Local hunters look for signs of turkeys as the hunting season starts
He's a boss bird," Morris Stevens said as he held a weathered board used to mount the tail feathers, beard and feet of a trophy-size wild turkey.
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"The beard is good, but this right here - the spurs - is what real turkey hunters want," he said. One sharp spur, a bony spike that grows on the back of a male turkey's legs, measured slightly more than an inch long.
The turkey was shot just a few miles from Stevens' home in the Broad River Natural Area, a 440-acre tract of public land managed by the State Department of Natural Resources in the northwestern side of Madison County.
"Rusty Chandler was sitting beside me," he recalled about the shot, which he said was taken from "52 steps" away. "Dropped him just like that,' he said with a snap of his fingers.
"That's a pretty good shot, but that's knowing your gun."
Stevens is president of the Madison County Longbeards, one of numerous chapters in Georgia under the National Wild Turkey Federation, an organization dedicated to the conservation and hunting of wild turkeys. While Stevens is an avid hunter of other game and a passionate fisherman, turkey season is a special time for the Madison County native.
The season opened March 26 on a day of heavy rain. Stevens didn't pull out his gear that day, waiting three days later before he hit the woods. He didn't get a turkey, but heard one gobble.
The weather played havoc on opening day for many hunters.
State Conservation Officer Shane Sartor, who works Madison County, said he patrolled that day.
"I really didn't see many hunters out," he said. "Normally the (Broad River) Natural Area is pretty covered up with turkey hunters, but there was only one. I think the weather impacted it."
However, Sartor did charge two hunters with hunting without permission on C.O. Draper Road outside Danielsville. He said hunters, who had permission to hunt on the land, reported hunters on adjacent land were shooting at turkeys on their side.
"They just shot through the fence," said Sartor, who seized the four dead turkeys. "The landowner did want to prosecute."
Laws are in place to monitor turkey hunting, but the only reason turkeys are a game bird today are because of the co
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