MAHA Kansas spring turkey hunting

Choices

Of Interest

Not Experts

Habitat

Administrative

Long time friend and member of the Association Floyd recently started Kansas spring turkey hunting and shows the results a good hunter that never hunted a particular species can produce.

Distinction

Kansas spring wild turkey hunting is distinctive amongst our three states where we lease private land for due to its length at six week long. Kansas spring season starts in early April when the chance of being snowed on is as great as getting a sun burn with temperatures having been experienced in the high 70's.

The next mark for the Kansas spring turkey season is the Missouri season overlap when Missouri allows two toms to be harvested within two days. During this two week period we have more hunters than any other period spread across these two states.

The final chapter is when that two week overlap ends and the Kansas season continues through the end of May. It is during this period when the toms are in a fervent search of hens that have gone to nest sitting the senior citizen Association hunters hit the fields hard. That is, the easier to call and decoy in toms is only the first of the two major aspects that draw our senior hunters.

A Rio Grande flock shows a heavy presence on one of our leases during the winter. Shows potential.

Pleasant Season

The second aspect is the warmer May weather when the need for long underwear has been eliminated. This comfort level along with toms looking for ever increasingly harder to find and unwilling hens makes for many a quick hunt.

It is the senior citizen hunter and member that makes the most use of this part of the season and for those weather and easy tom reasons. This is in addition to nearly non-existent hunter pressure, plenty of land to select from and the ease by which a telephone call gains access to that land.

We recognize fully how hard turkey hunting can be. We make it as easy as it can be for turkey hunts on wild birds over existing habitat. Our leases are contracted for exclusive use, we secure the right habitat in the right region of the state that has a history of production. We then manage hunter pressure. That is as far as hunting can be managed and keep it for the do it yourself hunter. With all these advantages even the best hunter in the Association will never claim ahead of any hunt its outcome.

And Youth Introduction

An outgrowth of this senior citizen Kansas spring turkey hunter has been the introduction of grandchildren to this hunt discipline.

While an extreme minority amongst all of our Kansas spring turkey hunters there is a very worthwhile effort by several to ensure that adequate patients enhanced by the warmer weather brings into play the next generation of tom seeking hunters. This is similar to many husbands that take the first, cooler portion, of the season for themselves to hunt and then coax their wives into a later hunt allowing for more field time and the enhanced willingness of the wife to be in the field when it is nicer to be so.

There is more to hunting on your own than the harvest. It includes enjoying the day even when the tom refuses to come in and allows only a picture as it slips away. Still, a good day.

MAHA Hunting

Kansas spring turkey also offers a range of breeding phases from being hard henned up the early weeks, to increasingly greater noon and later afternoon freelancing from hens to being almost to total all day long bachelor status by the last week.

Being out in the field during all three phases brings into understanding the actually short breeding and long running spring season. The combination of both adds up to making for a better hunter that is more knowledgeable about toms and hens from first hand experience by direct observation. This is much different than the hunter whose choices are to hunt during a spring school break or a short home state season and do so only during a narrow portion of the breeding season.

It is this difference in experience that enhances the nuance and subtleties separating the casual from the dedicated hunter with the latter drawing on more experience that always enhances success potential. Our Kansas spring season offers just this type of opportunity.

Continue our Kansas spring turkey hunting season discussion

Other Kansas hunting options