A couple of public-land gobblers make their way through a tangle of trees during the spring. Don’t overlook our state’s fine public-land turkey hunting. Photo courtesy of Chris Elllis.

Just like the kid in the candy store, you can likewise have too many public land options to pick from. After all, it can be hard to make an informed spring gobbler hunting decision when you have some 1.5 million acres of public land available in the Mountain State. What’s more, though not at modern-era record population levels, there are still plenty of gobblers to go around for those hunters who put in some effort.

Sometimes the wildlife management area (WMA) decision is kind of made for you. Whilst traveling northward up the turkey-rich byway of Interstate 79, I opted to camp out at the state’s centrally located Burnsville Lake WMA in Braxton County, though I would hunt its brethren, Stonewall Jackson WMA, just north a bit. After all, I had seen a good number of birds there the preceding deer season.

While pulling out of the Burnsville campground, I noted a gate locked me in. This was done for security purposes, I was told by an attendant who did not have the key. He stated that the gate would be opened around 8 a.m., when the normal staff arrived!

Extremely frustrated by such a revolting kickoff to the season, I gathered my wits and quickly asked the fellow if he had been hearing any gobbling. “Sure have,” he stated, “Been one tearing it up every morning just right on top of that ridge right there.”

Feeling better already, I climbed the mountain beyond the safety zone of the campground. Sure enough, a gobbler was right where the attendant had said it would be. With no luck enticing it from the roost, though it seemed quite interested, I was able to eventually catch up with the big tom a mile away and a couple of hours later. I took the boss bird with one clean, though nerve-wracking shot. The dandy public-land gobbler was one of the most special ever taken since it broke a string of unsuccessful hunts.

Just such a bird could be out there for any of the 100,000 spring gobbler chasers, if you are in need of a place to go. Before getting into the specific recommendations, an overview of the current flock status is in order.

The Division of Natural Resources (DNR) uses check station harvest data as the primary tool in assessing our state’s turkey population. Other tools include the ongoing telemetry study of backpack radio harness-wearing gobblers, the bowhunter survey where observation rates are tabulated -- and summer brood count data.

Gobbler harvests are a bit down from the 2001 record year kill of 17,875. Without the advantage of two or three consecutive banner brood count years, a kill of that level is highly unlikely at present. Instead, most experts concede that the take should be solid but similar to the last few years’ tally. That is per the aforementioned data sources, hunters should bag somewhere around 10,000 to 12,000 birds.

Now let’s go hunting with the assistance of some input from each of the six DNR district recommendations to guide you. There just may be a piece of that public-land spring gobbler candy in store for you this season.