I am not a turkey hunter but that is due to distance from turkeys not that it doesn't interest me.
But it bothers me when a hunter injures a bird that gets away, which can and does happen, and calls the experience "AWESOME".
2022 Wild Turkey Thread
- Thread starter 1963beretta
- Start date
I am not a turkey hunter but that is due to distance from turkeys not that it doesn't interest me.
But it bothers me when a hunter injures a bird that gets away, which can and does happen, and calls the experience "AWESOME".
I guess I should be in mourning then? And all the excitement and getting out for the first time ever is discounted? I should have never posted in the first place, sheesh...
Runningfool
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- SW Ontario
Waterfowler isn't wrong imo but I think you may be taking his comment a little too personally.
Your experienced buddy saying "he needed 2 good shots to put one down" and that it's quite common tells me he is in the habit of taking marginal shots. And I think if we are being perfectly honest, your shot was marginal too - turkeys are not hard to kill. They are, however, hard to get close enough and in a good position to kill. So without putting words in Waterfowler's mouth, I think what he was trying to say about the birds deserving more respect is that we owe it to whatever we hunt to know the limits.
You patterned your gun and that is a big part of knowing you limits wrt turkey hunting. But also bird distance, head position, aiming point, etc. One thing you might want to consider is instead of placing your bead on its head, aim for where the neck meets the feathers...its easier than most people think to shoot over or under a turkey's head, especially when he's moving and heading out of the field.
If you got a bird and are looking for recipe ideas, try this one. Just made it for dinner. Copycat Chick-fil-A. The heart was the absolute best part. Although there was a 15g/cc pellet right in the middle of the heart, ouch.
https://www.themeateater.com/cook/recipes/copycat-chik-fil-a-turkey-nuggets-recipe
https://www.themeateater.com/cook/recipes/copycat-chik-fil-a-turkey-nuggets-recipe
Good point of where to aim. I tell people the base of the neck or where the red meets the black.
I think most turkeys are missed because people tend to lift their face up off the stock of the gun as they shoot, causing them to shoot high.
If you got a bird and are looking for recipe ideas, try this one. Just made it for dinner. Copycat Chick-fil-A. The heart was the absolute best part. Although there was a 15g/cc pellet right in the middle of the heart, ouch.
https://www.themeateater.com/cook/recipes/copycat-chik-fil-a-turkey-nuggets-recipe
Looks great. I've got a buddy doing nuggets in an air fryer and says they are awesome.
I normally just slice the breast in thinnish strips and pan fry them in Fish Crisp.
No disrespect intended by anyone where I don't think.
Just some guys that may have more experience, trying to help you out.
I patterned my shotgun and was really not happy with the overall results. I then got a better choke, and decided to reduce the distance I am willing to hunt, at least until I can prove to myself that I am getting better at it. Right now, I consider a valid target to be within 20 yards (if not closer). That may seem really close to some of the experienced members, but I would rather be sure of my shot, than miss and injure the bird and have it get away. Either way it dies, but at least it's death means something and winds up on my plate. I've have never had a successful hunt, so take this with a grain of salt, but I've heard its best to keep a mouth call ready and give a quick chirp right as you are about to shoot. It apparently makes the bird raise its head high to see what made the noise, giving you more of a target and better chance to hit.
That's exactly what I said, I patterned the gun at 20 yards to be able to get a plate sized grouping. I originally tried further away but the shot was all over the place. I honestly don't see how anyone hits the vitals at 70 yards away. With my combo, I would be lucky to get one pellet on target at that range. The targets I get say you should count at least 9 pellets in the vital areas (brain, spinal column, etc). I bought a quality turkey choke and brought the target closer and closer until I liked the pattern and was getting consistently a dozen pellets in the vital areas.
That's also why I said I need more practice. I've actually moved on to crossbow hunting this year because I can hit a 3 inch group at 50 yards with my crossbow, much better accuracy than the shotgun. Could also be my cheapo Turkish shotgun, or choice of shot itself... but ammo choice is limited now so can't practice with different kinds. The crossbow is scary accurate, at that same 20 yards I could likely hit a fly on my target without much effort.
Man. Tough season so far. Mostly quiet and no birds or gobbles in the different spots I go to. Just the other day lots of gobbling and then I see a lone jake cruise slowly by at about 70 yards. I had a hen and jake decoy setup. The jake didn’t show any interest. And didn’t respond to calls. I tried just a small set of yelps but he seemed to come in close enough for a look and then cruised on away.
I’m wondering if my jake decoy just turned the lone guy off and he didn’t want to close or something else in the setup just weirded him out.
So only one day out with any signs of life so far out of a whole bunch of mornings. Hopefully these next weeks will be more lively…
I’m wondering if my jake decoy just turned the lone guy off and he didn’t want to close or something else in the setup just weirded him out.
So only one day out with any signs of life so far out of a whole bunch of mornings. Hopefully these next weeks will be more lively…
1963beretta
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Vaughan, Ontario
Sometimes a decoy will turn away a Jake or a non dominant Tom. I found that using a strutting motion decoy works really well bringing in dominant birds early in the season, but is less effective as the season progresses.
If in doubt, better to use just hen decoys or paired with small non intimidating Jake decoys like the Funky Chicken.
I also found that many Jake decoys come with fairly long beards. I’ve cut those beards on my decoys in half.
If in doubt, better to use just hen decoys or paired with small non intimidating Jake decoys like the Funky Chicken.
I also found that many Jake decoys come with fairly long beards. I’ve cut those beards on my decoys in half.
Runningfool
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- SW Ontario
You don't even need a mouth call for this. Just make a putt putt putt sound and they will stick their head up, neck out, nice and pretty. This technique is also useful when sitting with another hunter and two birds show up....it can be hard to time the shots so I tell my partner before hand that if two birds come in, I will putt, and when they stick their heads up it's wham-o time.
Thanks 1963beretta.
I don’t have much experience at all and usually at sunrise I’ll do some soft calling but stay mostly quiet as birds fly down. Enough that birds will know my hen is there and then wait for them to mosey on over. Having the jake cruise in and stay far and cruise out was interesting. That Tom that was gobbling constantly seemed to just be hung up somewhere prob 400 yards or more out maybe.
The fun in learning and figuring out the hunt
I don’t have much experience at all and usually at sunrise I’ll do some soft calling but stay mostly quiet as birds fly down. Enough that birds will know my hen is there and then wait for them to mosey on over. Having the jake cruise in and stay far and cruise out was interesting. That Tom that was gobbling constantly seemed to just be hung up somewhere prob 400 yards or more out maybe.
The fun in learning and figuring out the hunt
Ahsan Ahmed
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Absolutely! That was apparently the case with two gobblers last week.
Aprox 90 mins of back and forth calling, the two birds finally emerge trailing after three hens. The hens came over, inspected our "hide" multiple times (ghillie suits affair, sitting in open), couple times from as close as a mere 6ft distance and continued to feed inside a 10 yard perimeter without any alarm.
The toms, however, appeared to lose interest the moment they sighted the decoys (jake + feeding hen), casually turned around, moved to a spot about 50 yards away in clear view and remained there playing with couple other hens till two coyotes decided show up and interrupt their game.
While trying to sit down in the dark around 5AM, a thin branch sprung back hitting me squarely in the right eye - for three hrs, like an idiot, I sat thru the excruciating pain, constant deluge pouring out of the affected eye and right nostril, in the hope of those birds sauntering into range just once. Never happened!
We couldn't move even a finger since the three hens continued to feed extremely close without any sign of concern. Every muscle and nerve in my body was screaming "#######, leave everything and walk away!" The incident eventually involved a visit to the ER.
Ahsan Ahmed
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
I feel the comments were neither discouraging nor directed as any form of criticism. Think of those as experience filled insights so as to "replenish" the absence of such as it was in your scenario. I'm sure you will develop that overtime.
From an ethical perspective, it is equally important though to ensure clean kills as far as possible. That judgement call is almost always dependent on the individual dropping the hammer ....
1963beretta
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Vaughan, Ontario
Absolutely! That was apparently the case with two gobblers last week.
Aprox 90 mins of back and forth calling, the two birds finally emerge trailing after three hens. The hens came over, inspected our "hide" multiple times (ghillie suits affair, sitting in open), couple times from as close as a mere 6ft distance and continued to feed inside a 10 yard perimeter without any alarm.
The toms, however, appeared to lose interest the moment they sighted the decoys (jake + feeding hen), casually turned around, moved to a spot about 50 yards away in clear view and remained there playing with couple other hens till two coyotes decided show up and interrupt their game.
While trying to sit down in the dark around 5AM, a thin branch sprung back hitting me squarely in the right eye - for three hrs, like an idiot, I sat thru the excruciating pain, constant deluge pouring out of the affected eye and right nostril, in the hope of those birds sauntering into range just once. Never happened!
The incident eventually involved a visit to the ER.
Did you scratch your eye? That would be a royal pain in the ass. Hope its ok nonetheless
That is scary. I remember when I was younger I was cleaning the carburetor on my motorcycle and sprayed into one of the jets only for it to come back out and got me straight in both eyes.
I had some training with chemicals, and immediately went into the shower and rinsed my eyes for as long as I could tolerate (20 minutes seems to be the recommendation). I should have immediately gone to the ER after rinsing, but I was alone, scared, and almost completely blind (my vision was extremely blurry for about 2 hours. It slowly came back, and when I looked in a mirror they were blood red. Pretty stupid of me not to go get checked out. Although delayed, you were wise to go check them out.
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