I got up at 3:30 am the other day. In case you don’t know, this is a dismal, evil hour of the night. It is very quiet, to the point of being ominous, with wraiths and werewolves skulking about.
Why would I get up at this murky hour if I didn’t have to? I was training for rising at this time for, you guessed it, going turkey hunting. One of the premises of spring turkey hunting is you must be in the woods, at your listening post where you hope to hear a turkey gobble, before daylight. This is my first complaint about the time-honored spring hunt and why I am going to tell you this.
Turkey hunting is stupid.
I am not really sure how many times I have written about this, and to be clear I did not come up with this idea as a series of articles on my own. Gun writer friend and fellow West Virginian Richard Mann made this observation some years ago, and I have been talking about it ever since. I don’t think Richard thinks of himself as a rabid turkey hunter; he was just stating what he thought was obvious: Turkey hunting is stupid.
To continue my point about the getting up early and lack of sleep, this may be the biggest downside of chasing gobblers in the spring. If you are a member of the legions of hunters who do this, you know what I mean. Turkey hunting most every day of a monthlong season with the accompanying lack of sleep leads to all sorts of problems. About a week after this ritual starts, hunters will become aware of several abnormalities creeping in. Irritable, grouchy behavior begins and is soon noticed by coworkers, wives and significant others.