This is the thread to post your pics and stories for all birds entered in this year's contest.
This is the thread to post your pics and stories for all birds entered in this year's contest.
Great morning with my son on his first hunt with his own gun and tag. First farm was silent, so we watched a deer graze through, and jumped in the truck to hit another spot that often holds birds, but hadn't been scouted yet this year. Silent on the way in again, I think they were cold and quiet this morning. Got the hen and jake deeks out, sat down and got 2 immediate gobblers responding from within 150 yards inside the hardwoods. Worked them in with some opening day rusty calling, and my son got schooled by these 2 longbeards at 12 yards - a valuable lesson on not moving when the birds can see you. Both birds went from gobbling and strutting, to deflated fast escape waddle while alarm putting. Harder than a video game!
They didn't go far, and the commotion pulled in a hen who joined my decoys, and my extended hen fight with her pulled them back to us, until she got wise, flew up into a tree, and scolded those toms out of shotgun range. We watched them retreat a second time, and lost them to their favorite strut zone in the field. Just when we thought it was over, out of nowhere behind us was a much louder, closer, deeper, longer single gobble. I turn to see how we can adjust, and two toms are working their way right to us. No time to get the young lad re-positioned, took the shot at the closest bird, about 8 yards, and got my first turkey with a 20ga.[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/tE9DOpH.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/JyxFma2.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/UlvZopX.jpg?1[/IMG]
Not an old tom, but a fun start to the season and a beauty of a morning with my son, who is now hooked....
Rem 870 20 ga
Hornady Heavy Magnum 3" #5
Primos Jelly Head Turkey choke
GobbleStalker slate pot call & hat!
Beard - 9-5/16"
Spur - 3/4"
Score - 76.5625
I'll add my meager entry for the sake of being on the leaderboard for a while.
Story is posted in the Wild Turkey forum.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...acfb761686.jpg
Beard length, 3.5" or 17.5 points.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...d7d28e0f08.jpg
Longest spur, 1/4" or 10 points.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...a8cf61d28b.jpg
Total of 27.5 points!
Hopefully I can used tag #2 on the boss Tom I saw before leaving this morning!
As a side note, I received some maple syrup and the beeswax bar last year in the draw, both fantastic!
Thanks again Lenny and Oddmott
Sent from my SM-A520W using Tapatalk
well it all worked out for me this morning! two birds gobbling on the roost just across the field from me. Once they flew down they went silent for what felt like forever until a hen started yelping in the field behind me with the gobblers in toe, some aggressive calling a a bit of luck got them turned around and running right into my setup.
6:30am
Rem 870 12 Ga
Winchester longbeard xr
10" beard
1-1/8 spurs
total of 95
Our Leaderboard after the first day, only 3 birds entered so far:
1 jw8 - 94
2 Lenny - 76.56
3 GW11 - 37.5
Just a reminder guys that I added a new rule this year. I am asking that all birds be entered the day they are taken (next day allowed if you ask nicely, except for the last day of course!). This allows me to update the leaderboard, and makes for a more interesting season as it develops, and an exciting finish. Don't wait till the last day to post the bird(s) you got in the second week.
Hey Guys,
Great morning yesterday for the opener...The boy and I both out at a likely spot well before first light....On cue our target starts gobbling, which starts up about 7-8 birds in the neighbourhood, never had them gobble so well on the opener...Talk about getting your blood rolling...So we're sitting waiting for any birds to enter the field...I begin hearing this boom, buzz....over and over again...I asked Wes if his headphones were working ok...they do sometimes short when the batteries are going....As I'm asking him, I look past him through some brush and I see a nice Tom all poofed up working his way to the decoys in front of us....I asked Wes if he could shoot and with the way he was sitting in the chair, he didn't think he could so he asked me to go ahead....Lined up old Mr. Tom and the season is christened with our first bird....
Meanwhile, the birds in the neighbourhood only took a breather right after the shot, but soon we back at it....Not wanting to miss out on any opportunity for Wes, I hustled out as well as a 50+ insurance guy could move, retrieved the bird and settled back into our spot....
Not 20 minutes go by and another Tom is coming in the exact same way to the decoys, we had moved Wes' chair so he was in a better position to shoot...I asked him if he was ready, he said yeah, and let the shot fly........trouble was the shot was high, he tried a second and a third, but Tom 2 just flew away.... I asked Wes what happened, he confessed his head wasn't on the stock and he only lined up the end red sight and not the rear green ones on the waddles and he shot over....Crap...But he took it like a Champ, didn't blame the gun, the shell, the weather or me, it was all on him....
We waited for things to settle down in the woods, the birds had gone quiet, we toted our gear to the Jeep and then went to check another spot and wouldn't you know, 4 hens and a Tom, try as we might, the Tom wouldn't leave the girls, one finally broke off and Mr. Tom left with her, the hens kept moving to us and finally went by Wes at 5 yards, I had moved back to try to call the Tom over....
He was happy with the fact he was able to have them get that close and he said he was checking for beards.....
We went back to the Jeep, a little bittersweet at the missed opportunity to double on an opener, but it means he gets to play another day and boy did Wes take a big step in his career as a hunter, and old Dad couldn't be prouder.....
Stats, 20.5 lbs, 8.5 inch beard, longest spurs 3/4 to 5/8 inch...I'll let Lenny call it.....took him with Remington 870 and Kent Diamond Turkey load...
Thanks Guys and off to a great start for us....
TurkeyJohn
Attachment 40060Attachment 40061Attachment 40062Attachment 40063Attachment 40064
Nice birds guys
Here we go...
Perfect turkey hunting morning today. No wind, no bugs...beautiful sunrise. I saw a nice tom on opening day walk by out of range and later checked out a little travel path that looked promising, so I set up there today. lots of birds gobbling in the distance at first light but nothing close. Saw a coyote cruising the field and shortly after a hen walked through clearly heading somewhere with a purpose. Things went quiet for a while and I was considering a move, when a lone gobble close behind sounded off. I turned to see a tom slowly picking his way along the field edge behind me. He spit and drummed so I made my move and got the gun up. When he stopped and periscoped to see where the noise was coming from, I bowled him over at about 15 yds.
https://i.imgur.com/WJhtFM9.jpg
21 lbs even. Clean head shot.
https://i.imgur.com/YWH08dj.jpg
Longest strand was at 9 1/2"
https://i.imgur.com/4T7W5kT.jpg
Longest spur came in at 1"
https://i.imgur.com/7V1j8N8.jpg
My new pup Eisen got to meet his first turkey (that out weighed him by three lbs)
Beretta Extrema 1 with a Pure Gold turkey choke and HiViz "TriViz" sights
Winchester "double X" 3.5" shells on #5
Homemade boxcall and Primos mouthcall
Score TBD
Nice birds TurkeyJohn and Dilly!
Updated Leaderboard:
1 jw8 - 94
2 Dilly - 87.5
3 Lenny - 76.56
4 TurkeyJohn - 72.5
5 GW11 - 37.5
Hey Lenny, not that it matters, but I believe you gave me 10 extra points.
Sent from my SM-A520W using Tapatalk
Had a great morning, belly crawled for 80 yards and I got rewarded with this nice 3 bearded Tom. Story will be posted in the regular turkey section.
23 pounds
9 7/8 beard
1 inch spurs
Two extra beards bonus
Total score if I did it right is 105.37
Won't win but nice average bird this afternoon. 8 3/4 beard with 7/8 spurs.
Total score:
Spurs - 35
Beard - 43.75
Total: 78.75
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...4505b643_k.jpg
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...b4ac6100_k.jpg
Forgot to take a picture of the firearm in the field. Used my 20 gauge o/u. Picture taken earlier when i originally purchased it:
https://live.staticflickr.com/4484/2...7c044386_b.jpg
Nice to see another entry taken with a 20 ga! Way to go Species, I also love the over/under.
TomGobble, that is a really cool beard, and the score will be hard to beat.
LEADERBOARD:
1 TomGobble - 105.375
2 jw8 - 95
3 Dilly - 87.5
4 Species8472 - 78.75
5 Lenny - 76.56
6 TurkeyJohn - 72.5
7 GW11 - 37.5
Awesome bird Dan!!Quote:
Originally Posted by tom gobble
Congrats, nice score, extra beards plus that size...
John
Pretty cool morning to say the least. Got into the turkey woods before dawn and all set in our spot....On cue, at dawn the woods erupt with gobbling all around us..and by around us, I'm saying 500-1000 yards away, just in all directions...as the morning goes on, the gobbling lessens and fades a bit as the gobblers hit the ground and chase their hens....We're still hearing some along a ridge that runs along the field we were set in and it's more than one...Wes and I discuss the options of whether we would double on Jakes if given the chance and we agreed that it's so rare, that we wouldn't pass it up...As if on cue, 3 pop out of the woods across the field from us...they just stand there gawking....after a few minutes I give them a couple of clucks and yelps and they start moving towards us in little circles...this goes on for a bit, then they start moving back to the woods...Wes suggests to give them the gobble tube so I give it a shake. Well that got their attention, they start moving again towards us, strutting and cutting each other off, at this point we see that they have almost full fans, but hardly any beards....We decide they're Super Jakes, maybe even the 3 that we fooled around with last year...anyway, as they're moving closer, Wes picks the one on the left, I take the middle one, they keep weaving and bobbing, changing position, like a little shell game with feathers...As they close in, I say to Wes, yours is now the lead bird, I'll take the one behind him....We start the countdown, 3, 2, 1, Boom and we have a legitimate double, not monsters, mine 15 and Wes 14 lbs, mine 3 1/2 inch beard, Wes' 3 inch, both legal and will be enjoyed at the dinner table..don't like to shoot Jakes, but a double with my boy, I'll shoot a Jake then....
Not monsters, but a double with the boy any time....
Attachment 40102Attachment 40103Attachment 40104Attachment 40105 Wes' bird, still has a tag
Attachment 40106 my beard, spurs on 1/4 nubs, won't let me upload pics, not going to the leaderboard so I think it's ok to not include...
Bigger deal is our legitimate double....
Have fun folks, all tagged out here, but will still work on getting the boy a big one....
TurkeyJohn
Nice double, and with your son, that's awesome.
TurkeyJohn is first to tag out with 2 birds, 4 days into the season, not bad!
Nice birds John, its amazing to share these memories with your son congrats.Quote:
Originally Posted by Turkeyjohn
Some great hunts to read about here fellas. Keep it up.
Sent from my SM-G960W using Tapatalk
LEADERBOARD:
1 tom gobble - 105.375
2 jw8 - 95
3 Dilly - 87.5
4 Species8472 - 78.75
5 Lenny - 76.56
6 TurkeyJohn - 72.5
7 GW11 - 37.5
8 Turkeywesley - 27.5
Two Bird Totals:
1 Turkeyjohn - 100
Well got it done today. Was set up around 5:45 about a hundred yards from two Toms. I had a hen about a hundred yards behind me that was doing all the calling for me the two Tom's flew down and it was all over by 610.
Spurs; 1 inch
Beard : 10 3/8
Shotgun
Score 91.85https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...b8c288100d.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...087df8419e.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...ba3d3be7c2.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...e39fceecc1.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...17586a45e7.jpg
Sent from my LM-G710 using Tapatalk
Nice bird eddy22 congrats
Thanks
Sent from my LM-G710 using Tapatalk
After the second weekend of the season, only 1 new entry - congrats eddy22! Also interesting that only Turkeyjohn has filled both tags, and tom gobble is still well in the lead......
LEADERBOARD:
1 tom gobble - 105.375
2 jw8 - 95
3 eddy22 - 91.875
4 Dilly - 87.5
5 Species8472 - 78.75
6 Lenny - 76.56
7 TurkeyJohn - 72.5
8 GW11 - 37.5
9 TurkeyWesley - 27.5
Two Bird Totals:
1 Turkeyjohn - 100
Sorry, I meant to post this here, not start a new thread. Pics in main forum.
Went out today in the cold wind and set up on a bird I have been working for a couple days. While waiting to ambush him, another bird came in from an unexpected direction. At first I thought it was a jake as I could not see a beard. Turns out the wind was blowing in a direction when I could not see it clearly. He turned to fan and revealed a full tail and long beard so I let him have it. When I went to recover him, low and behold, he had only one nub for a spur and nothing on the other leg at all. I weighed him when I got home and he came in at 17lbs 13oz. Had a 9" beard but only a 3/8" spur...weird. When I cleaned him, he had a twisted keel bone (pic). I wonder if he had a major injury when he was young and it caused the body to fail to develop a spur on one side?
I will let Lenny score him, but I know he ain't in the running for any medal. Regardless, I am tagged out and can now work on getting my daughter her bird.
9" beard, 3/8” spur.
Used the extrema again. Same as the 1st bird
Good luck to those still hunting.
Congrats on the tag out Dilly, still working on getting TurkeyWesley his second bird, but feel a whole lot less pressure with my season joyously filled....I've had a lot of years, last year included where I'm out till the end of May, fighting bugs, leaves and heat trying to get a bird, let alone tag out.....Quote:
Originally Posted by dilly
TurkeyJohn
Nice job Dilly! I went out today and further educated 3 longbeards I've been talking to for two weeks now.....I really want to get this done before the bugs kick in....
LEADERBOARD:
1 tom gobble - 105.375
2 jw8 - 95
3 eddy22 - 91.875
4 Dilly - 87.5
5 Species8472 - 78.75
6 Lenny - 76.56
7 TurkeyJohn - 72.5
8 Dilly - 60
9 GW11 - 37.5
10 TurkeyWesley - 27.5
Two Bird Totals:
1 Dilly - 147.5
2 Turkeyjohn - 100
Knocked down a Tom this am in a dismal display of shooting.
After doing a fiddlehead check on wednesday (they're almost up in my area) while driving home i noticed a group of birds about 10 strong in a field (private) near a public forest so i headed in this am to see if i could find them.
Gobbling started right on cue at about 5:20 wayyy back in there. The birds courtesy gobbled for an hour or two which was more than enough for me to generally narrow down their location to about 300 yards away in the hardwood timber. I called from the top of a ridge which separated my walk in and the birds and got an answer right away, we'll say 250 yds. i walked off the back side of the ridge while calling to my set up about 30 yds from the crest. The bird gobbled a few more times from his spot but i stayed quiet. about 20 minutes after the last gobble roll by and the next gobble is noticeably closer, probably around 100 yards, still on the other side of the ridge, i remain silent. the next gobble was about the same distance but further right than i would like so i turn my head left and let some yelps out behind me. immediate answer. now it is a game of where he pops up on the ridge. lucky for me a spit, drum and tail fan give the bird away before his head is over the crest so i line up. the bird gets to 35yds and i let loose. he's not down but walking away at a slow pace, i take another shot and the bird disappears over the crest and goes quiet. i sprint to the top to find the bird laying there, all good right ? nope, give it a poke and he springs to life and starts flapping and walking around, so i shoot my 3rd shell and whiff at 5 yds. load another, and yup whiffed again... finally i let the bird walk about 15yds away where i actually have some spread and end it. so yeah, not too often it takes 5 shells... in all honesty the bird was probably dead after the 1st or 2nd shot but i tried to end it quicker than not. back at work for 9:30. nice any tidy morning.
Spurs 7/8" = 35 pts
beard 8.625" = 43.125
No Bonus - total 78.125
Attachment 40204
Attachment 40206
Attachment 40207
Attachment 40205
Great bird but it looks like you shot it in your garden lol
yeah my camerawoman refuses to get up at 4am and wouldn't drive out at 7:30 for in field photos... can you believe her? the nerve. anyway best i could do lolQuote:
Originally Posted by tom gobble
garlic is coming in nice though eh ?
LOL looks good, Garlic Tom down
Nice job parkcity. We now have over 10 entries, so I am only showing the top 10 on the leaderboard, and only 2 hunters have filled their second tag so far.
LEADERBOARD:
1 tom gobble - 105.375
2 jw8 - 95
3 eddy22 - 91.875
4 Dilly - 87.5
5 Species8472 - 78.75
6 parkcity - 78.125
7 Lenny - 76.56
8 TurkeyJohn - 72.5
9 Dilly - 60
10 GW11 - 37.5
Two Bird Totals:
1 Dilly - 147.5
2 Turkeyjohn - 100
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...2aae6f1a_z.jpg[url=https://flic.kr/p/2j1mkLC]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...e73eb8de_z.jpgthumbnail2 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/153457252@N02/]
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...fe5d9f9f_z.jpgthumbnail1 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/153457252@N02/]
Browning gold 12 ga
Remington 3" #5
Factory full choke
GobbleStalker copper pot call & hat!
Beard - 9-3/4"
Spur - 1 5/16"
Score -101.25?
Awesome bird Dude, holy hooks or what??Quote:
Originally Posted by finsfurfeathers
TurkeyJohn
Biggest spurs for me came from the same field a few years back. Beards have been mediocre thoughQuote:
Originally Posted by Turkeyjohn
Nice hooks finsfurfeathers - puts you on the Silver Medal podium so far......
LEADERBOARD:
1 tom gobble - 105.375
2 finsfurfeathers - 101.25
3 jw8 - 95
4 eddy22 - 91.875
5 Dilly - 87.5
6 Species8472 - 78.75
7 parkcity - 78.125
8 Lenny - 76.56
9 TurkeyJohn - 72.5
10 Dilly - 60
Two Bird Totals:
1 Dilly - 147.5
2 Turkeyjohn - 100
Well, business is booming and i'm already 2 weeks behind, so it doesn't look like i'll get out for my 2nd bird. May as well post my one and only for the season.
On OPENING morning my bro and i had a good group of birds roostedbehind a neighbour's farm. We hadn't pushed too close the evening before to confirm numbers, so we were a bit surprised when we moved to set up on them in the morning, and ended up pushing a hen off her roost and further into the woods. We had made a bit too much noise in the frost crunchy grass.
Despite ScewUp #1, we got set up in our close but risky spot and the gobbles started around 5:30. Tons of them, whoa boy there was 3, no 4... no 5 gobblers in this group and a pile of hens roosted lower & deeper so we hadn't seen them the night before. But wait, there's 2 far larger birds puffed up like toms, but not gobbling. Sure enough, as the fly down starts over a dozen jakes and hens hit the dirt (about 50 yards out), then the pair of big toms hit the dirt. But unlike past years where they enjoy their strut zone and warm up the vocal cords with a few gobbles, the whole group just moves up the field and over the fence into a neighbouring field.
My bro and i just shake our heads and pack up. The way these fields and thick cedar brush are laid out, there's no sense chasing these birds, best to circle around and get ahead of them. But as we're walking around the far side of the farm we stop to glass this group of birds from about 400 yards.... and they spook. Off the field and into the cedars. Well... dang. Screw Up #2.
We continue with our plan to loop, in case a few birds didn't spook too bad. Come back up the farm's long lane, using another neighbours big stone fences as cover. We get to a spot that we know the birds will pass through.... if we want to wait.... hours. We don't - we like to run n gun - and it's only opening morning. Plenty of time in the season if we push it too far today. So we move up the field towards the next stone fence... and get busted by a bird on the next field, 500 yards away. Doh... Screw Up #3.
But the bird doesn't bug out, it just changes its direction and starts to feed off quickly. As we keep moving towards our target fence, we realize the birds had moved much faster than we expected and a bunch are already just on the other side of the fence (lined with 15ft tall cedars) we're trying to get to.
My bro is up as first shooter, so i hang back a bit because we're still making too much noise in the crispy grass - also, another bird out in the field caught a glimpse of our movement and is on high alert.
At this point we're crawling towards one fence line, along another perpendicular fence line that runs parallelto the farm's lane. We hear the odd gobble and some drumming just over the fence, but can't tell if it's toms or jakes. My bro is edging closer and closer and finally gets a glimpse of the gobblers - in range, but too much cover.
At this point a hen jumps the fence(s) onto the lane and starts walking past the cedar cover and clearly sees either me or my bro... and she turns and walks quickly away - ARGH Screw Up #4 - but wait... she doesn't alarm cluck or putt. My bro, about 10 yards ahead of me, gives no indication that he saw her or knew he'd been busted. Then i hear a weird scrabbling noise and moments later i see a red head coming up the lane on the same path the hen took just 45 seconds earlier... and he sees either me or my bro at the same freaking spot... and he turns and begins walking quickly away ALSO WITHOUT alarm putting.
As he swings i see a goodbeard. I look at my bro - he hasn't given any sign he knows the tom is there - I look at the tom, moving away - I look at my bro, still not swinging his gun - I look at the tom moving away up the lane... lift my lil 20 ga Weatherby SA-08 and KABOOM.
Mature tom flapping in the gravel of the lane... 20 yards from where we'd parked the SUV. It turns out that my bro wasn't just trying to stay still to not be seen, the corner of the fences totally blocked his sight and he had no clue the Tom had come so close. Not a monster bird, but another great story and that's all turkey hunting is about really.
20lbs
9 inch beard
1 inch spur
Attachment 40257
Attachment 40258
Attachment 40259
Congrats on the bird OddMott, sounds like the opening morning was quite a time for you and the bro, wow, glad it turned out so well for you...
TurkeyJohn
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...986601c2_z.jpgthumbnail5 , on Flickrhttps://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...c8206617_z.jpgthumbnail4 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/153457252@N02/] on Flickrhttps://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...c8ede425_z.jpg[url=https://flic.kr/p/2j1N1iX]
Browning gold 12 ga
Remington 3" #5
Factory full choke
Beard - 10 1/4"
Spur - 1 1/4"
Score -101.25
Nice birds guys
Attachment 40277Attachment 40278Attachment 40279Been a crazy week for me in the turkey fields.
I got a nice Tom tonight with 1in 1/16 Spur and a 10in. Beard.
It was the third time with my safety off on this guy in the last week.
I also had the safety off on 2 Tom's that have been my main target birds up until a crazy event happened on Monday.
I was after the two Toms Monday afternoon, they were in a field beside a large wood lot and the previous day's of scouting told me that they were travelling to the next field and then work their way back into the woodlot before 7.
I parked in the woodlot and walked the long way around and managed to get setup in the top end of the first field without spooking any birds. Within 15 minutes a hen comes out of the woodlot crosses the field and joins the other turkeys in the field next door.
My confidence level was Sky High.
Just then I hear a guy behind me yell hey buddy. I looked behind me and see an opp officer running towards me, clearly winded, asking me if I just saw a black man with a beard and light coloured track pants run by. I was like, hell no. I was thinking to myself you got to be kidding me.
I explained that it was all fields to the east and I could see a mile and the birds havent spooked. So he had to have went West through the wood lot.
The officer takes off through the woodlot. Multiple cruisers pull into the top end of the field and park beside me on the other side of the tree line. They felt bad for me that this character was ruining my hunt. Then the k9 unit pulls in. The sound of this dogs bark was wild and hearing that sound knowing he was after you would put anybody in a fetal position. Crazy. Wasn't much I could do but wait and watch the birds take off across field after field. Lol.
After a couple hours they caught the guy.
I had a feeling the turkey gods were going cut me some slack, I got this guy tonight while he was alone on the top of a ravine. I got underneath him and brought him to the edge with some soft purrs.
Theres some video on mykawartha.com of the guy fleeing the opp on hwy 115.
LH Beretta A400
Semi 12g
Beard 10"
Spur 1 1/16"
score= 93
Good story onelessarrow
Everyone one thinks wood lots are so peaceful lol if they only knew
lol, no kidding. As much as I wanted to get out of there, I had no idea how desperate this guy was and didn't want any scenario where this guy somehow gets my gun from me. I suspect the police felt the same as they left a couple of officers sitting right beside me.Quote:
Originally Posted by js4fn
By the way, there are some fantastic birds entered this year. Congrate's to everyone on their success
Congrats my friend! That's one crazy story!Quote:
Originally Posted by onelessarrow
Sent from my SM-A520W using Tapatalk
Now that's a cool turkey hunting story that won't soon be topped. Holy Moley, Glad you were finally able to connect on a bird, I think you were owed one...Quote:
Originally Posted by onelessarrow
TurkeyJohn
Thanks GW11 and TJ.
For sure.
It's amazing how many ups and downs there are in turkey hunting. Lol
Story and pics in the other section. Tagged out bitter sweet. 20 pounds 3/4 inch spurs 8 3/8 beard
Long beard XR 3.5 inch #5s
Carlson regular turkey choke
Beretta A400 unico
score 71.875
Two bird total 177.25 now its time to fish and get my friends on some birds
Well, after 3 weeks we have some great additions. Updated leaderboard is below. finsfurfeathers posted up the best two bird total, and will be hard to beat, ironically both birds scored exactly the same! tom gobble is still hanging onto the individual lead with that triple beard bird, and onelessarrow survives a police chase and still gets his bird! Oddmott also tagged out, and is in the running to win his own donated prize back! Congratulations to all.
I won't tell you about the beauty tom I missed yesterday because I am still too busy replaying it over and over and over. I do know that the thermacell and bugspray will be in my vest for the rest of the season.
LEADERBOARD:
1 tom gobble - 105.375
2 finsfurfeathers - 101.25
3 finsfurfeathers - 101.25
4 jw8 - 95
5 eddy22 - 91.875
6 onelessarrow - 92.5
7 Dilly - 87.5
8 Oddmott - 85
9 Species8472 - 78.75
10 parkcity - 78.125
Two Bird Totals:
1 finsfurfeathers - 202.5
2 tom gobble - 177.25
3 Dilly - 147.5
4 Turkeyjohn - 100
Had a great hunt yesterday morning with the Wesley...
Had scouted a spot Saturday morning and heard a bird working back and forth just inside the tree line along a hay field, only glimpsing him for a short view, couldn’t really see how big or beard length...
Asked Wes that night if he was interested and with the forecast being better for Sunday than Monday a plan was hatched.
We get into our spot right at dawn, and silence...not a noise...eventually a doe comes along and snorts at us before flashing the whitetail and bounding away...
We decide that there was nothing doing right there, so we move closer to a grain field in the hopes he’s there. We’re creeping through the woods and we hear it, a gobble, but it’s a ways off. We find a spot at fields edge and I work the box call...he answers almost immediately and I knew we were in business...
This goes on back and forth for only a short time, every time I touch the call he answers...
Then from over a roll in the field we see a red head and he’s motoring... only stopping long enough to gobble... I just give enough of a cluck to keep him coming...he’s running and strutting, backlit fan with the dawn sun behind him...really wish I had tried videoing... he keeps coming, I ask Wes if he was ready to shoot he says to get him out of strut... I click once more, he stretches his head out and Wes plasters him at 40 yards...no decoys, but this guy was on a string...
1/4 inch spurs, 3 1/2 inch beard, but a full fan, and gobbled like a Tom, but only 14 1/2 lbs...
Wes is tagged out and grateful for it, early mornings catching up to him, can’t keep up with old Dad...
A great season comes to a close, more lessons learned, but awesome
TurkeyJohn
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Nice bird guys congrats
Finally got a bird down for this season this past Saturday. Was a great hunt. My brother and I actually doubled and each had a bird down all before 7am.
1 1/4" longest spur
10 1/2" beard
Shotgun
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Nice bird congrats. Big spur
Finally got my first turkey! Will post the story in other section.
Beard: 11 inches
Spurs: 1 1/4 inch
Weight: 23lbs
Mossberg 500 12 gauge-full choke
3" Browning BXD Turkey #4
*Note* I didn't sign up before April 25th, I just want to know what it would have scored!
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You would of scored 105 I believe. 2nd to me by the skin of my teeth
Great bird Anfield, get signed up next year, you never know...
TurkeyJohn
I had intended on signing up this year but time got away from me! I've signed up in years past and hardly got out to hunt. Lesson learned!Quote:
Originally Posted by Turkeyjohn
Finally pulled the trigger. Had this guy and his little brother at 60 and 100 yards this morning. Unfortunately their three hens were at 15 and knew something was up. They raised enough stink to keep the Toms away. Came home to run a couple errands and fill my guts. Was set up again 12:45 after spotting him from the road. A few helps and he and a hen made there way in. Pulled the trigger at 1:37. I love afternoon hunts!
10 1/2” beard
1 1/8” spurs
22.8 lbs
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Not a contest leader but at least I got one and that is a win for me.
19 pounds. 1 inch spurs 8 inch beard
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Nice bird, looks like it has a headache LOL how close was he
Very. Close. Maybe 5- 7 yards.
I did not have a full choke and he came through my cover to my right. I am a lefty so it worked. He had to move into a small gap in the cover until I could shoot
Over the past few years I have shot two birds that close
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Some really nice birds fellas!
Way to go Wesley filling both tags - Dad sure is proud, and you should be too (my son is still looking for #1.....and watched me MISS last wknd....)
CD94, Ontario Farmer, Wally243 all submitted great entrees - and anfield21 sure is wishing that he had entered, but an awesome bird, contest or no contest.
LEADERBOARD:
1 tom gobble - 105.375
2 CD94 - 102.5
3 finsfurfeathers - 101.25
4 finsfurfeathers - 101.25
5 wally243 - 97.5
6 jw8 - 95
7 eddy22 - 91.875
8 onelessarrow - 92.5
9 Dilly - 87.5
10 Oddmott - 85
Two Bird Totals:
1 finsfurfeathers - 202.5
2 tom gobble - 177.25
3 Dilly - 147.5
4 Turkeyjohn - 100
5 TurkeyWes - 55
GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE still hunting during the FINAL week of this years season......!
There's always next year!Quote:
Originally Posted by Lenny
What is the best time and place to kill birds on this hot last week.
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roughly between 1/2 hour before sunrise till 7:00 pm :D. Any time is a good time when you can get out. Have yet to have a turkey arrive at an agreed upon time. Figure out where the birds roam, pack a cold drink, snacks, and thermacell and have at it.
What finsfurfeathers said, especially about the Thermacell, if you could take only one thing besides a loaded gun, call and decoy, the Thermacell is it....Skeeters were in full force this morning, was out with a buddy and set up 15 apart, my Thermacell kept me bug free, the poor devil got his bird fairly quickly thank goodness, not sure how long he would have lasted without a Thermacell... He had bug spray on, I had spray and the Therm and no bugs for me...Quote:
Originally Posted by finsfurfeathers
Good luck to anyone still out there...
TurkeyJohn
late season bird. story is over in its own thread
beard: 10"
Spurs: 7/8"
No Bonus - 85pts
2 bird total: 163.125
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edit: actual field photos for Tom Gobble
First multiple bearded bird for me. Between poison ivy, a thunder storm, heavy rain, mosquitoes and black flies, if i didn't have a flock of birds in front of me I wouldn't have lasted five minutes.
Unfortunately, I lost a lot of beard with the shot and in hindsight should've taken better care getting it back to the truck.
I started off with the longest beard to date(almost 12") but by the time I got pics, I manage to reduce it to 7". LOL
Beard=7"
Spur=3/4"
Additional beards= ? not sure how many you'd count.
12g shotgun
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Nice bird, hard to tell how many beards from the pic.
Trying to get more photos uploaded. Having a hard go with size.
Here are your pics onelessarrow:Quote:
Originally Posted by onelessarrow
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Thanks GW11.
They're the clearest ones I have Lenny, score it however you like. It's all good.
Unfortunately it's just a skeleton of what it actually was. Pretty neat beard.
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!
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lenny
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.
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 seasonQuote:
Originally Posted by Articcat
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.
So true thats what the forum is all about to live through what others have experienced and share the excitement and success with themQuote:
Originally Posted by finsfurfeathers
Congrats to all successful hunters in the contest and not. Thanks Lenny for running the contest.
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Thanks Lenny, that was very nice of you to host it again
Many nice birds posted here this season. Congrats to the winners and thanks for running this Lenny!
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great work everyone and special thanks to Lenny.
At this point in my hunting career, Turkey hunting is hands down my favourite. I'm already looking forward to next spring and this fun contest