1 Jun TurkeyThe 2007 spring turkey season will go down in our history book as one with the most adverse weather conditions. March and the first couple days in April were unseasonably warm, which pushed nesting ahead of schedule. April 4th temperatures plummeted into the lower 20’s and teens at night, which pushed the birds back into their wintertime behavior patterns. When May finally arrived, we were greeted with more rain than the creeks and rivers could handle, plus catastrophic tornadoes across SW and SC Kansas. Needless to say, conditions were tough, but despite the weather many members enjoyed some tremendous spring turkey hunting.
Below is a photo displaying the conditions our turkey hunters faced early during the Kansas season. These 2 determined members drove 8 hours one way into a snow storm, knowing the weather would be miserable, but insistent to scout some new land in a region with Rios.
The king bird harvested during 2007 weighed 25 5/8 lbs., had 2 spurs 1 6/8” and a 13 4/8” beard with a total official score of 87 5/8ths. That’s a turkey of a lifetime! There were also several reports of 25 pounders and spurs an inch and one half. The most beards this spring was one with 5 beards pictured below.
The total number of hunters started off a little slow at the beginning of the season, but picked up the second week in Missouri with 163 in Kansas, 172 in Missouri and 17 in Iowa. A positive note for our future generation of hunters is the number of members with family memberships utilizing the youth season increased to 47, compared to less than 20 in 2006. The youth numbers were included in the total numbers above. 81 members hunted multiple states, but only 5 hunted all thee states. Out of the 5 that hunted all three states 2 filled all five tags, but only one filled 5 tags with adult gobblers.
For the first time, Kansas opened an archery-only season 10 days prior to the firearms season. While that may have been seen as an advantage the picture below shows bow hunters can succeed any time during the season. An archery hunter's dream come true; two adult gobblers side by side with 2 shots.
From our side, it’s depressing to see spring turkey season come to an end because the next phase is the hot summer months to scout land, renew leases and prepare the waterfowl properties for the fall seasons. Like many other years in the past, this season was a breeze between the staff, members and landowners. Shaun enjoyed talking with all of the hunters and greatly appreciated everyone having their maps organized while making reservations. Have a safe and enjoyable summer. Jon, John and Shaun
Past year's turkey statistics: 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001
Member Spring Season AccountThis letter tells how the spring season went for many traveling hunters.
Jon, Just wanted to take a few minutes & jot down some notes on my latest trip to [location deleted]. I traveled Tuesday, April 24th, arriving late that night in [location deleted]. I stayed 4 nights in [ location deleted] & my last night I stayed in [location deleted].
Anyway back to the hunting. I managed to take 1 bird that weighed 21#, 10 1/2" beard & 1" spurs. I harvested him on [location deleted]. I didn't enclose a picture because there is nothing uglier than a soaking wet turkey. I did see other gobblers on this tract & called up 5 jakes, I like to never get them to leave. But I wasn't able to get one of the other birds. This is a big, big field & if they are on the one side & you're on the other it takes a while to get around to them. I had this happen & by the time I had worked around the field they were on the creek and gone. I did work a bird on [location deleted]. But just as I got him really close the rain started in earnest, and he hushed, and I got wet. I did find an owl hooter on this tract so if you hear of someone losing one give them my number. Most of the birds I heard on this tract were to the NW on the adjacent property. I spent my last night roosting birds in [location deleted]. Roosted several birds in the branch on the south end, but they refused to gobble the following morning and moved south off the property 1st thing. I did see a really nice bachelor group of bucks on this property. While listening at dark the evening before on this tract, the deer come out of the wooded fence row on the east side & fed across the field to the west side. They got within 50 yards of me & I know for certain 5 of the 7 were bucks. Two or three looked to be nice deer w/ good racks started.
All in all it was a fun trip, not as successful as I would have liked, but it rained 3 of the 5 days. I did get an opportunity to look at a lot of property in that part of the state that I had not seen and I was impressed by most everything that I saw.
Jon, thanks again for the time and effort that is put in by everyone with MAHA. And as always Shaun was most helpful, polite & professional.
Sincerest regards, Ken [last name deleted]
Thank you Ken for the factual and not at all like a turkey hunting magazine article, spring season account. Your weather experience was common to many this spring, to include the hard to work toms.
A question that is received fairly regularly of why we delete locations of where hunters hunt is partly due to non-members having in the past used this website as research of where to hunt.
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