Turkey Contest Photo's! ( We have a winner)!!!!
- Thread starter KeeKee
- Start date
weekend_warrior
New member
Opening Day Gobbler
I showed up to my spot a little late, around 5:45 on opening morning. When I got there, I decided that instead of walking the edge of the field, I would duck into the brush to get to my spot, in case there were any turkeys roosted on the edge of the field. I got about 15 yards from my tree, and saw decoys, then I saw another hunter. I was too close to sneak away, and I was scared of being shot, so I made my presence known and went to talk to him quickly.
He was a really nice retired gentleman, we talked, and he thought it was too late for me to go anywhere else, so he invited me to sit with him, and hunt with him. I added my decoy to his decoys, and sat down. Several birds gobbled off the roost, and we both gave soft tree yelps. He with a mouth call, and me with a Primos Glass Call. They hammered back at us.
At flydown time, a hen flew down to our left, and a tom flew down straight in front of us, at the far end of the field. I gave him a loud cackle on my glass call, he gobbled, and headed in, slowly. The other hunter told me to go ahead and shoot him if I wanted him, so when he got to 30 yards, I shot him with my Mossberg 835, with 3 1/2 #5's. He dropped. He had a 10 inch beard, one inch spurs, and weighed 17 lbs.
I retrieved my bird, and we sat there and talked and whiled away some time, calling every once in a while. Finally, I got two different birds to gobble, and they started to come in. They came in from opposite directions, at the far end of the field. They displayed for each other, and then responded to my calling, and came in. The first, which we thought was the subordinate bird, came right in to the decoys and stayed there. The other guy did not want the subordinate bird, he wanted the dominant, so he waited. THe dominant bird refused to come into my calling. I was calling soft, calling aggressive, and not calling, he just wouldn't come in. Finally, I got real aggressive, and when he would respond to my calls, I would cut him off with another call. So he came in, and the other hunter dropped him.
Unfortunately, he got up and started to run. He shot him twice more, but the bird kept running for the brush. I ended up chasing him all the way across the field, and caught him at the edge.
It was a fun hunt, and I met a really nice guy in the bargain too. We were both really happy that we both got birds.
Bake
I showed up to my spot a little late, around 5:45 on opening morning. When I got there, I decided that instead of walking the edge of the field, I would duck into the brush to get to my spot, in case there were any turkeys roosted on the edge of the field. I got about 15 yards from my tree, and saw decoys, then I saw another hunter. I was too close to sneak away, and I was scared of being shot, so I made my presence known and went to talk to him quickly.
He was a really nice retired gentleman, we talked, and he thought it was too late for me to go anywhere else, so he invited me to sit with him, and hunt with him. I added my decoy to his decoys, and sat down. Several birds gobbled off the roost, and we both gave soft tree yelps. He with a mouth call, and me with a Primos Glass Call. They hammered back at us.
At flydown time, a hen flew down to our left, and a tom flew down straight in front of us, at the far end of the field. I gave him a loud cackle on my glass call, he gobbled, and headed in, slowly. The other hunter told me to go ahead and shoot him if I wanted him, so when he got to 30 yards, I shot him with my Mossberg 835, with 3 1/2 #5's. He dropped. He had a 10 inch beard, one inch spurs, and weighed 17 lbs.
I retrieved my bird, and we sat there and talked and whiled away some time, calling every once in a while. Finally, I got two different birds to gobble, and they started to come in. They came in from opposite directions, at the far end of the field. They displayed for each other, and then responded to my calling, and came in. The first, which we thought was the subordinate bird, came right in to the decoys and stayed there. The other guy did not want the subordinate bird, he wanted the dominant, so he waited. THe dominant bird refused to come into my calling. I was calling soft, calling aggressive, and not calling, he just wouldn't come in. Finally, I got real aggressive, and when he would respond to my calls, I would cut him off with another call. So he came in, and the other hunter dropped him.
Unfortunately, he got up and started to run. He shot him twice more, but the bird kept running for the brush. I ended up chasing him all the way across the field, and caught him at the edge.
It was a fun hunt, and I met a really nice guy in the bargain too. We were both really happy that we both got birds.
Bake
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guywildstorm
Active member
Took this gobbler last Saturday. We located birds right before daylight. Set up and worked them thinking they were still on the roost. Not sure if we bumped them on the way in or what happened but we never did hear them fly down. Finally figured out they were already on the ground so we started calling a little more aggresive and had a bird slip in fairly close before he gobbled. He came to about 75 yards and would never come on in. We waited for about 30 minutes and got up and made a big circle to see if we could get in front of him. We ended up working him again but some hens showed up and he ended up following them. We had heard another bird while we were working that one so we picked up and moved towards the one we kept hearing off in the distance. I finally spotted that one strutting on a little ridge. We sat and watched while he put on one heck of a show for us for about 20 minutes. He finally followed some hens off the other side of the ridge. We decided to back-track and make another big circle and come in on him from the direction he was headed. About an hour later we finally located him and set up. He gobbled the whole way in and I finally took him at about 45 yards. He is my best bird to date. He has 3 beards, the main one is 9 1/2 inches and the two smaller ones are 5" and 4". He had 1 spur 1 1/16" and the other was 1". We seldom see spurs any longer than that here. He weighed 19.6 lbs.
Moe
New member
Started off this morning going out calling for an individual who helped me greatly with learning how to call coyotes this past year. He has never gotten a turkey so I was hoping to return the favor and help him out with his calling for gobblers.
We headed out to a hotspot at about 5:30 and was setup for 6:00 a.m. Waiting for the birds to wake up and come out of their roost, we sure enough heard a gobble in the distance. I did a bit of calling not too aggressively trying to gradually get him off his roost.
Out of the corner of my eye I seen movement, and my luck, I called in a fox. If his coat was better I may have taken him, but my goal was to get a turkey in for my partner to get a shot. This fox wouldn't leave! He wanted to eat our decoys, so about after 5 mins or so we literally had to wave our arms around to scare him off so he wouldn't spook the birds. He hung around at about 15 yards for a while taking his time getting a drink. Finally after he left I continued calling.
Didn't get any response until a little while later we heard some gobbling again, quieter this time meaning he was on the ground. Slow enough we heard a few consecutive gobbles showing there were more than one.
At about 6:30 we seen them moving in, so we both brought up our guns and stopped the calling. At the time it looked like a decent tom and a smaller jake along with a hen. One was coming in quick and strutting like crazy. At about 20 yards, I told my partner to take him whenever he'd like. Once he was clear he pulled the trigger...CLICK! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif . We still don't know what happened but the gun just didn't fire. Being only 20 yards away and it would have definitely scared them away if he tried fixing his gun, my partner told me to take it so I ended up shooting the bigger one strutting. Thought it was going to be bigger but it was a jake at 17.5 lbs, 5.5" beard. Not that big of a bird but should be some good eating and was a great hunt. Bought another tag today and going to try and call him in another one this weekend /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif. Great pictures everyone, and take care.
We headed out to a hotspot at about 5:30 and was setup for 6:00 a.m. Waiting for the birds to wake up and come out of their roost, we sure enough heard a gobble in the distance. I did a bit of calling not too aggressively trying to gradually get him off his roost.
Out of the corner of my eye I seen movement, and my luck, I called in a fox. If his coat was better I may have taken him, but my goal was to get a turkey in for my partner to get a shot. This fox wouldn't leave! He wanted to eat our decoys, so about after 5 mins or so we literally had to wave our arms around to scare him off so he wouldn't spook the birds. He hung around at about 15 yards for a while taking his time getting a drink. Finally after he left I continued calling.
Didn't get any response until a little while later we heard some gobbling again, quieter this time meaning he was on the ground. Slow enough we heard a few consecutive gobbles showing there were more than one.
At about 6:30 we seen them moving in, so we both brought up our guns and stopped the calling. At the time it looked like a decent tom and a smaller jake along with a hen. One was coming in quick and strutting like crazy. At about 20 yards, I told my partner to take him whenever he'd like. Once he was clear he pulled the trigger...CLICK! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif . We still don't know what happened but the gun just didn't fire. Being only 20 yards away and it would have definitely scared them away if he tried fixing his gun, my partner told me to take it so I ended up shooting the bigger one strutting. Thought it was going to be bigger but it was a jake at 17.5 lbs, 5.5" beard. Not that big of a bird but should be some good eating and was a great hunt. Bought another tag today and going to try and call him in another one this weekend /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif. Great pictures everyone, and take care.
Melvin Eades
New member
4/13 It started Thursday evening when Lucas and I went out and roosted turkeys where I planned to hunt the next morning. The next morning we were out early, well before the first hint of daylight. There was a full moon and the turkeys were already gobbling. We set up the decoys, video camera and waited. At first light Lucas gave'em a few yelps on one of his slate calls that he made to let them know we were there. They would gobble right back to him. We gave a few imitation fly down sounds and a few more yelps, they liked that. Lucas called in two hens and one of them walked right up to our decoys and acted like she wanted to fight but didn't.
We waited a few minutes to let them walk on out into the cornfield that we were in and then Lucas started in calling again. In just a of couple minutes there were several heads that appeared over the rise in the field. He was calling the whole darn flock in. They were moving around so much it was hard to count them. One tom, and not the biggest one, spotted our decoys and headed for them. We decided with so many eyes out there that I had better take him as soon as I could. Lucas whispered for me to shoot (meaning he had the camera on them) but if I would have shot at that time I would have hit three toms. The lead tom finally moved over and I shot him. We just stood still and watched them. The turkey I shot was flopping around and several of the toms ran over and tried fighting him. While they were doing this I counted 23 turkeys in front of us. There were 11 toms, 6-7 jakes and the rest were hens. We keep the camera rolling until they all left and went out into the field feeding and strutting.
The turkey weighed 24 lbs. and had a 10 3/4 in. beard.
(4/17) Lucas called in a hen with a 6-7 in. beard. We have a closeup of her on video.
(4/18) About 4:45 am I went to go out on my back deck to see what kind of weather we were going to have when I saw a coyote at the edge of the yard ( due to the night light ) where we had thrown out some food scraps. I slipped back into the house and loaded my 17 HMR, slipped open the door and shot him at about 30 yards. He yelped, spun a couple times, ran about 30 yards out into the field, made three 15' circles and fell over.
He's the biggest coyote I've ever shot. It was a male and weighed 44 lbs. He was a dark colored one.
Well, shortly after this Lucas got up and we were headed out to get him a turkey.
We got out early and slipped into the little creek bottom where the turkeys had been roosting. We set up the decoys and camera and waited for it to get light. When they started gobbling we were right accross the little field from them. Lucas used one of his calls again and called in 4 toms. He shot the strutter of the 4. It weighed 24.5 lbs. and had a 9.5 in. beard.
Now the bad part.
We were driving home about 6:40 am and a 1/2 mile from our house when a deer ran out of the woods and caved in the side of my truck. I looked in the rear view mirror and say the deer flopping and sliding down the road. There was a lot of hair flying in the early morning sunlight. The deer managed to get up and run off. I went back and looked for it, but didn't find it.
I got two estimates on repairing it, one was for a little over $3300.00 and the other one was a little over $3400.00.
4/28 Lucas and I went out this morning, 2nd day of the IL. 4th season to see if I could fill my 2nd permit. I roosted the turkeys last night and we went in before first light and got the decoys and camera set up and waited. We didn't have to wait long before they started gobbling. We were sitting in the edge of a timber that looked out over a newly planted corn field. Just as it started to get light there were 7 deer that came into the field from the creek and started milling around in the field. We watched them for about 40 minutes. They spotted our decoys and decided to investigate. They came within 20 yards of our decoys which were about 8 yards in front of me. Finally they left the field.
We were planning on giving some imitation fly down sounds, but there were several crow roosted right up behind us in the trees that we didn't know were there. They started cawing and thrashing around making a lot of noise which probably didn't help our cause.
Shortly after they left Lucas called a Jake right into the decoys. He would look them over and leave only to go about 20 ft. and come right back to them. He did this 4 times and finally Lucas made some fighting sounds to get him to leave so we could change locations since one group of turkeys went north and one went south.
We sneaked up over a hill in the field and spotted two toms down along the creek that were heading our way. We slipped back down the hill and went along the edge of the field to head them off. I spotted a hen coming around the corner of the field about 80 yards away so we backed up and set up again in the brush. There ended up being two hens and one came as close to me as 5 yards. I let them pass by and here came the two toms behind them. I shot the lead one at 15 steps. He weighed 19 lbs. and had a 9 and 3/4 in. beard.
It wasn't a real big bird, but the hunt was great and we have it all on video.
We waited a few minutes to let them walk on out into the cornfield that we were in and then Lucas started in calling again. In just a of couple minutes there were several heads that appeared over the rise in the field. He was calling the whole darn flock in. They were moving around so much it was hard to count them. One tom, and not the biggest one, spotted our decoys and headed for them. We decided with so many eyes out there that I had better take him as soon as I could. Lucas whispered for me to shoot (meaning he had the camera on them) but if I would have shot at that time I would have hit three toms. The lead tom finally moved over and I shot him. We just stood still and watched them. The turkey I shot was flopping around and several of the toms ran over and tried fighting him. While they were doing this I counted 23 turkeys in front of us. There were 11 toms, 6-7 jakes and the rest were hens. We keep the camera rolling until they all left and went out into the field feeding and strutting.
The turkey weighed 24 lbs. and had a 10 3/4 in. beard.
(4/17) Lucas called in a hen with a 6-7 in. beard. We have a closeup of her on video.
(4/18) About 4:45 am I went to go out on my back deck to see what kind of weather we were going to have when I saw a coyote at the edge of the yard ( due to the night light ) where we had thrown out some food scraps. I slipped back into the house and loaded my 17 HMR, slipped open the door and shot him at about 30 yards. He yelped, spun a couple times, ran about 30 yards out into the field, made three 15' circles and fell over.
He's the biggest coyote I've ever shot. It was a male and weighed 44 lbs. He was a dark colored one.
Well, shortly after this Lucas got up and we were headed out to get him a turkey.
We got out early and slipped into the little creek bottom where the turkeys had been roosting. We set up the decoys and camera and waited for it to get light. When they started gobbling we were right accross the little field from them. Lucas used one of his calls again and called in 4 toms. He shot the strutter of the 4. It weighed 24.5 lbs. and had a 9.5 in. beard.
Now the bad part.
We were driving home about 6:40 am and a 1/2 mile from our house when a deer ran out of the woods and caved in the side of my truck. I looked in the rear view mirror and say the deer flopping and sliding down the road. There was a lot of hair flying in the early morning sunlight. The deer managed to get up and run off. I went back and looked for it, but didn't find it.
I got two estimates on repairing it, one was for a little over $3300.00 and the other one was a little over $3400.00.
4/28 Lucas and I went out this morning, 2nd day of the IL. 4th season to see if I could fill my 2nd permit. I roosted the turkeys last night and we went in before first light and got the decoys and camera set up and waited. We didn't have to wait long before they started gobbling. We were sitting in the edge of a timber that looked out over a newly planted corn field. Just as it started to get light there were 7 deer that came into the field from the creek and started milling around in the field. We watched them for about 40 minutes. They spotted our decoys and decided to investigate. They came within 20 yards of our decoys which were about 8 yards in front of me. Finally they left the field.
We were planning on giving some imitation fly down sounds, but there were several crow roosted right up behind us in the trees that we didn't know were there. They started cawing and thrashing around making a lot of noise which probably didn't help our cause.
Shortly after they left Lucas called a Jake right into the decoys. He would look them over and leave only to go about 20 ft. and come right back to them. He did this 4 times and finally Lucas made some fighting sounds to get him to leave so we could change locations since one group of turkeys went north and one went south.
We sneaked up over a hill in the field and spotted two toms down along the creek that were heading our way. We slipped back down the hill and went along the edge of the field to head them off. I spotted a hen coming around the corner of the field about 80 yards away so we backed up and set up again in the brush. There ended up being two hens and one came as close to me as 5 yards. I let them pass by and here came the two toms behind them. I shot the lead one at 15 steps. He weighed 19 lbs. and had a 9 and 3/4 in. beard.
It wasn't a real big bird, but the hunt was great and we have it all on video.
GC
Well-known member
Got my first for the 06' season this morning. We've had tremendous rains, with up to fifty mile per hour winds the last couple of days. I slept in this morning and made my way to the Mark Twain National Forest around 9AM. At 9:30 I was set up on a long ridge in the big timber. I hadn't heard a bird so decided to do a little cold calling. I called one Thursday a mile away in some very open woods and it hung up and refused to budge from fifty yards away. The gobbler Thursday didn't make a peep, just snuck in strutting, but not sounding off. I figured he was a subordinate bird and didn't want to get spurred by a big boy. Today I hoped for a talker!
I had made series of clucks and soft yelps down the ridge occasionally. After calling for 45 minutes or so suddenly a gobbler sounded off just about 150 yards away. Man was he hot! I really had a good time with him, he got really fired up, double and triple gobbling. Took about thirty minutes before he got out in front and the Benelli M1S90, Kick's GT choke, and Winchester Supreme High Velocity 5's did the deed. Because of terrain (drainage cut) the shot was a bit of a barrel stretcher though. I used a oak pot glass call and light hickory striker, a Dad's custom box with cedar sidewalls and purple heart lid, and finished him with a Woodhaven Hornet diaphram. He was 22 pounds, nice thick 10" beard, and 1" spurs. Killed him at 11:00 AM.
I had made series of clucks and soft yelps down the ridge occasionally. After calling for 45 minutes or so suddenly a gobbler sounded off just about 150 yards away. Man was he hot! I really had a good time with him, he got really fired up, double and triple gobbling. Took about thirty minutes before he got out in front and the Benelli M1S90, Kick's GT choke, and Winchester Supreme High Velocity 5's did the deed. Because of terrain (drainage cut) the shot was a bit of a barrel stretcher though. I used a oak pot glass call and light hickory striker, a Dad's custom box with cedar sidewalls and purple heart lid, and finished him with a Woodhaven Hornet diaphram. He was 22 pounds, nice thick 10" beard, and 1" spurs. Killed him at 11:00 AM.
weekend_warrior
New member
Hey GC, Great picture. How did you get the fan to spread out and stick up like that? That is an awesome pic.
As far as that goes, does anybody else have tips, techniques for taking great pictures?
I love pictures, they are great memories to look back on, and I try to take lots of pictures to get some good ones, but most of the time, I have to use the self-timer, and it's hard to get good pics, and frame them well.
Bake
As far as that goes, does anybody else have tips, techniques for taking great pictures?
I love pictures, they are great memories to look back on, and I try to take lots of pictures to get some good ones, but most of the time, I have to use the self-timer, and it's hard to get good pics, and frame them well.
Bake
danurve
New member
NY State 05/01/2006 Opening Day (public land)
First bird I called in seemed to have spooked off just after sunrise. I spotted another hunter walking the opposite side of the feild though so Im sure it wasn't my doing. I waited a short while for the woods to settle back down and again let loose on the state, 2 Toms fire off, one somewhat 200 yards in the direction of where the other hunter went, and the other about 100 to my left. Another distant Gobbler fills the air after these two.
Now it's quarter to 7 and Im working the slate and a dual mouth call, this has the Tom from accrost the feild all fired up! But not before the closer one is in closer. I didn't know it untill he Gobbled hard about 50 yards from me. Well I'm up I thought. And I hear him sneaking around making no doubt to his presence. But that boy made a path right around be to my right. I don't think he liked my Jake decoy much because he didn't come in to challenge it.
Or..
Perhaps it was because the other Tom started making his way accrost the field and puttin the hammer down into his Gobbles. Now this bird is about 100 yards out 12 o'clock and I can see him plain as day now that the sun is partly out. He's faned up and firing back almost one for one to me. So I quieted the calls down and made it sound like a bird headed out, he fired back and peeks over the grass. Once he was out of the line of sight I hit the slate with a rosewood striker, and man does he gobble up a storm. I know he can now see my deeks but he takin his sweet time. By the way the other gobbler was gone, he gobbled a few more times but I could tell he was further off now.
Tell you what though brothers and sisters the game was on with Mr.Mouth headed in. He's about 60 yards out.
A moment - I'm against a tree maybe 50 yrads into the woods with a good eye on the field where the woods breaks up enough to conceal me but offer a good shooting path.
Anyhow he's faned up at the edge of the woods and he hammers again. I thought he was going to hang up and spook because he didn't charge the jake like I thought he might. Instead he crosses the fence and comes into the woods, gets about 50 yards out and drops into strut.
Play time- he walks behind a tree giving me the ready time I needed, now he's 40 yards out and he stops.
BLAMM
Edited to add: part of his neck was shot up bad even at 40 yards, so I tilted the neck to hide that a bit for the image.
22 lbs.
9" beard
1&1/8" Spurs
1300 Blackshadow, gobblestopper .065, Federal 3" #5's
Other gear:
K&H sla-tek
dual reed
Bobin Head jake humpin a bobin head hen
Summit Trophy chair
And this nifty strap with two leg holders, makes the trek out of the woods less work. Or a good 22 lb bird feels like 60 /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
Slammin` /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
Got one more tag to try and fill. Do I burn up some more vacation or wait till a camping trip mid month .. To the hunt!
First bird I called in seemed to have spooked off just after sunrise. I spotted another hunter walking the opposite side of the feild though so Im sure it wasn't my doing. I waited a short while for the woods to settle back down and again let loose on the state, 2 Toms fire off, one somewhat 200 yards in the direction of where the other hunter went, and the other about 100 to my left. Another distant Gobbler fills the air after these two.
Now it's quarter to 7 and Im working the slate and a dual mouth call, this has the Tom from accrost the feild all fired up! But not before the closer one is in closer. I didn't know it untill he Gobbled hard about 50 yards from me. Well I'm up I thought. And I hear him sneaking around making no doubt to his presence. But that boy made a path right around be to my right. I don't think he liked my Jake decoy much because he didn't come in to challenge it.
Or..
Perhaps it was because the other Tom started making his way accrost the field and puttin the hammer down into his Gobbles. Now this bird is about 100 yards out 12 o'clock and I can see him plain as day now that the sun is partly out. He's faned up and firing back almost one for one to me. So I quieted the calls down and made it sound like a bird headed out, he fired back and peeks over the grass. Once he was out of the line of sight I hit the slate with a rosewood striker, and man does he gobble up a storm. I know he can now see my deeks but he takin his sweet time. By the way the other gobbler was gone, he gobbled a few more times but I could tell he was further off now.
Tell you what though brothers and sisters the game was on with Mr.Mouth headed in. He's about 60 yards out.
A moment - I'm against a tree maybe 50 yrads into the woods with a good eye on the field where the woods breaks up enough to conceal me but offer a good shooting path.
Anyhow he's faned up at the edge of the woods and he hammers again. I thought he was going to hang up and spook because he didn't charge the jake like I thought he might. Instead he crosses the fence and comes into the woods, gets about 50 yards out and drops into strut.
Play time- he walks behind a tree giving me the ready time I needed, now he's 40 yards out and he stops.
BLAMM
Edited to add: part of his neck was shot up bad even at 40 yards, so I tilted the neck to hide that a bit for the image.
22 lbs.
9" beard
1&1/8" Spurs
1300 Blackshadow, gobblestopper .065, Federal 3" #5's
Other gear:
K&H sla-tek
dual reed
Bobin Head jake humpin a bobin head hen
Summit Trophy chair
And this nifty strap with two leg holders, makes the trek out of the woods less work. Or a good 22 lb bird feels like 60 /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
Slammin` /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
Got one more tag to try and fill. Do I burn up some more vacation or wait till a camping trip mid month .. To the hunt!
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GC
Well-known member
Great pictures of some real quality birds here! Gotta love it.
WW, I hunt most often by myself so you have to be creative. In this case, the wind was blowing pretty hard, so I got that behind the bird and spread the fan. The wind did the work for me... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
WW, I hunt most often by myself so you have to be creative. In this case, the wind was blowing pretty hard, so I got that behind the bird and spread the fan. The wind did the work for me... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
snakehollow joe
New member
My uncle and I headed out Monday morning before daylight. My uncle headed back to the little field tucked away back in between two ridges. I stood by the old home place where we parked and waited to see where the birds was. Well the first to gobble was two birds out towards my uncle and the field. I knew he was set up great for them so I didn't even think about going after them. A few min. later one cut loose up the hollow in front of me. So I was off. I headed up the hollow on the other side of the ridge from the Tom. I climbed my way up toward the top of the ridge and put out my jake and hen decoy. I found a nice size oak and set down. I got my calls out and started with the slate with some real low clucks like a hen in the tree. He loved it. I waited a few min. and then took my hat off shook it and rattled the leaves. He gobbled. I pulled out the box and started the cluck and yelp talk. He hit the ground now remember I can't see him he is in the hollow and I am not all the way on top of the ridge. I would call and he would cut me off with a gobble. Then I could hear it he was strutting I could hear him puffing up. I knew he was getting close and I layed the box down and got ready. I then seen him about 75 yards away. He was strutting back and forth come to me I yelped real low with my mouth call just to watch him gobble. When he got about 55 yards he seen the jake decoy. His head went from white to bright red he was mad he came a running my decoys was about 15 yards from me when he got about 5 yards from them there was a log it slowed him down from his run and I put the 4 shot on him. This was one fast hunt. From the time I set down to the time a pulled the trigger was only 8 min. He was hot. Here is a few pictures one of my bird and one of my uncles bird he got.
20lbs 9 inch beard 1in spurs
20lbs 9 inch beard 1in spurs
Melvin Eades
New member
Lucas went out last night and roosted two toms. He had to wait til it was dark to leave because the birds roosted about a 100 yards from him and he didn't want to scare them. We tried a different set up on the birds to try and get them to come down to us because these birds had been flying down the other way. We set the decoys up and waited. As it started getting light, the birds were starting to gobble. Lucas was doing some yelping on one of his calls. They would answer a little bit, but not as much as we would like, so he told me to give some yelps on my call that he made. It has a higher more wraspier sound than the one he was using. The toms would answer me and cut me off just about every time. Finally one of the toms came down and landed in the field about 70-80 yards away. I yelped a couple of times and he would gobble. His buddy came down soon after. The first tom strutted a couple times and here they came in towards our decoys. At about 35 yards, Lucas shot the first bird and knocked it over backwards. We looked at our watch and it was 5:48. That is the earliest we have ever taken one. I was glad that I was able to call a bird in for him since he called them in for me earlier this year. We got it all on video also. It was a great hunt. The tom was a 2 1/2 year old bird. He only weighed 19 lbs but had a 10 1/2 inch beard. It is towards the end of the season and the birds are getting really hard to hunt. We have been fortunate enough to have a really good season here in Illinois and hope the luck carries over into our Nebraska turkey hunt here in a couple weeks.
Well, I managed to get just one of my KS. birds, BUT he is a boss gobbler and I got him with my bow. As you can see, he qualified as a limb hanger!!
He has 1 3/8" spurs, three beards....10 1/4", 5 1/2", and the third beard has only about 10 hairs and is 4 1/2"'s long. He only weighed 20 pounds even!!! I shot him at 35 yards using my Mathews Legacy and jack hammer broadheads!!
He has 1 3/8" spurs, three beards....10 1/4", 5 1/2", and the third beard has only about 10 hairs and is 4 1/2"'s long. He only weighed 20 pounds even!!! I shot him at 35 yards using my Mathews Legacy and jack hammer broadheads!!
bird dog 3
Member
I managed to take this Tom opening day of the second half of the 06 season of Arizona's spring turkey season on public land and it sported a 10 1/2 inch beard and one inch spurs. The coyote tails were taken the day before the turkey hunt and I added two more the day after taking the Tom Turkey
Heres a pic of the bird i got this past Sunday. He weighed in at 22 lbs. had a 10 inch beard and one spur was 1 1/2"
and the other was 1 3/8 "'s. The hunt was great, he came in with another tom, the one i shot was the strutter. The other bird never broke into strut. Good day's hunt.
JD
cottonfoot
New member
Well here is my fourth season bird. He wouldn't give into my calling so, I made him give into my sneak'n. 24lbs 10 3/4"beard 1" spurs
