2012 Turkey Contest Bragging Board
 

Heres the annual 2012 contest bragging board. Post your pictures, give us the story so we can all take in your hunt and kills. Dont be shy. :biggrin:

Not a brag, BUT....

Does anyone have idea for a 2013 sticker?

MOD-not sure where to post this question to the fevered nation.

Joe you are actualy the first to ask about the sticker and we stopped doing that because we felt it was not appreciated.
I paid for it - and to me it was no longer worth it as many did not get their sticker.

Dave....JW

Sorry to hear about that JW. Mine grace my travel / hardcase.

I never got last years for the team. Did they do one last year?

Ive got 8 of them left. P.M. me your address and i'll send ya as many as ya want.

That stinkes mine ride on the console of my river boat for everyone to see and they did see them.

Mine are proudly on the gun case, sucks that JW! isn't doin em this yr, but completely understand. Like i said, i have 8 left still. Was very cool of him to take the time and $s to do that but a shame it wasn't more appriciated! You Rock JW! hope ya nail down that second place finish!!! :biggrin::biggrin:

I still have stickers left too.

JW, I for one appreciated the stickers. I also appreciate you and Arrow keeping this contest going every season. I hope we can do it for years to come.

Today was my opener in Louisiana. Started out early hoping to hear gobbles so I could set up. I didn't roost a bird yesterday evening. When daylight came and zero gobbles, I started to worry a little. I moved around and called til about 10:00 with no luck. Not a peep. I went to get an early lunch at 10:30 so I could get back in the woods before noon. I got back at 11:30. I sat down and did a few series of calls, nada. I then set up about 12:15 on the edge of a fresh cutover where it meets a three year old cutover. I'm sitting on the woodline. I go here on a hunch thinking that some hens are nesting in the 3 yr. old cutover. I'm hoping the gobblers are nearby. I start a series of yelps, nothing. About 15 minutes later I here something running through the thick cutover. At first I thought it was a deer, but to my surprise it was two longbeards coming to investigate my calling.They never gobbled, so they kind of took me by surprise. Needless to say my gun wasn't up and ready. When they busted out of the thick cutover into the fresh cutover, they saw me. Fortunately I was only about 25 yards from where they came out. When they turned to go back in the thick cutover I threw my gun up and took the lead bird. He was actually the larger of the two. Not exactly the way I had planned it this morning, but I'll definately take any oppotunity I can get. He was a nice 3 year old bird. He weighed 19 lbs. 10 oz., had a 10 inch beard, and one spur was an inch and the other just under an inch. He officially scores 58.375.

Sweet,even if it was from the hip so to speak. Bottom line is you got a bird in the bag and thats what we are about as hunters.

Heres my Osceola I shot on March 23rd. 18lbs, 1 1/14 in spur, 1 5/16 in spur, 9 3/4 in beard. Sorry about the quality of the picture.

OK, I's on!
 

Alright Arrow, it's on. Got my 1st bird for this year this morning. 19.5 lbs, Main beard-11 1/2 in., 2nd beard-4.0 inches, 3rd beard-2.5 inches, RS-3/4 inches, LS-7/8 inches.

JW! has the pics if he'll post them for me.

Now what you gonna do?????????????

dog1

Alright Arrow (tea sipper)
 

Got another bird this morning. JW! has the stats and they are written down where I clean game animals and fish, so I think the following is correct.

Stats: 19 1/4 lb., 1st beard-11 & 3/8 in., 2nd beard-11.0 in., RS-1.0 inch, LS-3/4 inch (part was broken off would probably gone an inch, but what do I know)

We can't kill but 3 in GA., so arrow my friend, Team 3 is now on a roll and you better be glad I can't hunt out of state, heck me, JW!, and JoeA would clean y'alls clock.

Now you have a good day!

dog1

One to brag about? I just looked at the scores posted for the teams. Apparently someone on Team 9 shot a bird that scored 117.50 points! Is that a typo, or did some Tom-zilla take his final dirt bath?

Maybe two folks connected on Team 9? Just wondering.

Just got back from a successful 2 days in Texas. This wasn't done with an outfitter. I located the birds myself, with a whole lot of walking I might add, and called them myself. I have a friend who has some places in south Texas. I took the birds at three different locations. Most years there aren't many birds at these places, but this season was much better. Because of the good hatch two years ago, there were mostly 2 year old birds around. Because of the drought last Spring, there were no jakes. At least I didn't see a single jake. I believe all three birds I took were 3 year olds.That means there should be plenty of mature birds next year. Bird 1 weighed 21 lbs 4 oz, beard was 9.3", and both spurs were a little over an inch. He scored 62.975. Bird 2 weighed 18 lbs 10 oz, beard was 9", and spurs were 3/4" and 1 inch. He scored 54.125. Bird 3 weighed 19 lbs 5 oz, beard was 9", and spurs were both 1 inch.

Went back to my property this morning after hunting in Texas, Sat. 3/31. It was very foggy, so I wasn't sure how the birds would act, that is if there were any left. A couple of guys have been hunting the same birds. I heard one gobbling down the line, right next to where one of the hunters has his ground blind. I knew It would be difficult to call this bird in if the hunter was in his blind. I went down near the boundary line to set up. I was about 75 yards inside my property from the boundary line. I was about 350 to 400 yards from where the blind was on the other property. I started to do a little soft calling while the bird was still on roost. He answered me a few times. When I could tell he was on the ground, I started a little more aggressive calling. This is when I heard the other hunter start calling. It was now a calling contest, one that I would win. I already had the gobblers attention, so I just let the hunter overcall the birds right out of his setup. A little more soft calling and I had the gobbler coming on a string. He pops out on the line about 50 yards out, but he is not alone. Another longbeard is with him. When I see he is getting no closer and the hunter continuously calling, I decide it's time to take him. I shoot and he goes down. The shot was 48 yards. This is one of the best birds I have taken. He's not the heaviest by any means, but he has matching 1 1/4" spurs. He weighed 19 lbs 2 oz and had an 11" beard. He officially scores 66.125.

EFH's second bird.

turkman1's nice bird

Heres QuacksandRacks nice bird.

Thats awesome. great job congrats :rock:

Awesome job dog1. Both are awesome birds. congrats

Love those hooks

Heres my Missouri bird.

Nice bird! Hopefully I will have pics of my Missouri birds this weekend!

heres my south dakota merriams

Nice bird :)

EFH Bird # 3

http://www.huntingnet.com/forum/2012...cky-7s-20.html

Post #194:happy0001:

Ended my season in Texas this morning with bird number 6. I went to the LBJ Grasslands Saturday. I hunted Sat. and Sun. without success. I didn't even hear a gobble. It's been hunted hard the past few weeks and most of the birds are on surrounding private land. The place is a strange setup. It's smaller tracts of gov. land scattered within private land. My wife has a friend who has some property north of Decatur and the Grasslands. I called him and he said come on up. He is not a turkey hunter and said he hasn't seen any turkeys, but I went anyway. Couldn't be any worse. I didn't hear any gobbles early, but about 9:00 one gobbled. I walked closer to the area I heard him gobble and set up. I called and he gobbled but wasn't coming. That's when I heard the hen. I called, she called, and he gobbled. My plan now was to piss the hen off, so I got aggressive on my calling. After about 10 more minutes, she couldn't stand it anymore and came running my way. She was looking for me. The gobbler took his sweet time, but he finally followed the hen, which by now had walked by me still looking for the hen that upset her. The gobbler stopped in front of me about 25 yards out and that was it. Nice way to end my 2012 season. He weighed 18 lbs 8 oz, both spurs were a little under an inch, and had a 9 inch beard. He officially scored 52.125.

It was kind of a crazy hunt. After Monday's hunt we knew we had to move the blind. We moved it to the only place we thought we would have a chance at the gobblers we were targeting. The only problem is we had to go through the roost to get to the blind. Tuesday morning as we are stealthily creeping along to our blind we jumped one bird off the roost. Just after 6AM we figured it must have been the real big one we were after because we never heard him gobble. However we were over run by hens. They were everywhere which was very good for us of course. We really didn't even have to call any. The hens were doing the calling for us. As we are quietly talking in the blind and hens are clucking on all sides of us, all of a sudden my buddy says get your gun up now!!!!! He says there is a Tom standing about 15 yards directly in front of us. We never seen where he came from and he never made a sound. It was as if he appeared out of nowhere. He was all puffed up, tail feathers spread and he was strutting his stuff. I didn't even bother looking at his beard, I just put the bead of my Remington 870 12 gauge on him and let him have it. He went right down for a good old dirt nap. This was at 7AM. My buddy says well, let's get going. I said, are you nuts? Turkeys are singing everywhere and they still were even after I shot him. So just a little calling and by 7:30AM he took a 40 yard shot and another one and it went down for a dirt nap. Now we will only be shooting Long Beards. Unfortunately, I can't go back out until next Monday. I think we also found another way into the blind without having to walk right through the roosting area. I was hoping for a Long Beard first and his score isn't much, but hopefully I will be able to upgrade with my next bird. Well, here are the measurements and the pics.

Eastern

Weight - 17 pounds

Left Spur - .5"

Right Spur - .5"

Beard - 4.5"

TOTAL SCORE = 36
Attached Thumbnails

Heres my second Missouri bird.

My 2012 Indiana turkey killed at 9 am 4/26/12

Arrow is a oneman turkey killing machine.....that's 4 right?

The story goes- my 12 y/o son and I get to the blind at 7:45am yesterday, 4/28. It had rained throught the night and was lightly raining off and on. We get set up on land I just got Friday. We were there 10-15 minutes and a hen started yelping behind us. I called and she yelped back and then a gobble. I called a few more times and waited. Everything got quiet and I was guessing they cut out on us and reached down to pick something up and I saw the hen. She was walking through the set up. I told Nathan to get ready. He said he couldn't see her yet. She walked in front so he could now see her. Then we started hearing the spit and drum. You could feel him vibrate. It seemed like an hour but was a few minutes, he stepped out on Nathans left side. Nathan couldn't see him yet without moving a bunch. I told him to wait. The tom walked out at 15 yards, quartering way toward the hen, but never showed his head and Nathan couldn't shoot him. He would stop and strut when I would call, but he kept him head tucked down and never looked up....showed us his fan/rear the whole time. He finally walked out of Nathan's 20g range...never once stopped or raised him head. At 35 I picked my gun up, asked Nathan if he was ok with my shooting the Tom, he told me yes. I asked him again and he stated, "Shoot him already!!" I shot and dropped the bird at 38 steps. The look of joy and excitement on Nathan's face was great, but like I told him, this was my second favorite turkey hunt ever, he asked my what was my first and I told him when he kills his first bird. I felt guilty about taking the bird, but we had talked before about the shot and taking the right one. He made a very mature choice and in not shooting. He will get his for sure soon, but the fact we shared this hunt will be #2 in my heart! We then had to run for the truck due to a pretty strong t-storm and the lightning was intense just as we got to the truck...

Killed this one Sat. morning, weighed 23 lbs. 15 oz. Has a 10 1/2 and a 5 1/2 inch beards, spurs were 1 3/16 both sides. Bird took his sweet time coming in. Had a hen strutting and trying to gobble 20 yards from me. Never heard that before. After holding my gun up for over an hour I lowered the boom on him.

Wisconsin Public Land Toad
 

Well my hunt yesterday got a rough start. Got up 2 AM and drove 3 hours to get caught in a cloudburst as I was driving up the wrong parking area. Slid down the steep mud trail and into a fresh plowed field. Jeep slid sideways 100' until gripping just enough grass edge to pull back onto trail. Sat there an hour until water ran off enough to make a run up the slope and get back on the main road. Found parking area I'd located on Google Earth. I'd never hunted this property, so used Google to ID 3 good prospect spots.

So late start but at least I wasn't stranded. I bumped a total of 14 birds hiking in a mile. Set up and in 30 minutes had a bearded hen filter in at 150 yards. Then I glassed a mature tom 1/4 mile away. I tried calling but doubt he heard me! 30 minutes later there he is topping a hill to my right eyeballing my Zink Avian feeding hen decoy. He gobbled 8 times and strutted on/off for 45 minutes but hung up at ~60 yards. Looked bad. I thought he'd be lured off by the bearded hen who'd returned, but then a hen showed up from behind him, ignored his struts and she walks right to my deke. The gobbler got pissed and promptly followed her to my decoy. He would not stop but I had a good bead and took him from 35 yards. Only 2 pellets in the breast. I've never shot a tom with 2 beards, but this guy had 4. This was a really cool hunt. Got to glass my tom a lot before my shot. First tom in 3 years. Thanks, hen!

Not sure what score procedure is. I read the captain must submit? Anyway here's the damage:

Eastern
Weight: 22.5#
Spurs: 1 1/16" & 1/2" (deformed)
Beard 1: 10"
Beard 2: 6"
Beard 3: 5 1/2"
Beard 4: 2"

I didn't see a place to enter multiple beards in the instructions. If I add them up the total score would be 85.125.

http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/...y/DSCN0170.jpg

http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/...y/DSCN0181.jpg

http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/...y/DSCN0172.jpg

http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/...y/DSCN0316.jpg

http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/...y/DSCN0201.jpg

http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/...y/DSCN0191.jpg

http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/...y/DSCN0199.jpg

http://i1222.photobucket.com/albums/...y/DSCN0198.jpg

I got a few other tags so I'm still hunting.
__________________
Member RMEF, Pope & Young Club, UBNM, UWC & SFW-Hate Club

Beautiful Fan On My Eastern Turkey
 

My Turkey was not the biggest nor did he have the best hooks or beard but I think he has the best Fan of any bird I have seen so far this season. I'll show you mine and you show me yours and we will take a vote on who's Eastern bird has the best. The second picture shows some very rich color as well on the wings,he looked magnificent at full strut.

A lot of good eating and everlasting memories of God's bounty in the beautiful outdoors to name a couple! Now go back to your PETA website troll!