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Turkey hunting involves more than just mature toms and we take an inclusive view that good turkey hunting results from year round observation of turkey behavior and hunting styles applicable to our terrain.

This is only a hen - there is more to the wild turkey hunting story and our leases behind the picture.

Throughout this website the reader will find many live and harvest pictures. The live pictures mostly come from the two full time Association staff as they are on the land 12 months of the year with far more opportunities to capture in a picture the wildlife that is seen. Pictures are not the top priority when on land runs. The owner Jon Nee and land runner John Wenzel both take a lot of pictures as part of the enjoyment of the day. In this case it was a lease renewal and part of the renewal process is physically going to to the lease land to confirm its usage, talking to the landowner and in person signing the contract. In this case on this land run all we saw was this hen, however it has been a long time productive property. By the way, before we even stop by the land we first stop at the county courthouse to ensure all the land is owned by the one claiming so with the legal descriptions he provided. We have much land lease experience and know what protects our effort and budget.

Experience not Expertise

We, the staff, at MAHA do not consider ourselves experts. We do enjoy spring turkey season and hunt each year, however that alone does not make us experts.

What our turkey hunting experience (not expertise) provides the do it yourself turkey hunter is first hand boots on the ground knowledge with the land, the habitat and the birds. The intent of this experience is to ensure more of our wild turkey hunters have success to ensure their membership renewal through knowledgeable recommendations of where to hunt.

12 year old Leland with a mature tom from the 06 Missouri Youth Season.

Have a look at more youth hunters.

True Experts

Through MAHA we have association with several true turkey hunting experts. These are the kind of hunters that amaze us with their abilities that we cannot match. Such hunters show themselves quickly through how they talk, mostly humble, and what they produce. Their production is not so much in numbers, but method and the pure enjoyment of turkey hunting.

An early April picture along a wooded creek bottom on last year's wheat now well into spring volunteer weed green up. The gobbling start in mid March, early April find the toms trying to court and the hens ignoring them. The jakes by now have been pushed aside by the toms.

On the same land run as the picture above this one. These birds were found on this year's wheat.

Expert Methods

Two examples will suffice to illustrate this method distinction between the average turkey hunters (most of us) and this small group of true turkey hunting experts. The first is the hunter that found out about the Association through a friend, joined at noon over lunch on Wednesday the last week of the spring season, was turkey hunting by 3 PM on a property he never saw before and was back at the office just before dark with a fine mature tom.

This turkey hunter took no decoys, had no call, and told how he stalked the bird. That day was a long time ago and he was the first of the exceptional skill level turkey hunters that we recognized. He filled the second tag the next day, again in the late afternoon after work on a property he never before hunted.

The next example is a member that can call with only his own lung power and without the aid of any mechanical call. He is able to gobble, purr, cut and putt as well or better than most with a call. He also had a tattered wing that he used in several ways the most interesting was to simulate two toms fighting.

His approach on this technique was to simulate the toms in battle and he uses hen decoys to attract the other toms that would come attracted first by the sound and then the lonely hen decoy.

We have never seen this and would not attempt it ourselves and this turkey hunting member's credibility came through with a picture of his home office with a simple tail mount and a board underneath it with an uncountable number of long beards over a couple of rows.

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