Turkey hunting

I've hunted easterns down in TN a lot but never merriams. I live in the Boulder area but I'm willing to travel. So if anybody has any advice or info on a good area to hunt it would mean a lot. Thanks.

LAST EDITED ON Dec-31-17 AT 05:33PM (MST)[p]I've spent quite a few days hunting gobblers in TN, especially since I live there!

I've also hunted Merriams in Nebraska several times. Once in 18" of snow... Didn't work out so well!

I'll shoot you a PM later tonight.

Fair amount of turkeys above where you live.


#livelikezac

For the most part pure merriams are found in the foothills and mountains while rios and rio-crosses are found in the river bottoms generally east of I25. It's possible to get pure white feathered toms along the river bottoms but they are likely crosses. With that said I shot 2 mountain toms this year with buff tail feathers. I mostly see pure white feathered turkeys in the mtns.

The mountain birds can be tougher to locate than river bottom birds....especially on heavily hunted public land along the front range. You will likely find out that finding out about specific foothills/mtn merriam hotspots are like pulling teeth. It usually takes a lot of time and boot leather to locate areas that consistently hold birds. The turkeys in the foothills have lots of country with a fairly sparse population. The toms I've found also tend to be a lot quieter than rio's due to all the predators (bears, coyotes, bobcats, mtn lions). If they make a peep after they fly down they usually live fairly short lives!
Good luck with the merriams! They are gorgeous birds!