We started covering territory by quietly slipping down a woods road. We offered some moderate-to-soft yelps for any gobblers trolling the woods nearby. By covering enough territory, we hoped that by literally going the extra mile we’d find a willing gobbler. We’d also toned down the calling from our normally aggressive efforts because we figured most of the gobblers were wise veterans of previous seasons.

Finally, we had a gobbled response from a gobbler about 250 yards away; I’m always amazed at how far they can hear what I think is a soft call. The gobbler sounded as if he was on the same road with us, certainly on the same level. We had slipped forward about 30 yards when we simultaneously paused and agreed we’d better check this one out again. It was a good decision on our part. The bird cut off the call with an immediate gobble and had closed the gap significantly. We scrambled and set up in the woods just off the road, with Drew positioned about 30 yards in front of me. If the gobbler came in straight, Drew had a perfect position. If the gobbler circled and took the high ground, a favored old gobbler tactic, I figured I had the ideal setup.

The next calls were simple, soft clucks and purrs. The gobbler nearly hammered the new leaves off the trees with a thunderous double-gobble right in front of Drew. He was almost in range and within a few more seconds, Drew had the old gobbler flopping on the ground. It was a double-bearded bird with 10-inch and 6-inch beards, sporting 1 1/4-inch spurs.

So, turkey killing can happen, even in down years like 2007. And it will happen frequently in 2008. Actually, the 2007 season wasn’t disastrous in terms of overall harvest, according to Charles Ruth.

“The 2007 total turkey harvest estimate was 19,289 gobblers,” Ruth said. “That total was comprised of 16,565 adult gobblers and 2,724 jakes. Overall, this is a 4.2 percent decrease from the 2006 harvest. It also represents a 24.4 percent decrease from the record harvest established in 2002 when an estimated 25,487 birds were harvested, based on surveys.”

So, despite the two consecutive poor recruitment seasons, the actual harvest was decent, Ruth said.

“For the 2008 season, I’d say the prediction would be for a moderate number of gobblers in the woods,” Ruth said. “I think because we did have a third straight poor recruitment year, we can expect about another 5 percent decrease in harvest. But still, hunters will have reasonable opportunities to hear and hunt turkeys.

“The problem is compounded by the fact that reproduction in wild turkeys in South Carolina has been poor four of the last five years,” Ruth said. “The spring harvest following each year of low recruitment has been down. Unlike deer, wild turkeys are much more susceptible to significant fluctuations in reproduction and recruitment and these measures of production have simply not been good recently.”

Annually since the early 1980s, the SCDNR has conducted a Summer Turkey Brood Survey to estimate reproduction and recruitment of turkeys in South Carolina. The survey involves agency wildlife biologists, technicians and conservation officers, as well as many volunteers from other natural resource agencies and the general public.