Nothing but good reports, so far.
Bird numbers should be pretty good in their Rio areas.
http://www.nwtf.org/for_hunters/all_about_turkeys.html
http://www.nwtf.org/conservation/bulletins/bulletin_3_9-9-09.pdf
Looks like they are out of mulberry, so I am not sure where their Rio ground is. The numbers were fine in the norton and phillips county area.
Most birds in Kansas are hybrids of Rio and Eastern, of varying degrees.
The state and guides say they're Rios because it gets people to come in from out of state to shoot a bird for their Slam. Actually, in cases of possible hybirds NWTF tells you to pick the sub-species the bird most resembles...just make sure the money you send in to register the bird is green. :-)
Funny how Kansas birds looks have changed through the years, and the "Rios" of Kansas look less and less like what i've shot in west Texas, or what we shot in western Kansas 25-30 years ago.
Ditto easterns in some areas. My second bird this year was shot in LInn County, an area that was originally stocked with Easterns, and the bird looked just like the hybrids we've been killing in Butler, Chase, Greenwood, Elk and a few other counties.
The further west you go, the better the chances of purity but easterns were even released in some areas in central and western Kansas years ago to try to bolster populations.
The idea of shooting an eastern and a Rio in the same area just ain't happening if you're logical. Once they start hybridizing, you don't know what you have.
Too many people try to gauge what they have by the tips of the fan feathers, which is never a good indicator. We've had Osceola's with lighter fan tips, and Merriam's that were dark.
The feather tips on the "saddle" are a better indication, but even that's not a guarantee. Look at any brood in the fall and you'll see differences in birds that are clutch-mates. In Chase County a few years ago it looked like I had three-quarters of a Grand Slam walk by my tree...and they were all poults following one hen.
Really, the whole Grand Slam is much ado about very little. A turkey is a turkey is a turkey, and things like the thickness of the habitat, hunting pressure and the breeding cycle have more to do with behavior than genetics. I've had hunts for Osceola's and 'Bama easterns about as easy as any and got my butt kicked by mountain Merriam's in New Mexico several times, though usually it's the opposite.
I think hunting the four different habitats gives a better feel for American turkey hunting.
Go kill a bird in the swamps of the southeast, shoot another on the semi-arid grasslands of Texas, Oklahoma or Kansas and you have your Osceola and Rio experiences.
Kill another bird in the big woods of the Ozarks, Arkansas, Mississippi or Alabama and you have a classic eastern experience. Ditto for working the steep ponderosa pine country of the Rockies for a "Merriam's."
Go hunt them, enjoy them, and don't worry about their family tree.
Kyle...don't do that again, please!
sitO's Link
Here's a link that basically supports Mike's statements above. I believe there are pockets of "pure" Easterns & Rio's left, but it's merely speculation. Heck there may even be "pure" Merriam's in the far SW...but the overwhelming majority are hybrids.
Mike's comment on the Outfitters and their "speel" is spot on.
We both agree that you should go hunt them...have fun...and not dwell on the "Slam".
Seriously, like Mike said, this is about taking my two son's to a different place to have a different kind of hunting experience - whatever the quarry, it's an experience they probably won't forget -
