My son has taken to chasing the turkeys this year. We have been close several times but haven’t been able to seal the deal yet.

His birthday is in the last week of April tomorrow actually, I was thinking of doing an out of state turkey trip for his birthday next year.

I have not done much OOS hunting and am open to any and all suggestions as far as a fun trip to take him on

I appreciate any advice or suggestions to hook my young man up.

Shoot me a PM if you don’t want to throw it out on the forum. TIA

What state?

Texas would be my choice

Yep Texas. The locals don't have much regard for Turkeys....So....there are PLENTY of them!!

I’m open to all options to give him a gift we both won’t soon forget

Blackwater Hunting Services in South Carolina is good. Terry is really good guy and the food and lodge are great.

Texas could be pretty hot at that time. I’d check into some northern states

Texas is my vote! Take extra cash for hogs or exotics

I took my son to SD to hunt Merriams for his high school graduation present. We had great time.

How old is your son? Are you wanting to do a guided, semi-guided, or DIY hunt?

He will be 12 tomorrow and 13 when we do the hunt. I can do either DIY, semi or guided

Be careful booking a hunt. There’s a lot of wanna be outfitters got in the game in the past few years. Always remember, you usually get what you pay for.

And most of the good ones are already booked for next year already, or have very limited dates open. If you find a good one you are confident in, you need to go ahead and get it booked now.
It may be easier to book a youth hunt, so keep that in mind.

Yeah we booked our Texas one a couple months ago

Kentucky is close and has birds but close May 5 I believe

Jstocks is 100 percent correct my Florida guy is booked out a year or more I tried to rebook and he’s already full!

My son was older when we first started traveling, but we have done all three (guided, semi-guided, and DIY). For our first trips, I sucked it up and paid for the fully-guided hunts with the hope that it would tilt the odds for a successful hunt.

I guess I have always gotten lucky on booking hunts - we just got back from opening weekend in Wyoming and I didn't book the hunt until September of last year. The year before we went to Texas and got our preferred dates and didn't book until July. So I wouldn't give up just yet!

More north makes sence that time - got a buddy in ky now

Get references in a guide and if u got word of mouth from one here that would b good. Been on some great - been on some duds and reference dont make it a sure thing either. I ask lot of questions: hoe many turkeys do you usually hear on an average morning? How many guys in camp at one time? How many listening spots will i get in a morning or am i just stuck on one spot? What is the shot % chance at a turkey? Etc? References?

I took my son out of state last year at that same age the first week of May. We hunted public in KS and killed one each, hunted private in NE and killed one each(although we roosted PLENTY of birds on public as a backup plan) and had birds roosted in Wyoming the last leg of the trip but ended up having several flat tires in those mountains and ended paying WAY more than I had anticipated on a wrecker and a new set of tires. So, with that said, you can go out west and have a blast and kill birds without paying an outfitter.

TX can be miserable that late in the year, and the best hunting in late March and early April. They’re still flocked up in the upper Midwest and western states then.

Man that’s awesome your boy is into hunting them. I like Oklahoma but I’ve never hunted them anywhere else out west.