Opening day and a bird in the bag. The reason I’m wearing black is thgat we’re hunting from in a blind, and the dark cloths blend better. I wore full camo when stalking.
I’m writing this while tucked away in a small travel trailer sitting on a friends ranch in Northern California. It is the end of the second day of a four day turkey hunt in California, and so far I have two birds in the freezer. Now if you are unfamiliar with Cali’s hunting opportunities you may ask “why go there to hunt”? There are several reasons, the sunshine state has thousands upon thousands of acres of huntable land, a great deal of it open to the public. They also have a pretty broad range of game that can be hunted. But for me it’s because California was one of the first states to embrace airgun hunting. You can hunt any of the small game species, but the real draw is that it one of two states in the country that I know of that permits airguns to be used for turkey! They also have a generous limit of 3 turkey in the gun spring season with a one bird per day limit, and long seasons.
On day two I already have two long beards in the freezer; the first I took with a .22 from a blind and the second with a .30 on a stalk, and I’ll write about these in more detail later. I’ve got two days left to see if I can limit out before returning home. I have been seeing large numbers of birds, easily 50 per day, including some very big toms. The birds I shot are Rio Grande, though I am told there are also Merriam and hybrids to be found in the area. And the area is beautiful, coastal hills one one side and the Sierra foothils on the other, weather sunny and in the 80’s. It’s a bit on the warm side, but after two years in Minneapolis you wont catch me complaining about warm weather!
If you have ever wanted to hunt turkey with and airgun, head west. My season license and three turkey stamp came to $170.00 and you can find some reasonable priced guide services or do it yourself. If you want to try this and need more information let me know, I’ll be happy to point you in the right direction. I think this is one of the coolest airgun hunts you can do, and believe it or not, California is the place to go.
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