I live/ hunt in Alabama and have never turkey hunted out of state. Would appreciate any recommendations anyone has. Would like to keep with in a 10 hour drive, so the obvious is Missouri and would appreciate any recommendations. Also, considered Kentucky or any other state I can drive to in a day. Wouldn't mind hunting good/ safe public land, if that's even an option but am assuming I'll need to find a pay hunt operation or a private land owner that me and a buddy could pay.
Thanks
Take the time to research TX
Public land or outfitters?
Not sure how far into MO you want to go, but there is good public land in north MO I used to hunt. Also lots of Mark Twain National Forest that has birds .
I know Texas has tons of birds but I guess I'm looking for a little more of a challenge, although I do want to kill a Rio at some point.
Would love to go out of state and kill one on public land, but just don't have good past experience with turkey hunting public land. The PL in N. Mo...is it high pressure, etc? I don't like the idea of setting up on a bird to find out someone else is also hunting the bird. Dangerous and frustrating.
I have killed several gobblers on public land in Missouri and Mississippi. Both states have lots of public land but also lots of hunters. Best advice I could give on both states is to get maps of the areas you plan to hunt and find the most remote spots that are not easily accessible. I walk for over an hour to get to the places I hunt in Mississippi. In Missouri I climb up and down some of the roughest terrain you can imagine. But I get away from other hunters.
Good advice , so far. I have hunted the Mark Twain in the past. The numbers were down but have now rebounded over the last coup[le of seasons. I actually plan to go there myself this spring.
Also , Tennessee has some good public land. What part of Alabama are you in ? I live in South Alabama almost to Mobile.
I live in NE Missouri and there are several pieces of public land.I hunt only private land but know several people who do hunt public with success.My recommendation is come 2nd or 3rd week so you can kill both your birds on consecutive days(1 bird limit first week).Try to hunt midweek also,lots less pressure and the wannabes have already given up.If you go to the Mo Dept. of Conservation website they have maps of all their public areas.Dont hesitate to try the smaller areas,would be a lot less pressure than the big areas and just as good if not better hunting.
I live in southern Indiana, and there is a piece of property called the Hoosier National Forest, something like 500,000 acres to hunt and camp on. My dad lives on a lake inside the forest and hears birds gobble all spring with little to no pressure by hunters at all especially during the work week. The lake is called Patoka. I hope you get to venture outside your state for turkeys, good luck!
I am biased toward pa. We have a ton of public land with minimal pressure especially during the week. Plenty of places to camp too. If in the mountain areas you can hunt all morning and get great trout fishing in the evenings.
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Quote from: truedouble on February 04, 2014, 09:23:24 AM
I know Texas has tons of birds but I guess I'm looking for a little more of a challenge, although I do want to kill a Rio at some point.
Would love to go out of state and kill one on public land, but just don't have good past experience with turkey hunting public land. The PL in N. Mo...is it high pressure, etc? I don't like the idea of setting up on a bird to find out someone else is also hunting the bird. Dangerous and frustrating.
Weekends can be crowded, especially the first one, but during the week you may very likely have the place to yourself.
Gee, I wish I knew where some of those easy Turkeys hang out here in Texas. :funnyturkey:
I'm just saying.............. :OGturkeyhead:
Roy
Quote from: R.W. Mackey on February 04, 2014, 08:10:01 PM
Gee, I wish I knew where some of those easy Turkeys hang out here in Texas. :funnyturkey:
I'm just saying.............. :OGturkeyhead:
Roy
Yep,...me too! It took me seven years of trying to kill my first Rio in Texas! It is all a function of where you get to hunt there. You get on the wrong property and you can be in for a long, tough hunt to get a bird,...and get on the right one, and those Rios can be pushovers. Rios get a bad rap as being easy birds to kill. They can be as tough, if not tougher, than any other subspecies. The same goes for turkeys everywhere, though.
I live in southeast Missouri an the Mark twain national forest is literally in my back yard. Not as many toms here as there used to be but they are slowly coming back. I called up and killed my first turkey when I was 14 and I have never hunted anywhere else. They are tough and will walk you in the ground but my dad always told me, "Son if you can kill a turkey right around here you can go anywhere and have success. Basically he means there is a lot of pressure and they get messed with from march to June. It's not impossible to come up here and kill turkeys but it's not going to be the easiest hunt, that you can count on. Best of luck to you and let me know if you have any questions.
Lots of good public land in TN. Google twra.
thanks for all the information. I called a place I bow hunted in North Central Mo. and he said the numbers have been down for several years but they are starting to come back. That's a little concerning...
As for Rio's I'm sure there are plenty of places where the hunting isn't easy, but I'm referring to properties that have a ton of birds where it's far more uncommon to not kill a bird than to kill a limit in a couple of days. If/ when I do go to Tx. I'd try to find a "good" place. Wouldn't want to go to Tx. and hunt an area with low number of birds...
There is a lot of state land in Kentucky if you look there are some good small pieces of state land that don't see many hunter if any