Game & Fish West

WALK THE LINE

If you accept the proposition that wild turkeys split the difference between upland birds and big game, then you understand one of the central tensions of a hard-core turkey hunter: you work upland ground hard for a single shot, but once you make it, your season is over.

If you are willing to buy tags in two or more states, you can take multiple gobblers in a single spring season—and if you hunt along the right borders between the right states, you won’t have to travel far between hunts. If that sort of abundance speaks to you, then consider this story your playbook for extending your spring turkey season by hunting one or two other states in a short span of both distance and time.

Not only do they extend your season, these cross-state rambles can also help in your pursuit of a gobbler grand slam. Tag an Eastern bird in northwestern Montana, for instance, and then jump the border and shoot an upstate Idaho Merriam’s and

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