Very few states allow rifles to be used to hunt turkey today. Most require that shot be used to kill any bird. The concern is safety, as turkeys are shot low to the ground, but a bullet is likely to pass through the turkey, completely, and go on to be a danger to other animals, and people for hundreds of yards beyond the turkey, and even out of sight of the shooter. Since many states with turkey hunting today are rather flat, safety is a big issue will all use of rifles to hunt game. Here in Illinois, we have both extremely flat lands, and also some up and down country around river bottoms. Since turkeys tend to live in wooded areas, even in those counties where the majority of the land is flat, you only find turkeys in the river bottoms, where there are lots of good backstops of trees, and dirt to stop a rifle bullet. We would like the DNR to be a little more liberal about identifying areas where rifles CAN be used, but so far, there is no willingness to do so in the department. The Department recently prohibited the use of rifles to shoot rabbits. I asume that also applies to handguns, but have not yet seen the regulation. You can still use a rifle to shoot squirrels, on private lands, but not on State owned hunting preserves. And, so far, there are no restrictions on what you use to shoot coyote, and other varmints.
The re-introduction and increase in Wild Turkey across the United States is a true Conservation miracle of the past 30 years. The NAWTF is to be given lots of credit for its turkey restoration projects.
The next " miracle " is the re-introduction and restoration of river otter, an animal which is a great bellweather for the quality of the water in our rivers and streams, not because it dies from pollution, but because it feeds on mussels over the winter months, and mussels need clean water( free of silt) so they can attach to rock bottoms in creeks, streams, and rivers, to grow their beds. When we pollute rivers, and streams, we also tend to allow large quantities of mud and silt to clog the waterways, too. Pollution can poison mussels, but since mussels and clams, and other mollusks, tend to clean out the water of a lot of bad things, it takes a lot of poison to kill them.
The Chicago River, as one example, used to be an open sewer, and visiting the Loop could be a noxious experience on a warm summer day. Today, the water is clear, and people are fishing over the noon hour off the large office buildings that line the river in downtown Chicago. The river also supports Beaver, and mussels, and probably a river otter or three. The reintroduction of otters into other Illinois streams, rivers, and waterways has also been a success, and they are being seen all over the state now, where 10 years ago, they could only be found in a few streams.
