Photo by John R. Ford

There is something about running right into the middle of a flock of wild turkeys, screaming like a madman, that just doesn't seem natural, I thought to myself as I watched the group of 20-some hens and jakes fly off the ridge in all directions. For a guy whose turkey hunting experiences had been limited to the spring months, the whole idea of "busting up a flock" didn't seem to make a lot of sense. However, I had been assured that when chasing birds in the fall, it was a perfectly acceptable practice.

After watching the birds drop out of sight, I eased my way down from where they had been, stuck out my lone hen decoy, and sat against the most comfortable cedar I could find. Several minutes of silence had passed and I began to question why any turkey would return after the commotion I had created. That thought quickly faded with the first sounds of yelping to my right. Those yelps were immediately answered by some kee-kees down the ridge and to my left. Maybe this crazy scheme would work after all!

I pulled the double reed diaphragm call from my shirt pocket and joined the mix with a few kee-kees of my own. One after another the birds called back and forth in an obvious attempt to regroup. It wasn't long before I began to hear the light crunching of leaves as the flock began to make their way in my direction. A flash of movement to my right caught my attention. It was the bobbing head of a hen coming over the ridge. As she slipped behind a big red oak, I eased my 12-gauge around and got it pointed in the right direction. When the hen stepped out from behind the oak at 32 yards, I squeezed the trigger and watched my first fall turkey hit the ground.

That one hunt was all it took to sell me on the merits of fall turkey hunting. While it may not contain the heart-pounding gobbling and run-and-gun action of the spring season, it has an excitement all its own and fills an important void for any diehard turkey hunter. Not to mention the fact that it is a great opportunity to put a tasty bird on the Thanksgiving table.

I'm not the only one who has found fall turkey hunting to his liking. A quick look at the numbers show the popularity of the fall season has grown tremendously over the past few years. In fact, the number of hunters holding fall firearm turkey tags has gone from 8,941 in 2001 to 25,342 in 2004. Part of that increase is likely due to the inclusion of fall turkey tags with the sportsman's license, which more hunters are opting to buy because of the savings it provides. It also doesn't hurt that the Commonwealth, with an estimated population of nearly 250,000 birds, offers some of the finest turkey hunting in the nation.

The dramatic increase in hunter numbers, combined with the new two-bird limit and four extra days of hunting, brought last year's fall firearms turkey harvest to 5,716 birds. That was a very impressive 153 percent increase over 2003! Yet even with the steep climb in harvest, there is still plenty of room for growth. The harvest could double and still not exceed the target harvest of 6 to 8 percent of the fall turkey population.

So with all this great opportunity for fall turkey hunting, where should a hunter turn to put a bird in the freezer? Here are my top three public land picks for this fall.

PEABODY WMA
When it comes to public-land turkey hunting, it is hard to deny that the 60,000-acre Peabody Wildlife Management Area (WMA) rules the roost. Last year, fall gun hunters harvested 111 birds on the WMA, nearly 25 percent of the total 500 birds taken on public land during the 2004 season.

Located in Muhlenberg and Ohio counties, which incidentally are Kentucky's top two counties for fall turkey harvest, the Peabody WMA consists of reclaimed coal-mined land. The terrain is rough and varies from swampland to high ridges and deep pits. There has been a lot of habitat work done on the WMA over the last several years, which has helped to create an ideal mixture of open grasslands and timbered wood lots.