superstrutter

Well, I'm done. My season is over and I have decided not to go back to Texas. I ended the weekend by filming my future stock. I had three jakes walk by me yesterday morning. I was sure glad to see them. I need some new gobblers badly on my place.I believe the one I killed this past week was the only longbeard I had on my place the whole season.Heard no gobbles the whole weekend, including Friday afternoon. Only 11 months til openig day in Texas. Looks like I'll be fishing now. Haven't heard from many of you. How is the hunting going? Let us know how your hunts are going. Fingerz, JW has our score wrong. It says we have 193, when we should have 198.750. The overall score is correct. Keep in touch guys.

fingerz42

Well, I called in three jakes on opening morning. I decided to let them all walk. Very little gobbling and the hens are still roosting with the gobblerss. Hope it heats up soon. I'll be back out a week from monday.

I'll let JW know superstrutter, thanks.

BuckRogers

My gun season doesnt start til this weekend. Good thing to because I have a ton of school crap to worry about.

TEmbry

Turns out I was only half right, he was predictable for the general area but it still took some sweet talkin to coax him in, even at 715pm. Got there late, we got out and got our gear on and headed down the ridge. It is a long narrow holler with a field in the bottom and both ridges are wooded. He ALWAYS roosts on the far side, which is where we were off to. Get halfway across the field, and I look down in the faaaar end and see the turkey emerging from the neighbors land, BINGO they are coming. We had to crawl the rest of the way to the woods, but made it unseen. Sprinted halfway up the hill and set down against a huge cedar. I just KNEW they were headin down the ridge right at us, which is why I was shocked to hear him sound off on the OPPOSITE ridge where we parked. Pulled out the slate/glass call and got to purring, clucking, yelping, and generally just causing a ruckus. Got one of his hens riled up, and it was game on from there. In no time she had the whole crew steamin our way. They dissapeared into the woods, and I heard them cirle up around us, now closing the distance from above. The next time I hear a turkey sound off, it is less than 30 yards, JUST out of sight. Few quick clucks and I dropped the call and raised the gun. I next see a thin line move in the woods, and it puzzled the **** out of me on what it was until it turns sideways and reveals a full fan in full strut! I click off the safety and wait, both guns at the ready. 4 hens come storming over to see the intruder, only to find a vacant ridge side. They begin getting nervous as the tom is still just over the ridge where there is no clear head shot. The hens start retreating back, but finally the tom couldnt take it anymore. He broke strut and came to peep over while in half strut. To our surprise another gobbler head poked up to the left. We fired on 3 and both birds fell. Got over the hill to find my two year old tom as expected, but Dads turned out to be a jake. fine by him, he couldnt give a crap about killing turkey anyway, just goes to spend time with me.

Anyway, I had a bird dead within 5 minutes of shutting the truck door, and couldnt be happier. Gun kill so it dont count for this contest, but I still have another tag to burn with plenty of time. Here are some pics, enjoy!

9.75" beard, only 5/8" spurs, and 21 lb 11 oz. Decent tom, barring the tiny spurs.

Too bad my cameraman backed out last second and this hunt wasn't on film, he was kicking himself after I called him, but too little too late. Pictures turned out halfass as well, my camera is in TN at the moment, so I was stuck soaking wet with a less than willing Dad to get good pics, so these will have to do for now.







Turned out JUST under this in all actuality.

fingerz42

Trevor... that beard looks more like 10 1/4 (you go to the longest strand)

Also, that bird WILL count for this contest... this isnt the bowhunting contest.. I'll get it entered in a little while..

fingerz42

Great contribution trevor.. Hopefully by this time next week I'll have one on the ground as well...

Heres your score...
Your score is 21.6875 + 6.25 + 6.26 + 19.5 = 53.6975

TEmbry

Yeah sorry about the confusion, I copied and pasted that from a story I wrote up for a bowhunting contest, my mistake...I knew it counted and already entered it. The beard measurement in the picture was slightly off, I measured it more exactly when I cut the beard off, 9.75 is all I could honestly claim out of it.

Good luck to the rest of you fellas, hope you knock em dead soon.

Headin back out in the rain this afternoon to try and top that one with my second tag.

Bandhunter

Got another decent Tom this morning. Rod and I were out in the rain again and boy they were hammering this morning. Probably heard 4 or more different birds. Last week they hardly gobbled at all. This bird came straight to the DSD jake and laid a whoopin on him. Once again I let Rod have first shot at him with his bow as I videoed. And again he hit him in the body and the arrow just bounced off. The bird quickly was leaving the scene and Rod couldn't get a second chance. So I laid him out with a load of hevishot #5s.

Eastern
22 lbs. 2 oz.
10 3/4 " beard
1" left spur
7/8" right

Score- 22.125 + 21.5 + 10 + 8.75 = 62.375

I am waiting for Rod to email the pics.

fingerz42

Good work bandhunter. I'll enter it in a few minutes. I have all of our scores posted on the first page of our thread. Check it out to keep up on everything!

fingerz42

Okay, everything is entered. Our total score should be about 422 and our team score should 255.0725 for FOUR birds. Thats an average way over 60 per bird. Good work.

I'll be out tomorrow, we'll see what happens.