Spring Turkey '06 Surplus Permits

[Hotspotter]

DNR Press Release

Surplus spring turkey licenses will be available March 13. Applicants who were unsuccessful in the 2006 spring wild turkey lottery may apply for surplus licenses starting at 5 p.m. on March 13, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources announced today.

Permits will be available on a first-come, first-sold basis wherever hunting and fishing licenses are sold or online at www.dnr.state.mn.us.

There are 2,382 surplus spring wild turkey hunt licenses are available. Check the list of available surplus licenses (Hotlink found on the following HSOforum page:

www.dnr.state.mn.us/licenses/lotteries/turkey_spring.html

Applicants who were unsuccessful in the spring 2006 turkey hunt lottery may purchase a surplus license through March 19. Surplus permits become available to all hunters otherwise eligible to purchase a turkey license and stamps on March 20. Purchasing a surplus permit does not affect preference points for future lottery drawings.

[TomBow]

Word of caution: If you are planning on trying to secure one of the surplus permits, get to where you are going to purchase the license well in advance of the time that they go on sale AND have more than one choice (permit area and hunt dates) because the licenses go very quickly once they go on sale. I have only experienced trying to get one of these once and heard many stories about long lines waiting for the magic-time to arrive and many folks who had to go to their second, third or even fourth choice.

Best of Luck, hope you get the tag you want and have an awesome turkey hunt.

[Hotspotter]

Tombow is right on here. Getting a surplus tag for me, has always involved a very serious strategy. I've typically been quite reluctant to offer up suggestions regarding this, as it makes for more competition at the counter ( ), but here goes.

It's only failed once when it should've worked (clerk's fault - did not have PHD in button pushing), and has succeeded on 3 separate occasions.

Basically, at 5pm on March 13th, you'll have thousands of ELS agents accessing the same computer in St. Paul for these available licenses at the same time. People from all over the state will be competing with you, to get a very limited number of permits for specific areas.

Here's what I do:

1.) Find the right place. While you might think the local hardware store is a "good" place to get your surplus tag, every other local hunter is thinking this too. The exception to this rule is if you live in rural northern MN (outside of the turkey range), or if you know the guy and he'll "hold" your place in line if you walk in there first thing in the morning and give him a head's up. Think urban here if at all possible.......like north Minneapolis Holiday urban if you catch my drift.

2.) Have at least 3 backup plans. Like tombow mentioned. While you might not have land to hunt in your "backup areas" yet....unless you want to try it with a bow the last two seasons, you won't be hunting this spring otherwise. Areas fill up quickly, and you need to be prepared to spit out "342E" or whatever as fast as possible. Like tombow said, some people get down to their last choice of choices....and some don't get a permit at all.

3.) Go early. Even when I find an out of the way place, you'll still need to show up at least 1/2 hour before 5PM. That's a minimum.

4.) Make sure the clerk has done this before, and that the machine is actually working! Try and explain the situation as nicely as possible, as you'll come across as a jerk for asking them if they can figure this out or not. When they say that they can, make sure and hear, "YES, I HAVE DONE THIS BEFORE." A buddy and I didn't get a tag a few years ago because the clerk said that they'd done fishing licenses before.....and they couldn't figure out how to do it. They spent 1/2 hour on the phone with DNR central, and figured it out while the permits were all going away. The DNR wouldn't do anything for me either.....tough luck! Enough bellyachin'!!!

Good luck, and get that tag!

Joel

[Cooter]

Surplus tags also available in WI, I think beginning noon on March 10. You can go online to see whats available.

[tucker52]

I have been trying to find a map to locate the area in Western mn to see if they have surplus permits...But I cannot find a map and I dont have the number of the area..it is around Wheaton, mn...any help would be great...

[Mark Christianson]

Try this.

Its a map to show the permit areas.

http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/outdoor_activities/hunting/turkey/spring2006_permitareasmap.pdf

And here is a list of the available permits leftover.

http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/outdoor_activities/hunting/turkey/springturkey2006_surplus.pdf

[tucker52]

Thanks, it worked. I guess I will have to wait till next year. Anyway would love to get a permit and see how this turkey hunting is done. Thanks for the info and good luck.

[BLACKJACK]

Mark, I can't get these to work, is it just my PC or what?

[Hotspotter]

Blackjack:

They're both .pdf files, so you'll have to download the latest version of adobe acrobat reader and install. Just do a google search for it.

Joel

[BLACKJACK]

Had to remove and reinstall Acrobat, but finally got them open.

[Hotspotter]

How did everyone do?

Did everybody get a surplus tag that wanted one? Who were the lucky ones!?

Joel

[Dag_1979]

My brother and I both ended up getting a surplus tag for 466H. Last season, so who knows??

Last year we also hunted last season, seen many toms, but all here henned up, the result was a big 0.

[bigbucks]

I didn't get one, there were only two in the state I was interested in. Made the mistake of getting an inexperienced agent. She said that it was never asking for a permit area. I wish I'd have realized there's a different ELS 3 digit code for Surplus Turkey Tags as opposed to Spring Turkey Tags, which is what she was using. By the time the other guy standing there & I asked for her sheet & figured it out it was too late, they were gone.

The chances were slim & none & Slim had just left town, so no biggie. I'm kind of glad to have a year off anyway. It's fun, but it cuts into spring fishing time, shed hunting, woodcutting, etc. There's always something fun to do outside.