OREGON GOBBLER OPS MAKE FOR GOOD MEMORIES

HUNTING

Oregon Turkey Ops Make Good Memories

How good is spring turkey hunting in Oregon? A midday trip with low expectations last year still yielded a pair of gobblers for author Troy Rodakowski and a friend, plus a chance for his daughter Reese to take a shot at a third with

With burgeoning Beaver State bird numbers, even midday outings can provide solid hunting.

By Troy Rodakowski

It’s that time again to chase gobbling turkeys throughout the state of Oregon. Mountain birds, valley birds, private ranch birds, ag birds and nuisance birds alike, turkeys have expanded their range across the state, and mild winters have also contributed to very robust populations on both sides of the Cascades. Turkeys provide quality hunting opportunities and experiences, like one I enjoyed in 2020.

DAUGHTER’S FIRST HUNT

Last season I was able to take a good friend as well as my 3-year-old daughter, Reese, on a very special hunt in the hills of Western Oregon. My daughter had been asking when she could come with me and wear her camo clothes. Of course, it was tough finding just the perfect day. “Daddy, do I get to put camo paint on my face like you?” was the question I kept getting from Reese, and of course she wanted to take her cap gun.

We finally found a midday hunt with warm 70-degree weather, so I packed snacks and water, dressed her in camo and painted her face. She was excited, to say the least. I was just hoping she would be able to make the hike up the hill to where I wanted to set up. My friend and I weren’t expecting a lot, considering the time of day, but we were very enthusiastic to

Now is a good time to practice with box and slate calls, and mouth diaphragms. “You don’t have to be a world champion or even close to a professional caller, but try your best to sound as much like a turkey as possible,” Rodakowski tips. (TROY RODAKOWSKI)

take Reese along on her first real hunt.

After getting all of our gear on, the three of us ascended upward into the lower Cascade foothills. It wasn’t far and I knew if we took a few breaks, my little girl would be able to make it without any problems. Finally we reached our place without complaint and I was promptly asked for some Gardetto’s to snack on. She loves those things.

TURKEY COUNTRY

Flocks have been expanding throughout the state of Oregon over the past decade and the Department of Fish & Wildlife has been increasing harvest opportunities, doing away with tag limits in fall and offering a spring bag limit of three birds over a month-and-a-half-long season.

SEASON DATES

Oregon youth turkey season*: April 10-11 General spring turkey season: April 15-May 31

*Youth hunters who do not fill their tag during the youth weekend may use their tag during the general spring season. –TR This is one of the most liberal turkey seasons in the country.

Northeast Oregon has some of the best “mountain bird” hunting in the state. We have concentrated near Elgin, Imbler and La Grande in the past with great success. I really enjoy the country over there and how much it reminds me of hunting elk.

There are also increasing numbers of turkey near Sisters, Tumalo and the outskirts of the Bend area. Flocks further to the east in Grizzly, Ochoco, John Day, White River, Murderers Creek, Ukiah, Sled Springs and northern portions of Paulina Units are also thriving. Mild winters have helped these populations increase. Many of these units have had 90-plus birds harvested the last couple springs.

If you plan to hunt the higher terrain, be prepared to cover some ground. Turkeys in the mountains are concentrating on finding fresh food and dispersing into the higher meadows where the snow has melted off. These Rios and Merriam’s tend to be more nomadic and are not as easy to pattern.

The same story holds true for flocks on the west side of the state. Douglas County continues to be the turkey capital of Oregon with excellent numbers over the past several years. ODFW continues to use birds from Southern Oregon during transplant efforts. Folks always ask where to look for turkeys on this side of the mountain and I always tell them to drive around small farm towns and communities that border the hills and have good oak savannah habitat. It usually doesn’t take long to find a few flocks. Then knocking on a few doors will usually get you permission pretty fast since turkeys can become a nuisance to landowners. In fact, 90 percent of the turkey hunting on the west side will be on private property.

Small towns like Philomath, Crow, Lorane, Drain, Curtin and Sutherlin have some excellent flocks on the ag land and outskirts. Bigger towns like Roseburg, Medford, Eagle Point and Grants Pass are also great places to look. There are also some great tracts of land on Bureau of Land Management, Weyerhaeuser and national forest in Southern Oregon. My advice is to look for good habitat that borders private lands.

Obtaining access is sometimes difficult with the new lease programs and making sure the lands are open is essential during the recent Covid pandemic. The best southern units over the last couple seasons have been Melrose, Applegate and Rogue,

all of which saw over 300 turkeys harvested apiece. ODFW is quick to point out that harvest numbers are likely above average due to increased participation during the pandemic.

TUNE-UP TIME

Make sure to take some time and practice your calling. You don’t have to be a world champion or even close to a professional caller, but try your best to sound as much like a turkey as possible. Watching YouTube videos or having a friend or family member who is an experienced caller help you can make a huge difference.

Simple box calls are easiest for beginners, and with just a little practice, slate calls can be mastered as well. Mouth diaphragms tend to take a bit more practice but are very effective, and best of all, they render a hunter’s hands free and ready to shoot.

REESE ‘GETS’ HER GOBBLER

With Reese, my friend and myself all situated and happy, I let out a sequence of yelps and was quickly interrupted by a nearby barrage of gobbles from multiple birds. I managed to call the turkeys in within a couple minutes, and my friend and I harvested two nice toms.

When the third bird came in, Reese asked, “Daddy, can I shoot him with my cap gun?”

I told her yes and Reese let the bird have it with a cap blast. It was pretty cute and a memory we all will never forget.

Indeed, no matter where you plan to hunt this spring, make sure to enjoy your trip in the Oregon turkey woods and make some memories that will last a lifetime. NS

Turkey are widespread across the state, with best populations in Southern Oregon and east of Mt. Hood, but they can also be found in good numbers in Willamette Valley and Northeast Oregon units. (TROY RODAKOWSKI)

Talkin’ Loads And More For Toms

Spring turkey season kicks off April 15 in the Evergreen State, and devoted hunters are ON TARGET By Dave Workman already chatting it up big time at the HuntingWashington forum.

The season runs through May 31, and the state has all three huntable species, eastern, Merriam’s and Rio Grande, and so all one needs to do is decide where to hunt. I have encountered turkeys on South Cle Elum Ridge, along upper Taneum Creek, up on Teanaway Ridge, on the north side of Bethel Ridge overlooking the Tieton River drainage, and up around Liberty in Kittitas County east of Highway 97; those are areas I’d personally check. UP FRONT, I realize there has been an ammunition shortage. We’re all stuck in the same boat on that one.

Back in late February, I got word from Winchester Ammunition about the new Double X turkey load for the .410 shotgun. It’s a 3-incher with a ¾-ounce payload of copper-plated No. 7½ Diamond Grade lead shot for a high-density pattern. According to Winchester, this load puts 20 percent more pellets into a 20-inch circle at 30 yards, and that translates into a turkey dinner for someone who is cool-fingered on the trigger. This load checks out at 1,100 feet per second from the muzzle, and it puts the .410 on serious footing in the turkey field.

Winchester offers Double X loads in 12- and 20-gauge, of course. Shot size must be No. 4 or smaller (I like No. 6 for just about anything I hunt with a shotgun), and people can hunt toms with shotguns, bows or crossbows.

My own gun for turkey is a Mossberg Model 935 semiauto that takes a 3½-inch

It should be a back-to-normal midApril start of turkey season this spring after last year’s opener was delayed till early May in Washington following the governor’s restrictions. Once hunting was back open,Brandon Jewett bagged this big tom on the eastern slopes of the

Ammo has become hard to find these days, and turkey loads are no exception, but Winchester has come out with new shotshells in .410 for gobblers. The new Double X is a 3-inch shell with a ¾-ounce payload of copper-plated No. 7½ Diamond Grade lead shot for a high-density pattern.

(WINCHESTER AMMUNITION)

Hunting gobblers is all about blending in and – even more so – sitting as still as you can when birds come to your calling and/or decoys. But for the pack out, consider putting on an orange vest or other bright – non-red – garment for safety’s sake. (DAVE WORKMAN)

shell. I don’t think anyone needs more than a 3-incher for this game, but you follow your own instincts. My shotgun has a full camo finish, vent rib barrel, synthetic stock and a good recoil pad.

According to this year’s regulations – they’re available online at wdfw.wa.gov/ hunting/regulations – hunters can take a total of three turkeys in the spring season. Only two may be taken in Eastern Washington and only one can be taken in Chelan, Kittitas or Yakima Counties (combined). Only one may be taken in Western Washington outside of Klickitat County. Down in Klickitat, you can take two turkeys.

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Remember, you need to leave the feathered head intact and attached to the carcass for transport. You can only take male turkeys and turkeys with visible beards.

You can’t use electronic calls or electronic decoys, live birds or dogs, and you cannot bait birds. Your gun can’t hold more than three shells.

AS FOR WHERE to find turkeys, I checked the state Department of Fish and Wildlife’s website and found this.

Merriam’s subspecies occupies portions of Spokane, Pend Oreille, Stevens, Ferry, Okanogan, Chelan, Kittitas, Yakima, Klickitat and Skamania Counties.

Rio Grande turkeys can be found in Asotin, Garfield, Columbia, Walla Walla, Whitman and Lincoln Counties.

Eastern subspecies can be found west of the Cascades in Cowlitz, Wahkiakum, Pacific, Grays Harbor, Mason, Thurston and Lewis Counties.

As I mentioned earlier, I’ve found them in specific places in Kittitas and Yakima Counties. On past treks to Northeast Washington, I’ve seen turkeys by the bunches in Stevens and Pend Oreille Counties. Be sure you’re not hunting on someone’s private property up there without permission!

Perhaps the best thing about spring turkey hunting is that one enjoys the season change, going from maybe a mild chill to those wonderful May days when the woods are in full glory, with warmer temperatures and lots of blue-sky days.

Get your camo washed and hang it outside to dry. After hanging all winter in a closet or being folded and stuffed in a drawer, your hunting clothing could smell a bit, even if you don’t think so.

And be absolutely sure of your target. Everybody else will be wearing camouflage, and it is entirely possible you will not see someone within range, and they may not see you, either.

Carry binoculars! Keep an eye peeled on your hunting perimeter.

If you nail a long beard, put on a fluorescent orange vest while packing out your kill. Better to be safe than sorry.

Years ago, when I edited a national hunter education publication, I did a monthly column called “The Accident Report.” A couple of those dealt with tragic mishaps involving turkey hunters, one of whom was permanently blinded. Nobody wants that on his or her conscience.

ON ANOTHER TOPIC, this year is special for the National Rifle Association, as the embattled organization is literally under siege.

But there is reason to celebrate. It’s the 150th anniversary of the NRA’s founding. It began in 1871, launched by former Union Army officers to improve marksmanship skills. They noticed during the Civil War how many soldiers weren’t so hot with rifles in battle, and decided there needed to be a national organization to promote more accurate and safe shooting. It comes in handy on a battleground.

The NRA was incorporated in New

York State, which is part of the reason it’s got problems today. New York Attorney General Letitia James ran for office promising to attack the association, which already wasn’t popular with Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Both James and Cuomo are liberal Democrats, like their counterparts in Washington and Oregon.

In the past, my efforts to hunt spring turkeys have been interrupted by the NRA annual convention. Not this year. The NRA will hold its annual member’s meeting Sept. 3-5 in Houston, Texas, at the George R. Brown Convention Center.

Now, this is not going to screw up my Sept. 1 grouse season opener. Haven’t missed one in decades, and not even the NRA meeting is going to change that.

According to the NRA, the convention will feature “approximately 850 exhibitors” with thousands of firearms on display. There will be seminars and other activities, and the annual members’ meeting on Saturday.

Yes, it happens on Labor Day weekend. Get details at nraam.org. NS

SIGNIFICANT COURT VICTORY IN WASHINGTON APPEALS COURT

The NRA and Bellevue, Washington-based Second Amendment Foundation scored a major court victory a few weeks ago when a three-judge panel of the State Court of Appeals unanimously struck down the “safe storage” ordinance adopted by the City of Edmonds.

Both Edmonds and nearby Seattle have challenged Washington’s model preemption statute, adopted in 1983 and strengthened in 1985 (the year the NRA, believe it or not, held its annual meeting at the Seattle Center). Cities with far left municipal governments hate the state preemption law because it prevents them from passing local gun control regulations designed to confuse and even entrap gun owners, all in the guise of “gun safety,” a subject about which gun control proponents are woefully ignorant.

This win brings us around to mentioning SAF and its sister organization, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.

Over the past several months during which the NRA has had more than its share of troubles, membership and support for both SAF and CCRKBA has spiked upwards. SAF’s game is education and litigation, while CCRKBA is oriented toward grassroots activism.

SAF and NRA are also challenging 2018’s Initiative 1639 in federal court.

That’s the measure that turned your Ruger 10/22 and Marlin Model 60, along with your vintage Remington Nylon 66, into “semiautomatic assault rifles.” –DW

COLUMN

Beware Stomach Twist, It’s For Real!

“We have five minutes to decide chewing. His ears drooped and he hunched over. I tried comforting him by rubbing his ears, which he normally welcomes, but he fires still burning out of control near them and when she called me on the phone, she was at the office of the veterinary surgeon. if we’re going to have was having nothing of it. Kona was in his prime, the most fit, them operate or put Then Kona slowly hobbled into the best all-around dog I’ve ever hunted with him down!” yard and tried throwing up, but nothing anywhere in the world. The estimated GUN DOGGIN’ 101 Words I’ll never would come up. His stomach felt tight to $6,000 cost of the surgery wasn’t a By Scott Haugen forget, coming from my the touch. A few minutes later he slowly question, and minutes after Tiffany called, wife on the telephone last September. walked 20 yards further into a field, one Kona was being prepped. where we often exercise and train. He laid IT WAS A hellacious time, as a few hours down, which he never does, and again THE SURGEON TOLD Tiffany that Kona had prior we’d just returned to our home tried throwing up, with no success. suffered gastric torsion, or stomach twist. after having been evacuated for 11 days Kona started to moan, which he also We’d never heard of this in dogs, only due to wildfires raging in our area. After never does, and I could see his stomach horses. But the more I talked to hunters unpacking what few belongings we expanding and getting tighter. He followed around the country, the more I learned grabbed on our way out the door, it was me to the house, and by this time my wife about stomach twist in dogs, and the more time to feed the dogs. Tiffany saw what was happening and had horror stories I heard. One breeder and

Kona, our 3-year-old, 62-pound the truck started. trainer of Drahthaars I spoke with follows pudelpointer, ate as he normally does; “I’m taking him to the vet hospital,” she a strict feeding regimen specifically to chewing every bite, taking his time. But said. prevent stomach twist, which includes halfway through dinner, Kona stopped Our regular vet was closed due to the feeding his dogs one time a day, at 8 p.m.,

Two months after stomach twist surgery, Kona, author Scott Haugen’s pudelpointer, was back in the field, where he enjoyed dozens of hunts throughout this past winter. (SCOTT HAUGEN)

and immediately putting them in their kennels for the night; he never feeds them in the morning.

Gastric torsion is often blamed on dogs rapidly eating, but Kona never was a fast eater. Through much research, a summary of what I learned about this hidden killer is that it’s more common in deep-chested, narrow-waisted dogs, but also not uncommon in Labs. I spoke with multiple folks who lost Labs to this, and a buddy’s older Doberman pinscher died from it the same night that Kona had had surgery.

I learned that gastric torsion is not hereditary, nor is it species-specific, or solely caused by eating fast. Bloating can also cause stomach twist to occur. This might begin with a dog that’s simply nervous and breathing heavily, taking in too much air and causing the stomach to fill up. A stomach filled with air is a candidate for stomach twist. I have no doubt that Kona’s 11 days of moving and being around other dogs and stressed people during our fire evacuation is what led to his stress, thus a bloated stomach, and eventually stomach twist. THERE’S NO WAY to prevent gastric torsion, and it can kill a dog within an hour. One hunter I talked to was duck hunting with his Lab. The dog retrieved a duck and hopped a small ditch, but immediately doubled-up in pain. The man wasted no time getting to the truck and heading to the vet, but in less than 30 minutes his dog died, a result of gastric torsion. The stories go on, and few end like Kona’s.

Pay very close attention to your dog at all times, for no one knows it better than you. I watch my dogs eat every meal. I’m now more careful than ever of where I train and walk my dogs; I’m even leery of hunting them around other dogs.

Watch to see if your dog is stressed and gulping air, which can lead to bloating. If they are drooling and no food is in front of them, it might be due to their stomach being twisted to the point they can’t swallow. Body signs that signal discomfort, along with drooping ears, sagging eyes, and a tight, bloated stomach, can be signs something is wrong with the digestive tract; I noticed these in Kona.

Stomach twist is most likely to happen within two hours of feeding, so avoid running your dog for two hours after it eats. If your dog eats too fast, try a specialized bowl to slow it down. Above all else, notice if your dog is stressed and remove it from the situation before it escalates, if possible.

KONA’S SURGERY WENT great. They opened up his stomach, removed the contents, thoroughly cleansed it, sewed it closed, then stapled it to his abdominal wall with the hopes it won’t happen again. But the situation was so scary, we’re not taking any chances.

Two weeks after Kona’s surgery, Tiffany and I were offered jobs in remote Alaska. We declined because the nearest vet was 800 miles away, accessible only by bush plane. Our lives changed after Kona’s brush with death, for as the surgeon told us, “Five minutes later and Kona wouldn’t have made it.” NS

Gastric torsion hits fast, and a few minutes of delay in getting to a vet can mean life or death. Fortunately, Kona’s masters’ close observations of their dogs and quick action led to a successful surgery and recovery. (SCOTT HAUGEN)

Editor’s note: To watch Scott Haugen’s series of puppy training videos, visit scotthaugen .com. Follow Scott on Instagram and Facebook.