Missouri spring turkey hunting/ from NY here

[turkeyfeathers]

Brother and I are thinking of hunting birds in Missouri in the spring of 2016. Never been so I have a few questions.

1) Is there much promising public land with birds ? Seeing no other hunters would be joyous as in NY public land is tough to come by without hunters, pressured birds etc.
2) should we even consider a guided hunt ? We're not much on canned hunts .
3) Cost of non resident hunting license? Is it a weekend. day or good for the season ?

Brother has tipped well over 100 birds in NY and myself quite a few. Not our first rodeo but this would be a whole new ball of wax for us both.
Any help, tips and thoughts appreciated.
Thanks in advance

[SinGin]

The tag is good for all season. The second or third week would be better as to not see as many other hunters, plus you can shoot two birds after the first week

[Rwgrobe]

Permit is good for spring season which run for 3 weeks. We have both national forest and conservation ground. Depends in what part of the state you want to hunt which weeks to go. You can get on the conservation web site and look up public hunting by county and print out maps for that area.

[I-55Bandit]

I don't hunt public land here but there is a bunch of it in the Mark Twain National Forest. I'm sure there are some spots you can get to where you won't run into many other hunters. Northern and Southern MO are very different terrain wise but both hold a lot of birds. Most of the time we deal with henned up birds the first week so mid morning hunting is the ticket, later in the season the birds are lonely

[fallhnt]

Look on MO. dnr web site and look at the  spring turkey harvest map. You will see south central part of the state is great. Tag is 195.00 2 birds. Only 1 bird can be shot 1st week. You won't be by your self on public land but public land is good. You could also look at applying for special draw spring permit and have less pressure for 1 bird and hunt public for the other.

[LI Outdoorsman]

 
jUST DONT ASK ABOUT TN!!!

[sixbird]

Tennesee -->  --->  LI Rob

[drenalinld]

Farther South you go the greater hunting pressure gets. That said, good public land in MO. It gets pressure for sure.

100 birds in NY is a BUNCH!

[Fullfan]

 Been hunting the Mark Twain for the past 25 years. Back in the early 90's it was loaded with birds. Nothing to hear 18-20 on the roost in the morning ( like Tn is now). The population hit a huge drop in birds, and we would not see any sign in 10 days of hunting. Several years ago the numbers started coming back. But it is a slow process, and there are plenty of other hunters there also.

For us the hunting is only part of the vacation, fishing, mushroom hunting and getting to spend time with the friends we have made there is what makes the trip.

We have been tent camping the entire time, with the tags two of us can do the trip for about 600.00. 

[Thundermtn]

Don't pay for a hunt here. The MO conservation website has an atlas for hunting areas. It is the best online tool for picking a spot. Most places will have a few guys the first week, and they drop off as the season goes. The farther away from big towns you get will up the odds of being nearly alone. Bring some calls that are what you would consider low in pitch as our birds are picky from place to place. My crystal mistress doesn't work many birds regardless of how good i think it sounds. Bring tick collars for a dog and put them on your boot tops or they'll drive you crazy on days where it's above 60 first thing in the morning.

[Thundermtn]

The harvest map just shows where there are the most rednecks, lol. Most counties south of I-70 will have about the same number of birds with the exception of the boothill. There is good hunting north of the interstate but hardwoods will support more bird than the row crops in far northern mo

[turkeyfeathers]

Thanks for all the input so far everyone. Much appreciated

[Rwgrobe]

Southeast Mo around Clearwater lake there is 30,000 plus acres of conservation ground and also corp ground and with  only half day hunting you can fish in the afternoon.

[Neill_Prater]

If you can kill birds in NY, you should have little problem here. I live in the SW quarter of the state, and used to hunt public land exclusively. The past several years, I have been fortunate enough to hunt primarily private, although I did kill a bird on a small public area not far from here 2 years in a row.

Others are right, our bird population is not what it was 10 years ago, but is slowly rebounding. This year does not look good, with all the rain we have been receiving, but there was a very good crop of jakes this spring, which bodes well for next year, at least. On the MDC website, you can check historical harvest records, county by county. Some of the data is probably skewed regarding the turkey population, because of large tracts of public hunting land in high harvest counties (Texas county for example), but at least it shows you where the hunting has been good in the past.

Also, if you get away from places like the Mark Twain, it is still quite possible for nonresidents to gain access by simply doing some door knocking. Most farms in MO are smaller acreages, and leasing is not nearly as prevalent here as in more southern states. A friendly smile and a handshake still go a long way here.

Also, for what it is worth, if you only have a few days to a week to hunt, I would, personally, suggest coming the last week of our season. Sure, lots of birds will have been harvested by then, but hunting pressure is also much less as most nonresidents seem to come at the end of the first week, hunting into the second week, due to our ridiculous "1 bird the first week" regulation, and most of them will be back home by then. A lot of the locals will be tagged out by then, reducing the number of other hunters in the woods. Good luck. 

[Hooksfan]

Neil,
I am glad to see someone else comment on the one bird/first week rule.  Even more ridiculous is the rule limiting Youths to one bird for the youth portion, and if they tag a bird during the youth portion, they are ineligible until the second week of the regular season. And then, there is the 1 pm closure..........