Turkey Hunting
Successful & Unsuccessful Turkey Hunts
We worked this late season bird, or he worked us, for nearly two hours and then left allowing us only a fuzzy picture through the screen window.
Many people want to ascribe to us expert turkey hunter status because we operate a hunt organization. The truth is we find tagging toms as hard to get done as any one.
Habitat
Spring strutting just over the low ridge. We did not push our luck, found them and got out for the next morning. Went and scouted other spots.
Our core product is habitat, not turkey hunting or hunters as many suspect. It is habitat that is the cause for all the effects we achieve. What better example of productive habitat than a strutting tom?
Same birds as the picture above.
A summer time tom.
The key aspect about our wild turkey hunting that most appreciate is the safety from private land reserved to the individual hunter.
Add to that we do not stack hunters up on the same ground from day to day pressuring the same roosts and strutting grounds. And, it gets better. Turkey hunts being what they are, a skill demanding activity, combined with our large acreage allows leases to go un-hunted each spring season as we have more land than hunters to hunt. This is part of the advantage of our economic approach to multiple hunter use lands.
A recent further dynamic resulting from our large population of non-resident members is that most of them are happy to harvest one tom per spring season trip and deer scout than to seek to fill all available tags. Just 12 to 15 years ago the converse was true that our then largely resident membership hunted the entire season until all tags were filled. The net effect has been lessening hunter pressure.
Another dynamic of the non-resident turkey hunter influence on Mid-America Hunting Association was the understanding that the turkey hunt advantages we enjoy in the central mid-west are not shared in many other states. One aspect that caught us off guard years ago was the inquiry if our turkeys were wild turkeys. That is when we discovered that we need to define our turkey hunts as wild turkey hunts in terms they are naturally propagated and not transplanted birds along with no baiting for the hunt.
And, all of this is made possible by Missouri's exceptional, truly above all other states, turkey population density, state wide OTC turkey tags and the habitat that allows for large and numerous flocks. It is hard not to find a turkey hunting spot, it is only a matter of degrees between good and better turkey habitat.
Add to Missouri's large turkey flocks and additional opportunities in Iowa and in Kansas with its Eastern and Rio Grande Turkey regions gives the hunter the opportunity during as little as one trip the chance to hunt up to three states, 5 tags, two species over a 6 weeks spring turkey season. Within our approach to paid private land access the self guided turkey hunter also has the option of being in the field on his schedule during any part of the season and return for multiple hunts as well. This creates distribution of our turkey hunters over a large area and long spring and fall turkey season.
Self guided turkey hunts in the central mid-west are easily accomplished because there are a lot of flocks, the liberal seasons and over the counter tags leaves it to the hunter simply to travel to have a good hunt. We take out the last of the do it yourself hunter resistance by providing the private land, recommendation where to park the truck, step out and turkey hunt and the local lodging is well suited for most making the choice between to hunt or stay at home an easy decision.
The local motels are very rarely booked during the spring season and if they are it is probably due to a wedding in the nearby chapel rather than because of hunter pressure.
The lodging we list in our MAHA Yellow Pages provides a twice yearly updated listing of local motels, campgrounds, tow truck services, meat lockers and veterinary services for every county where we lease land all on one easily printed page per county. The entire approach is that long before leaving home for the hunt each hunter has a plan.
If we recommend a farm for turkey hunting it is due to our first hand experience of boots on the ground survey either before or during any one of the yearly seasons. The do it yourself turkey hunter's confidence that our turkey hunt recommendations will meet his desires comes from the fact that we understand members only renew their memberships if they have a good turkey hunting experience.
We seek membership renewal rather than a constant inflow of new members. Trust in this as we are a business and not a hunting club.
Further proof will come to those that seek printed advertising material from us as they will only receive a small brochure that is nothing more than a quick overview of what we offer and far less than the details found even on this one turkey hunting web page. Without a need for a lot of new hunters each year we do not need to spend money on advertising. That leaves more operating capital for leases.
In short, turkey hunters hunt private lease land of their choice, they hunt on their own employing their own turkey hunting skills and methods, they may turkey hunt as often as they desire and on their schedule and of course they are on turkeys. Further proof of this is found on our "Update" page and that page's past years of archives.
Reviewing that section will show a great amount of seasonal successes by many different do it yourself hunters covering Mule and Whitetail Deer; pheasant and quail; duck and goose and of course, Eastern and Rio Grande Turkey hunting. Start with spring turkey season and use that as a spring board to year round private land self guided hunts.
Spring turkey hunting also offers the opportunity to get in some deer scouting during the turkey hunt. During this time of year it remains relatively cool for easy walking, the vegetation is just beginning to green up allowing for plenty of observation through the woods and the chance to find a nice shed is possible as well as some turkey.
Fall Turkey Hunt
Eric V. with a 22 lb. tom harvested during the archery deer season with overlapping fall turkey hunting season. Preparation and opportunity made for another memory.
Another option is to bring along a fishing pole for some of our farm ponds, watershed lakes or strip pit crappie and bass fishing. And, for the family man, there are plenty of spouse satisfying country oriented family activities complete with sites and attractions such as Arrow Rock historic center, Branson Missouri well known for their shows and Silver Dollar City theme park along with local fair of handmade quilts, baskets and such. This aspect can easily double the cost of a turkey hunting trip.
Combining a family spring break vacation with a self guided wild turkey hunting trip is frequently and easily executed and also does not leave out dad as Kansas City has a large Cabela's and Springfield an expansive Bass Pro store and museum, just in case there is a need to round out some turkey hunting equipment needs.
Fall turkey hunting provides additional tags and a long fall turkey season leaving no excuse not to combine an early fall turkey hunt with pre-season deer scouting.
Overall, simply more turkey hunting opportunity than most have the time or energy to pursue.
Western Kansas Rio Grande Turkey
Steve's setup.
