Historical and unusual facts about dogs that hunt turkeys in the fall

Dr. Henry Mosby, a noted wild turkey researcher and teacher at Virginia Tech, wrote about fall turkey hunting with dogs in his 1943 book entitled ‘The Wild Turkey in Virginia”: "The turkey dog, usually a pointer or setter, is trained to trail a flock of turkeys, burst upon the flock at full speed, thereby scattering them so that the individual turkeys are flushed in all directions. Unless the birds are well scattered by being suddenly frightened, most of the flock will fly in one direction and may reassemble elsewhere, rather than the point of the flush. The majority of fall turkey hunters prefer to use a silent trailing dog that does not bark until it runs into the flock. The barking at the flush serves several purposes: first, to scatter the turkeys, second to notify the hunter of the flush, and third, to advise him of the locality where the flush was made.The well-trained turkey dog also must be taught to remain quietly at the feet of the hunter when he is yelping. The advantages of using a trained turkey dog are: (1) it permits the hunter to cover a much larger area and to do so more thoroughly; (2) because of the tendency of the wild turkey to run rather than to fly in eluding its enemies, the use of a dog is desirable if the flock is to be well scattered, and (3) a well-trained dog is of much assistance in recovering wounded birds. Severely wounded turkeys are often capable of traveling a considerable distance and are very clever at hiding themselves. Without the use of a dog such turkeys often are lost. In addition to these materialistic advantages, many hunters obtain a good portion of their sport from training and observing the dogs which they work in the field. It cannot be denied that it is a real thrill to hear a turkey dog make a flush and to see him return to the hunter in the field, panting and hot from the chase, and tail wagging and a demeanor that clearly shows he is as proud of himself as his master is of him. It is of equal pleasure to the hunter to observe the dog at his feet, quivering with excitement and anticipation, when the long awaited turkey is heard answering the "yelp" of the hunter as it approaches the blind."
Excerpted from The Wild Turkey in Virginia 1943 by Mosby and Handley, and the Turkey Dog Presentation to the Missouri Chapter of The Wildlife Society by Gary W. Norman, Biologist - Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.
Complete transcript available upon request. The Wild Turkey Population Dynamics Research Project
Report how many turkeys you see in Virginia at the Virginia Wild Turkey Reporting System.

Ben Tennison of Western Mule Magazine hunts turkeys in the fall with his Missouri Jumping Mule. "When I see a flock across a field I just ride slowly towards them. Generally the flock will go into the woods where they're all bunched up. That's when I run my mule at them full speed, and if we get a good scatter, I tie up my mule a ways away, sit down and call the flock back. It doesn't always work, but it sure beats trying to run at them myself, especially at my age."
Ben fully agrees Missouri should allow dogs in the fall. Photos © Western Mule Magazine.
Starting in the fall of 2005 Missouri will have a longer season, and hunters can take both birds the same day.

In the country of the Chickasaws, a dog is necessary to hunt them.

There are a great many in the same place,
but he could do nothing without a dog.

M. Le Page Du Pratz, The History of Louisiana 1724.

indian children hunting wild turkeys with a bow and arrow

"Some tribes did not consider turkeys enough of a challenge or delicacy to warrant the attention of experienced hunters, but they encouraged children to hunt them… They did so in various ways, an unusual one being a dart blown through a nine-foot-long reed. Some youngsters became proficient enough to kill a turkey at thirty feet." Memoirs, official and personal: With sketches of travels among the northern and southern Indians : embracing a war excursion, and descriptions of scenes along the western borders Thomas Loraine McKenney 1846

"In the early 1900's hunting turkeys with dogs in Alabama was a legal and accepted way to hunt, and pretty much the standard at that time." Uncle Roy Moorer told me, "A man had rather be caught rustling cattle, than shooting a turkey on the ground and not flushing it first, and giving it a sporting chance to escape." John E. Phillips
Read about Alabama's turkey dog history in John's
Outdoor Life Complete Turkey Hunting

In New Hampshire or Maine you couldn't use a gun (or dogs either) for fall turkey hunting.
Outdoor writer Steve Hickoff travels from Maine to New York to hunt turkey with his dog.
Update March 2006 NH is proposing a fall shotgun hunt, details on the Legislation page.
UPDATE June 2007! DOGS ARE NOW ALLOWED during the NH fall turkey season.
Update August 2007: A new fall shotgun season and with dogs approved in Maine for fall 2007.

Steve's latest book features dogs, and is a must read: Fall and Winter Turkey Hunter's Handbook
More turkeys to hunt equals increased opportunities in New Hampshire and Maine.

'Indian children had to learn the different calls of the turkey,
to communicate among hunting and war parties.'

Samuel Kercheval
A HISTORY OF THE VALLEY OF VIRGINIA
A history of the valley of Virginia 1833

"In some states... hunting turkeys during the fall is a bigger tradition than hunting them in the spring. Most southerners would classify fall turkey hunting as a northern or “Yankee” tradition... The bottom line is that fall turkey hunting can be a lot of fun without harming turkey populations. Fall turkey seasons are a great opportunity to introduce youth hunters to the sport that we all enjoy so much."
Fall Turkey Hunting: Chasing that Elusive "Thanksgiving Butterball" By James Austin and Ron Seiss

Mississippi expands their area for the fall 2006 turkey hunt and dogs are allowed. See details on the Legislation page.

Pennslvania raised more turkeys for release than anywhere, and for years you couldn’t use a call or a blind in the fall. Hunting turkeys in Pennslvania in the fall is a longer tradition than in the spring (it was closed for 95 years). All of which makes it particularly odd they don't allow dogs, and now they're surrounded by States that do! And as of 2006 you can take a 2nd gobbler in the spring, but still only one bird in the fall, and not with a dog.

As of June 30, 2007, after 15 months of hard lobbying by the PA chapter of the AWTHDA, PA once again allows turkey hunting with a dog, like they did in the 1800's.

indian children hunting turkeys with blowgun darts

indian children hunt turkey with hollow cane

"Lieut. Henry Timberlake describes Cherokee children in 1765 using a “sarbacan, or hollow cane” to blow a small dart into the turkey’s eye. They seldom missed." John D. Hunter, Memoirs of Captivity among the Indians of North America 1823
Memoirs of Lieutenant Henry Timberlake (The First American Frontier) by Henry Timberlake

Coursing turkeys with greyhounds, as practiced in the more open
western country is exciting sport...
Well-trained turkey dogs are useful in chasing winged birds, which a man could never catch. Audubon (1840)
'The Californian and Texan horsemen course hare, antelope, and wild turkey with their fleet greyhounds.'
Theodore Roosevelt - Hunting Trips of a Ranchman 1885.

Chapter Fourteen - A Wild-Turkey Hunt (from the 1800's):
"We can ‘run’ them as we were about to do had they been buffaloes.” “Ha! ha! ha!” laughed François; “run a turkey! Why it will fly off at once. What nonsense you talk, brother!” “I tell you, no,” replied Basil. “It is not nonsense—it can be done—I have often heard so from the trappers,—now let us try it ourselves.”... He saw the dog standing by the root of a large oak. He had “treed” the turkey, and was looking upward with glancing eyes, barking and wagging his tail. The Boy Hunters by Captain Mayne Reid (1818-1883).

In Audubon's time, he couldn't find a single wild turkey in some areas of the Northeast. Today, Conneticut has 40,000 turkeys.
New biography - John James Audubon : The Making of an American

While a Southern tradition back in the old days, today hunting turkeys with dogs in the fall is no longer legal in
AL, AR, FL, GA, LA, or SC. Now instead, in many of these states, you can shoot up to 5 gobblers in the spring!

'American Indians would attract the gobbler
by placing a decoy, then hiding behind logs
and imitating the call of the hen.'

John D. Hunter, Memoirs of Captivity among
the Indians of North America 1823

In the 1950's, Leigh H. Perkins of the Orvis Company hunted fall turkeys in Georgia by driving them off the roost just before dawn to 6 or 8 gunners. They'd shoot for their heads at the height of the tree-tops. Sometimes they only winged them, and they ran off (even wounded they ran faster than a horse through the woods). He began to use his Brittany Leda to find these birds, and was soon invited to go on turkey drives with others. One time Leda recovered a bird 2 miles from where it was shot! From A Sportsman's Life: How I Built Orvis by Mixing Business and Sport (Paperback) A Sportsman's Life (Hardcover)

"Drive hunting has become very popular in the Southeast... The most spectacular effect is when the great birds come over in their beautiful glide with rigidly bowed wings. Anyone who has seen a flight composed mostly of old gobblers, with lighting effects right to bring out all their georgeous coloration, has witnessed one of the most beautiful and spectacular sights of the sporting world. They may well be excused if they become so absorbed in the spectacle that guns are forgotten and the birds pass by without a shot being fired." The Wild Turkey - Its History and Domestication; A.W. Schorger, Univ. of OK Press

From 1843 to 1845 Captain George A. McCall wrote about his hunting trips near Fort Scott, Kansas. His favorite dog was a setter pointer cross with a nose for grouse, woodcock, or turkey...
The backwoodsmen and western settlers think “The only bird worthy of their attention is the wild turkey.” Wm. Priest, Travels in the United States of America, 1795

indians use snare and pole traps to catch turkeys

"Wild turkeys are relatively easy to catch;
some Native Americans used snares and pole traps to secure one bird at a time."

W. P. Baldwin, Trapping wild turkeys in South Carolina,
Journal of Wildlife Management II 1947

Pioneers built traps to catch wild turkeys, they were the settlers primary source of food.
How to trap wild turkey from A Boys Own Book of Outdoor Sports
Rare print of wild turkey trap by Peter Rindisbacher (1833).

brass bronze bias relief etching hunter turkey dog

If you know the origin of the brass piece to the left, let us know. Picture courtesy of Steve Turpin.

A Dog's History of America : How Our Best Friend Explored, Conquered, and Settled a Continent

"The best thing about hunting and fishing,' the Old Man said, 'is that you don't have to actually do it to enjoy it.
You can go to bed every night thinking about how much fun you had twenty years ago, and it all comes back clear as moonlight."
— Robert Ruark "The Old Man's Boy Grows Older," 1957

History, Fall Behavior,
Scouting, Hunting Techniques,
and other Articles from the Wild Turkey Zone.

PBS and Nova special on how dogs evolved from wolves, and the truth about dogs.

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