North Zone (101 counties): March 29-May 11

North Zone Special Youth Season: March 22-23, May 17-18

South Zone (54 counties): March 15-April 27

South Zone Special Youth Season: Today, May 3-4

Eastern Turkeys, bag limit one, (43 counties): April 1-30

Thanks to a mild, wet spring and summer last year, there are lots of Rio Grande birds. Many of the gobblers are young-of-the-year birds, called jakes. Eastern turkeys didn't fare so well. Some areas of the eastern turkey habitat received too much spring rain. Texas Parks and Wildlife continues to stock eastern turkeys. In the past two years, four sites have been "super-stocked" with 80 birds each and the results are being monitored by Stephen F. Austin University.

All Texas turkey hunters 17 and older must pay a $7 upland game bird stamp fee. The stamp is part of the Texas Super Combo License. Eastern turkeys may be hunted with shotguns, lawful archery equipment and crossbows only (no rifles) and no baiting is permitted for eastern birds. If you kill an eastern turkey, you must take the bird to a TP&W check station within 24 hours. Spring turkeys must be tagged immediately with a valid tag from a Texas hunting license. There are four turkey tags on a license but some counties have a restrictive limit. The limit on eastern turkeys is one gobbler per spring. One tag (turkey tag No. 3 on the license) is designated for an eastern turkey or a Rio Grande but all four tags may be used on Rio Grande turkeys. Only gobblers are legal game during the spring season.

Two weekends of the spring Rio Grande turkey season are designated for youth hunters (16 and younger) only. In North Texas there's an early youth weekend March 22-23 and a late youth weekend May 17-18.

Spring turkey hunters should learn to imitate the yelps, clucks, purrs and cackles made by hen turkeys. The easiest calls for a beginner to use are box calls, push button calls and slate calls. The most difficult calls to master are diaphragm mouth calls and wingbone calls. The best learning method is through an instructor skilled at calling turkeys, but you can also learn to call by imitating the sounds you hear on an instructional video or audio tape. Luckily, all turkeys do not sound alike. Listen carefully to the sounds made by real turkeys and try to imitate them.

Beard: Specialized feathers sprouting from the chest of male turkeys (and a few females). Beards resemble coarse hair, very similar to a horse's tail. Mature, two-year-old gobblers usually have a beard measuring 8 or 9 inches.

Jake: Turkey gobbler born last spring or summer. Jakes tend to be more naïve and easier to call than mature birds. A jake usually has a stubby beard that's less than 6 inches long. When a jake struts, the middle feathers of his fan are slightly longer than the flanking feathers. A gobbler is fully mature at two years and all the feathers on his fan are about the same length.

Spurs: Spikes that grow on a turkey's legs just above its ankles. Like spurs on a rooster, turkey spurs are used for fighting and grow slowly throughout the turkey's life. Long spurs are highly prized by experienced hunters. Any spur longer than an inch is considered good and spurs longer than 1½ inches are excellent.

Shock call or locator call: Any loud, preferably natural sound, like an owl hoot, crow call, or coyote howl. A turkey will often gobble in response to those sounds, allowing the hunter to locate him. Turkeys will sometimes gobble to the sound of a passing car, a slamming car door, a bellowing cow or any other loud noise.

Henned Up: A gobbler accompanied by hens. Gobblers are extremely difficult to call away from real hens and the best tactic is to use soft hen calls in an effort to attract the hens. Where the hens go, the gobbler will follow.

Strut: Ritual display used to impress hens and discourage subordinate gobblers. A strutting gobbler puffs his feathers out and spreads his fan to make himself appear as big as possible.

Drumming: Deep, humming sound made by strutting gobblers. If you hear a turkey drumming, it means he's close, probably closer than 50 yards.

Put a turkey to bed: When a turkey flies up to his roost at dusk, he will often gobble on the roost, just to let nearby hens know where he's spending the night. You can use locator calls at dusk to elicit responses from a roosting gobbler. A hunter who puts a turkey to bed knows where to start the next morning. Turkeys usually fly down from the roost as soon as it is light enough for them to detect predators that may be lurking nearby. To sneak within calling range of a roosted turkey, the hunter should try to be in position 30 minutes before daylight.

Turkey sign: Savvy turkey hunters learn to identify signs left by gobblers. A gobbler's tracks feature a middle toe that's longer than the other two toes. A hen's toes are about the same length. When gobblers strut, they drag their wings, leaving distinctive drag marks on favored strutting grounds.

■ Depending on terrain, turkeys are often closer than you think. If a turkey is facing away from you when he gobbles, he sounds farther away. If you hear a turkey gobble and the bird sounds fairly close, make a hen yelp in response. If the turkey gobbles back, you should be able to determine if he's getting closer. Hunters often try to get too close to a gobbling turkey and meet him coming their way.

■ Protect yourself from spring dangers. Though rattlesnakes and other poisonous reptiles are common in most turkey woods, ticks, mosquitoes and chiggers are much more common and may spread diseases. Insect repellents with the active ingredient DEET do a good job of protecting you from biting insects. Treat clothing, including socks, boots and caps with an insecticide with the active ingredient permethrin to discourage ticks. Don't worry about the chemical smell. Turkeys don't have a sense of smell.

■ Wear camouflage, including camo face mask or face paint and camo gloves. Choose a camouflage pattern that blends well in bright green spring foliage. Sit perfectly still when a turkey is looking in your direction. Turkeys have excellent eyesight and they spot movement particularly well.

■ Do not try to shoulder your shotgun or otherwise move if you can see a turkey's head. If you can see the turkey's head, he can see you and will notice any movement. Move when the bird has stepped behind a bush or when a strutting bird turns his back on you.

■ Use a shotgun with a full choke for maximum range but avoid shots much farther than 30 yards. Shoot the turkey in the head and neck. Body shots with a shotgun are less effective because of the turkey's heavy feathers.

■ Pattern your shotgun before the season to determine which shells work best. Several companies make turkey-sized paper targets that work well for patterning. Most turkey hunters use premium No. 6 shot, but you should experiment with different loads to determine which loads work best with your particular shotgun and choke. Patterning your shotgun is also useful for seeing how the gun performs at measured distances, and it provides a chance to shoot at turkey-sized targets and learn how big they appear at various ranges.

Public access is best for eastern turkeys because those birds occur in East Texas and that's where most of the state's public land is. National Forest Service lands afford the most public hunting opportunities. The best bets are the southern Angelina National Forest and most of the Sabine National Forest. Many of the TP&W wildlife management areas in East Texas have huntable turkey populations. You must buy a $48 annual hunting permit to gain access to the WMAs and most of the hunts are draw hunt. Plan ahead for next year's turkey season. The best advice for an East Texas hunter is to scout long enough to locate a bird before the season. Otherwise, be willing to walk long distances, stopping and calling periodically. Five or six miles is not an uncommon distance to cover on a morning hunt. If you are unfamiliar with the area you're hunting, a compass and a topographic map will help you get oriented. A handheld GPS device works even better.

Best regions for Rio Grande turkeys: Edwards Plateau (Hill Country), Cross Timbers, Rolling Plains, South Texas Plains. Texas has more Rio Grande turkeys than any other state.

Turkey hunting outfitters: Texas Best Outfitters, Haskell, 915-773-2457; Stasney's Cook Ranch, Albany, 1-888-762-2999; Wildlife Systems, Inc., San Angelo, 915-655-0877; Miller Creek Ranch, Seymour, 940-422-4817; Nail Ranch, Albany, 915-762-2974; Warren Ranch, Coleman, 325-624-5531; Txdovehunt.com, Knox County, 817-658-4728. Numerous hunting opportunities are advertised in the classified advertising section of this newspaper.

Problem 1: A turkey responds to your call but he hangs up and refuses to come any closer.

Solution: Change locations. It's unnatural for a hen to remain in one spot. If it's possible to move closer to the gobbler without alerting him, make a move in his direction. If the gobbler is too close, back away. When you back away, the gobbler believes the hen is leaving and is more likely to pursue her. It's natural for a hen to approach a gobbler and the gobbler often stands on station, calling to attract any hens in the neighborhood.

Problem 2: There are turkeys in the area, but they're not gobbling.

Solution: Find a comfortable spot, preferably near water or food source, and sit quietly. Call sparingly every 15 minutes and be alert to gobblers that come silently to the call.

Problem 3: You set up near a roosting turkey at daylight but the bird flies down, ignores your calls and wanders away with real hens roosting nearby.

Solution: Wait about an hour, then start walking, stopping every 200 yards or so to call with loud yelps. Gobblers are more likely to be attracted to your call after they've bred available hens. Nine a.m. to noon is a great time to call.

Hunters often remove the breast meat from a harvested turkey and discard the carcass but it's not legal to do so until the carcass has been transported to its final destination. According to Texas law, proof of sex must remain attached to the carcass. Proof of sex for a turkey means a leg, including the spur, attached to the carcass or a patch of skin with breast feathers and beard attached to the carcass. The hunter may also obtain a receipt from a taxidermist or a signed statement from the landowner or the landowner's agent that includes the name of the person who killed the turkey, the date the turkey was killed, the sex of the turkey and whether a beard was attached. A tag from your hunting license must be fully filled out and attached to the turkey carcass as soon as the bird is killed.