OOD 2020 BIG GOBBLER FUN CONTEST - Leaderboard - Post Scores & Pics here

I'll wait 24 hours for any late reports to come in from today. What an amazing day to be in the turkey woods. I hit it hard this weekend trying to get my son his first bird, and fill my second tag if possible, but it wasn't in the cards. Six different locations, called in hens at 5 of them, and a pair of sandhill cranes at the other - man can they make a ton of noise! The one hen came in angry, and wouldn't shut up, until she saw my breeder hen sitting there quietly. She purred and clucked, and fanned, and strutted (I have never seen a hen fluff up and fan before), and circled and circled that decoy. I'm sitting tight at about 12 yards, desparately trying to figure out if this is a hen - brown feathers, check, no beard, check, small fan with longer main feathers - wait, is it a really young jake maybe, nope, no colour in the head, neck or waddles. At one point I thought the hen was going to mount my decoy, but she just seemed lonely and curious. This went on for 15 or 20 minutes, the she went on her way. What I didn't hear, see or shoot this weekend was a gobbler. Its like they all disappeared where I hunt.....there is always next year.

Some nice birds entered since I last updated the leader board, and some CSI detective work on going with my scoring committee. We have a forensic team scouring the location of onelessarrow's shot, and will then match the missing beard fibres using DNA matching to confirm they came from his bird. Going to be an exciting finish, stay tuned!

First, what a great, weird, cold, hot, up and down season! We will all remember our "pandemic" hunts in 2020. Congratulations to all who entered a bird, or simply got out. This is supposed to be a fun contest, and I appreciate all the entries and positive comments, even to those who didn't enter but shot great birds.

This year we have a battle of the multi-beards. After detailed review of the facts and circumstances, I am accepting onelessarrow's poorly photographed and unposted, but measured at the kill site with a tape measure as 11-12 inches, curly and disintegrating beard as 11", which puts him out front with a score of 109 with 3/4" spurs and a total of four beards.

Top 10:
1 onelessarrow - 109
2 tom gobble - 105.375
3 CD94 - 102.5
4 finsfurfeathers - 101.25
5 finsfurfeathers - 101.25
6 wally243 - 97.5
7 jw8 - 95
8 fratri - 95
9 Jmatthews - 92.5
10 eddy22 - 91.875

Two Bird Totals:
1 finsfurfeathers - 202.5
2 onelessarrow - 201.5
3 tom gobble - 177.25
4 parkcity - 163.125
5 Dilly - 147.5
6 Turkeyjohn - 100
7 TurkeyWes - 55

Longest Beard - Fratri - 11"
Longest Spurs - finsfurfeathers - 1-5/16"
Success Rate - 20 of 45 hunters got at least 1 bird = 44%

Last year we had 42 contestants, 16 entered at least 1 bird, and 5 entered 2 birds.
This year we had 45 contestants, 20 entered at least 1 bird, and 7 entered 2 birds.

I think every entry this year was taken by shotgun. Congratulations to our winners onelessarrow and finsfurfeathers. Honourable mention goes to tom gobble who lead this contest for most of the season, Fratri with the longest beard, and to parkcity for a very successful second season, as well as the father son turkey killing team of Turkey John and Wes - nice to see the young guy out so much, and filling both tags.

I will be in touch with the winners, and will post the random draw winners by the weekend. Thanks to all of this years participants, and also to our generous sponsors:

1. Custom hand crafted Box Call - donated by OOD member "Dilly"

2. GobbleStalker Calls - call & price pack - http://www.gobblestalker.com

3. Bee Saavy Honey - https://www.beesavvy.ca/product-page...and-lotion-barFarm Hand Lotion Bars - https://www.beesavvy.ca/product-page...and-lotion-bardonated by OOD member Oddmott - https://www.beesavvy.ca/product-page

4. Stoneboat Farm & Sugarbush - fresh 2020 Maple Syrup


Only 46 weeks till next spring's turkey season!

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Originally Posted by Lenny

Only 46 weeks till next spring's turkey season!

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My goodness Lenny how did you forget we have a Fabulous Fall Turkey Hunting season from Oct 13-25th for Shotgun or a the full month of Oct if you have a Bow.

It's only about 17 weeks till you can get out again and enjoy some great Fall mornings in the bush hunting Turkey !!

Great to see so many entries this year and some incredible birds (and stories) taken....I agree with MikePal, we do our local fall hunt here and not the same kind of hunt but it does help scratch the itch until next spring....Congratulations to everybody that entered....Was a blast to get out with TurkeyWes regularly....

Thanks Lenny for doing the leg work on this derby....great to have a spot to share our successes...

TurkeyJohn

Fun season and thanks Lenny for running the contest. Congrats to the winners I was bitting my teeth to the end.

Let me just start off by saying that I very much appreciate the generous acknowledgment.
It was not my intention to skirt any rule or upset anyone that this judgement violates a requirement in the rules or even to simply create a scenario for a judgement for that matter.
My account of the events is the best of my ability to recall and the decisions I made with the bird were a direct result of the conditions I was under.
As happy as I was to tag out, I had crawled the last 20 yards to my blind through a poison ivy patch that had grown a foot since the last time I was there.
I’ve been battling poison ivy rashes all month and immediately wanted to scrub off in the shower once the bird was down.
It was pouring rain, thermacell was forgotten in the truck and a wife texting that I shouldn’t be out there with that black of a sky.

In hindsight, I should’ve taken a photo right where it fell. I just wanted to get out of there.
It was my first time seeing a multi bearded bird, also the first time ever hitting the beard with a shot. I’ve never seen a beard disintegrate so easily just handling it.
Again, sorry for the quality of the photo’s, I tried to do the best I could.
It's a beautiful bird.

I’m not sure if it’s just me or others have the same fate, but my hunting career has always included no shortage of “WTH just happened moments”, I could write a book.
So as upsetting as it was at the time the beard pulled off and as often as thing happen to me, I look at it as, it’s just my luck and I move on.


Lastly, I’d like to thank Lenny for putting the contest on and keeping the thread entertaining through his sense of humor and his knowledge of turkey hunting, some great tips were use and appreciated.
Congratulations to those who were successful notching a tag.
Cheers

I'm happy for you Onelessarrow on a great Tom. Things happen sometimes that you don't want to happen. I'm sure the beard would of been crazy if it was in tact and a nice trophy. Its a fun contest and who cares but when I ran the contest I had a lot of people questioning pics sent in from forum members during the contest questioning authenticity and I couldn't take it anymore, hence why I don't do it anymore. I believe you that the bird was what you say and congrats for winning the contest but with no pics of the measurement I think Lenny has to change the wording in the contest rules LOL

Congratulations to Onelessarrow and to Tomgobble and all who entered.
It definitely was a tough season in my area not for the lack birds as there were more than normal but for the tough time in getting birds to respond and come in to calls.
And kudos to Lenny for another great year running the contest.

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Originally Posted by Articcat

Congratulations to Onelessarrow and to Tomgobble and all who entered.
It definitely was a tough season in my area not for the lack birds as there were more than normal but for the tough time in getting birds to respond and come in to calls.
And kudos to Lenny for another great year running the contest.

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Thanks articcat, this year seemed to be the never ending henned up gobbler situations making it real tough to get them to come to you. This is what’s it’s all about and makes me excited for next season

Thanks Lenny and congrats to all those that contributed stories and experiences to enrich all of our days. I'm sure no one joined this contest for the sole goal of "winning" it so a special thanks to a couple of members who submitted threads even though not registered in the contest. Thanks to taketheshot for some excellent video and cheeta for taking us along on her hunts. Either one would have my vote for some kind of OOD spirit reward.