All of these goals should engender some fascinating data. For example, I would love to know what percentage of 2-year-old toms survive the spring season. Another piece of data that could be gleaned is do 3-year-old birds have better survival rates than 2-year-olds and jakes? In other words, is a long spurred, old longbeard truly a wary old boy or is that just a myth created by us turkey hunters?

Another tidbit of information that could be gleaned is how do fall mast conditions affect gobbler survival? Virginia's spring gobbler season typically opens several weeks earlier than West Virginia's does. How does that fact affect gobbler survival?

The second objective is to "determine differences in gobbling and gobbler harvests under different spring season formats, and environmental, mast and hunting conditions." Goals under this objective include the following.

Much fascinating information can possibly be gleaned from this second objective as well. For instance, I would relish knowing how much a cold, blustery late April day in West Virginia can affect gobbling rates. The conventional wisdom is that such weather suppresses gobbling activity. But is that really true?

Like many hunters, I don't like to use turkey calls when I am pre-season scouting, preferring to instead locate birds by finding sign or employing crow calls. I won't even use barred owl calls before the season. But is all this caution really necessary?

Another piece of information that could be gained concerns gobbling rates of different age birds. The conventional wisdom is that jakes gobble fairly sporadically, that 2-year-olds do so a great deal, and that 3-year-old and older toms don't have to gobble as much to attract hens. But are those assumptions really true or just the creation of outdoor scribes and well-meaning, though misinformed, hunters? We shall perhaps find out the answers to those questions.

The 2004 fall turkey season certainly was not an epic one by West Virginia standards. With any luck, better ones are on the way. Maybe the 2005 season will start it off.