Outdoors With Brock Ray

                                                                        Signs that spring turkey season is at hand

When the days become noticeably longer, and pastel green buds begin peaking through the drab grey mantle of the woodlands, you know that spring turkey hunting season is close at hand. Professional drivers have the best and worse when it comes to hunting these wary game birds. If you’re a long distance driver, you pass millions of acres of public hunting land where the wild turkey is abundant. Unfortunately, finding the kind of time we all wish we had to hunt these birds is rare.

Wild turkeys are found throughout the United States. There are four subspecies of these game birds: the Eastern, Merriam, Rio Grande and Osceola that all look quite the same in most respects. Eastern wild turkeys are found primarily east of the Mississippi River, but also found in the western edges of this great basin. Rio Grande turkeys are found in southwestern states like Texas and Arizona. Merriam wild turkeys are found mostly in the western states. The Osceola wild turkey is the rarest and found only in southern Florida

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