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The 2020 spring Tennessee wild turkey season is now underway. With Covid-19 doing it’s best to keep us all in our homes out of fear, why not give it a try?

Turkey hunting in the spring offers so very much. Although the delicious taste of the wild turkey is the prize and goal of each hunt getting there is just as fun or even better.

Here in Claiborne County as long as you don’t live in the heart of the city there’s a population of birds close. Some landowners will gladly let you hunt or you may seek out the miles of Tennessee Valley Authority lands running alongside the many miles of shoreline that Norris Lake offers.

You may ask, why would I like hunting these birds? The answer might surprise you. It’s true that most hunters are in the woods before sunrise but that only adds to the experience. The East Tennessee sunrises are beautiful and different. The songbirds come alive and you can hear the wonderful sound of the whippoorwill echoing between the trees but then out of the darkness it happens. The thundering gobble of a tom turkey seems to rattle the ground only yards from you. Your heartbeat picks up rapidly and you realize that bird could come home for lunch or supper if everything goes well.

If you do your part and call him in with well timed and executed romantic dialogue it’s possible you raise up your bow or shotgun and get a shot of a lifetime at your very first wild turkey; however, oftentimes things go wrong and a coyote will run your birds off or a domestic dog will come in and scatter them or the bird will see you move ever so slightly and with a loud putt, he is gone.

It’s not easy but at the same time it can be. It’s hard to call them up again but it’s sometimes very easy. Every hunt is different and the reward isn’t only turkey breast in the pan. It’s the process that makes turkey hunting so great. The blooms, the songbirds and the sounds of nature waking up each morning are more reasons to try.

Ask a hunting friend for advice or maybe ask to go with him or her on a hunt. Read, research, watch videos and soon enough you will be ready to give it a try. Be prepared, sometimes that first gobble can create an addiction that no treatment could possibly cure. Start that research, watch those YouTube videos and go to the TWRA website for licensing details and give turkey hunting a try. The 2020 Spring turkey season ends May 17.