Turkey Hunting Safety...Missouri Department of Conservation Press Release

Turkey hunters never too old for education

Turkey hunters old enough to be exempt from mandatory hunter

education could benefit from training their younger counterparts receive.

JEFFERSON CITY–As a rule, people develop better judgment as they mature. Education can speed up this process, however. In fact, 2009 turkey-hunting incident statistics provide strong evidence that education has helped young hunters surpass their elders’ judgment.

The low point for turkey-hunting safety in Missouri was 1986, two years before hunter education became mandatory. That year, 31 people suffered gunshot wounds in spring turkey hunting incidents. Two of them died.

From 1985 through 1988, Missouri averaged 23 spring turkey-hunting incidents per year. Since then, however, the number of firearms-related spring turkey hunting incidents has decreased dramatically. In the past five years, the average has been 4.8 incidents per season. Missouri’s safest spring turkey-hunting season was 2007, when only two incidents – neither fatal – marred the spring hunt. The shooter in one of those incidents was 39 years old. The other was 61.

“It isn’t merely coincidence that we have seen a steady decrease in hunting injuries and deaths since the advent of mandatory hunter education,” said Tony Legg, hunter education coordinator for the Missouri Department of Conservation. “The decline in number of injuries is a direct reflection of the increasing number of hunters who have been through formal safety training. You can also see the difference in the number of incidents involving people who have not received hunter education.”

In 2009, the Conservation Department recorded four spring turkey-hunting incidents. Three of those incidents involved hunters who were born before Jan. 1, 1967 and therefore exempt from Missouri’s hunter education requirement.  None of the three had taken hunter education training.

In one of last year’s incidents, a 53-year-old hunter fired when he saw what he mistakenly thought was a turkey 21 to 30 yards away. In fact, the movement was a friend turning to take a shot at a turkey.

Last year a 70-year-old hunter shot his son, who was using a shaker-type gobble call to attract a turkey for his own son. The shooter mistook the motion of the call for a turkey beard blowing in the wind. The incident report said the shooter knew the other two were in the area and was trying to show them up by shooting the turkey out from under them.

“If you need proof that age is no guarantee of good judgment, this is it,” said Legg. “If this grandfather could commit such a potentially disastrous judgment error, anyone can. Everyone might have been spared a lot of emotional and physical pain if the grandpa had been through hunter education.”

The final 2009 spring turkey-hunting incident, and the only fatality, occurred when a 56-year-old hunter tried to pull a loaded shotgun from the seat of his vehicle by the barrel. The trigger caught on something and the gun discharged, striking him in the chest.

“Incidents like that are preventable,” said Legg. “The proof is in the last 20 years’ hunting incident statistics. Most of them are being prevented. The best thing older hunters can do for themselves and their families is to attend a hunter-education course.”

Hunter education classes are available throughout the state between now and the opening of spring turkey season. To find a class near you, visit http://mdc.mo.gov/hunt/huntered/, or call the nearest Conservation Department office.

Another way to gain the benefits of hunter education is to visit www.mdc.mo.gov/17844, and review hunter-education course material there. You can check your mastery of the subject by taking the accompanying chapter reviews and pre-tests. 

Last year’s spring turkey hunting incidents are typical in that most involved victims who were mistaken for game. Legg said confusing an adult human weighing 150 pounds or more with a 20-pound turkey is much easier than it seems. To begin with, turkey hunters go out of their way to look like anything but a human, wearing camouflage to blend in with their surroundings. Beyond that, he said, it helps to understand the turkey hunter’s mindset.

“You are looking for a very elusive, wary animal that can appear any place at any time,” he said. “Trying to see a turkey is like trying to put a puzzle together. Is that a beard or a leaf blowing in the breeze? Is that patch of blue a reflection of the sky or a gobbler’s head? When you see something that could be a piece of the puzzle, there is a natural tendency for your mind to fill in some of the other pieces that you expect to see. You have to keep that gun in your lap until you have seen and positively identified the whole bird,” said Legg. “Anything less is courting disaster.”

Legg said hunters can do several things to avoid becoming victims. The simplest is wearing hunter orange when moving between hunting spots.

“A hunter wearing blaze orange is much harder to mistake for game than one slipping through the woods in full camouflage,” he said. “You still need to be alert, but it decreases your chances of being mistaken for game by a factor of 10 or so.”

Legg said some hunters are shot in spite of not looking or sounding like a gobbler. One of the hunters injured last year saw the shooter and tried to move away but was shot when the other hunter saw his movement. Legg recommends shouting to another hunter the moment you realize you are not alone in an area. However, he admits that most hunters have difficulty forcing themselves to do this.

“No one wants to scare all the turkeys in the neighborhood or bust somebody else’s hunt by yelling,” he said. “The chances of being mistaken for game seem so small, and it is hard to believe it could happen to you. But it does happen every year. It could happen to you as well as anyone.”

Legg cautioned against waving, whispering or whistling to get other hunters’ attention. Only a clear human voice provides immediate, positive identification.

Hunters can protect themselves when sitting and calling by tying a hunter-orange vest to a tree trunk nearby to alert others to their presence. A Missouri company makes a banner designed especially for this purpose (see www.hunterbanner.com).

As a further safety measure, hunters should look for hunting spots that provide an unobstructed view in front and a physical barrier behind. A tree trunk wide enough to shield the hunter’s entire body is ideal.

These and many other safety tips are covered in approved hunter-education classes. Legg says he wishes more older hunters would make use of the safety advantage they provide.

“One day, I would like to record zeros in the ‘injuries’ and ‘fatalities’ columns for the spring turkey season,” he said. “Getting older hunters into hunter education would go a long way toward accomplishing that.”

-Jim Low-

Caption for All Outdoors photo

Turkey hunters can reduce the chance of mishaps by wrapping a hunter-orange cloth or garment around a tree when calling. Sitting against a large tree to shield your back is another important safety measure. Wearing a hunter orange vest and hat when moving through the woods dramatically reduces the chance of being mistaken for a turkey.

 (Missouri Department of Conservation photo)

High-resolution photo: mdc.mo.gov/news/images/fullsize/20100402-5.jpg.

Researching the Outdoors - Hunting, Fishing, and Camping

Researching the Outdoors - Hunting, Fishing, and Camping

Fishing Missouri's Wild Trout Streams

There are ample opportunities for some nice smaller stream trout fishing in Missouri for wild trout.  A bit of research and hard work will put you on some nice water.  There is not a thing wrong with Missouri Trout Parks in my mind, but if you are looking for another alternative besides the "big rivers" like the Meramec, Current, North Fork of the White, give these little streams a chance.  You might not catch any lunkers, but the beauty of the streams and the fish may more than make up for it.

Turkey Hunting - Spring Season Success

For those of us who have been biding our time waiting for the next "big hunting event", Spring turkey season is right around the corner. We have been filling our time with some small game hunting and many excursions to Ozark trout streams to fill the time, but now we are really getting geared up (literally and figuratively) for Spring turkey season. It seems like it is a time where we feel the nice Spring weather is upon us, and almost as an unjust bonus, we also get to embark on one of our favorite seasons of the year.

Here in Missouri, the Spring turkey season for youth is April 10th and 11th, followed by the regular Spring turkey season which runs from April 19th to May 9th. For the regular Spring turkey season, it is not an accident that the season does not start on a weekend. The idea is to start the season on a day where hunting pressure will be more spread out. The primary number one focus for all hunters should be safety. Since turkey hunters are clad in camo, there is already an extra embedded danger. Spreading out the pressure helps just a bit with this factor. We encourage all hunters, even those where they are not required to do so, to attend a hunter safety course. These courses will make the woods safer for all of us, and as a bonus, you often attend a class where there are experienced turkey (and deer) hunters who are more than willing to share there knowledge. It can actually be fun if approached with the right mind set. Often, folks form hunting friendships at these courses that last long thereafter.

The outlook for turkeys in Missouri, as well as many other Midwestern areas is not strong relative to more recent frames of reference. Cold and wet conditions have somewhat, but not dramatically, lowered some turkey populations. This should not be too discouraging. Often, an even bigger factor than how the weather has affected turkey numbers, is how the weather impacts our ability (or desire) to get out in the woods. The more mornings you are out and the more hours spent hunting on these days, obviously the greater your chances to bag a gobbler. In summary, even though the numbers are a bit down, if we have a nice season of weather, harvest numbers may be solid. This will also lead to better future prospects for turkey hunting.

For residents in Missouri, the permit cost for licenses this year is $17 for adults and $8.50 for youths (ages 6-15). For non-residents, the permit costs are $190 and $8.50 respectively. The resident landowner permit is no charge. For further information on permits and hunter safety courses, visit the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) website.

There are excellent prospects in Missouri for hunting turkeys on public land. Missouri is blessed with two major public hunting venues. The MDC manages many conservation areas statewide. Mark Twain National Forest has vast tracts of land where with a bit of research and scouting, hunters can often find good areas to hunt almost alone. A good place to begin a research endeavor into these areas is through the  Hunting Section at Family-Outdoors. There are articles for scouting on public lands, databases of information on conservation areas, and a thorough rundown of many of the tracts of Mark Twain National Forest. There are also tips for hunting Spring turkeys.

One of our favorite aspects of the Spring turkey season in Missouri is one that some hunters don't like. We like the morning hunt only aspect of the Spring turkey season in Missouri. We hunt as a family, and the morning hunt is followed by an afternoon of relaxation and time to just sit around camp and visit. Often, the weather is nice and there's little to rival in our book, a warm afternoon nap in one of Missouri's beautiful wilderness areas. If one or more of us has tagged a tom, all the better. We sincerely hope your Spring turkey season hunt is a great one for you!

Great Places to Camp In Missouri: The Irish Wilderness

In my last post on Finding Great Places to Camp in Missouri, I talked in some detail about the Eleven Point River area and referenced the Irish Wilderness.  I mentioned I would discuss in a aseparate post camping in the Irish Wilderness backcountry.  Here it is...

The Forest Service has an excellent brochure on the Irish Wilderness.  This has a lot of history as well as backcountry ethics information.  On that score, let me underscore the notion that the Irish Wilderness is managed in a fashion that in the future it will be as much of a wilderness as it is in its current state.  The "Leave No Trace" credo is the rule here.  Having said this, let me jump into a discussion of modes of travel and camping in this area.

There are two major trail systems in this 16,500 acre gem.  A map of the area is essential, even if using one of the areas trail systems.  The major trail in the area is Whites Creek Trail.  Click on this map link for a basic trail map.  It is an 18.6 mile loop trail, and is of moderate difficulty.  It is used also as an equestrian trail, but motorized and non-motorized vehicles are not allowed (mountain bikes).  There is plenty of wildlife including bears, bobcats, deer, and turkey.  There are also plenty of snakes, some venomous, as well as ticks.  Be prepared, and consider Fall or Spring visits to minimize some of these things.  This is truly a magical place as the slideshow below portrays:



Irish Wilderness-Mark Twain NF, Mo

Come prepared and click the link below for a comprehensive list of camping gear to consider bringing:
Camping Gear Checklist

Great Places to Camp in Missouri

Missouri is blessed with many great camping locations. They are kind of segregated into the following categories:

• State Campgrounds
• Campgrounds on Federally Managed Land (National Park Service and National Forest Service)
• Conservation Department Lands, and
• Private Campgrounds.

The other way that camping areas could be grouped would be by geographic location. Because most camping in Missouri is done around the large lakes, along the Ozark rivers and Streams, and in other Ozark regions, I will concentrate my discussion on these areas. There are a number of activities to enjoy while visiting these places and I will touch on these as well. For the sake of brevity, I will split this over a number of blogs.

The first area I will take up will be the beautiful Eleven Point River and the Irish Wilderness. We have taken up the topic of Eleven Point River Trout Fishing and you can find out a lot by visiting this site. Here I will say that there are outstanding rainbow trout and smallmouth bass fishing opportunities on this river, as well as less outstanding but healthy populations of other species as well. The river is an outstanding floating stream year round with class I to class III whitewater in a couple of locations and depending on water levels.

The camping in the area is ample along the river. Let me state that camping is NOT allowed on easements which are private property and are marked in almost all cases. From the Thomasville access to the Riverton access you will truly feel that you are in a wilderness. There are few to no dwellings visible from the river. There are a number of float camps on the Eleven Point. They are primitive in that they do not have water, have vaulted toilets, are first-come (no reservation), and you are expected to pack out trash. They do have fire rings and tent sites. These camps are Denny Hollow (river mile 6.5/river left), Turner's Mill (river mile 21.5/river right), Stinking Pond Float Camp (river mile 22.0/river left), Horseshoe Bend (river mile 26.5/river left), Barn Hollow (river mile 27.0/river left), White Creek Camp (river mile 28.5/river left), Greenbriar (river mile 31.0/river left), Boze Mill (river mile 33.5/river left), and Morgan Creek (river mile 44.0/river right).

There are a couple of traditional campgrounds along the river. One is Greer Crossing Campground. There is a boat launch here and running water for drinking. There is a total of 19 sites and our experience is that the campground is very nicely maintained. It is located river right at river mile 16.7.

Floating the river is a relatively simple affair with 2 semi-challenging exceptions- Mary Decker Shoal and Halls Bay Rapid. A nice photo of Halls Bay is:
. Mary Decker is at river mile 20.1 and Halls Bay is at river mile 34. They can and probably should be run on the right river line. I have found especially Mar Decker to be deceptive in that it appears a better run on the left. A review of the run from downstream will likely have you agreeing with my assessment.

There are canoe rental and shuttle services in the area. One is Eleven Point Canoe Rental and another is Richards Canoe Rental. I do not vouch for either as I have always had my own gear.

The Eleven Point is a beautiful river and the Irish Wilderness is a true gem.. Next time I will discuss some of the area's backcountry.

New Ozarks Streams Trout Fishing Reports

We have added this new section for Ozarks Streams Trout Fishing Reports