. “You’re always looking for something that will give you a little extra edge.”

With decreasing interest in many outdoor sporting pursuits, a popular turkey hunt could give DIF&W that edge.

“It hasn’t plateaued yet,” Latti said. “As long as there’s a lottery, there will always be interest.”