2024 Spring Turkey Hunt

gimruis

gimruis

Well-known member
Let's hear about it. Strategy, success, failure, photos, whatever. I know there's plenty of turkey hunters on this forum.

I intend to hunt season B (shotgun) here in MN which starts on April 24.

gobble gobble
 
In Iowa. I'll be hunting a mile from my house where I deer hunt with family. Pushed the flocks around while deer hunting. I plan to hunt second season April 12-16 and 4th season April 24 - May 12. Both shotgun as I am not practiced with my bow. No idea how it will go but going to start in a blind and see where they are. Will probably start with a jake and hen decoy. I've been thinking reaping may be a good tactic based on terrain but have never tried.
 
Regular huntin' buddy and I will be out at zero dark thirty on opening day of the KS gun season. We hunt a flock that is down to about 15 from 120+ some years back. They always roost in the same trees. We set up a group of decoys in the open, hide behind a couple of red cedars, and call. It usually works. Just one came in to the decoys opening morning last year. It was my buddy's turn at first shot and he bagged it. I got mine a few days later out of the same flock by crawling along a road cut to close on a few henned-up toms out in corn stalks. My noisy crawl aroused the curiosity of one of the toms. When I raised my head above the cut for a look-see, there he was looking at me. Bagged.

Turkeys have gone the way of pheasants in KS - fewer and fewer. KS wisely cancelled the fall season last year and I expect it will be cancelled this year. The spring limit is also down to one tom from two which has been the spring season limit since I began hunting them over 20 years ago. The fall limit has been as high as six, hens included, over those years. New limits on non-resident tags are in place as well.
 
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EBinEIA said:
In Iowa. I'll be hunting a mile from my house where I deer hunt with family. Pushed the flocks around while deer hunting. I plan to hunt second season April 12-16 and 4th season April 24 - May 12. Both shotgun as I am not practiced with my bow. No idea how it will go but going to start in a blind and see where they are. Will probably start with a jake and hen decoy. I've been thinking reaping may be a good tactic based on terrain but have never tried.
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My buddy has had success with reaping.
 
Always wanted to do it. Spring is far too busy of a time for me though. Did it once when I was a kid. Good memory. Maybe another year. Good luck gents
 
I hunted KS two decades ago. We took 3 Toms in 1.5 days of hunting. Turkeys were most everywhere including the WIHAs. Seemed the KS turkeys would hang out in the open - strutters and all. Never did get back there - sounds like the population nosedived.
 
Western Slope Colorado here. Still seeing winter flocks around, so probably won't bother hunting for another week or two. Last year I got a solo tom on my 40 acres on the Uncompahgre Plateau. Haven't seen any nearby so far, so may go a bit further afield this year. Merriam's are notoriously nomadic, in my experience - you never know where they'll be from year to year.
 
I've got a buddy coming down from MI to turkey hunt. I have some private ground to hunt. We are also going to hunt a WMA, floating down the river. Listening for them, beach the boat and go after them. Hope it pans out. Hopefully we will chase some Trout while he is down here also.
 
BritChaser said:
Regular huntin' buddy and I will be out at zero dark thirty on opening day of the KS gun season. We hunt a flock that is down to about 15 from 120+ some years back. They always roost in the same trees. We set up a group of decoys in the open, hide behind a couple of red cedars, and call. It usually works. Just one came in to the decoys opening morning last year. It was my buddy's turn at first shot and he bagged it. I got mine a few days later out of the same flock by crawling along a road cut to close on henned-up toms out in corn stalks. My noisy crawl aroused the curiosity of one of the toms. When I raised my head above the cut for a look-see, there he was looking at me. Bagged.

Turkeys have gone the way of pheasants in KS - fewer and fewer. KS wisely cancelled the fall season last year and I expect it will be cancelled this year. The spring limit is also down to one tom from two which has been the spring season limit since I began hunting them over 20 years ago. The fall limit has been as high as six, hens included, over those years. New limits on non-resident tags are in place as well.
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I ran into a supervisor from KDWP at a sportshow maybe a year before covid. Turkeys in our area had already tanked along with many other areas I noted. I brought this up at the end of his presentation and he talked to me like I was an idiot who must not get out much because "the turkey population is doing well" were his exact words. After I pointed out I live amongst the wildlife on acreage and have hunted turkeys for 25 plus years and our flocks had went from 100s to less than a couple dozen he stilled scoffed. Funny now the regulations that are in place to try and create a comeback. Maybe KDWP needs to get out there or maybe again the truth wasn't going to come out of him with a crowd in front of him.
 
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KDWP folks probably get bawled out, bad perf reviews, demoted, fined, or fired if they admit things just ain't what they used to be.
 
I lost respect for KDWP and their officers after I called about some hunter harassment I was experiencing while turkey hunting there. Guy on the phone didn't seem to care, didn't even ask where it happened and didn't even want to go talk the guy after I saw his truck parked in his driveway down the road from where I was. Haven't been back to KS since.
 
Munster927 said:
I lost respect for KDWP and their officers after I called about some hunter harassment I was experiencing while turkey hunting there. Guy on the phone didn't seem to care, didn't even ask where it happened and didn't even want to go talk the guy after I saw his truck parked in his driveway down the road from where I was. Haven't been back to KS since.
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That's a lazy warden. I called a KDWP warden once and he got all over it.
 
This steep decline in the Kansas turkey population has been brought up here before. Its too bad they couldn't see it coming and responded with lower bag limits/shortened seasons before it became a major issue. Obviously the pheasant population has been in a gradual decline for years because of habitat loss, but that's been going in other states too for a while.

Wild turkeys need mature trees to survive, as they roost in them at night. They don't necessarily need grasslands like pheasants do. I personally don't see the reason to be shooting a hen. Hens are what keep the population moving forward (just like pheasants).
 
I have been scouting almost daily for the last few weeks in NE KS and can say the numbers are way down from the lack of birds being seen in classic spots I have seen them in the last 25 years. It's even worse the further west you go IMO.
What we can do to help??? Take advantage of the now extended season on Racoons and Opossums and thin down the nest predators. I can only help us and the sooner we all get involved the better for the Turk's.

I plan on hunting KS, IA, and SD this spring if I can get away with it.
 

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