It’s spring turkey season and NWTF – that’s the National Wild Turkey Federation – has their own way of celebrating. They’ve announced a new addition to their website, a microsite titled “Wild Turkey Basics”. And although this isn’t your usual gun-related post it’s still relevant given the time of year. This is, after all, great news for spring turkey hunters everywhere.

The best way to know your game is by getting to know its habits (or, if you’re really new to turkey hunting, getting to know the different varieties). NWTF promises their new microsite contains details of every North American species: Eastern, Rio Grande, Osceola, Merriam, and Gould’s. In addition to covering North American species they also discuss the Ocellated turkey, which is an incredibly brightly-colored bird found in Mexico and Central America. Wild Turkey Basics has everything from written information to photographs to sound files. The NWTF describes it as a “one-stop shop for all things wild turkey.”

Hunting turkeys is a great way to put your shotgun skills to work and also a good excuse for collecting a wide array of shotguns, chokes, and ammo. Then there’s the camo, blinds, calls – there’s a lot of gear involved in turkey hunting. It’s all for nothing without the right gun, though. And once you have that gun you need to pattern it to be sure of a clean kill just in case a turkey struts into range. If you’re like me you end up with multiple guns for various scenarios and a rather broad selection of turkey loads, just to see how they work. Love shotguns? You just might want to try turkey hunting. (There are also some awesome arrows for turkey hunting…just saying.)

So no, this isn’t your typical gun post. But it’s hard for me to pass up something related to spring turkeys, and if this convinces just one more person to camo up and hit the turkey woods, well, it was well worth it.

You can visit the NWTF’s Wild Turkey Basics microsite at www.nwtf.org/hunt/wild-turkey-basics. You can also take a look at some great turkey shotguns from Mossberg, Weatherby, and Winchester (there are others, but this should get you started).