Opening morning of turkey season in Missouri my alarm clock was set for 4:30 a.m. because getting out early for turkey hunting on public land is essential for success. For the last four years I've been hunting spring turkey in Missouri on public ground. I have found spring turkey harvests to be an even greater challenge than hunting deer in these high pressure areas that are sometimes crowded by other hunters. From my experience it is key to do your scouting well before the season starts. Along with pre scouting, I also recommend getting there well before daylight so you don't spook the birds off the roost. Getting into an unused hunting area well ahead of any other hunters is also important.

The spots I hunt are for the most part as far back in these public areas off the beaten path as I can get. Most hunters in these areas don't seem to have the motivation to walk as far as I do. Since regulations prohibit the use of ATV's on public land here in Missouri most are not willing to walk a mile or more to hunt. On this last spring's opening turkey hunt I arrived at my favorite public land area well before daylight around 5:00 a.m. and not one person was there yet. As I walked back about a half mile in I started hearing the owls and then the thundering gobbles of mature toms. The loud gobbles were coming from the ridge which I was heading to, right along the Blackwater river where the night before I had located them with my trusty owl call.

It's very important when approaching turkeys at the roost to be as quiet as possible and use shadows whenever you can. I slipped into my favorite spot on top of the ridge about 50 yards from the turkey under a big white oak. I have found that turkey always seem to like river bottoms and creeks and love to roost in these areas. As the sun started to peek over the horizon, the beautiful spring morning in the timber seemed to awake every thing at once.

The woods came alive and the turkeys were starting to get fired up then I heard one fly down. As a rule I usually don't call until at least one turkey fly's down. If they seem to be hung up for some reason I'll try a fly down call. Believe me I'm not the best caller in the world but last season I bought a Primos one-sided box call and this thing works well for the fly down call. If I can use this call anybody can, it has a great sound and just the right pitch to bring them in. Holding the call I started a series of clucks and purrs. Shortly after using my new box call I heard several more birds follow suit and they started working their way over the ridge. I decided to use my slate call for some low pitch purrs since they were so close. I also had my mouth call so when they closed the distance I could call with no movement.

On this hunt I decided to use my new Mossberg 935 auto loader with 3.5 inch Winchester number five loads this thing really throws a great pattern. You get a lot of gun for the money with this shot gun. As I called, the turkey were getting closer and closer and then I had a visual of five turkeys at about 30 yards away. That's when it was time to go to my mouth call so there would be no movement. As I softly purred and clucked three jakes and two nice toms continued to approach. The two toms were in full strut drumming and spitting. There's nothing like watching toms do their thing in the spring. It's one of my favorite hunts.

While sitting there watching their display I almost hated to shoot because I knew the show would be over when I pulled the trigger on the Mossberg. In spite of that thought, I realized that you never know what a turkey's going to do, so after about a minute I put the front bead of the barrel on the biggest toms' head and squeezed the trigger. As he went down my heart was beating what seemed to be twice as fast as normal. I jumped up and ran to retrieve my bird. He turned out to be a beautiful 22-pounder with 3/4 inch spurs and 10-inch beared not bad on public ground. It just goes to show that if you put a little time into scouting and you're willing to walk the extra mile, public ground can be very productive.

I know most hunters are like me and can't afford high priced hunting leases or just won't pay a high price to hunt. Public land is a great alternative with many opportunities to take some really great turkey's. Here in Missouri I like to hunt the mid-western part of the state but have hunted in the southern part of the state also. In both cases I've always seen some really great birds and a lot of them to choose from. We have no shortage of turkey's here in Missouri.

I've seen a lot of articles where record trophy animals have been taken on public land it just takes a little extra scouting along with watching an area to see where most people are hunting and then going where other people just won't go. I know you will find some really great hunting opportunities on Missouri public lands if you give it a little extra effort.

Here in Missouri our spring turkey season is different from most states. You can hunt from one half hour before sun rise to 1:00 p.m. and can only shoot one turkey per day and only one turkey the first week. If you are coming from out of state you might want to consider hunting in the second or third week of the season so you can take two birds in the same week. Missouri Department of Conservation regulations allows for the use of shot guns no bigger than a gauge of ten all the way down to a 410 with shot no larger than number four. In addition Missouri regulations also allow spring turkeys to be harvested by use of recurve, long bow and compound bow, which is my favorite method of hunting.

Our spring turkey season this year is from April 18 to May 8. A resident tag is about $19. A non-resident tag is about $145 for those of you who are interested in traveling to Missouri to hunt turkey this spring.  Contact the Missouri Department of conservation for specific regulations and tag costs. http://www.mdc.mo.gov/