Laurens County is traditionally an excellent area for turkey hunting. Laurens was seventh in the 2004 harvest with 425 turkeys harvested and was 11th in 2005 with a total of 459 turkeys harvested. Laurens was also a very respectable 13th in the 2005 acres-per-turkey-harvested category. There are some excellent wildlife management areas (WMA) in this county, so there will be potentially good public hunting areas as well as on private lands.

While we only have the acres-per-turkey-harvested data available in 2005, this is an excellent way to look at the turkey harvest on a comparative basis. There are still four counties in that top 10 list for 2005 that we have not mentioned yet.

Anderson County was ranked No. 4 in 2005 in this acres-per-turkey-harvested category. There were 430 turkeys harvested there in 2005. In 2004, there were 381 birds harvested.

The No. 5 county in 2005 on this list was York County. York had a total of 478 turkeys harvested in 2005 compared with 297 in 2004, a big jump in harvest. Plus, York just missed making the 2005 top 10 list in total harvest, finishing in a strong 11th place.

McCormick County has long been a favored turkey hunting spot for me; the terrain seems so ideal for turkeys. This county finished in sixth place in the “acres per turkey” category in 2005, with a total harvest of 352 turkeys. In 2004, the total harvest was 289 turkeys. In addition, there is a considerable amount of public land in this county that will provide excellent hunting for turkeys. Again, early scouting and planning is the key to hunting the public lands here.

Abbeville County finished in the No. 9 spot in the acres-per-turkey-harvested top 10 list. There were 347 turkeys taken in this county in 2005, compared with 384 birds harvested in 2004.

We noted in a few places where there is typically good public land available, most of that has been in the Piedmont or Upstate. However, in the Lowcountry, there are two sizable public areas that are prime turkey-hunting hotspots. One is the Webb WMA. This is a 5,866-acre WMA in Hampton County, and it contains some of the most prime turkey habitat in the Lowcountry, according to several excellent turkey hunters I’ve talked with who’ve hunted there.

The second is the Palachucola WMA. This is a 6,757-acre WMA located in both Hampton and Jasper counties. Again, the habitat here in much of this land is ideal for gobbler chasing.

Despite the poor recruitment into the turkey population for the past couple of years, there are still a lot of turkeys out there in the woods. Granted, Charles Ruth is most likely correct in his assessment that there will be fewer 2-year-olds and certainly fewer jakes to hunt in most areas of the state. Plus, he’s dead on target with the more difficult prospects of hunting wizened 3-year-old birds.

But turkeys will be hunted and South Carolina hunters will harvest a bunch of them. My biggest suggestion and a potential key for success will be to do more than your usual scouting in preparation for hunting. Do more “roosting” of birds before you go to the woods. You may have to hunt longer and more often (I see no downside to that part) to bag your bird or limit of birds if that’s your goal.

However, for die-hard turkey hunters, the bottom line is being in the woods and playing the game with a gobbler. Do your homework and that part will take care of itself.