The goal of this three-year turkey study is to keep roughly 70 or so turkeys statewide wearing shoulder harness "backpack" radio transmitters. Mortality rates and cause of death are the key data being tallied. Speaking of those tallies, just which counties are chalking up the best turkey numbers?

The Mountain State's narrow Northern Panhandle is a perennial leader in turkeys killed per square mile. Just a stone's throw east to Pennsylvania and west to Ohio, the region's four counties precisely dominate the same slots of the leading kills per square mile every year.

The four county leaders with their turkey kills per square mile following in parentheses are Hancock (2.98), Brooke (1.89), Ohio (1.40) and Marshall (1.03). Their relatively high human population and small county size make them a turkey colossus of sorts. They may, in fact, be over exalted comparing the tiny size in relation to the big home range of wild turkeys. The state's tiniest area, Hancock County at only 61 square miles, pales in contrast to top-rated Randolph County's 1,015 square miles.

Finding a gobbler is not nearly as difficult as finding a place to hunt at this turkey-rich turf. Nevertheless, several wildlife management areas (WMAs) are available to hunt with some room to roam. One is the Cecil H. Underwood WMA (2,097 acres) in Marshall County, which is a relatively new kid on the WMA block. Hillcrest WMA in Hancock County offers 2,212 acres, and Brooke County's Cross Creek WMA affords 2,080 acres, though a coal mining operation has temporarily closed off a portion of the WMA to hunters for safety reasons.

For additional details on these and other public-hunting areas, the regulations pamphlets provide contact details for writing or calling the DNR and other agencies. Also, check out the DNR's Web page at www. wvdnr.gov. Recently, the DNR has started posting some basic maps for some of the WMAs.

These maps, in concert with a DeLorme atlas and gazetteer, are accurate enough to get your feet on the ground and heading in the right direction.

If a computer isn't your thing, pick up or contact the DNR from the regulations brochure information for the nearest regional office and ask for a copy of A Guide to Wildlife Management Areas in West Virginia. At last check, it was a bit dated in the transition era between hard copy and computers. However, it does feature narrative directions but not maps to the WMAs.

You can quickly develop more places to go than you have the time and gasoline! Fortunately, every one of the state's 55 counties harbors huntable populations of birds for backyard hunts, which allow for more sleep. In addition, a host of turkey veterans like these sleep-in hunts. These backyard hunts allow more time for hens to get back to their nest-tending duties. This leaves gobblers alone and more susceptible to calling.

Though you surely can bag or flub a late-morning gobbler like I did, the DNR's long-standing survey of spring turkey hunters reveal that the "early birds get their birds" based upon actual kill times reported.

As well, turkey hunters must put in their time in the turkey woods. The season is four weeks long, but at times, you would never know it for the lack of hunting pressure during the latter three weeks.