FLINTSTONE -- The weather was wet and raw, even for Western Maryland two weeks into April, and had it been the middle of spring turkey season, many of these hunters might have chosen to stay in bed. Instead, on the last weekend before opening day tomorrow, turkey calls and shotguns echoed through the hollow.

The occasion was the first Wild Turkey Seminar and Sight-In Days at the Green Ridge State Forest shooting range, a weekend of teaching and counseling put on by the Maryland State Forest and Park Service and the Natural Resources Police.

The seminar, the first of a series of Outdoor Adventures programs by MSFPS staff, provided expert advice on turkey biology and habitat, calls and calling, tactics and hunting, sighting-in and camouflage and safety.

"Hunting is something that needs to happen because we have disturbed the balance," said Outdoor Adventures coordinator Sgt. Gary Adelhardt.

"Because of that, hunting is now a legitimate wildlife management technique. Man is the highest level of predator, and this type of thing is for the betterment of those hunters," he said.

Spring turkey hunts are expanding in Maryland, where all or parts of 13 counties will be open until May 16, and the nature of the sport makes it more dangerous than many other forms of hunting.

"It is a sport that is not like the solitude of hunting deer by yourself, where it doesn't make any sounds or noises that attract other hunters," said Stuart Sommers, an avid hunter who manufactures game calls and teaches at hunting seminars throughout Western Maryland.

"When a turkey gobbles, you may hear it from a mile way. And if you are in the state forest, and only that one turkey is gobbling, every otherhunter may hear that turkey within a mile radius, they're going to go in and try to hunt him."

Every hunter, each heavily camouflaged, is going to go in with the same theory: get as close as you can, try to get in the proper

position, try to coax or cajole the bird into range and harvest it.

Roughly 10 percent of them will do so, as hunters seek a quarry with eyesight 10 times the resolve power of a human's,270-degree peripheral vision and hearing that is four times more sensitive than man's.

Where to find spring gobblers

A common mistake made by inexperienced spring turkey hunters, said MSFPS Lt. Bill Cihlar, who taught sessions on tactics and hunting, is thinking that turkeys sighted in the fall while hunting for deer or squirrel will be in the same location come spring.

"It doesn't always work that way," Cihlar said. "Turkeys have marked differences between winter range, fall range and spring habitat.

"They will hang in that winter habitat -- in mountain hollows and the spring seeps and south slopes until about the middle or end of March and then -- boom -- they are gone."

In spring, Cihlar said, turkeys typically move to wood lots that border pastures, farm fields, small clear cuts and other areas that have open edges where the hens find suitable breeding and nesting habitat.

"Nesting habitat is pretty simple for them because they don't build nests," Cihlar said. "They just find a place in the leaves, squat down and lay eggs -- next to a stump or a log, under a brush pile. Somewhere fairly inconspicuous, but really not hidden."

More importantly, Cihlar said, the hens need to be near habitat that will provide a high protein diet for the polts as soon as they hatch.

"They need lots of bugs, and hatches in fields and croplands provide lots of insects," Cihlar said. "So that is the draw for hens to go to these places in the spring, and the gobblers have no choice but to follow along."

Over the years, Cihlar has harvested 28 spring gobblers, all but a few from the edges of smaller open areas.

How to find spring gobblers

The best way to find spring gobblers is to go out long enough before sunrise to be in a good listening position at daybreak -- roughly 30 minutes before sunrise.

"You can spend a lot of time walking the woods and looking for signs and finding the right habitat," Cihlar said. "But the best way is to use your maps and compass and to go out by starlight."

Topographical maps, available from the U.S. Geological Survey, are an invaluable aid to this kind of hunting, especially if the hunter is new to a certain area. Cihlar said get the map of the particular quadrangle you will be hunting and study it.

"What you are looking for are ridge tops with not too steep elevation," Cihlar said. "Generally flat ridge tops that overlook fields, pastures and valleys. In turkey range you can look at a certain quadrangle and put yourself within a quarter mile of turkeys if they are there."

The fields, valleys and pasture edges will hold turkeys and the elevated ridge will make a perfect position from which to look and listen.

Calls and calling

The business of calling male turkeys is the business of fooling nature, of reversing the normal actions and attitudes of the gobbler.

In the early season, hens will seek out the males when they are ready to breed and basically go to the ground and lift their wings -- all of which makes it hard for the hunter and easy for the gobbler.

"A male turkey gobbles to assemble his hens into his area," said Sommers. "The receptive hens come to him and go through the breeding process. But the hunters are trying to reverse that situation -- and this provides a certain element of caution and suspicion on the part of the gobbler."

Overcoming that suspicion may require all the skills of even an experienced hunter. Sommers said that he is able to call only one of 10 birds to the gun -- and he hunts practically every day of the season.

Calling is the last part of the sequence of finding turkeys where the hunter has the sight advantage and the preferred calling location.

"From that point on, you want to start off with some tree clucks, a low, gravelly sounding call, and interest the bird in your location," Sommers said. "I like to be the first hen to call to the turkey. I want him to know I am here first, ready and I am available."

After opening with the tree calls, which should be used while the birds are still on the limb, Sommers will stop calling and let the bird continue his normal activity until the birds begin to leave their roosts -- unless he has to contest with an especially active hen.

"I use an excited call, a fly-down cackle, a few yelps and cuts and clucks after I perceive that he is on the ground," Sommers said, "and then proceed to try to convince the turkey that I am a real hen and that he should come over and investigate my position."

If the bird shows interest, Sommers will call sparingly. If the bird appears to be disinterested, he calls in "a more demanding sequence, a hot sound."

In addition to turkey calls, there are locator calls that are used to provoke a stimulus response. The most often used locator is the call of the barred owl, the most common owl in the eastern hardwoods.

Once a turkey is located, whether by natural gobbling or responses to your calls, then approach to within from 75 near to maybe 200 yards far -- depending on the terrain, the availability and type of cover, and the amount of light in the day.

"Calling is only about 10 percent of your hunting ability," Sommers said. "I'd say that about 50 percent of it is luck, 10 percent is calling and the other 40 percent is woodsmanship."

Hunter safety

Hunter orange is not required in the spring season for gobblers, and there is some amount of tradition that says that even a little hunter orange is too much.

Sgt. Lou Ritter of the Natural Resources Police hunter safety program would beg to disagree.

From a safety standpoint, Ritter said, the spring season presents perhaps more problems than any other because the hunters are heavily camouflaged, they use calls and decoys to attract turkeys to their positions and the range of the shotguns used is expanding.

A common safety problem, Ritter said, is the hunter's choice of color for various pieces of gear too often includes red, blue, white and black, the most easily recognized colors of the spring gobbler.

Any number of items can be tricky in the woods. Blue toilet paper, blue chalk strikers, black combs, white handkerchiefs, hats with black or white, for example. Ritter wants all such colors avoided by the hunter.

"Another possibility is to mark the tree you are sitting in front of

with an orange band "In the spring woods, as thick as it is, it's tough," Ritter said. "A little bit or orange goes a long way."

Turkey season

When: Tomorrow to May 16

Hours: 30 minutes before sunrise until noon, Monday through Saturday. No Sunday hunting.

License: Basic hunting license.

Weapons: Shotguns only.

New this year: Hunters of bearded turkey during the spring season are limited to shot no larger than No. 4 and no smaller than No. 6. Also, back tags do not have to be worn during the spring season, but they must be in the possession of the hunter.

Turkey hunting tips

Pattern your shotgun and know its range. Keep shots under 35 yards.

* Know the area you are hunting and always take a compass and a topographical map.

* Total camouflage is important, including hands, face, socks and weapons and equipment.

* When positioning yourself on a bird, put your back against a large tree and keep your left shoulder open toward the direction you last heard the turkey. (Right shoulder if left-handed.)

* Turkeys are acutely aware of movement. When necessary to change the aim of your gun, try to wait until the bird's vision is obscured by a tree or other cover and move the gun in small increments.

* Once the bird is in range, aim at the head and neck. If you don't have a clear shot, don't shoot.

* After shooting, put the safety back on, put on a hunter orange vest or hat and get to your bird as quickly as possible.

Hunter safety tips

Make use of hunter orange. If you are worried that wearing the color will make you conspicuous, mark your location with a band of hunter orange that will not move.

* Never wear turkey colors -- red, white, blue or black.

* Always position yourself in the open with a large tree to your back. Avoid thick, brushy blowdowns.

* Never use turkey calls to signal other hunters about your position.

* Assume the call you heard is a hunter until you can identify it as a turkey.

* Never try to stalk the call of a wild turkey. Always warn hunters stalking your calls with a loud voice.

* Never take a shot until you have positively identified your target and the field of fire before and behind it.