Tom time: Wild for gobblers

Minnesota's wild turkey season opens Wednesday -- and this spring as many as 50,000 hunters might try to bag a gobbler.

That's more than twice as many turkey hunters as 10 years ago, and more than eight times the number of hunters who went afield 20 years ago.

The reintroduction of wild turkeys to the state beginning in the 1960s -- along with their proliferation and the accompanying growth in turkey hunter numbers -- is one of Minnesota's great wildlife success stories. Here are five things to know:

1. Happy to be hunting

The odds say just 30 percent -- 15,000 of those estimated 50,000 hunters -- will eat turkey this season. The other 35,000 will go home empty-handed, but mostly content.

"Hunters keep telling us that opportunity is more important than bagging a bird," said Bill Penning of the Department of Natural Resources. "They want to hear gobbling, they want to see a bird, but actually putting one in the bag isn't on the top of their list."

That's what a random survey of 2,400 southeastern Minnesota turkey hunters in 2010 confirmed. The opportunity to kill a turkey was an important factor in determining the quality of their hunt, but killing a bird was cited only about 5 percent of the time as the most important factor.

Because the turkey population, now estimated at about 75,000, has grown along with the number of hunters, the turkey harvest has grown, too. Hunters set harvest records in 16 of the past 20 years. They topped 10,000 birds in 2008 and hit 13,467 last year. That's more than twice the harvest of just 10 years ago.

The DNR has suspended efforts to trap birds and transplant them to new areas around the state, saying turkeys have been reintroduced in all places they are likely to thrive. That range, which now extends as far north as Thief River Falls, Walker and Duluth, is far larger than ever thought possible. Can hunters continue to set harvest records? "I expect the turkey population will still continue to grow in the northern portions of the range for some time," Penning said. "And turkeys might continue to expand on their own. If that occurs, we could open more areas to hunting. But at some point we'll hit our carrying capacity." For 2011, though, Penning expects another record harvest.

3. Big change a'coming

The biggest change in years for turkey hunters occurred this year: Hunters now can buy licenses over-the-counter for the last two time periods, meaning anyone who wants to hunt turkeys now can. But a bigger change could come next year.

"We are looking at consolidating permit areas," said Penning. The state's turkey range now is divided into 81 hunting zones, and hunters are restricted to one. "We're looking at having far, far fewer," perhaps just a dozen, Penning said. That would allow hunters to hunt in far larger areas. "We can reduce the administrative burden for both hunters and the DNR, and not have a negative population effect," Penning said.

Could the DNR one day sell all turkey licenses over-the-counter, without the lottery system that has been used?

Don't hold your breath. "It will be a very long time before we can do that," Penning said. "The sport is very popular, and in the early part of the season, demand greatly exceeds supply [of turkey permits]." And the DNR doesn't want to diminish high-quality turkey hunting by lifting those restrictions. In last year's hunter survey, the average quality-of-hunt score was 3.3 on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being excellent.

5. Turkey, nation's bird?

Yes, it's true that Benjamin Franklin apparently preferred the turkey instead of the bald eagle as the nation's emblem. Here's what he wrote to his daughter 1 1/2 years after Congress selected the bald eagle for the nation's Great Seal:

"For my own part I wish the bald eagle had not been chosen the representative of our country. He is a bird of bad moral character. He does not get his living honestly. For in truth the turkey is in comparison a much more respectable bird, and withal a true original native of America. ... He is besides, though a little vain and silly, a bird of courage, and would not hesitate to attack a grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his farm yard with a red coat on."