Originally Posted by
werner.reiche
The turkey course points out a few safety things that are a bit unique to turkey hunting:
- dangers of stalking a gobbling turkey
- the colours red, white and blue
It also covered things you can do to increase your safety:
- sitting with your back to a large tree
- ways to alert other hunters which may be zeroing in on your calling
- bring a blaze orange vest for hiking in/out
- covering your bird when you carry it out over your shoulder
They also covered things you wouldn't expect:
- hunting ends before dusk + 30
- only one bird per day even when you have two tags
The also heavily emphasized calling as being the preferred way to hunt (vs run and gun or stalking birds in fields).
That was presented as both a more sportsman-like way of getting your bird - I'd agree there - but also as a safer way of hunting particularly on public land.
I think everything could have been put into a 30 minute presentation though.
But - they did manage to sell me an OFAH turkey hunter hat, a box call (which I still use) and a tape on how to call turkeys (of debatable use).
Not sure how much the course has changed over the years - I took it in 1992.