In Eastern Oklahoma, a big turkey roost might have two or three dozen birds in it. In that cluster of northwestern counties, it’s not out of the question to see a roost with 100, 200 or 300 birds.

The first time I saw a roost with more than 100 turkeys perched in the cottonwoods, I thought I had seen the biggest roost in the state. It was on a place managed by professional hunting guide and outfitter Milton Rose in Woodward. But since then I’ve seen some that were much bigger. I’ve been lucky enough to be invited several times in recent years to hunt a ranch that has a roost where I’ve seen as many as 300-plus turkeys nestled in the treetops at dusk. Many of the birds from that roost fly down each morning and walk right off of that private property and onto a large tract of public hunting land. My friend who invites me there to hunt told me on several occasions that a couple of hundred or more turkeys roosted near his camp. I took it with a grain of salt, thinking that his “couple hundred” description was akin to those “2-pound crappie” and “5-pound bass” that actually turn out to weigh about 1 1/4 pounds or 3 1/2 pounds.

So my jaw dropped on my first evening in his camp, when I sat for more than an hour watching turkeys come from every direction to fill the trees. Settled in our camp chairs, my son and I counted the birds until it grew too dark to distinguish through our binoculars the latecomers that were still arriving.

The roost doesn’t always contain that many birds. At different seasons they may spread out and roost in smaller groups. Last spring a tornado tore the tops out or completely uprooted many of the large trees in that roost, so the numbers probably won’t be nearly as high this spring.

There are several well-known public-hunting spots in northwestern Oklahoma that produce lots of springtime turkey action for Oklahomans and visiting hunters.

The Black Kettle National Grasslands/WMA out near the Texas Panhandle on Oklahoma’s western edge contains more than 30,000 acres of land in about 100 scattered tracts ranging from around 20 acres up to a couple of thousand. It is perhaps the most productive public tract in the state or region when it comes to turkeys.

The Packsaddle WMA, just a few miles north of Black Kettle, has 17,000 acres along the north bank of the South Canadian River and is also a good spot.

The 16,000-acre Hal and Fern Cooper WMA near Fort Supply, the 17,700-acre Beaver River WMA, and the 16,775-acre Canton are three other excellent areas to set up camp and hunt turkeys.

There are many smaller public-hunting areas out there as well. Descriptions of the public tracts are available on-line at the Wildlife Department’s Web site. Hunters can purchase an atlas from the department that contains maps and descriptions of all public tracts open for hunting and managed by the department.