Plan: Decoys at first light. Hen call sequence. Wood line near the creek. That old tom—the one with the split beard—he’ll be there.
He pulled out his worn leather journal, the one his dad had given him twenty years ago. He flipped past pages of turkey sightings, wind directions, and failed setups. On a fresh page, he wrote in careful block letters:
“Come on, come on,” he muttered, refreshing the page for the tenth time. indiana 2025 turkey season dates
He’d heard rumors at the bait shop last week. Some guys said the youth season would be the weekend of April 19th. Old Man Haskins, who claimed he hadn’t missed a turkey opener since 1985, swore the regular season would start on the 23rd. But Ray didn’t trust rumors. He trusted the official PDF.
Ray smiled. It was only November now. There were chores to do, winter to endure, coyotes to trap. But the date on the page was a promise. A countdown. A reason to keep the shotgun clean and the box call oiled. Plan: Decoys at first light
His eyes scanned the screen, heart thumping like a drumming grouse.
He set the journal down and looked out at the frosted field. Somewhere out there, in the gray-brown woods, the longbeards were scratching and strutting, unaware of the calendar. But Ray knew. That old tom—the one with the split beard—he’ll
Ray lived on the line—literally. His back forty straddled the Monroe-Brown county border, which the DNR considered the transition zone. Technically, he could hunt either, but his best birds roosted in the south. That meant an April 30th opener.