MO Mark Twain Nat Forest and Turkeys

[Adam S. Daugherty]

Hey Folks,

Was wondering if anyone was familiar with the Mark Twain National Forest around the Rolla MO area.  Got a call from a buddy in MS and a few of us are meeting up there around April 24 and going to turkey hunt for several days.  Looks to be a big place.  Are there any birds there and does this place get wore out being public land.  Kinda hard to think about leaving TN during this time of year to turkey hunt but looking foward to getting to see some folks that I haven't seen in a while.

[twig]

The Mark Twain National Forest, located in southern Missouri is the only National Forest in the State.  It encompasses 1,487,009 acres, 63,000 of which are congressionally declared wildernesses. The forest has about 175 species of birds, 50 species of mammals, and 70 species of amphibians and reptiles.  Game species include whitetail deer, turkey, quail, woodcocks, doves, ducks, geese, rabbits, raccoons, squirrels, opossums, woodchucks, bobcats, and coyotes. Depending where you hunt, you could be the first man to set foot there.

[BMOELLER]

I remember hunting the area south of rolla years ago.  You will most likely have to hike in a ways to get to some birds that haven't been messed with.  Season starts the 16th. so i would imagine that you will need to hike in aways.

[swp]

Try the wilderness area(Paddy Creek?) on the other side of Ft. Leonard Wood. They usually don't get hit as hard as where the ATV groups go.

[BigAl]

Three years ago I hunted Mark Twain southeast of Rolla and managed to take a bird there. One of the problems with that area is there seems to be too many roads thus it's near impossible to "get way back in where nobody else is/has been". Since then my MO turkey hunting has been on public ground north of Springfield; many more turkeys and far fewer hunters.

[dhaverstick]

Adam,
 I grew up around that area you are talking about and the public land does get hit pretty hard if it's close to a road. That being said, Texas county is always in the top 3 counties in the state for bird harvests. You might want to look at some of the Mark Twain forest in Ripley and Howell counties (southeast MO) like the Irish Wilderness. It is very woolly back in there and I don't think it gets as much pressure.

[swp]

I hunted the Irish a couple of years ago and there were a few people hunting it. Not as many as the Mark Twain though.