If you could only hunt one strain of the wild turkey which one would it be?

[TNTOM]

Easterns hands dowm.  Out of the three I've killed Osceolas, Easterns, and Merriams, the Eastern provides the biggest challenge.  Plus you can hunt Easterns in just any type of terrain you want to, deep south swamps, hardwood bottoms, fields, pine plantations, rolling hills and even mountains.

X2

[Jbird22]

Eastern...that's all I hunt now and all I've ever hunted so I wouldn't know what I'd be missing

[chipper]

Easterns but I'd like to kill a Oceola

[gobbler777]

Easterns because of the wide range /diversity of habitat.

[bow junkie]

Something about the Meriam just strikes me. I have hunted Elk in southwestern Colorado a couple times and have thoroughly enjoyed the eye opening hard times I have spent in that part of the country. Will one day get that way to hunt turkeys.

[mudhen]

Has to be Merriam's for me, or hybrid Merriam's, or whatever the heck we get in Nebraska on my road trips 

That being said, there is something so regal about a big Eastern, that he is just about an equal target.  I shot a large Eastern in Kentucky a few years ago.  Loudest gobble I have ever heard.  Worked in perfectly.  It was a hunt I'll never forget.

mudhen

[Gooserbat]

I've only hunted Eastern and Rio.  Rios will do alot for your selfesteam (is that how you spell that)  but anyway I find it most enjoyable to blow a big eastern's head off.

[hookedspur]

I have tried to vote on this at lest a dozen times . I quit, I'm not voting ,every time I try I remember a hunt Ive taken or one I want to take and change species . SO I'M NOT VOTING !! 

[contagious]

South Alabama Eastern's for me.I have hunted Rio's and Merrim's also a few Hybrid bird's.The Eastern's down South seem to be the most wary and tough to hunt.Love the challange,it's what makes turkey hunting special for me.!! 

[TN-Hunter]

Eastern clost to home

[Spring_Woods]

Osceola. Don't really know why.

[GSLAM95]

I guess I would have to pick the Eastern if I could only hunt one but I hope I never have to make the choice of just that one..    to everyone chasing those long beards this spring..

[GobbleNut]

It's more about the hunt for me than the subspecies.  I want to hunt turkeys that will gobble.  They don't have to gobble a lot, but at least enough to let me know they are there.  I want birds that will verbally react to my calling, and preferrably, when I have done my part skillfully, come to my calling strutting and gobbling.  If I have not done my part correctly, I want the gobblers I hunt to be wary enough to let me know that I have not.

Having hunted all of the subspecies on a number of occasions, I know that all of them will fit that bill,...at the right time, place, and circumstances.  The subspecies that fits that description most often, though, has been the Merriams.  This is not to imply that they are the hardest subspecies to hunt.  They are not, but they play the game the way it is supposed to be played if the hunter does his part.

I love to hunt them all, and hope I never have to chose just one subspecies, but if I did, it would be our high-mountain Merriams,....with Easterns being a close second.

[chcltlabz]

Since I'm always up to my ears in our native osceola's...guess it would have to be my pick although I hunt four subspecies every year.

You really know how to kick a man while he's down, don't ya?

The only subspecies I've never had the chance to hunt, and it absolutely kills me every spring.  Had a few offers that never pan out.  Even had a gent from Florida up for a goose hunt who said I could come hunt any of his orange groves (he managed a few).  In between day 1 and 2, there was a bad winter storm and he had to rush back to Florida.  Of course, I never got his contact information before he left.  Had a second Florida resident scheduled to come up who's flights got cancelled.  That all fizzled too.

To top it all off, I'll be in Osceola country IN TURKEY SEASON for work this year.  Hopefully I can find a few to see while taking a drive, because I'd at least like the chance to watch them do their dance.

As for the others, I can't really say I prefer one over the other, because they all have their great traits, they can all be easy hunts under the right situations, and they can all be miserable SOBs.

Pressured Easterns can be some of the most frustrating birds in the world to hunt, but find one that isn't, or wants to play the game that day, and look out!  That booming gobble will haunt your dreams.

Merriams love to gobble, are absolutely beautiful and inhabit some of the prettiest terrain on earth.  Catch them when they are flocked up and its more of a deer hunt than turkey hunt.  Or, have one working the call perfectly only to set his wings and sail across a valley that defines the statement "you can't get there from here" and you will know frustration on a first name basis.

Rios unpressured will run you over trying to get to the call, and sometimes it seems like the hardest part is not shooting the first bird that comes in, but give them a try on pressured public land and you'll swear you're hunting public land in Alabama.

Guess my answer to that question would be I prefer to hunt the "unpressured" birds.

[surehuntsalot]

without question,the easterns of the deep south