Wyoming Turkeys
MN_Prairie_Prowler
3/25/10 3:36pm
My fiancé and I were planning on taking our honeymoon in northern CA. but that kinda fell through. We decided that going turkey hunting "out west" would be way better than California anyway.
We have hunted turkeys in central SD and MN before but never in the mountains. I have researched northeastern Wyoming (area 1) but have gotten mixed advice from their Game and Fish Dept. Some said not much public land and can't get access to private without paying a lot and others said there is lots of public land and birds to go around.
Just wondering if any of you guys have hunted in that area before. I'm not looking for anyone’s hot spot or honey hole but just some general advice on what the conditions are around there.
P.S. We are both shed hunting fanatics and would love to find an elk shed since there aren't any in our part of MN. Are there many elk in that area?
Thanks.
We have hunted turkeys in central SD and MN before but never in the mountains. I have researched northeastern Wyoming (area 1) but have gotten mixed advice from their Game and Fish Dept. Some said not much public land and can't get access to private without paying a lot and others said there is lots of public land and birds to go around.
Just wondering if any of you guys have hunted in that area before. I'm not looking for anyone’s hot spot or honey hole but just some general advice on what the conditions are around there.
P.S. We are both shed hunting fanatics and would love to find an elk shed since there aren't any in our part of MN. Are there many elk in that area?
Thanks.
5,972
I think a little time, look around, knock on a few doors will get you turkey hunting at a reasonable rate.
I'll make sure to post some pics and our story, minus some details, about our honeymoon. :thumb
A nice piece of National Forest to explore. Turkeys in the NF too. Good luck.
Tell us about your adventures. [turkey hunting related] :thumb
We started out driving the forest service roads looking for turkeys and tracks. Saw more elk than turkeys or sign. My wife killed her bird the second afternoon. Fifteen minutes before she shot it, nine elk walked through our decoys including one spike that hadnt lost his antlers yet. That was really awsome. Her bird weighed 18 lbs and had an 8 1/4" beard. The next day and a half we hunted pretty hard without much luck of finding turkeys or sign. On the last morning we set up in the exact same spot where my wife shot hers. An hour after daylight a group turkeys came off of the roost and sat 40 yards behind the blind. I slid the gun out the back and shot what I thought was the only tom. It turns out there were two and I shot the smaller one. My wife noticed a band on the turkeys leg from the SD State University. After taking afew picture I saw something sticking out of its back. It also had a radio transmitter on it. We couldnt believe it. The university said the bird was three years old.
Even though the hunting was hard and the conditions were less than ideal we had a great time. Several times durning the trip we joked about why we didnt go to Hawaii like a lot of other newlyweds.
Good job with the turkey hunt though. Did you find Elk antlers?
Most Elk should be dropping antlers in that area after about April 10.
Its a trip that will remember forever.
Sounds and looks like an excellent time/trip. Thanks for the follow up post and success story. Cool on the banded turkey. :thumb