Hello and happy fathers day to all of the fathers out there!
I currently live in Missouri and my wife and I are moving to Mesa, Arizona in August. She was accepted into a physical therapy doctorate program out there. I'm wanting to take advantage of hunting different species out there including Merriams and/or Goulds turkeys. This will, however, be my first experience hunting out of state. Ive been trying to gather info on the draw process and figure all that out. I am a little overwhelmed as I am used to buying over the counter resident tags here in Missouri which is as simple as it gets. I was wondering if any of you have much experience hunting out there. I am only planning on being out there for a couple of years so I am not sure if it is worth establishing residency there or not for tags. I believe I read that you must live there for six months to be able to establish residency according to the Arizona fish and game website. I am not sure how much public land is available if I decided I wanted to try a DIY hunt or whether I should go the guided route. I appreciate any info you all have on your experiences.
One option, especially if you don't go the residency route, is to head east from Mesa into New Mexico. You'll be about 5 hours or so from the Gila National Forest in New Mexico, an enormous tract of public land with a healthy turkey population. New Mexico turkey tags are over the counter.
and/or apply for reservation tags.