Self Guided Turkey Hunts
Self Guided Turkey Hunts Begin Here
An example of a single turkey hunting map sheet composed of over 3,000 acres. The leases are highlighted as black blocks and numbered. The red boxes are additive to this illustration showing the acreage per block be it a section at 640 acres, a 1/2 section of 320 acres, or a 1/4 at 160 acres and so on.
Each turkey hunter would reserve a designated lease for the days he wants to hunt. The intent is better than just separating hunters on that day hunted. We have enough land there is no need for any one hunter to fall in on the heels of another.
Self guided turkey hunts with Mid-America Hunting Association means the Association provides the private land access in Missouri, Kansas and Iowa, recommendations where to park the truck, step out and hunt along with a local lodging listing. The turkey hunter conducts his own scouting and hunt and provides all of his other needs.
Turkey Hunt recommendations will be to numbered properties and for the first year member as a means to ensure they do not waste time by traveling to the wrong lease land for the Eastern or Rio Grande Turkey they are after.
The local lodging listing is a one page listing of local to that county motels, B&Bs campgrounds, wrecker services and other useful information. Each one page county listing should be printed and placed with that counties land map sheet set whenever traveling out to hunt. Lodging reservations are always recommend to be made prior to travel as expecting rooms to be available on arrival may be disappointing due to limited motel space common to country locations. Highway or railroad crews have been known to book the entire motel for weeks at a time at unpredictable scheduling.
Our land is of turkey holding habitat within the region of each Missouri, Kansas and Iowa that produces the best hunt quality. Proof is that we are not limited to the driving distance around a lodge for our customers. We make the entire state available to us where to lease land and simply lease that land within areas that provide the best potential for the most satisfying turkey hunts.
That is the extent of what Mid-America Hunting Association provides the turkey hunter as we are a hunt execution organization, not a club, guide outfit, equipment provider, lodge operator or hunter trainer.
Turkey hunts at your own pace...
There is just something about being out there, rested physically and mentally, when there is nothing to do but watch the sunrise waiting for that first turkey that all seems right with the world. Those that only think of harvesting a high scoring tom miss out on the real reason they are in the field and not in a warm bed.
Hard Turkey Hunt
Have a read about our least productive turkey hunt region and what must be one of the most satisfying hunts ever.
A key aspect about this hunt is these two hunters went knowingly to our worst turkey hunting region meaning low bird population densities, widely distributed flocks and least reproductive habitat we have leased, for turkey that is. They came away with success far superior to most and disproved our advised unreasonable success expectations.
Their viewpoint as traveling hunters was to use spring turkey season as the motivation for a deer scouting trip with the turkey hunt where they plan to deer hunt that fall. This is common for our traveling, non-resident membership. The weather was the most adverse to be experienced during the opening week in early April when the toms are certainly well henned up.
Opposed to this approach would be to travel to our most dense turkey populations regions providing greater opportunity to tag and tag a high scoring tom and do so for each of the available 5 spring season tags. Within our turkey hunt approach each turkey hunter can work with us to develop his own approach to a spring season hunt.
A typical sequence of events for someone is allocation a membership after the regular fall seasons and before the spring turkey season. That hunter's first foray onto Association leases would be to call us long in advance of his hunt to receive recommendations of where to turkey hunt. Taking those recommendation and using the member issued maps that self guided turkey hunter would then proceed to his favorite aerial web site and download to his own resolution level preference the aerial photos for those turkey hunt spots. From those aerials he may begin his scout/hunt effort planning developing a priority of work from first to last farm he wishes to turkey hunt.
On arrival at the lease the first day, that day should be considered a scouting day to include for those that setup early that first morning. While luck may result in a tom tagged that first morning the more likely outcome would be to listen and observe the roost, flydown, and breeding/feeding/movement patterns as a means of determining a good setup for the next morning. The subsequent days should lend themselves to increasingly greater opportunities for success until tags are filled.
This scouting before the hunt is by far the greatest distinction between our hunt on your own approach and that of a guided hunt. That scouting effort is not a waste of hunting time. That scouting effort is the truest part of the hunt. If the scouting effort is effective then the rest of the "hunt" is a turkey shoot rather than a hunt for turkey.
Should that self guided hunter find this sequence of activities results in over-pressuring that first lease then simply a telephone call to change reservations is required to relocate to another farm. Each hunter will arrive with a plan A, B and C to insure the range of options are pre-planned to be reactive to any adverse condition that may arise. The point being that each hunter has choices and not placing all his hopes, money and effort on just one single place or time.
A second probable self guided turkey hunter sequence would be for those that are allocated a membership after spring turkey season and before the regular fall seasons.
During any fall season scouting or hunting trip that hunter would by happenstance encounter turkey sign or flocks during a hunt. Marking those encounters on his map sheets over time will add up to more than one possible spring turkey hunting spot.
Returning that subsequent spring season with having previous boots on the ground experience with that land, turkey sign knowledge and an aerial will speed the first day's scouting effort making more likely earlier success at filling tags.
That same self guided turkey hunter would then repeat this sequence with each succeeding trip and soon have multiple turkey spots. Having several will always allow for contingencies of leases or roosts being lost due to land use changes, crop land improvements, land sales and so on.
This year to year synergetic effect would continue as scouting and hunt proficiency increases with increased knowledge of the land means additional time may be gained to compensate for areas of lesser success such as may be applied to additional deer scouting to enhance that fall's deer hunt. This builds up to having more of the desired experience of heart pounding hunter to wildlife encounters that makes for more memories that gains the hunter greater satisfaction on increased frequency.
It Is All About Turkey Habitat
"By the time I were able to get the camera out of my pocket the turkeys had made it to the tree line." From Jon Nee (Association owner operator) while conducting some during season land runs.
As proficiency of exploiting the land resource increases, many also increase the occurrence when a tom or two is seen with an exceptional beard or body size. Those toms then become the objective of the hunt rather than just any turkey to fill a tag. This builds into a different satisfaction of knowing the turkeys are there, the land resource plenty to support many hunts and the enhanced quality of the individual hunt of exceptional animals brings an increased level of satisfaction. This is the natural progression within our organization. An the alternative comparison is a collection of many average toms that soon would degrade into routine and likely lead to the hunter's cessation of future hunts.
The short answer to this longer discussion of self guided turkey hunts is that each hunter makes his own hunt what he wants that hunt to be. We provide the private land resources and through the year observation recommendations to make that hunt as good as it can be.