Missouri toms are talking and strutting but their mates aren’t paying a bit of attention. For a couple of weeks now the toms have talked the talk and walked the walk to attract a hen. While the Missouri landscape changes into her spring splendor the toms will step up their walking and talking until the hens take interest. Turkey hunters are hopeful they walk and talk thru the April May hunting season.

In a pre-season conversation with the First Lady of Hunting, Mrs. Brenda Valentine, she shared that the Tennessee toms are already doing some talking but the hens are not listening just yet. Watching the turkey on her property she has seen large flocks of hens gather to feed daily and tom’s following closely. The activity she reported includes toms still strutting and calling out invitations just days before the Tennessee youth spring turkey season opened. The hens, she says are happily feeding in the field alongside the timber and those ladies appear to have no interest in the boys. At the time of our conversation, Brenda expected the season to unfold soon with more turkey action. The Tennessee season opens earlier than the Missouri spring season. In Tennessee spring season lasts six weeks with a bag limit of four gobblers.

Brenda a co-spokesperson for the National Wild Turkey Federation, is excited about the future of the organization. The organization has a half million members and there are more than 40 thousand Women In The Outdoors members. They are the largest conservation group out there. Their goal is restoration and preservation of wild turkey. NWTF is also a strong advocate of hunting and gun ownership.

She recently returned from hunting oscillated turkey in Campeche on the Yucutan Peninsula. Oscillated turkeys look more like a peacock and lack any resemblance to the turkey of North America. Brenda stated, "This was one of the most fun hunts I have been on." Brenda and her fellow hunters Peggy Vallery, of the NWTF organization and Beth Thornton, wife of George Thornton, CEO of the NWTF had an interesting experience hunting this the rarest of turkey species, in the jungle near Myan ruins. After a few slow days of hunting the ladies opted for a remote camp further out in the forty thousand acre reserve. They left their thatched roof lodging behind, pitched a tent and slept out on the ground. They awoke each morning to find jaguar tracks right outside their tent. One lady in the hunting party bagged an elusive oscillated turkey on the last day of their hunt.

I asked Brenda if she finds anything that hinders youth and ladies from hunting and she offered a candid answer and some helpful advice. Brenda said, "The greatest handicap women put on themselves is not going out on their own. You don’t have to wait for someone to take you hunting. I don’t see that hunting is out of reach for anyone who really wants to go. It is not about gender, age or affluence. It is about the desire to do it." She went on to add, "Turkey hunting really gives any hunter especially a woman an added feeling of independence. Women can put on their own boots. Women can shoot their own gun and call their own turkey. If it is a successful hunt she can carry her own turkey out of the woods."

This speaks to the heart of Brendas’ hunting and spokesperson attitude. She is a motivational speaker who wants to, in her own words " . . . share my passion and enthusiasm for conservation and the outdoors."

Brenda started hunting turkey in Tennessee during the eighties after Missouri’s successful turkey restoration program relocated Easterns to her home state. She hunted on her own and learned if there is any fixed rule of success for turkey hunting is to be flexible. Original mind sets and instructions don’t ALWAYS work.

"When I first started hunting I had a box call with instructions printed on the back. I would do exactly what it said and strike three times and wait twenty minutes. Well, It did not work and I had to learn to do at will."

Brenda offers a few simple suggestions for turkey hunters. First timers need to understand that there is a misconception for a hunter to be an expert caller. Brenda disagrees. "If you mess up you will find another turkey. Lots of average hunters bag a bird. Turkey voices are varied much like human voices. Calling turkey is like calling cats. They will come to a call if they want to. Sometimes calling works. Sometimes they come in silently and calls are not effective.

I believe woodsmanship and common sense are more important than championship calling. If you can, learn to be still. Set up in high density areas. Know the animal you are hunting."

Remember, no matter how good or bad you are as a turkey hunter all turkey hunters are on a level playing field.