2025 BIG GOBBLER FUN CONTEST - Leaderboard
Post your story, pics and measurements here
This thread will be updated periodically throughout the 5 week season
Good luck to all
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2025 BIG GOBBLER FUN CONTEST - Leaderboard
Post your story, pics and measurements here
This thread will be updated periodically throughout the 5 week season
Good luck to all
May as well get the party started....
Had a great morning for an opener, cool, but not cold, no bugs yet, bit of a breeze, and no rain....got to my spot where I've taken 80% of my birds and didn't fail me this morning. Was set into the woods 515 or so and waited. Heard coyotes in the distance and worried that the hunt may be turning over to a coyote, but they settled down, but not before 3 birds behind me started sounding off....like right behind me....perhaps 50 yards... Only thing that saved me was the patch of evergreens that I was set into that would have blocked their view of me coming in or setting decoys...Either way they were sounding off....this went on for 20-30 minutes, music to my ears, only broken by the odd robin or whip or will announcing the day...
A bit before 6 they started settling down, getting quieter, I heard them fly down to my left and behind me, not sure if they were coming out or staying in the woods. Didn't take long to find out as I could hear Mr. Tom strutting with his spit and drum, not far from me and I can see him through the underbrush....So now the question is, going into the field or follow the treeline...? Watched him until he went into a roll of the field but could still hear him...and he was getting closer....Next thing I see is a half dozen hens moving into the field, but where's the Tom...Out of the corner of my eye I see him, he's in the woods with me moving to the decoys from within the woods....maybe 20 yards out...He gets to 15 and I turn....You can see that he realized "Oh ", let him have it from the old 870. paced off at 12 yards...21.86 lbs. 10 inch beard, 1 1/4 in spurs, Greedy Gobbler left 6 real hens for a chance at another only to get a face full of number 5s...
Only way it could have been better would have been if TurkeyWes had been there, but he'll get out I'm sure...and he can tote the gear in and out for old Dad,
TurkeyJohn
Way to get the party started John! Nice bird and great story.
WTG John really nice tom to start the season
Way to go Johnny Boy congrats
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Almost forgot my tag, had to remove from the leg, old habits die hard
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Congrats John! Set the bar pretty high!
Went out with a friend Saturday morning and it was miserable with high cold wind and drizzle.
We were set up by 5:45 with decoys out and the wind was just howling figuring that it was going to hard to hear any gobbling.
we heard nothing and saw nothing until 8:00 when we saw 2 hens sneak thru a fence row and run thru the field being chased by a coyote. after it was getting colder and windier and we figured the morning was going to be a bust.
So we got up and starting checking surrounding fields for birds and didn't see any birds other than ducks, geese and crows so we headed back to our original spot and decided to sit for another hour before calling it quits.
Well glad we did as we saw 4 toms sneak thru the same fence hole the hens came out and they started strutting and fighting with each other. I made some calls but they were about 200 yards away and with the high winds they couldn't hear my calls so I started with fighting purrs as loud as I could without wearing out my slate call and got the attention of one of the toms.
I kept up with the loud fighting purrs and all four stated to walk slowly towards the dekes and they kept on coming.
As they got closer I said to my friend to not shoulder his gun until they reached the dekes. When they got to about 60 yards I stopped calling and all four went into strut and slowly walked in, I whispered to my friend to take any bird on the left I would take a bird on the so we wouldn't be shooting at the same bird as soon as they split up i said shoot and we doubled with 2 big toms.
My bird 9-1/2" beard, 3/4" spurs and weighed 24.4lbs, his bird 10" beard, 7/8" spurs and 23.6lbs he never entered the contest.Attachment 45020
I was able to post the tag photo with no problem but site won't upload the other pictures I thought this issue was fixed any advice ?
Also please note I notched the wrong month but it is a valid 2025 spring turkey tag.
[IMG]Beard.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]Spurs.jpg[/IMG][IMG]Firearm.jpg[/IMG]
Congrats on the double Articcat and friend. Can’t wait to see the pics
The "problem" with this site it will only upload very small file sizes and storage is very limited so basically you have a few postage size stamps worth of picture space. So save yourself the aggravation and use a third party site. Mine is Flicker. Once you get the hang of it you can upload billboard size pictures to your hearts content.Quote:
Originally Posted by Articcat
Today was my opening day. The early morning was real quiet but around 8 I heard a strong gobble. Perfect I said to my self, game on. Nothing like hearing the first gobble since last year. To make a long story short no gobblers showed but I had 3 big jakes doing a circle around me. I waited to see if that gobbler would come but he never did so I decided to take the biggest Jake. I sent a crossbow bolt and it did a complete pass through. The Jake was doing the flop so i sent one more bolt for good measure. As I got up to go get my bird the other two jakes flew off and the bird that I thought was dead got up and walked to the neighbours property. I had to wait until 11 not to bother the neighbours to early and went to ask permission to go search for it. Unfortunately I could not find the bird after hours of searching. I did find one bolt that was full of feathers and blood. This is the bad part about hunting and I know it happens but it’s still a hard pill to swallow. Sorry for the rant but I had to get this off my chest.
Definitely a hard pill to swallow tom gobble but it happens to all hunters at some point as hard as it is you learn to move on and try again
Attachment 45028
Finally I was able to post the pictures as per Finsfurfeathers advice to upload on Flicker, the first is my bird and the second is my friends
Doubles never get old Arcticat, awesome bird, buddy needs to enter next year for sure,
TurkeyJohn
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Sorry to hear the bad luck Tom gobble, it happens to a lot of us, even shot gunning is no guarantee, frustrating for sure..Quote:
Originally Posted by tom gobble
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Leaderboard
Turkeyjohn - 45
Articcat - 34
Thats a tough one for sure.Quote:
Originally Posted by tom gobble
Unfortunately its the downside of using a crossbow.
Been there, done that. Almost the same situation.
Nothing you can do about it. Just gotta move on.
Attachment 45031Attachment 45032Attachment 45033Attachment 45034Quote:
Originally Posted by Lenny
Well, it was a heck of a morning. How it ended with a bird I don't know.
Late start, birds in the field when we got there, couldn't make it to the blind. Put plan B into action (birds didn't read the script). Made a set up along a fence row, a few calls and had them within 15yrds but they came in along a rock fence row and had a marginal shot to say the least (no go). They saw the truck and gradually made their way back to another field. Made the long trek around to get to the blind and set up (plan C). At that point we thought we were busted but as luck would have it they came back around. Watched them make their way back to the exact spot we set up originally looking for the girl. Made a few calls and they started coming our way but the made their way into the bush. Some light calling and they came out of the bush and headed our way. Then the saw the Jake and hen decoys. Game over. Watched them beat the heck out of the jake decoy before taking him at 14yrds. Won't forget this hunt. 21lbs, 7/8". and 1" spurs and beard is 10". Hope the pics work.
Some nice birds so far. Good luck and be safe out there.
Nice bird geet. Congratulations!Quote:
Originally Posted by Thegeet
Congrats on a nice bird. Regardless of how it happened at least it happened lol
Great bird congrats
Great bird TheGeet, doesn’t matter how, but you got him in the end
TJ
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Gotta get my pics moved over and posted. Fastest hunt ever - neighbour calls Saturday afternoon and says "they're out there again in my freshly planted peas and oats field", so I load up my jakefan strutter and a breeding hen, drive over, and sure enough, there are 4 birds. Wide open walk across the field, the birds scram, and I'm thinking that this is going to be a bust, but trying to be a good neighbour.....set up the decoys, settled into the fencerow about 5:10pm, wait for 5 mins, called a few times, nothing. Decided to just sit still and wait for a bit, and then I heard something. Or thought I did. Then heard it again - wait, I recognize that sound, its like a strutting tom "spitting", and sure enough, coming in from the right is a silent tom, in full strut. Came right in, shot him at about 17yards, big bird. Hunt lasted at most 30 minutes, and he never gobbled once, just dragged his wing tips along. 12.5" beard, 1.25" spurs, 25.5 lbs.
Holy Lenny, that’s a monster bird for sure, some kind of mutant? Sure it’s not an ostrich? Pretty cool and congratulations!!! Can’t wait to see pics..
TurkeyJohn
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Attachment 45039
Attachment 45040
Attachment 45041
Attachment 45042
Season got off to a good start this weekend. My oldest son and I went for a drive / scout Friday night and saw this Tom just across the road from the farm I hunt. I set up on my side the following morning first thing about 300 yards from where this bird roosted. He gobbled early and often on the roost. I let out a few calls early as did a couple other hens near where I was set up so I had a good feeling he would cross the road and come my direction. He took his time closing the distance and circled me at about 60 yards but once we saw my half strut jake decoy he came right in to 20 yards.
Beard = 8"
Spurs = 1.25"
Shotgun
19 Pounds
Another great bird CD94…Quote:
Originally Posted by CD94
Love it when they follow the rules, which isn’t often..
TJ
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Decided that the Tom I saw yesterday with his 5 hens needed some time to do his business. So today I got set up at 1045. Made a couple calls and got gobbling to my left and right. then all quiet, I made a few calls every 20min to 30min. at 1240 I heard loud gobble to my left. Made a couple soft calls, 10min later I see this Tom coming from my left at about 100yds. At 30yds I pulled the trigger the #6 3" longbeard took him down, he never even moved.
22.5Lb
10.125 beard X 2 = 20.25
1.125 spurs X 20 = 22.5
so total 42.75
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Big bird Lenny congrats.
Nice bird Sammgb congratsQuote:
Originally Posted by sabmgb
https://imgur.com/a/anKvjOK
1 Lenny 50 2 TurkeyJohn 45 3 sabmgb 42.75 4 CD94 41 5 TheGeet 40 6 Articcat 34
https://imgur.com/a/anKvjOKhttps://imgur.com/a/anKvjOK
https://imgur.com/a/anKvjOK
And my pics
https://imgur.com/a/anKvjOK
Great bird Lenny. Congrats!Quote:
Originally Posted by Lenny
Quote:
Originally Posted by sabmgb
congratulations!
Lenny that is an amazing bird, will take an extremely big bird to beat that. Congrats
well I'm tagged out, 1st time in a long time I have gotten a second bird, and probably the soonest ever. Rained all the to the way to the bush, so sat in truck until it quit about 535. So by the time I unloaded quad and got to spot was 15 minutes into shooting time. There was gobbling from that side of bush but to the south. Gobbling went on for almost and hour than all quiet. So I was reading a book looking up every half page. Looked up and to my left and front in the field there is a hen than another hen. Put book down real slow get gun up and ready, than jake following the hens. A bit of a bush in front of me so going to let jake walk out and take it, but decided to wait as there were still birds coming in single file. Then see a long beard so hold off for him. Just as he was stepping out from behind the bush a hen following him sees me and starts the putt putt and takes off. They all turn and run, I was still on the Tom and could see him through the small bush so let him have it. 25yds out.
21Lb
10..25 beard x 2 = 20.5
0.75 spur x 20 = 15
Total score = 35.5
just before I pulled that him second from last
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Forgot tag
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Nice way to finish your season. Congrats nice bird sabmgb