Janis gets a little impatient in this Michigan turkey hunt.
Spring is here and the turkeys are out strutting. If that isn't enough to get you itching to get a hunting license and out in the field, maybe you need a little reminder of the excitement of turkey hunting.
MeatEater's Janis Putelis has returned to his home state of Michigan, where he has never hunted wild turkeys.
Things are a little slow to start this hunt off, but it gets a lot more exciting as the hunt wears on and Janis has a particularly memorable encounter with a big old Michigan gobbler.
As a resident of Southwest Michigan for most of my life myself, I can confirm what Janis says is true. All through the 90s, it was pretty rare to see a turkey in this part of Michigan, or almost anywhere in Michigan for that matter. It is amazing the comeback this bird has made here in the Great Lakes State. Probably at least half of all my trail camera photos these days are of turkeys. That's a testament to how well conservation works, and why I always get my spring turkey license. Kudos to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources for sound management of the turkey population, too.
We really enjoyed this hunt. It wasn't picture-perfect like many filmed turkey hunts you see these days. It was more realistic to what usually happens in the woods. There was plenty of drama and an exciting harvest to top it off, a true depiction of a spring turkey hunting season excursion.
Congrats Janis, enjoy your meals from that turkey meat!
For more outdoor content from Travis Smola, be sure to follow him on Twitter and check out his Geocaching and Outdoors with Travis Youtube channels.
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