By Eddie Salter

TERRAIN
The three things that differ most about Alabama and Texas in my opinion would be terrain - weather, and the abundance of game. Although pine plantations are rapidly taking over the natural growth timber in Alabama, we still have beautiful hardwood bottoms full of white oaks, water oaks, red oaks and hills with towering pines decorated in spring by scattered dogwoods. A breathtaking sight while in bloom. Texas on the other hand is barren ground, mesquite, cactus and mainly bushes hardly growing more than 30 to 50 feet in height, vegetation scarce in the rocky soil.

Alabama has an abundance of water springs full of crystal clear water, creeks around every corner, ponds and rivers. The landscape of Texas is dotted with windmills. A process of pumping water out of the ground by means of the wind, very little in any natural springs.

WEATHER
As a general rule at the crack of day in the spring in Alabama, the winds are non-existent. You can hear an old hen tree yelp a 100 yards and you can hear the thunder of a gobbler a country mile, owls hooting, crows hollering and the songs of all the birds. Texas is very windy from dawn to dusk. 15 to 25 mile an hour winds are normal making hearing difficult. Seldom when it does rain in Texas dry bottoms can quickly turn into creeks for a short time because the rocky soil makes the water run off rapidly. Alabama soil soaks up the rain, and the runoff is not as excessive as Texas.

ABUNDANCE OF GAME
Now you may think I've painted a pretty dim picture of Texas up to this point, but when it comes down to game Texas is the place to be. On the average a good spring morning in Alabama, you'll hear 2 to 3 gobblers in the distance - and not very vocal during the remainder. You might need to find a different area for the next morning. Carrying on the routine of gobbling all day long, you can accomplish in a short time what would take a season to do in Alabama. A major difference between hunting the eastern gobbler and the Rio Grande is that in Alabama woodlands you have to depend on hearing. As you call and work the eastern bird you rely on hearing the gobbler to place where he is. You depend on hearing for drumming and strutting, the majority of the time.

When you see what's going on, the ol' gobbler is within 50 yards. When hunting the Rios you can as a general rule see what's going on because of the wide-open spaces. You can see if a gobbler is henned up and just answering your calls or advancing your way. Turkeys in Texas cover a lot of ground, it's not uncommon to see a flock of turkeys running to get from here to there. As a rule of thumb, if a flock of Alabama birds are running, they have sensed danger. You can call more aggressive to the Rios, sometimes that can cause problems with Eastern birds. Eastern Jakes gobble very little if any. Male birds usually gobble as 2 year olds. Jakes in Texas will gang up together and blow the bark off trees with their gobbles.

Alabama and Texas gobblers are around the same weight - the biggest difference is in their plumage. The Eastern birds have a chestnut color on the tips of their tail compared to the Rios white tips. The hens of the Rio-Grande also have a higher pitched yelp than those of the Eastern hens. The Rios also have a faster rhythm when calling and kee-kee more often than those of the Eastern species.

Whether Alabama or Texas the rules are the same. Learn the range of your gobbler areas, strutting grounds also known as a safety zone for the gobbler.

There are many different calls on the market today, find one you like and be patient, good times will happen and memories will be made. See Ya February 28th.