Not all states have a spring turkey season -- and some states that have one might as well not. That’s because turkey populations are so sparse in those parts of the country that only a handful of birds will be harvested in the whole state.

Oklahoma abounds with turkey hunting possibilities, however. You can find turkeys in any or all of our 77 counties. And there are areas in northwestern Oklahoma where counties hold thousands of birds.

I’ve seen as many as 300-plus birds in a single roost adjoining a large public hunting area, and roosts with 100 or more birds aren’t that uncommon in Woodward, Harper, Ellis, Dewey, Roger Mills and adjacent counties.

In the jumbled forested hills of Eastern Oklahoma, the eastern wild turkey reigns supreme. South of Interstate 40, and especially in the Ouachita Mountains and foothills of McCurtain, LeFlore, Pushmataha and Choctaw counties, the range of the eastern subspecies stretches even farther west.

In the remainder of the state, the Rio Grande subspecies is the dominant turkey. In fact, when you get farther than 50 or 60 miles from the Arkansas border you’ll be hard-pressed to find anything but Rio Grandes in Oklahoma.

There is one tiny exception. That is, way out in the tip of the Oklahoma Panhandle, where the Rita Blanca National Grasslands are scattered around the countryside, and where Black Mesa, that volcanic highland that is the state’s highest point, presides over the Cimarron River Valley. There you may find a few Merriam’s wild turkeys running about. There aren’t many of them and their range is limited, but there are enough that a few Oklahoma hunters are able to achieve the coveted “grand slam” of Oklahoma turkeys and bag one of all three subspecies.

Oklahoma is just the opposite from the nation as a whole when it comes to turkey populations. Nationwide, there are four or five times more eastern birds than Rio Grandes, but in Oklahoma, Rio Grandes far outnumber easterns. Both subspecies were hunted down to low numbers during the early 20th century, but thanks to the trapping and transplanting efforts of the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation -- and, more recently, to habitat improvement programs by groups like the National Wild Turkey Federation -- Rio Grandes have expanded both their range and their populations significantly in the last 40 years.

Easterns have had a tougher time in Oklahoma and neighboring states. Although the easterns have bounced back pretty well in the past few years, there was a period in the 1990s when their populations took a sharp nosedive and our seasons and limits were pared back in those areas where eastern turkeys live. (Continued)

Now the big question: Where should I go to kill a turkey in Oklahoma this spring?

I’ll give the same advice that Horace Greeley once penned: “Go west, young man, go west!”

As I said earlier, there are huntable numbers of turkeys in every county in Oklahoma. But in many counties, access to the lands where the turkeys live is darned tough to get.

If you’re fortunate enough to have access to lands in Eastern or central Oklahoma where turkeys can be found, I’d recommend exploiting that resource.

And, yes, it’s possible to kill turkeys on public lands in those regions. There are numerous wildlife management areas where turkeys can be found. Some of those are only open to draw-in hunts on selected dates, but some are open pretty much the same dates as the statewide season. You can check the regulations for any WMA you may wish to hunt by either picking up a copy of the current Oklahoma Hunting Regulations booklets from license vendors, or you can go to the Web site www.wildlifedepartment.com to view the general regulations and the site-specific regulations.

Let’s look at a few of the areas east of Interstate 35 where you might bag a turkey on public land.