Turkey Blog with Steve Hickoff

Realtree turkey hunting editor Steve Hickoff has chased gobblers all over the United States and Mexico. He was born and raised in northcentral Pennsylvania, and now makes his home in Maine. Hickoff was named the NWTF Tom Kelly Communicator of the Year for 2019, a prestigious award reflecting his longtime work promoting hunting and conservation as a turkey hunting writer, editor and book author.

Pages

Realtree Turkey Hunting News – August 2020 Edition

August 27, 2020   |  Turkey Blog with Steve Hickoff

When we turkey hunters talk these days, the spring kill, hatch reports, and season regulation changes are in the mix … and other stuff only gobbler chasers like us love. Sooner State Changes The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation (ODWC) has executed changes to wild turkey bag limits. The reason?...

How to Find (and Bust) Fall Turkeys

August 13, 2020   |  Turkey Blog with Steve Hickoff

Fall turkey flocks start the day with so much racket you need to be there when it happens, because it fades into silence just as fast. Sure, if you sit on your back porch every morning and watch a distant gobbler gang ease into a green corner pasture on your...

Southeast Turkey Hatch Results

July 30, 2020   |  Turkey Blog with Steve Hickoff

Every day was a Saturday this recent turkey season. The ongoing pandemic sheltered folks in place. The result: more time to hunt. By many accounts, designated public-land parking areas looked like used-truck lots. Hunting license and turkey permit sales, state depending, increased. That’s a good thing for cash-strapped wildlife agencies...

Are You Seeing Any Poults?

July 16, 2020   |  Turkey Blog with Steve Hickoff

The quail-sized poult, likely 3 weeks old or so, darted out into the road from where it had been bugging, followed by a lanky brood hen. While spotting just a single young bird indicates a tough run for that brood, one sighting is just that — no occasion for panic...

Multiple Turkey Harvest, License Sale Records Set in 2020

June 25, 2020   |  Turkey Blog with Steve Hickoff

Increased turkey hunting participation and permit sales during this past season of the pandemic has, in some states, resulted in a bigger spring kill. While increasing our ranks is a good thing, state agencies and turkey biologists are ever aware of the management challenges this presents, too. Has increased interest...

Seasons of the Turkey Hunter

June 9, 2020   |  Turkey Blog with Steve Hickoff

Maine, Opening Day, 2020 Pandemic, shelter-in-place advice kept some of us turkey hunters close to home this year. Me, I hit the Maine timber, softly padding over wet leaves from the prior day’s steady rain. Silence. I leaned against a big oak, far from my parked truck, and listened. Geese...

Here’s What Could Kill Turkey Hunting

May 22, 2020   |  Turkey Blog with Steve Hickoff

The wild turkey’s comeback in the U.S. is one of modern conservation’s great success stories. In the mid- to late-1900s, intensive conservation efforts helped reverse severe population declines, including trap-and-transfer programs, habitat investment and pure sweat equity. Back then, we turkey hunters were part of a great movement. Turkey numbers...

The Top 10 Wild Turkey Recipe Countdown

May 21, 2020   |  Turkey Blog with Steve Hickoff

Yep, fried wild turkey is surely hard to beat for taste and ease of cooking. But there are other ways to prepare America’s greatest game bird. If you’re looking for new ideas, you’ve come to the right place. And yes – several recipes here still involve frying wild turkey, but...

10 Old-Time Turkey Hunting Lies That Need to Die

May 12, 2020   |  Turkey Blog with Steve Hickoff

I have seen a lot of gobblers come running like racehorses out of the gate and die with honor, dodge swarms of shot to live again, and, like the sun on an overcast spring day, never show. Win or lose, I loved every one of them. Yet when I was...

Do You Need a Custom Turkey Call?

April 30, 2020   |  Turkey Blog with Steve Hickoff

Sure, a mouth call pocketed for the cost of a fast-food burger with fries can yelp up plenty of birds. They're cheap, effective, and all that. But for traditionalists, custom turkey calls embody a certain elegance and history, and that's reason enough for the hardcore turkey hunter to opt in...

What's in Your Turkey Vest?

April 21, 2020   |  Turkey Blog with Steve Hickoff

Most serious turkey hunters are pretty particular when it comes to filling the pockets of their turkey vests. So what do the Realtree pros carry? We caught up with Phillip Culpepper and Tyler Jordan, hosts of Spring Thunder on Realtree 365 , to ask about the must-have items they carry...

2020 Northeast Turkey Hunting Forecast

April 14, 2020   |  Turkey Blog with Steve Hickoff

Seasons here start a bit later than in the rest of the country, and they’re among the last to conclude. That alone is an upside. Pennsylvania, known for its strong turkey hunting tradition, is also home to many an award-winning call maker. Both New York and New Jersey hunters also...

Pages