2023 out of state plans, headed West!

[Kwaksmoka]

Trying to plan a Turkey trip out West, looking for suggestions! I would love to be able to connect on a Rio and Merriam to complete my grand slam but doesn’t have to be. One of my hunting buds is turning 40 and wants to get a trip planned. I’ve never been out West for turkeys so don’t really know what to look for! Any help is appreciated!

 

[turkeyhuntinfool]

Nebraska has excellent turkey hunting. You could get your Merriam in western Nebraska and your Rio in eastern Nebraska in the same trip. You can buy your over the counter license when you get there although the season limit is being going to 2 instead of 3 that it was in the past. The other good thing is you don’t have to buy the 2nd tag until you fill the 1st tag. Great country and really good hunting. A ton of places to hunt ! I highly recommend !!

Good luck.

Jim

 

[stringmusic]

I personally would highly recommend against going to the pine ridge region of Nebraska. I was there this past spring and the hunting sucked pretty bad. We leased some land and hunted a ton of public and there just simply isn’t many turkeys there now. Apparently a huge wild fire in 2021 really put a huge dent in the population. I killed one on private land that I stopped and asked permission from an old lady.

I’m going to try to go back west next spring to get my dad a bird and we will probably go ahead and pay an outfitter that has birds guaranteed and let us hunt on our own.

 

[Gut_Pile]

If it was me, I wouldn't be going to Nebreska expecting to be run over with gobblers

 

[FLGobstopper]

I went to Pine Ridge area of NE for a Merriam's to finish out my slam 7 or 8 seasons ago. It was recovering from severe drought and wild fires then, public was getting hammered and population was down. Might of been the same year or just before the NE Game & Parks Commission started their "Come to NE, turkeys are everywhere and you can shoot as many turkeys as you want!" campaign.

Me and a buddy worked really hard and had a successful trip. I killed 2 really beautiful Merriam's and my buddy missed one and killed one last morning. We then made trip south and east and spent another 5 days in KS. KS public was even worse but again covered a lot of ground, got lucky and each killed 2 Rio's.

We planned to hunt 5 days in each state and it took every bit of that time to get it done and we put a ton of miles on a rental vehicle, saturated it in mud to the a point I doubt they ever got it all off of, or out from it. We burned a bunch of boot leather hunting and trying to locate birds every day, spent every daylight moment possible in the woods from the freezing cold, windy blustery, spitting snow days to the hot and humid, mosquito swatting, dripping sweat then thunder and lighting drenching rain days, to some of the most beautiful cool crisp perfect turkey hunting days I've ever experienced. We were up way early, and up way late and on the road at night covering ground from spot to spot. It was a grind!

Since that trip I've talked to some guys each year that have been to both those states and reports are it gets a little worse and worse each year. Apparently becoming more and more over pressured each year and the populations just are NOT good. I actually was planning on going in 2020 but changed plans thankfully and heard 2021 was absolutely crazy with hunters both public and private making up for the season before. Seems like that might have been the year that really just put the final nail in the so called coffin of the greatness of turkey hunting in those areas.

NE has dropped available tags from 3 to 2 and also I believe they are now limiting how many non-res licenses they sell. It could be they only allow 1 tag for non-residents, I'm not sure but I know it's changed for 2023. KS has also dropped their limit from 2 tags to 1 in most all of the state.

If you go, just be aware and plan to spend a lot more time than you think you'll need. Hunt hard and hope for the best. It will still be an amazing trip just temper your expectations.

As for me I'm not going back to either state any time soon to turkey hunt. I will be doing a 3 state trip late spring '23 hoping to get close to another Merriam's and or a Rio but no where near there. Them birds inhabit some of the most beautiful country I've ever been in and I'd advise you to do it somewhere if you can. Just being there really is worth it, but if you can be there with turkeys and without a hunter calling from every ridge it's even better.

Good luck!