If you want to experience an exciting turkey hunt played out against a backdrop of awesome scenery, think West. In addition to a landscape of endless mountains and plains, you’ll discover solid populations of turkeys that readily answer your calls. They might not always trip over your gun barrel, but at least you’ll know someone’s home. You’ll even discover some landowners who are happy to grant hunter access to try to reduce the number of turkeys on their property.

One subspecies dominates Western hunts: Merriam’s. I grew up hunting Merriam’s turkeys, beginning with my first kill when my dad and I ambushed a fall flock in South Dakota’s Black Hills.

Many licenses in the West are over-the-counter or unlimited, like in Wyoming, Montana and South Dakota’s Black Hills. And in areas where drawing a tag is required many quotas never get filled. Regardless, you’ll find turkeys out West, and that’s reason enough to visit the frontier for a spring turkey hunt.

A Place To Roam

Need more reasons? Out West it’s easy to find public land to hunt. The two public-land barons are the National Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management. The National Forest Service manages 193 million acres of land throughout the United States, including forests and grasslands centered in the West. The Bureau of Land Management has authority over 270 million acres, again with much of it in the West.

Don’t overlook state land, either owned or leased. States such as South Dakota, Wyoming and even Montana have pioneered programs to open private lands to public access via walk-in programs. Most programs cater to the bird or big-game hunter, but many also allow hunting for turkeys.

Answer The Call

If you think lots of easy-calling Merriam’s add up to a slam-dunk hunt, think again. Merriam’s are definitely a bird of their environment, and although they often run to a call, they don’t always put their wings up in the air to surrender. They wise up like Easterns, and the rugged topography can be daunting. If you have a hankering for some white-tipped action, keep these tips in mind for a successful Merriam’s adventure.

You probably won’t hear many seasoned hunters directing you to use optics while turkey hunting in Georgia. Out West it can make the difference between smoked turkey legs or salami sandwiches. Depending on your hunting location, you may be hunting bottomlands and riparian zones or mountainous regions. Prairie areas simply have fewer trees, and even the understory in most National Forests is open enough to allow for glassing.

Turkeys often feed in parks, mountain meadows, pastures and cultivated fields along river bottoms. Unlike many Midwest or Eastern locations, roads don’t exist every mile. You’ll have to hike in to hunt, and binoculars can save you boot tread while trying to decipher whether distant black dots are turkeys or cattle lick tubs. In fact, along with my binoculars, I tote my spotting scope to scrutinize dots at extreme distances. An 8- or 10-power binocular is perfect. Stick with spotting scopes in the 15- to 45-power range.

If you can’t find turkeys in openings, look for water, especially in the most arid regions of the West such as Arizona, New Mexico, and the downwind side of many mountainous regions. As clouds build over a mountain, moisture drops at the higher elevations leaving little or no moisture in clouds as they leave the mountains. Many eastern slopes of western mountains feel this effect, and turkeys are dependent on water holes, manmade or natural. Find reliable water sources in arid zones, and hunt the radius around them for turkey encounters.  

Not all Western hunts take place in the mountains, and if you find a flock in open country, prepare for an unconventional shot. Odds are there won’t be a tree to lean up against in many setup situations. If a tree lends itself, use it, but don’t overlook fence posts or even saplings for a backrest. You might be forced to assume the prairie’s official position: prone. Before your hunt, take a few practice shots to get a feel for this situation. Your shotgun shoulders differently and the variation in position may be enough to change the point of impact. On a 30-yard shot, your pattern will spread and may cover any slight changes to your aim, but on a 9-yard shot your pattern resembles a bullet and needs smart-bomb guidance technology.

As for calling, I usually start with a soft volume and increase it to cover the immensity of the West. Why start low? Calling aggressively right out of the truck door may spook a bird hiding behind a nearby creek bank or over a pine knoll. Increasing a gobbler’s interest is another reason to begin calling in a moderate volume. By slowly increasing the  fervor of the calling session, you drive a gobbler into a lustful fury he can’t ignore. If a bird responds to this setup, but won’t move, move toward his locale or even circle him.  

Last spring my son and I hunted northeast Wyoming with Center of the Nation Outfitters. Turkeys were everywhere, and despite battling snow, wind and rain, we put two birds in the cooler. My son’s bird was killed with a classic Western setup. We spied the birds from a distance with our binoculars, used our horses to circle ahead and then we found a small meadow the flock would likely visit. Within an hour, four gobblers teased and tested our decoy. Using hen chatter I finally lured one amorous tom to less than 30 yards, and my 10-year-old ended the Old West showdown with a bang.