Official 2019 Wild Turkey Thread

hoytcanon said:
Yeah, bowhunting requires good timing... my son and I have taken birds with compounds, but I started with a homemade longbow (selfbow), and took my first bear with it exactly 40 years ago this month... progressed through better longbows, recurves, a few custom takedown recurves, shot a Jim Brackenbury Bubinga/Cocobolo TD recurve for many years... and then switched to compounds... I keep feeling the itch to go back to traditional gear, but always put it off. Anyway... good luck arrowing your bird.
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You really don't look old enough to have shot your first bear 40 years ago. Whatever you're doing, keep doing it.
 
dilly said:
Don’t grab them by the tail, unless you want a bouquet of tail feathers in your hand a second later! That poor bird put up a heck of a fight.
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My son "and I" (edit) have a long standing joke about "Robo-Bird"... the Tom that took three 3.5" shells, two stab wounds, two kicks to the head and finally a rear naked choke, before expiring... good times! ;)
 
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53Izzy744 said:
Nice pics guys, way to go!

Im seeing a lot of tightwad chokes, they seem to get the job done! (I got mine with one in 2017, hopefully another this year!)
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I understand that the Indian Creek chokes are the gold standard but for $40 I think the Primos tube is an excellent bang-for-buck. Here's a 40yd pattern of Longbeard #5s, white sheet is standard 8.5"X11".

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So opening day I tagged my first ever Tom but it was not without its challenge and involved a 500 yard chase and a second finishing shot. Today's hunt was different but certainly interesting. I had an unexpected cancellation at work that freed up my afternoon at about 230 pm. I had seen tons of turkeys while out driving around today so thought I have just enough time to race home, buy a second tag, grab some gear and head out to a friend's farm. This time I brought a pop-up as the weather was wet and foggy. My plan was to go back to my first set up spot and retrieve my decoys which i had stashed in the bush. Walking over in the fog I heard gobbling about 100 yards from my old set up and low and behold i could just make out 3 toms about 20 yards from the tree I had set up against for the opener. No way I could get any closer without getting busted and no way to get my decoys without getting busted. So I headed about 400 yards away across the field and set up the pop-up against the bush line with no decoys and started aggressively calling. The fog more less lifted about 5 minutes after I set up and the toms started coming in like they were on a line gobbling non-stop.

The view from the blind - toms came from the hardwood treeline on the horizon:

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The toms hung up at about 70 yards clearly not liking the fact that there was no hen(s) in sight. They than circled, hopped the fence and headed into the bush behind me. I changed my calling to a much softer more subtle cluck and they than headed back to the fence about 15 yards from the blind. The lead bird hopped over and I put the bead on his head and pulled the trigger using the side window of the blind. I only had the window slightly cracked with just enough open to point the gun and see.

The view of window and the opening i shot through:

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The tom went down immediately and did the funky dance for 4 or 5 seconds and than still - no second shot required this time.

The bird:

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Shotgun used was a 20 gauge O/U with factory full on top and modified on the bottom. Shells were 3 inch Rem 1.25 oz. #6 Nitro Mags.

Spurs:

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I want to hunt turkeys and you guys aren't helping that itch. Hopefully the current provincial government can see their way to at least a limited draw hunt and hopefully some trap and transfer initiatives.
 
Congrats to everyone. I can't wait to get out this weekend. In fact I am heading out the next 3 weekends. Seeing all these pictures is making me itch too. Hoping to fill my first tag.
 
yorgi said:
Well done Sir, nice bird! Gotta love those little popups, they do a great job concealing you.
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I hunted out of a pop up this year and I was grateful I did as the weather was brutal and the pop up shielded me from the elements. I set the blind up a week before the opener and it didnt seem to bother the birds one bit.
 
Good job tagging out, very nice bird.

I have to admit that I am getting to where I love to hunt from a blind. It cut's the wind and the rain and as the ageing process really kicks in it becomes a necessity .
Only down side is having to leave them if you need to go "mobile" on a bird, doing a run and gun and dragging them along is out of the question.
 
I hate using pop-up blinds, they feel too confining and I don't feel as connected to the process... but I have a couple that I bought for my father to use when deer hunting... and will definitely bring one next year, it would have extended my hunting time during the heavy rain and snow... my biggest concern is that I do 99% of my calling with slate pots and they cannot get even a single drop.of water on them or you are done until you dry, air and recondition the surface... now, I do those functions with my hands inside my pack which I lay on my lap, but it is a pain to do it this way... would be much easier in the blind.
 
My first bird ever. Opening morning 25 minutes into the season. Tbh i did get kinda lucky, i didn't scout as much as i should have but opening morning came and i set up near / under a roost from years past (sometimes its used, other days its vacant). at about 5:30 a gobbler started sounding off to my left, probably 50 yards. flew down with 3 hens and once i saw him strut i knew he was done for. he had missing tail feathers which clued me into him being a fighter and dominant. he strutted for a bit until he caught sight of my jake decoy eyeing up my single hen. He didn't exactly run over but came in on a string to lay a beatin on the jake. at 10 yds that was all she wrote. couldn't be more excited for my first bird. 1.375" spurs and 10.5" beard.

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Congrats, "park.city"... nice bird. Sometimes it comes easily... enjoy it when it happens that way, there is always the pain of next year! ;)
 
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