East coast guy here looking to hunt a Merriam turkey out west. Can anyone recommend a decent outfitter? My buddy and I would like to make the trek.
You'll get more PMs to this type question than posted replies. Specify if your looking for self guided or fully guided. I often look at bookyourhunt.com for a baseline. Good luck.
Thanks for the website suggestion. I am looking as well and this site is very cool for booking a hunt.
Bump it up often. Things quickly change. Again good luck. The Merriam experience is well worth the effort.
Your first consideration is what you are expecting in your hunt. Do you want to actually test your hunting skills?...or are you just looking to shoot a gobbler on what is nothing more than a "canned" hunt? I can assure you that there are both.
I know of two outfitters that basically work out of the same canyon. One of them works his butt off to find gobblers in a wide area pf the mountain range for his clients, puts them on those birds...and says "go get them". It may take a few days for his clients to kill birds (based on their abilities), so he sets up hunts of several days and continues to cater to his hunters and search for more gobblers for them to hunt, if needed.
The other is on a relatively small piece of private property, has feeders set up, and does nothing more than put his customers on that property near the feeders, and his clients do nothing more than shoot gobblers coming and going to and from those feeders. I suspect his clients are expected to kill gobblers quickly so he can bring in the next group. From what I can tell, these "barnyard" turkey hunts are pretty common in Merriam's country.
Ask yourself which type of hunt you want...and then do your research, ask questions about which type of hunt you will have, and make an informed decision based on what you find out relative to what you are expecting. :icon_thumright:
High Mesa Outfitters. I personally know Andrew and he has a great place and one of the most unique and varied pieces of terrain I've ever walked on.
Quote from: GobbleNut on Today at 08:50:58 AMYour first consideration is what you are expecting in your hunt. Do you want to actually test your hunting skills?...or are you just looking to shoot a gobbler on what is nothing more than a "canned" hunt? I can assure you that there are both.
I know of two outfitters that basically work out of the same canyon. One of them works his butt off to find gobblers in a wide area pf the mountain range for his clients, puts them on those birds...and says "go get them". It may take a few days for his clients to kill birds (based on their abilities), so he sets up hunts of several days and continues to cater to his hunters and search for more gobblers for them to hunt, if needed.
The other is on a relatively small piece of private property, has feeders set up, and does nothing more than put his customers on that property near the feeders, and his clients do nothing more than shoot gobblers coming and going to and from those feeders. I suspect his clients are expected to kill gobblers quickly so he can bring in the next group. From what I can tell, these "barnyard" turkey hunts are pretty common in Merriam's country.
Ask yourself which type of hunt you want...and then do your research, ask questions about which type of hunt you will have, and make an informed decision based on what you find out relative to what you are expecting. :icon_thumright:
When it comes to guides out west, this reply sums it up perfectly.
Ask the questions ahead of time if you have expectations of how you want the hunt to happen. There's lots of "yard bird" operations out west, if you just want to kill then look for any outfit with reputable success.
The main problem is because there's just so much public land out west that guys that are willing to work for it have the option to do so on the land they already own with their tax dollars. This makes most of the guides think they need to provide an option for guys to not have to work for it. They can provide some killer accommodations to soak in the beautiful views after whacking someone's bird feeder turkey though.