I live in the panhandle of Florida and have grown up hunting Easterns all of my life. I'm fortunate to have 2 of the subspecies in my home state and I'm looking to try my hand at fulfilling my longtime dream of taking a Rio or Merriam or possibly both this spring. I'm looking into mainly Nebraska and Kansas and was wondering if anyone has had success on public land in either of those states and possibly point me in the right direction in a good region or counties with open land in those states? I'm not looking to get into anyone's honey hole but it's a loooong trip from Florida and any extra help to help me narrow areas down before I go would be much appreciated! Hope everyone has a successful spring!
Get a KS and NE hunting atlas. Look for creeks and rivers and you'll find birds. Don't overlook small WIHA areas. They can be your own private honey holes. My avatar bird is off a NE public land spot that nobody on this site would give a look at. It's worth the trip. I've been "scouting" from the NE and KS web sites for a few weeks.I enjoy the planning phase lots. Good luck
If you want Merriam's, your going to have to go to NW Nebraska. The public land is easy to find on the NE public land atlas. The rest of central and SW Nebraska is indicated as Hybrids. SW used to be shown as Rios, but the maps were adjust a few years back.
If you are going to KS, you'll need to be in the western half of the state to be in Rios. I think north and west of Salina is a pretty good description of what is considered Rios. KS puts out a map of the subspecies distribution. Look at the KS WIHA. Use google earth to verify the WIHA has timber and go from there.
What fallhnt said. The KS atlas is great, find the water with trees and you'll be golden. Traveled from SC to KS and had a great trip. As for the area look at NWTF maps for what your after KS has both Easterns and Rios. Good luck you'll have fun.
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As mentioned plenty of public opportunity in both - I think KS does a great job with their WIHA program and you can dump the WIHA maps into Google Earth and get an outstanding aerial scouting program going.
First weekend or 2 sees a bit of pressure from local folks on WIHA stuff, mid week you will seldom see anyone else. There are (or at least there were - haven't looked since 2 years ago) some very nice areas around Atwood KS that are WIHA.
Don't be afraid to knock on a door or 3 when you see birds either - we've gotten permission many times that way.
When we went to Kansas it was late season and there were no massive drives of turkeys but they were everywhere. What we observed was that they roosted on public moved to private. Every bird we slowed down to look at in a field would take off running. We knocked on doors but everyone does that so much landowners need to start a toll booth at then end of their driveways and they would make a killing
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Come pick me up in MS and I'll ride with you. It's beautiful country up there
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