Kansas Turkey Hunting
Kansas Turkey Hunting Snapshots
Kansas allows two spring toms on the same turkey hunt, same day, same setup.
"...A picture I have not yet seen on the web site. This is a spot where the birds were dusting. From the tracks in the dirt of when it was muddy to this day's fresh dry dusting shows this one spot to be a favorite for this flock... had we not finished at first light this may have been a good afternoon spot..."
We highlight this self guided turkey hunter due to his unique situation in life of being the one that has ensured his son's, father's, an uncle's and a cousin's turkey hunting success in Kansas and with deer as well. And, they travel over 1,500 miles to do so!
A bachelor group of jakes and toms observed February 7, not a hen to be seen. This is a good example of how a flock scouted too early may very well not be on the same farm once breeding season starts.
Most members after their first season plan subsequent spring hunts with the first afternoon or morning for scouting.
These birds were on a crop field that was disked over that fall. They moved off into the wooded creek bottom.
Having found a hen flock would make for better scouting especially if that hen flock was near some nesting cover.
These toms were first spotted by binoculars (primary scouting method) after crossing a small ridge.
From one of our Kansas land runs.
This land run was to confirm or deny the presents of birds for a spring turkey hunt. Pretty good evidence with this picture well into the morning. The early spring and well greened up cover indicates this is a southern lease.
More often than not due to time limitations and the fact our turkeys are truly wild when we scout a property we frequently must settle for a track.
We fully recognize how difficult do it yourself wild turkey hunting can be and seek to make it as easy as possible for the Association hunter. We take that hunter as far as getting him to the right place to park his truck. After that he is on his own to hunt as he see fit to do so.
Feedback from our self guided Kansas turkey hunting members is always wanted.
John- Found this guy in the morning and Easter Eggs later in the day. Set up about 150 yards away from this tom while he was still on the roost. He flew down about 75 yards away and was spittin' & drummin' all the way up to my jake decoy. His cooperation with my set up was appreciated by my wife since I was still able to make it back for church on Easter Sunday. Rhett
Thanks Rhett for taking the time to send in your turkey hunting account and picture. For the rest of us that enjoy a stable home and work life, Rhett is an active duty officer with a good bit of overseas' time including much in the combat zone. He is on his way to an even tougher assignment stepping up beyond the call by volunteering to a special operations unit. For anyone in Rhett's position to have the success he has had on deer and turkey with as little daily and yearly free time as he has gives the rest of us very little excuse for doing half as much. His approach has been to concentrate within one region of Kansas for both his deer and turkey hunting.
We have seen this hunter each spring with a tom in hand far more than we can remember for how long. What I was told is that he has found more toms in shorter time on MAHA leases to include his first single setup double than he has experienced on his other private and public land hunt options.
What Kevin has done is what many have done before and that is join MAHA as a means to gain supplemental land access options or add to what they have gained on their own through private contacts, individual leases and public land. Over time those that initially start with that approach soon give up their other options and concentrate their time on MAHA leases.
Steve N. and Steve L. harvest on the same spring hunt the same day on the same turkey lease two toms one Rio and one Eastern, that is rare. The first we have seen this type of hunt and both with bow! Congratulations to the two Steve's for a most unusual turkey hunt.
Liberal Seasons and Tags
Kansas turkey hunting both spring and fall finds a long turkey season, multiple over the counter turkey tags and all day long turkey hunting for Eastern and Kansas Rio Grande Turkey.
Kansas spring season is 6 weeks long for both the Rio Grande and Eastern Turkey, on the same tag. All day long hunts to include Sundays. Two spring tags for over the counter purchase allowing for two toms in one day. And, there is more.
Additional benefits of deer scouting during the spring hunt and all of it on private lease land without competition from other hunters. Can it get any better? Yes, it can.
The wild bird hunter will find a liberal fall season both in terms of weather conditions and additional tags. And, there is more. Although few actually use dogs for the fall season, they are legal. What a great picture it would make of a retriever bringing in a 20 pound bird as either sex is permitted.
First Season
With Missouri and Kansas spring seasons overlapping hunters are often choosing one over the over or trying to spread themselves between the two states.
On this point about having four over the counter tags and up to three states to hunt those have several seasons experience with us will do better than those on their first hunt. The difference is the attitude within this do it yourself hunter organization. Those on their first spring season need to have the idea they are setting themselves up for years of hunts to come and have reasonable turkey hunting expectations.
The first Kansas hunt will be good and we can make it better by getting that first year member to agree the first couple of scouting or hunting trips are break-in to learn the ground and develop hunting spots. The approach that has worked the best is to limit the stress on the hunter. The first season member should plan on only spring turkey hunting one state and fill one tag within the time frame of his first trip. If that first tag should come easy a trip to the local Wal-Mart will allow the purchase of the second turkey tag.
Second
After that first season most self guided turkey hunter learn a collection of farms and roosts in one state then branch out to another. By this means he develops future option of where to turkey hunt with the difference of opening and closing season dates making future vacation trip planning more versatile.
The difference between the first season spring turkey hunter and the one with three or more seasons conducting his own do it yourself turkey hunts is that the more seasoned Association turkey hunter will most likely fly out on Friday night after work, secure a rental car, hunt Saturday and Sunday morning and fly back home Sunday afternoon with a tag or two filled. This turkey hunter can be this successful due to the previous spring turkey and typical fall deer seasons having gained knowledge of several roosts and farms. He may not be hunting the same turkey flock from year to year as through the previous years he would have identified new ones adding to his previous flock locations.
The first spring season hunter we would suggest a longer trip with the first couple of days far more turkey scouting than turkey hunting. All should have a leisurely approach to the hunt with the confidence the birds are there, the land is there and it is the hunt quality for years to come rather than a race to build ego. Selecting Kansas as the first turkey hunting state of our three would be as acceptable as Missouri leaving open the question does the hunter seek the Eastern Turkey or Rio Grande Turkey.
Performance
It was not too long ago we hit the wall at the fastest any wild turkey hunter harvested 4 toms during a Kansas and Missouri hunting trip was at 5 days. Now several hunters do each hunting trip and some have made it as quick as 4 toms in four day hunts. And, one hunter to date has harvested 5 toms in one season with the fifth coming from Iowa.
Our past to recent observation is that in the 80's before MAHA gained a large number of non-resident hunters the mostly local membership would fill all tags they could buy. The traveling hunter more frequently is satisfied with harvesting one tom and typically spends the remainder of the trip deer scouting rather than turkey hunting.
There is not anything wrong with this spring turkey hunting fall deer scouting effort other than our average toms per spring season hunter has dropped to an all time low of 1.1 turkeys. This is in spite of the increasing numbers of turkeys harvest state wide in Kansas, Iowa and especially Missouri, with Missouri having reached a plateau in excess of 50,000 turkeys harvested over several seasons.
For those that purely use the ratio of birds harvested to spring season hunters that is not a great ratio compared to our earlier average of 1.4 toms per hunter. When evaluated in terms of deer scouting combination spring turkey hunt most frequently occurring over a three day fly in and rental car weekend that lower ratio is not so off.
Generalities
Generally, Association turkey hunters with 10-20 or so fewer toms to their credit seek to fill every tag they have on all hunts while most of those with 20 plus turkeys in the bag experience are the ones more likely to spend the most time deer scouting. These hunters also typically turkey hunt one state and Kansas is often that choice.
Our on your own Kansas turkey hunting approach to managed hunts seems to have this secondary effect where turkey hunters no longer feel the pressure to continuing pushing themselves to succeed. More are enjoying the quality of the overall experience to include an increase in the number that seek to also bass fish immediately after their turkey hunt before heading home. We also are enjoying an increase in youth spring season turkey hunts and more spouses are making it an entire family affair with the turkey hunting trip one more reason to spend time together.
Variety
Kansas also offers a variety of habitat and hunt methods many from other states cannot enjoy at home.
Kansas allows all day long hunts (Sundays included) allowing those to experience afternoon strutting area hunts that allow for some the first opportunity to stalk toms rather than always use a fixed setup and call/decoy their birds. An advantage to the self guided rather than guided hunter.
The evening return to roost hunt is probably the greatest source of frustrated stories we have heard and mostly a Kansas story. Some of the most experienced and resourceful spring season hunters have given up attempting to figure out late Kansas afternoon/early evening flock returning to roost hunts simply finding it too hard compared to a morning roost fly down ambush turkey hunting method.
For those making a family affair of it the many small towns with their special appeal of antiques, crafts and home town cafe's allow for all to have a special piece of adventure. For most just being out there when the weather is cool, too early for most bugs and the land just coming into green makes the trip a relaxing and enjoyable hunt a welcomed bonus.
Scouting
For the non-resident hunter spring turkey hunting and combination deer scouting trip motivation, the debate when to turkey and deer scout has been raised by those seeking to make the most of their wild turkey hunts. This time is frequently a compromise between setting up a good turkey hunting trip and what may be of more interest of the fall deer hunt.
Some criteria: sheds are likely to be found as early as the last week in January and we have seen bucks with both rack halves intact as late as late mid February. March seems to be the optimum time for finding sheds and the green foliage is down, rubs and trails readily visible, the weather cool and no bugs.
For pre spring season turkey scouting Middle to late March appears to be the optimum time as that is when we see bachelor group toms joining up with hen/jake flocks where the hen dominated flocks will roost. This is also the time when morning gobbling starts in earnest for easy identification of roost locations.
This timing also supports a combination turkey scouting and hunting trip. If deer scouting is not a priority then the entire Kansas turkey season is open for when to travel. If seeking the least hunter pressure and the most easily influenced toms that time period is at the close of the shorter Missouri spring season in the third week of May which is also the period when many hens will take full time to nest. The toms not willing to give up search more for fewer available hens and appear easier to call and decoy in.
In most cases those Association turkey hunters settling into their third or fourth spring turkey season typically have one to two roosts identified that will serve their spring season turkey hunts for years to come. As one drops off another turkey roost is easily added incidental to fall deer and earlier Kansas spring turkey hunts.
2010 Kansas Turkey Hunting Land
Names are the Kansas counties and the acreage is the amount of land available for hunting.
Hunt
When it comes to DIY Kansas turkey hunting the operative requirement is wild Kansas turkeys. The wild turkey aspect may be the base element in the wild turkey hunting definition and we carry that definition several steps further.
Our self guided turkey hunts are for wild turkeys is not around feeders or any other than existing terrain enhancements. We further do not guide that turkey hunter into the roost or flock making that hunter make his own wild bird hunt experience. If the goal is true wild bird hunts first and the second criteria is state of choice or species then we may be the right choice.
A simple discussion that some will agree with and a few will want more from us when planning their spring hunt. We draw that line at recommendations where to park the truck step out and hunt. Those recommendation are on leases that have birds. What we do not provide is location of roosts, which field to hunt or what tree line to setup on. Those refinements cross over into the too hard category as those behaviors change daily and it is the turkey hunter that must adapt at the point of boots on the ground time from his own direct observations.
Kyle shares his hunt results from his first spring turkey hunt in his new hunting Association.
Calling
One aspect we have found amongst the association hunters that are either turkey and or waterfowl hunters is they can cross that line between these two hunting disciplines quite easily and our approach of all seasons for the same cost allows that crossover very easily.
Those hunters that do cross over seem to have that special nuance ability developed early in life growing up as youth hunters or have dedicated to either turkey or waterfowl motivated by home state geography and its limitation.
For those that are well versed in one and seek to hunt the other we offer a buddy hunt opportunity where members may find others within and without their own disciplines and explore more hunt opportunities under the guidance of another more experienced in that area. For those that are either turkey or waterfowl hunters but not both, this has worked the best over the years. A good handful of hunters have extended their hunting seasons from fall waterfowl to spring turkey hunting.
Spring hunts being the skill demanding discipline that they are and the great independence of the do it yourself hunter makes most hunts a solitary affair leaving the hunter to take the picture. From Greg S. Thank you Greg for all that you have done for MAHA.
Ease
For the effort of writing a check for the one cost annual membership every Association turkey hunter may spring and fall hunt our three states for more weeks in the field and more over the counter license purchase than any other options to be found.
All turkey hunts are do it yourself with our assistance to the first year member getting him to the place where he needs to park his truck, step out and hunt in Kansas and Iowa or Missouri as well.
All land is 100% private land we lease for it having the right kind of habitat within the right region of the state.
The final piece that makes our do it yourself wild Kansas turkey hunting all the more convenient is our lodging listing for every county where we lease land. Local motels, country homes, B&Bs, and bunk houses are listed. Also listed are, tow truck services, vet services, and meat lockers. All the elements the hunter requires for a good turkey hunt and all the elements he does not need.
For the hunter that wants the chance to hunt on his own, over game productive habitat. That is what we offer for Kansas spring toms plus that for deer, upland and waterfowl. We do not lead anyone by the hand, tell him how to hunt or when to shoot. All get to hunt their own style at their own pace and most importantly of all is the ability to hunt wild birds without competition.