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

[Lenny]

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

[finsfurfeathers]

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2j1mkLC]thumbnail2 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/153457252@N02/]
thumbnail1 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?

[Turkeyjohn]

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2j1mkLC]thumbnail2 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/153457252@N02/]
thumbnail1 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??

TurkeyJohn

[finsfurfeathers]

Awesome bird Dude, holy hooks or what??

TurkeyJohn

Biggest spurs for me came from the same field a few years back. Beards have been mediocre though

[Lenny]

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

[Oddmott]

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

20200425_073116_HDR.jpg
20200425_081909.jpg
20200425_081800.jpg

[Turkeyjohn]

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

[finsfurfeathers]

thumbnail5 , on Flickrthumbnail4 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/153457252@N02/] on Flickr[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

[tom gobble]

Nice birds guys

[onelessarrow]

20200513_172403.jpg20200513_184514.jpg20200514_075022.jpgBeen 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