it is a fun excuse to get out and hunt something. It can be a challenge at times. At others it can be super easy.

Even if u find em doesnt mean u will kill one. One thing i have learned over the last 30 yrs of hunting turkey is just when u think u have it figured out one will thro u a curve and make u feel dumb! But thats why it is THE game bird for me.

Rios are the absolute dumbest bird on the planet. Drive around before daylight honking your pickup horn. The gobblers will gobble at it, letting you know exactly where they roost. Set up a couple of hundred yards away and go to calling when legal rolls around. Done deal. No offense, just sayin, with all due respect. [/quote]


I wouldn't call them the dumbest bird on the planet. They are normally easier to kill than easterns, but can be a challenge when they are with hens or pressured. Any pressured turkey, whatever the species, can be tough to hunt. I've killed lots of Easterns and Rios, and I will admit the Rios have all around been easier to hunt, but I have hunted my fair share of henned up and pressured Rios that have sent me back to the truck empty handed.

Turkeys are pretty dumb birds.

They might be fun to call but I'd almost pay to have hunters come kill them

How much?

Does this mean I can come to your place and get rid of some of those dumb birds for you at no cost?

Right! I'll be there!!

Thf road trip. 1000 people show up then complain at the lack of birds/service/other idiot hunters

Hello OP, and welcome to turkey hunting. Prepare to miss Easter and the rest of april for the rest of your life! It will only take one big longbeard to come screaming at your call and you will be hooked.
I have hunted these yelling chickens for 17 years professionally and would be happy to break down the pricing for you.
First and foremost there are nowhere near the turkey numbers that there are whitetail deer! In fact it is very hard to find a sizeable amount of birds to withstand large groups to hunt mature birds. ( this statement pertains to mostly north texas)

1. landowners fees- Yes we are the outfitter and guide but we pay landowners on average $150-200 per bird. On the other hand landowners have to pay for the land!

2. Time spent for land management and scouting. As a guide if I'm not hunting I'm scouting. We have clients come in for 1 day hunts so there's no time to waste finding turkeys. You have to dang near know every bird by name where his strut zones are and what time he will be there. Chalk that up to atleast 6 hours a day.
Land management is time spent improving the habitat for the turkeys, Keeping feeders full or running a tractor for days like I did a few weeks ago shredding 160 acres to ankle high grass (cause turkeys don't like tall grass) = $400 for 2 day trip to seguin plus tractor rental.
Game cam operations batteries and time to set and check them to help find the big boys and where they are.

3. The guide has to make a little money. If a hunt is $1100 for a 2 day 2 bird hunt landowner get's $400 (for the 2 birds) outfitter and guide split the rest so a guide is doing good to walk out with $300 pre tip. Well if you break that down a little more a guide scouts the night before hunters come in so the birds are roosted and ready. Then he get's up at 430-5am meet's the hunters. Heads to the field hunt's solid till about 3pm. Leaves hunters or takes hunters to go scout till dark to roost birds for the next mornings hunt. Day wraps up around 7-8pm after cleaning the turkeys/hogs. Heads back to the $40 a night hotel eats his second $10 meal of the day then get's to bed by 9-10 after winding down just to be back up at 5am. So to find out a guides hourly pay take the $300 and subtract $80 for friday and saturdays hotels, $50 for food, $65 for gas all weekend. = $105 Divide that by the 30+ hours a guide will be out working that 2.5 days and you get $3.50 per hour plus tip. $7hr if he is guiding 2 on 1 which is what we aim for.

4. The outfitter has to make money. He spends countless hours making phone calls, running schedules, going to look at land, booking hunts, advertising, and making sure everyone is where the need to be. Dealing with landowners, clients, and guides. Buys $15k utvs so the hunters can ride around nicely when the are on the property. Pays for the feeders, blinds, game cams, corn, lease prices and all other gear to make the hunt successful. Gotta sell a whole bunch of hunt's just to pay for 1 utv let alone make money.

After all that we still try to keep our hunts affordable and that is why we offer 1 bird 1 day for $550 or 2 birds 2 days $1100 with unlimited hogs and varmints.
If those prices sound high for someone else to do all the work you will soon find out the joys of public land or finding land of your own and realize that $500 is cheap!!!!!
Welcome to turkey hunting my friend.
Good luck this season.
Edit---- Not to mention for new hunters I am casting down 26 years of turkey hunting knowledge, calling, setups, scouting, etc. Your hunts are filmed and photographed, and your birds are cleaned while you kick back and relax.

I have and can still hunt and kill Eastern and Rio turkeys within 2 hour drive of Dallas on public land. There not that hard to hunt/kill and equipment in minimum. Its just the effort you need to commit too. Go for it.

That's pretty funny.

we have way way to many turkeys, i was wondering if TPWD would be interested in capturing and relocating them. any ideas, any body ever asked them to do something like this

It can be done. You have to get the permits to do it.

yes they relocate turkey - they also follow them with GPS after relocation to see where they travel and roost -

i did some reading on this its like 750.00 for the permit and all kinds of stipulations and i have to catch them. screw that i was wondering if they would be interested in doing it, i dont want to pay for nothing, its seems it would be in their interest to have them, guess not. hell maybe ill just do some paid hunts on the place and get paid to get rid of them

Not sure about permit costs, but I know it takes a while to get the paperwork done. You need to have excess birds to remove for the acreage/habitat at the trap site and the release sites need to have habitat to support the numbers released. It took us a year to get a permit to trap and have the birds moved to the ranch I was on. We paid a trapper to catch 100 birds and move them to the ranch. Total cost we paid him was around $4500 for his time, catching and moving 100 birds. That was 23 yrs ago costs. IIRC there were only 2 trappers doing it at the time. If you want birds removed and someone wants them then let the ones wanting them pay for all the permits, catching and moving.

I heard a Parks and Wildlife guy on radio this past weekend say it runs around $500 per bird to relocate so you are on the money

txtrophy85, I would be willing to come kill a few of them for you, you wouldn't even have to pay me, I'm always open for an adventure during turkey season

Turkey hunts are expensive simply because people are dumb enough to pay that much for them. If nobody paid the asking prices then the prices would come down. As long as there is a demand and people will cough up the $$$ this is the way it will be.