I took the day off to go turkey hunting as it is my birthday. I had planned on going hunting today so I was bummed when the weather man said heavy rain. I decided to sleep in a little so I set my alarm for 5am. No rain yet so I left immediately. I got on stand about 6:15 still no rain but it was defiantly on its way and getting very windy. I could hear a tom gobbling a long way off. Way too far for me to call to but I figured I would anyway. A few minutes to 7am I could hear he was coming my way and every time he gobbled I could tell it was closer. I finally spotted him behind me to my left and through a fence on private property. I knew it was going to be a challenge to get him through a fence as I’ve always been told turkeys will not go through a fence while in full strut. Lots of brush was between him and me and at times he was twenty yards from me. He worked the fence back and forth and every time he got forty yards away I would grab my call and turn back to me. He was poofed up and looked huge. His head was as red as red can get. I only had one decoy out and it was a red head jake. I did this thinking that any tom of any size would come in to my call then see the small excited bird and come it to investigate. As he continued to work the fence he got to a point where he seen my jake and through the fence he came. He was still in full strut and moving fast towards my decoy. I had to turn from pointing behind me to a hard right and fast. He was only 15 yards away. I was worried that I would get spotted so I took him first chance I could. He dropped and he never moved. I wished I would have waited and seen if he would have attacked my decoy. Oh well it was exciting and a great way to start the day. 22lbs and a 10 ¾ beard. I got back to the truck as the rain started. About an 1 ½ rain fell by noon. Sorry for the garage pictures but it was really raining when we took these. I was dry and not real excited about going outside.
Spring Turkey!
- Thread starter chadly
- Start date
- Joined
- Dec 7, 2002
Thats a kick ass bird
Little6pack
Active Member
- Joined
- Jun 2, 2002
I am curious, do you eat it, or taxidermy it? or other?
BTW nice KILL
BTW nice KILL
Squid4life
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jul 5, 2004
Nice job! I am jealous. That is a good looking bird, and sounds like a fun hunt!
I think the "other" is for residents of West Virginia.
alwayscode390
Active Member
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2009
I have never seen a wild turkey look so nice ... good kill!!! ---
Congrats.
I/we can't complain too much here in S.WI the 3 of us have gotten 3 birds this spring, but all Jakes. The Toms have been extremely stubborn to calling around here.
I have heard the same story from dozens of guys, the Hen-Tom ratio is way outa wack around here. They don't have to work for any action. Toms fly down to the nearest field & have their choice of real hens in any direction, so they ignore the decoys and calls.
I/we can't complain too much here in S.WI the 3 of us have gotten 3 birds this spring, but all Jakes. The Toms have been extremely stubborn to calling around here.
I have heard the same story from dozens of guys, the Hen-Tom ratio is way outa wack around here. They don't have to work for any action. Toms fly down to the nearest field & have their choice of real hens in any direction, so they ignore the decoys and calls.
Nothing wrong with shooting Jakes. I shot one third season this year. I’m not real fussy. I take what I can get. Hunting late in the season the hens will spend much of their day on nests. This can make the toms much more receptive to your calls. At least that is what I’m told and tends to hold true for me. I never thought I would enjoy hunting turkeys as much as I do. The first year I went my wife and I were set up and ready for the opener. Decoys were out camera was on the tripod and alls we had to do was wait for the sun to some up. The birds starting gobbling in the trees all around us and close. This was the first time either of us had heard a turkey gobble. It was excited to say the least. I let out my first little yelp and a turkey flew down and we could hear it coming towards us as it moved across the leaves in the woods. It was directly behind us so I had my wife spin around and get ready. Just then a turkey head was about twenty yards away and looking right at us. I whispered shoot and it dropped hard. My wife looks at me as says how do you know it was a tom? That’s when it dawned on me I really didn’t know the difference unless they were in strut. We lucked out and it was a 24lb tom. That was eight years ago and have I learned a lot since then. And it’s been fun! My wife has not hunted as much since the kids have come along but here is a picture of her 6 months pregnant walking out with a jake she shot. We deep fried him and he was tasty.
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Turkey counts are really down this year again. I recently read that less than 30% of the hunters will get a bird. Knowing this I figured if we could just see some birds and hear some gobbling i would be happy.
Any way I hunted five mornings in the last six weeks taking a friend with me who is new to the sport. My goal was to get him a bird. We hunted some land that i have not hunted in years. We did not see lots of birds but the tom's we saw were all really big with the smallest bird being 21.4lbs. We each shot two birds and feel so blessed to of had such a exciting season. The bird we shot yesterday gobbled for an hour from his tree where he had roosted the night before. He gobbled and gobbled and gobbled like no other bird all year. It's an absolute joy to call to a bird like him and listen to him work himself up something silly. When he finally flew down he never called again. About eight minutes after his final gobble we saw him in the field about 150 yards away. I started rolling tape and I got 8 perfect minutes of him spinning circle and strutting as he worked his way to my decoys. My friend pulled a perfect shot. This is the best video I have to date of turkey hunting. And as a bonus he had a double beard. The first I've seen in real life. Sorry for the crappy cell phone pics.
