OR / WA Spring Turkey Season

unplugged · Mar 4, 2012

There are areas in the NW where turkeys are shy and behave more like pheasants. The ones I encountered in Fl were hard to get close to unless you were in a car.

I have a house in Packwood and feel the same way about the elk as john5335 does about turkeys except they are starting to make me nervous. A couple of years ago there were 3 big bulls that would stand on one side of the (small) street while I walked down the other side. Once two of them were across the street and in my path, I didn't want to walk the necessary distance around them that I would feel comfortable with so I picked up a hand full of gravel and threw it at them hitting them. They just stared me down. I walked aroune. The day before bow season the biggest one tore up a tent and butted a car.

They have become more that pests. In some areas where I walk the undergrowth is gone and the ground is dust. We need a major heard thinning!

hermannr · Mar 11, 2012

Blitzkrieg said:
Can anyone answer as to whether they are out on the Olympic Peninsula? And if not would it be practical to attempt to seed them? Can they survive yotes, wild dogs and cougars? I have land there in and over a small valley

What the Turkeys can't survive is the rain when they are nesting. If you are in one of those places that has dryer weather (especially in spring) you could give it a try.

Blitzkrieg · Mar 11, 2012

Domestic turkeys are so dumb they will stand with open beaks and look up at strong rain and drown

Crispy · Mar 11, 2012

Heck yeah I am getting in on this season! Private property in Eastern WA. No stories yet, hopefully will have pics from my trip!

Blitzkrieg · Mar 12, 2012

hermannr said:
What the Turkeys can't survive is the rain when they are nesting. If you are in one of those places that has dryer weather (especially in spring) you could give it a try.

My place is on the East side of the Olympic Peninsula.. east of the Hoh rain forest that gets 300 inches of rain a year

hermannr · Mar 12, 2012

Blitzkrieg said:
My place is on the East side of the Olympic Peninsula.. east of the Hoh rain forest that gets 300 inches of rain a year

Guess you'll have to be the only turkey there then...

By fall, we usually have something in the neighbohood of 30 or 40 turkeys in our yard on a regular basis, one of my neighbors (1/2 mile away) was feeding them but stopped, she couldn't do anything in her yard becasue of their leavings...last year we had a very wet spring (for here) and I only saw about a dozen turkeys all summer and fall.

I have a little grove of small fir out front, with an opening in it. Last spring a tom tried to set up shop there, but it was just too wet, no customers. (we had about 13" of rain last year here at our house)