Missouri Turkey Hunting
Turkey
Hey fellas, my brother and I are most likely heading to north central Missouri the end of April for 4 days to turkey hunt. We are kind of going with an outfitter, but not actually being guided. A buddy of my brother is one of the owner's and we are hunting on our own for a reduced rate, basically a tresspass fee i guess. My brother has been out there before, but i have not.
We are going to be somewhere near Green City? and the way it sounds, there are a lot of turkeys on their farms that are mixed hardwoods with fields/pastures. I guess one of my questions would be strategy wise, back home i hunt out of a blind, try to set up "in their way" first and foremost, but let my DSD deeks and some calling do the rest. Is that a good way to go at it at that point of the season out there? Here in PA, we have some pretty tough birds most of the time. I dont expect a huge difference out there and i know turkeys are turkeys, but there isn't much of a chance that they are pressured as much as the birds we hunt back here at home so i am hopeful for some opportunity at some very workable birds. I have killed a handful of spring birds here with my home, but my brother never bowkilled one and my goal is to get him his first.
The second question would be public land. We obviously want to be hunting the private land the outfitter has, but i am considering public for the last day of our hunt for a couple reasons. 1, if we can knock a couple hours off our commute back home it will get us a couple extra hours of sleep before heading into work after the trip. 2, if we dont hunt the outfitter the final day, we can knock that little bit off our overall price. Is there any ground toward the eastern part of the state that is worth looking at? My OnX maps is showing a Deer Ridge Conservation area? Looks mostly wooded, which is a little different than what i am used to hunting with the bow, but doable.
Any info/time is appreciated, i know the questions are ones that dont necessarily have black and white answers, but i'm just bored and hoping to pick up any info while killin time...
Should be about the same. The Birds on public land get slammed the first weekend and youth season so I would lay off calling to much to them.
3 hours on private vs 6 hours on public? I would take the 3 hours on private and sacrifice a little travel/sleep time.
use a blind.
I live and hunt in Missouri. Public land birds get hammered with calls. Lots of gobbling on the roost and then they go silent when they fly down. Best strategy I could give is get setup and call very sparingly. Some of the best hunting can be mid morning - don’t be surprised if one just “appears” in your decoys.
-Mitch
I used to live very close to Green City - lot of birds in the area. There are some great conservation areas CLOSE to where you will be and they always were good. That is a pretty sparsely populated part of the state and the Conservation Areas should be good. Regardless you should have a good hunt. If you want, PM me and I'll tell you a couple of good CA's within a reasonable distance.
Lee
Those are the answers i was lookin for. We will focus on the private only. We will be hunting farms that were hunted each of the first two weeks, but we should be able to access ground that didnt see much pressure as i think there are only 4 hunters per group hunting several different farms. I kill most of my birds back here mid to late morning, so ive got no problem hitting them early and then waiting them out.
The first day i think we will focus on areas we can see a distance if possible, so we can see what they are doing naturally. If we can bring em in, great, if they arent working well, we will "get in their way". If anybody is within earshot of Green City and knows if any good places to dine, please let me know. Would be cool to meet up for lunch with any bowsiters that may be around the area too.
What the coyote season situation out there? He saw lots of yotes the last time we were there and we considered doing some calling if there was an open season? You need a furtakers license or anything to do that out there?
Lee, just saw ur post. Will shoot you a PM a lil later today or tomorrow.
THIS is why bowsite is the best....
I think coyote is closed during spring turkey season.
Coyote season IS open during turkey season. They changed it last year or the year before so that it’s open all year long. All you need to have tag wise is an unused turkey tag in your pocket and you can shoot coyotes.
-Mitch
Sorry - an update to my last post. You also need a small game license.
-Mitch
Hey stick- just don’t forget and leave the blind at home! ;-)
I already forgave u for that, rut..... ;^)
Can you only turkey hunt until 12 or 1pm or has the time changed to all day now?
I grew up in MO and try to hunt spring turkey back there in even years and fall deer in odd but life happens so this April will be first time in the spring woods there since 2010. Private is the way to go after the first week of the regular season. Carry a ziploc in case find some morel mushrooms. Fantastic eating and often find where have an overhead canopy of trees and have rotten logs on the ground. Ticks can be thick. Really thick. Hard winters worked over turkeys a few years back and still are recovering so if you get into a lot of gobblers this trip be sure to come back as is getting better and better as birds recover. Good luck!
I would most definately hunt the private land. Turkey populations are way down in some areas of the state. The MDC even sent out a survey about reducing the limit and or season length on the fall turkey season. Bow hunting out of a blind on public can be very frustrating. You will be doing it during gun season and people have no problem setting up between you and a gobbling bird. The states out west where I hunt you have two people hunting ten gobbling birds and here in MO you have ten people hunting two gobbling birds!
You will be in tick city for sure treat your clothes we hunt each year up around Powersville numbers are down but still a lot of fun and what tree walker said look for mushrooms.We generally do that in the afternoon and scout for turkeys at the same time good luck Lewis
Nothing in the regs says you can't watch them and put them to roost in the afternoons, so you can hunt there in the morning.
well, there's that too....
Or you can spend your afternoons catching spawning Crappie to go with the mushrooms you found while hunting the morning.
-Mitch
oooohhhhh, that sounds better. We lookin up any particular lakes, old school??? You guidin'?
It’s hard to beat Truman Lake in my opinion but that’s the lake I grew up fishing and learned how to catch Crappie. As good as it is in the Spring, I like it better in July/August when it’s 100 degrees. Some tremendous fishing when it’s hot. It’s probably too far of a drive from Northern MO though. Look at that lake just West of Kirksville (Forest Lake) though as that would be a short drive. The Missouri Department of Conservation also puts out a weekly fishing update that lists out Lakes/rivers by region and tells water temp and how each species of fish are biting. If you decide you want to drive down and fish Truman, shoot me a PM and I’ll see how I can help.
-Mitch
Hey Mitch,
I'm coming over from Indiana next week to hunt turkey's with my brother-in-law who lives in Lee's Summit. We're looking to camp down at Truman and hunt in the mornings and crappie fish in the afternoon, then locate some turkeys in the evening for the next morning. He crappie fishes in the Leesville area and also Brush Creek, but he's never hunted turkey's at Truman. Would you be open to connecting for a discussion on how we might narrow our search in this massive area around the lake? We're only going to have two days to hunt, and we could sure use some help. Thanks! Joe
