The 2023 spring turkey season began with a challenge – tagging three males to reach a lifetime total of 50 birds. This string started with a 22-pound bird back in 1981 in Missouri.
Some past years were marked with unfilled tags or empty seasons because they were not drawn in the state lottery. My first Wisconsin gobbler hit the ground in 1983, the year of the state’s inaugural season, thanks to a stocking program that began in the 1970s with Missouri birds.
At the age of 80, Gene Kroupa’s 50th gobbler had a fantastic spring
