First time hunting Rios

Not an expert by any means but me and some buddies do a trip every spring.

Shells - I use #9 TSS with an indian creek choke out of a franchi infinity 12 ga. You really want make sure the shell, your shotgun and the choke play nice together. Pattern it in. My buddies have used everything from a .410, 20 ga. Just about having the correct choke/shells.

Camo - I've actually been doing some research on this. I've just always worn what I have laying around - mostly bottomlands - because that's what I hunt with in SW Ms. But I've been looking at seclusion - open country, desert shadow, natural gear, mossy oak brush and ASAT.

How to clean - breast them. Some guy on meateater on the east coast went through cooking the thighs/legs. He basically pressure cooked the hell out of them and was picking out tendons/bones. Can't say I have much interest in that.

How to cook - you could do a number of things but its lean as hell. We brine the breast for 24 hours in the juice from a bottle of dill pickles. Then we thin slice (1/2 inch) strips. We batter with Louisiana fish fry with lemon. Taste pretty much like chick fil a.

I am attempting to take an eastern on our hunting lease this year in SW Ms. I have been unsuccessful the last couple of years. We do have them. I say all that to say the Rios apparently are not as hard to hunt as the eastern. One thing I have noticed in the case of Rios (and maybe all turkeys) - less sometimes is more. No need to call call call unless you are actively working a bird. If you don't hear something, make a call and wait 15-20 minutes. You'd be surprised what shows up sometimes when you've almost fallen asleep.

quote:

---

How to clean - breast them. Some guy on meateater on the east coast went through cooking the thighs/legs. He basically pressure cooked the hell out of them and was picking out tendons/bones. Can't say I have much interest in that.

---

dumb to throw away the legs and thighs. Why spend all the time and money to throw away 40% of the meat?


Keep the legs & thighs. You braise them down a while and make a ton of different things from tacos, to gumbo, pulled turkey sandwiches, hell I made turkey boudin last year


as for the breast, fry them up as nuggets or strips. Buttermilk & chick-fry. I love making a honey sriracha dipping sauce to go with it




Shells: TSS is king but don't over choke it

Camo: use what you have, leafy suits can be a big help



Turk nuggets




Turkey Katsu-dan



Turkey Parm





Turkey Boudin (3 birds)








Turkey is great table fare that gets shite on way too much by folks who can't cook for shite

quote:

---

Turkey is great table fare that gets shite on way too much by folks who can't cook for shite

---

damn baw. I didn't mean to escalate you this early. I'll make it a point to save the thighs/legs and see what magic I can work when I get back home.

You food is looking good.

quote:

---

damn baw. I didn't mean to escalate you this early.

---

my bad, I tend to get a little passionate / overreact about throwing legs and thighs away lol

You need help killing those eastern RMC?

No doubt I need help. But hunting lease rules aint letting anyone else on. I've been working my mouth call on my drive into work each day since deer season finished. Been listening to some pod cast. Did some scouting too. Got the youngin ready to roll for youth season so there is a chance my 8 year old catches an eastern before I do. Will report back.

They tend to be thick and are far easier, in my experience, to call. During the fall and winter in New Mexico you can get out of the truck and pet the damned things....I thought they were domesticated the first year I lived there. I hunted them in shadow grass and used my go to for everything but doves - 12 guage citori field gun, modified chokes and #2 Winchester duck loads (steel). It would knock 'em dead at 25-30 yards and they were easy to get there. Nothing like my experiences turkey hunting in Georgia LOL. Used steel because I had it and some public land along the Pecos River is steel shot for everything. Not that there are any game wardens in New Mexico who aren't harassing elk and deer hunters but it was the law so I pretty much obeyed it.

I'd suspect there may be slightly more pressure on them in Texas. I never saw another hunter hunting Rios in the area I hunted and when I did hunt Merriam's in the Mountains there were some other folks around but its a BIG place with lots of public land. Most of Texas, in my experience, is private and some of it is heavily hunted and some is never hunted so it allows game to stay on the unhunted places and avoid the hunted places. If you are going to DIY that might be an issue depending on where you have access. I haven't hunted Turkey in Texas so I don't know how open land owners are to granting access but outside of hogs Texas is not normally an easy place to get access to private land. Some geese and crane access is possible in the panhandle but outfitters are making that harder and harder...


Breast them out. Good eating.

Edited - In New Mexico it is illegal to breast them out if the field. I have no idea why other than it is considered wasting game as the legs and thighs etc are, theoretically, edible. They may be, I wouldn't know. I never clean anything completely in the field and would not leave any sign I hunted an area because nothing tells other folks where to hunt than a pile of feathers and a bunch of empty hulls but apparently it has been an issue in New Mexico so they passed a regulation.

One more note...water. In that part of the world water is the key to everything. Find water and a bunch of coyote killed turkeys and you are on the spot. Coyotes apparently LOVE turkey like a fat uncle on Thanksgiving.

The lease we had at junction texas had a good amount of turkeys that traveled in groups of 40-50. Thats a lot of turkey eyes looking for predators and hunters. Tough to get closer than 80-90 yards, just out of shotgun range. I bought a browning 223, large Leopol scope and ball type ammo . Shot a number of turkey heads. shot a few turkey butts on the 130-150 yard shots. Use a fragmenting heavy deer round and all you have left is a bag of feathers.
My son on a challenge hid in an oak thicket along the turkey path, and got his turkey with a bow one year. He had to hold the bow at full draw for 10 minutes to have the bird walk close enough.

quote:

---

He had to hold the bow at full draw for 10 minutes to have the bird walk close enough.

---

Getting a little deep in here

calls them as I sees them. texas lease hunting is pretty much elevated stand, right of way and feeder oriented, for deer, with mucho drinking at night. I got no longer mad at deer, shots were no more complex than the gun range. But them turkey herds were a challenge . Folks talk at length of shooting 1 MOA or less at 100 yards at the range. Hitting a strutting turkey head at about 100 yards is about 1 moa.