Spring Turkey Hunts

Choices

Interests

Not Turkey Experts

Turkey Habitat

Administrative

Mystery

Continuing through our website will provide much insight into the spring turkey hunts we offer. The idea is to remove as much mystery about our spring season hunting as possible with text and pictures. One aspect we cannot overcome with words is the price that every do it yourself wild turkey hunter must pay entirely on his own and that is boots on the ground time. A theme we have found that must be said more than once.

What the spring turkey season opener looks like. Prime habitat example of a wheat field next to a roost. Hunts over this lease have done well the last couple of seasons.

What we all like to see the first morning of spring turkey season. A tom that starts way off and works his way in strutting all the way.

This one was actually pictured just before the spring turkey season opener by the Association owner, Jon Nee, while on a land run to confirm or deny the presents of a flock for referral to our hunters for a turkey hunt. Spending this kind of time on the land year round is the key to having good hunts for spring turkey as well as all others.

Plan

That boots on the ground time is with a plan. Before any hunter leaves from home on his first turkey scouting or hunting trip we will talk and recommend to him right down to individual property number where we believe he should start is efforts. And, our recommendations will not be to just one property.

We will discuss with the new member where he thinks he wants to start applying his skills and within that region provide a listing of more properties than he will have time to cover. each lease recommended will have turkeys on it from our own observation from some point in the year, not necessarily right before spring turkey season. That discussion will give the member a chance to go to his favorite aerial photo website and draw down the pictures of what the farms looked like at one point (remember land uses changes every year). From the aerials and our recommendations that hunter develops a priority of work list from high to low those leases he wants to work first to last.

River bottom flock. Not a roost tree for a long ways and lots of farm ground between behind the camera.

No Loss Time

On traveling from his home on his first trip to our leases he will drive directly to the land and start work. There is not any time wasted with checking in with the landowner after the telephone reservation is made with the MAHA office. Once on that land the hunter goes to work.

There is one aspect the hunter should recognize before coming out our way. The first time a member steps onto a MAHA lease they will feel a slight hesitation in their gut as they have not personally met with the landowner and secured trespass rights. The member will soon get over that as the maps we supply are superior to any from Delorme or any other paid mapping service, our leases are posted with our unique signs and the member will have in his position his identification card and vehicle marker.

After that initial hesitation is over come the hunter soon finds he has many more options than even initially surmised. At this point two more techniques have surfaced as a more effective approach to our do it yourself spring turkey hunts. The first is that the first season or year the hunter is actually setting himself up for years of hunting to come and not just the first hunt.

Success Potential

As a hunter returns to leases from scouting to hunting and from season to season he will gain a far greater appreciation for the wildlife patterns on that property than could ever be achieved from one or two visits. Soon that golden nugget of a spot the hunter was initially blind to becomes evident and success rates increase. This leads to the second aspect hunters have commented on to provide the highest levels of success.

The second aspect is to concentrate on a set amount of acreage from scouting to hunting from season to season. The idea is that those that have done the best concentrate on about 2,000 acres of leases, learn those leases very well and then expand out to other states or regions within a state. The converse are those hunters that jump around too much see a a lot of land and find less success as they do not learn any of the land. Every farm has that golden nugget. It typically takes a certain amount of during the hunting season time to find that golden nugget.

Specific to spring turkey once the hunter has his properties prioritized by recommendation and aerial, he scouts first with binoculars as getting eyes on turkeys form a distance is typically more effective than walking them up. After glassing the hunter walks to find feathers, tracks, roosts and the turkeys themselves. After that it is a matter of connecting the dots for that first spring season turkey hunt.

Repeat the same process for at least two flock and then settle in the routine of returning to the same leases for turkey hunts. After a successful hunt expand out to find additional spring turkey hunting spots or stand locations for the fall's deer hunt. Repeat until getting to the point that options of where to hunt for any given season are greater than time available.

Good spring turkey hunting to all!

Continue our spring turkey season discussion