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Marathon turkey scouting trip

reeltime

By reeltime,
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reeltime Explorer

reeltime

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Made it to Ohio for daylight. Satellite and top scouting was good once. I put eyes on the property and even saw and heard birds. Hoping to hit 1 spot in Indiana and maybe make Iowa before dark.5e3965004498cde1eaf92f593b782c6d.jpg

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reeltime Explorer

reeltime

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Finally got to nebraska. Iowa seems better turkey habitat and sightings on the west side of the state. Got to nebraska too late to do any scouting so they will have to wait till the morning.

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2012_taco Rising Star

2012_taco

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Reeltime, you have a spot in Ohio to hunt near Toledo? My younger brother lives in Waterville, south of Toledo, He doesn't hunt but 1 of his boys is interested in hunting. I went to Ohio last year and took them out turkey hunting at Maumee state forest. We actually got on a bird but another hunter came in and screwed it all up! Good luck with the scouting, from what I've heard there are tons more turkeys in all those states.

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reeltime Explorer

reeltime

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Hit paydirt along the Platte river. Saw tons of birds met some good folks. Gained some very useful prehung info that would of added to during trip costs.... I need to buy a kayak.....too old to be swimming a river to get on the gobblers side. The one farmers reply to my question of property line was...drive down this road another 5 miles till ya get to crossroads that's my line from the river to there and my brother owns the other side of the river. 28bf09b6444925b00b7dc5dd756d7343.jpg

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reeltime Explorer

reeltime

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Just hit wyoming, dad gum antelope are everywhere. Have seen some big flocks of merriams (merrimams as the farmer in nebraska calls them)

Need a 5000.00 camera and lens to get pics out here, there is a whole Lotta nothing but open land. Critters look like dots till I put the glasses on them.eb15ec9df9abaed1752c9dc3f4665aaa.jpg

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Marion Proficient

Marion

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Just hit wyoming, dad gum antelope are everywhere. Have seen some big flocks of merriams (merrimams as the farmer in nebraska calls them)

Need a 5000.00 camera and lens to get pics out here, there is a whole Lotta nothing but open land. Critters look like dots till I put the glasses on them.eb15ec9df9abaed1752c9dc3f4665aaa.jpg

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Glad to hear about those antelopes. Going out there in first week of October for Mule deer and antelopes!

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reeltime Explorer

reeltime

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No joke jm we have seen close to 200 lopes 7 elk and just saw a flock of turkeys pushing 150 birds. Still snow in the mountains and behind the massive snowfence they have built along the interstate.

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WNY Bowhunter Experienced

WNY Bowhunter

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Lee,

 

I'm guessing you are planning your trip for April before our seasons here in NY / PA? I hope to make it out to Nebraska within the next few years too.  I really want to kill a merrimams. Although, you get into the big winter flocks early in season...they say the best time to hunt them is in May towards the end of the season. You might have a hard time finding one with big enough spurs though...lol.  If you are planning on hunting OH, I would look into KY instead of IN...you can kill two KY birds for the same price as one in Indiana. I think KY opens the weekend before OH though. When I hunted Daniel Boone NF a few years back the place was infested with Ohio hunters.

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reeltime Explorer

reeltime

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made it as far as utah. there aint nuttin but dirt and stone in wyoming, well antelope and turkeys.  saw 1 elk in utah.

 

wny,

 

going to do more scouting in nebraska, maybe hit south dakota, more in iowa and indy. got a buddy in ky and ohio so while still scouting I am going to spend more time in states I don't have the contacts in.   its funny you mentioned the spurs, i was thinking the same thing this morning, its gonna be a real change taking the first full fan that I call in.  not sure on timing yet, will be a multi state planned trip and depending on success would not hesitate to add a state or 2 to the list. 

 

will have to see how the rest of the scouting goes, hope to make this trip next spring, may or may not be able to do it since we are supposed to go on a texas rio hunt next spring,,,, of course isn't nebraska on the way back from texas to ny? :rofl: 

 

 

a couple lessons today;;;

when small yellow plane comes in low,,, take cover! i got crop dusted this morning!! :bad:

 

don't waste your time stopping at the sidney nebraska cabela's store,  for being the headquarters location it was a real disappointment!  we stopped for fuel and decided to do a quick check to see if we would add it to the stop list on our return, took 5 minutes to walk through the main store!  needless to say its not on the stop list. 

 

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Uncle Nicky Apprentice

Uncle Nicky

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I've been out to Kansas, Oklahoma, and Nebraska a few times to hunt turkeys. I always either paid a nominal lease fee or banged on doors, most ranchers will let you go after turkeys if you ask nice. Just a tip, if you find a stream, you will find trees; find the trees, and turkeys won't be far away. ;)

 

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Uncle Nicky Apprentice

Uncle Nicky

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Lee,

 

I'm guessing you are planning your trip for April before our seasons here in NY / PA? I hope to make it out to Nebraska within the next few years too.  I really want to kill a merrimams. Although, you get into the big winter flocks early in season...they say the best time to hunt them is in May towards the end of the season. You might have a hard time finding one with big enough spurs though...lol.  If you are planning on hunting OH, I would look into KY instead of IN...you can kill two KY birds for the same price as one in Indiana. I think KY opens the weekend before OH though. When I hunted Daniel Boone NF a few years back the place was infested with Ohio hunters.

 

Just my $.02 on the subject, but what I found is the best time to hunt Rios/Merriams is right about the time our season begins (late April/early May), by that time they are just starting to break up and start mating and scrapping. I've found that big flocks are much easier to find than individual birds, there is very little cover out there, and they spend most of the day out in the open and often gobble for no apparent reason at all, but getting in front of them can be the challenge. Mid-April can mean snow still in Nebraska, and if you hunt late May, most of the breeding is done and gobblers can be finicky (just like our birds that time of year). But every year is different, just like here, things can be a few weeks ahead of schedule or behind schedule, depending on how warm of a spring it has been.

 

Hunting these birds, at least on the open plains, is a little different than hunting Easterns that tend to stay in the woods most of the day, you definitely need a good pair of binoculars and be prepared to work the terrain to get in front of them. They gobble a lot, but depend more on eyesight that hearing, they don't always seem to respond to calling. I know it's a controversial topic, but waving a gobbler fan (I like to paint a red circle at the top of them) from a distance probably works better than coaxing them in with hen calls.

 

I have never hunted Easterns in Kansas, Kentucky, or Missouri, that is the next road trip I'm planning on making some time in the future.

 

Sorry for hijacking the thread, carry on.

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reeltime Explorer

reeltime

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terrain is certainly an issue nicky,  I really liked the are around the platte river, big fields, good tree cover along the river, tons of pothole water with trees around them and most important some pretty friendly folks. should be headed back east about tuesday and hope to shack up in western nebraska tuesday night and put some more time in there and then decide if I am gonna swing north and hit south dakota on the way back to ny.

 

so far have seen little sign of turkeys here in utah, some beautiful country here around the great salt lake and would love the challenge of hunting a small population in the mountains but the extra 500 miles is a stickler for me.... oh well ya only live once so might as well spend it chasing turkeys!

 

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