2021 Wild Turkey thread

In Quebec, we are allowed two bearded gobblers in the spring, and one bearded or non-bearded in the fall, although my area has a restriction against them in the fall.
I am hoping to bag two this spring, and if really itchy in the fall them perhaps travel outside my usual area.
 
84fuegoturbo said:
Anyone have a good video on how to prepare the turkey after harvesting one? Do you guys keep the tail fan/beard and or the feet?
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I have preserved a fan for sh!ts n giggles, but not normally. I grab the beards and spurs from each harvest. Beards get glued into the spend shell and nailed into the cross beam in my garage. Spurs get cleaned right to the bone, soaked in hydrogen peroxide and placed on a “necklace” that hangs in my basement.

It was a beautiful day here so after changing my tires, I pulled out some turkey gear to inspect. Pre season tradition to make sure the blind hasnt been chewed through. Also set up the decoys and give them a rub down with a wet rag. Usually try to do it at end of season, but sometimes forget.
 
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84fuegoturbo said:
Anyone have a good video on how to prepare the turkey after harvesting one? Do you guys keep the tail fan/beard and or the feet?
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My first bird I kept the foot, and beard. Each subsequent bird I only bother taking the beard if it looks bigger than the last one.

I honestly couldnt care much for tropheys. I am a meat hunter. To each their own of course.
 
I only keep the meat... when I started out I kept a few spurs and beards, but they just sat in the garage gathering dust, so the went in the garbage and I don't bother anymore... the experience is the thing, and a couple pictures to remember it by... good enough for me... feel the same about big game now, I have given away P&Y and B&C skulls and racks... have a few displayed at a local hunting store, but none in the house.
 
Not sure about the rest of Canada (or US for that matter), but in Quebec the rules are pretty strict.
We are not allowed to remove any feathers or meat before bringing the full bird to a registration station (only gutting is allowed).
Once registered, then you can butcher it. There doesn't seem to be many videos showing how to just eviscerate a turkey, as most hunters probably only keep the breast meat.
I never thought about keeping a trophy (first hunt this upcoming spring), but might consider keeping the fan/feet/beard just to show my friends (not to mount or anything).
I suppose if you cool off the bird quickly, you can avoid gutting it until after the registration, but I would worry the meat could spoil (especially if some BBs got into the body).
 
AdamRoby said:
Not sure about the rest of Canada (or US for that matter), but in Quebec the rules are pretty strict.
We are not allowed to remove any feathers or meat before bringing the full bird to a registration station (only gutting is allowed).
Once registered, then you can butcher it. There doesn't seem to be many videos showing how to just eviscerate a turkey, as most hunters probably only keep the breast meat.
I never thought about keeping a trophy (first hunt this upcoming spring), but might consider keeping the fan/feet/beard just to show my friends (not to mount or anything).
I suppose if you cool off the bird quickly, you can avoid gutting it until after the registration, but I would worry the meat could spoil (especially if some BBs got into the body).
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It used to be the same in Ontario, Turkey was Spring only and only until noon and you had to get it to a registration station as well.

Now you have to fill out a questionnaire online or you lose the right to hunt Turkeys the following year.

JJ
 
84fuegoturbo said:
Anyone have a good video on how to prepare the turkey after harvesting one? Do you guys keep the tail fan/beard and or the feet?
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It’s a pretty simple process, you are welcome to pm me if you would like more details but essentially what I do is this:

Grab the base of the beard and cut the skin around that so that the beard comes off with very little skin attached and no fat. Then I cut the tendon at the knee and separate the joint so that I have both feet with shin bone and spurs. I have a little cup of borax (found in the laundry detergent section of most grocery stores, it’s cheap) and I put the cut end of the beard and both feet in that. Then I cut the fan off and set it aside.

Next I skin and breast the bird. Then I skin the legs, pop the hips, and cut off the thigh/drumsticks. Start to finish it takes less than 5 minutes.

To preserve the fan I use a knife and a pick to scrape all of the meat and fat off before pinning the fan open on a piece of cardboard and sprinkling a couple of tablespoons of borax over the base of the tail.

The legs I season and put in the slow cooker for 8 hours or so at which point the meat falls off the bone and all of the bone-like tendons. That meat is tasty, dark, lean, and very tender - I usually make chili with it and it is amazing. There is a surprising amount of meat on the legs. The breasts I’ve cooked many different ways over the years but my favourite by far is a wild turkey piccata recipe I got from meateater.

It’s nice to see so many first-time turkey hunters in this thread. I wish all of you good luck this spring and look forward to you posting your pics and stories! In case it wasn’t obvious, I love wild turkey hunting! ;)
 
I just patterned 2 20ga guns yesterday. Yet again i was disappointed in carlson turkey choke. It patterns about as tight as the factory mod choke at 30 yards. With 4 different loadings only 1 load was smaller than 30" at 30 yards. And that was 7/8 #6 federal field n game cheap stuff. Luckily my huglu sxs printed decent patterns with its factory full choke. Still have to test my ou and my a400 to see how they do. Need to hit the local gun shop first though for more ammo
 
Picked up a couple calls tonight at princess auto, a slate call and a tube call (not a diaphragm). No idea if I'll like them, but I figured I had to start somewhere, and the price was favourable. If the weather is fair I'll be okay for camo and just buy a seat. If the weather is cold enough to force me to buy heavier camo, my wife will not be impressed, should she find out ...
 
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brybenn said:
I just patterned 2 20ga guns yesterday. Yet again i was disappointed in carlson turkey choke. It patterns about as tight as the factory mod choke at 30 yards. With 4 different loadings only 1 load was smaller than 30" at 30 yards. And that was 7/8 #6 federal field n game cheap stuff. Luckily my huglu sxs printed decent patterns with its factory full choke. Still have to test my ou and my a400 to see how they do. Need to hit the local gun shop first though for more ammo
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I was just looking at 20ga turkey loads for my young lady, some of them are $50+ for 5 shots!

Been a long time since I bought turkey loads, as I cleaned out walmart one time when they had Winchester Elite on for $5/box of 10.
 
blargon said:
I was just looking at 20ga turkey loads for my young lady, some of them are $50+ for 5 shots!

Been a long time since I bought turkey loads, as I cleaned out walmart one time when they had Winchester Elite on for $5/box of 10.
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Only Tungsten (and hevi shots to a lesser extent) based loads will be that expensive. You can still get 5-10 shots of remington premier turkeys for 10-15$. But if you wanna spend top dollars, they have engineered a product to answer your demands ;-)

David
 
huntingfish said:
Only Tungsten (and hevi shots to a lesser extent) based loads will be that expensive. You can still get 5-10 shots of remington premier turkeys for 10-15$. But if you wanna spend top dollars, they have engineered a product to answer your demands ;-)

David
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I got some browning loads for $19/10. The high dollar ones were some Federal gimmick with 3 shot sizes mixed...;)
 
huntingfish said:
If things continue to go the way they are going in Quebec...It sure looks like turkey season is not going to happen for me again this year ;-(

David
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I hear you David. We are a slight bit lighter than you in Montreal at the moment, but that can change on a daily basis.
We still have 4 weeks to go, let's hope things get better before they get worse.
 
You can get some pretty decent turkey loads for much cheaper. Winchester longbeards are pretty popular. When I thought about how many rounds I shoot (while hunting, patterning is a different story), I have no problem spending money on the high dollar loads. 1 shell per bird doesn’t bother me at that price. I still haven’t made the leap to tss. I dont see the point as long as we’re restricted to #7 as the smallest legal shot size. If Ontario ever gets with the times and drops the shot size requirement again, I’d love to shoot #9 or 10 tss loads. For the longest time we were capped at #6 shot and those mag blends were calling my name in BPS.
 
Pattern density kills birds, smaller shot, higher shot count... in general, but pattern you guns to see. More birds are wounded with #4 than are wounded with #7.
 
Was out this morning scouting around, came across about 50 in a group, some nice Toms in there. Now to get the string put back on my traditional bow, and get practicing so I can get one this year with the bow!
 
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