Im jealous of you guys who can tag more than one bird in your home state..

I also believe it is a bearded hen. A Jake isn't going to have an 8" beard...looks like a full fan, too, which a Jake wouldn't have. And, as was previously mentioned, the weight makes me think hen.

I killed a bearded hen a few years ago, and I am still quite proud of it! There aren't near as many of them as there are Toms! Congrats on a fine bird!

Looks like a bearded hen to me as well. Was the beard pencil thin?

Only best bird works. But how come you're posting in the Team 4 thread? I was threatened with getting banned two years ago for doing that. Weird double standard.

Anyway I drove past my hunting area today and didn't like what I saw!

High Water
 

So I drove by my hunting area today to take a peek and found this. But after checking the water level forecast there is hope! Just in case, I located a couple other properties to stop by and scout for a plan B & C tomorrow afternoon. :confused0024:


Good thing I didn't draw 3rd season. The chart says it was 7' higher then!

I'm headed out to some public land to try my luck this weekend. Its been getting hit pretty hard the last 2 weeks but I am more than ready to get away from work for a few days lol

Scored on a bird yesterday. Tough start to the day with rain and wind. Birds weren't making a peep. Finally bounced to a farm and got one to answer just before noon. He weighed 22 lbs, 10" beard, and 7/8" spurs. I will get a pic up tomorrow.

DTC good job!
 

Sounds like a nice big bird. I got schooled yesterday, I'm fair at decoy setups but have a lot to learn about run & gun. If I would of stayed put instead of circling the tree, but he took a big loop coming in and I got busted. Hope I never get them figured out, it would take all the joy out of it.

Got my blind up today. When I got to my spot around 2:30 this afternoon I saw a Jake be-bopping around.

You guys are getting some nice birds. Hopefully Monday I can add one to the team score.

New Spot
 

So after my #1 public spot was blocked by flooding, after work today I drove out to scout a different nearby property I'd never been to. Last night from my hotel room I used Google Earth to view aerials of six public properties I can use my county wide Illinois tags at. Of these six, only one kind of appealed to me, and I chose it despite the fact that our ILDNR did not even list it as holding wild turkeys. But it appeared to have the habitat I look for.......Timber, water, CRP, crop fields, and seclusion. Due to my job I travel the whole states of Illinois & Wisconsin so I like scouting and am never afraid to check out a new parcel. Well, I drive there, park, get out of my jeep, and immediately glass 5 gobbling mature toms & one hen ~300 yards at the end of the field. If you zoom in the first photo you may see them. I thought this ironic the property description omitted turkey yet it took me a whopping 1 minute to view 6!


Anyway, I observed them strut for a half hour, then backed out of the area not wanting to disturb them. So I hike into the adjacent field through one mile of CRP and find a huge secluded freshly plowed field full of tracks and dust bowls! No hunter sign at all. I think the flood was a blessing. This new spot looks even better! I marked 5 good setups along the west facing side of the 1.6 mile long field. Heck 4 guys could show up Thursday and I'd still have plan B, C, D, E & F loaded with tracks. Expect first tom down within 48 hours.

Here is my opening day bird. We have a double beard on the farm south of my house and another double beard on the farm north of my house. Those are my target birds for next week.

Way to go, DTC!

I am still waiting on our season in Indiana....we have this bizarre if the third Wed falls to early then we wait a week thing and yes it was an early third Wed....ugh

Very nice looking bird DTC!!!!!

Shooter tom D.C.

Got #3 down. Public land in 30 to 40 mph winds. Could have doubled with a jake but I passed

Keep hammering them fellas. I can hunt again Monday.

Congrats again KellyGuinn
 

Nice job, keep knocking them down!

Tag # 2 rejected!
 

Filled my second tag this morning, 18.2 pounds, beard 10 1/8 inches, 1 inch spurs both legs. Pictures and details to follow.

Out of the cellar
 

Hey guy's, we're beating team 2!

Keep them birds a coming. Hoping it will be my turn Monday morning!!!!!

So after double checking with the property manager I was informed that the new public property I scouted is off limits to turkey hunting as it is a seasonal refuge. Illinois bloated state employee pension plan bites me in the ass yet again. No money left for updating their website to GIS modern technology, nor correcting their pathetic hunter fact sheets. Nor upgrading their antiquated license/permit distribution method like Wisconsin has. The property manager confirmed the hunter fact sheet for their property does not address where you can and can't hunt turkey. So I wasted a lot of scouting time for nothing.


But rather than quit, and wait for tag #3, I thought about it and came up with another strategy. Visited Walmart yesterday and made a $44 investment that will allow me to checkmate the river flooding issue at my A1 property. I will use the flooding to my advantage. Nobody has been able to hunt this property for this entire season, and I'll have this island all to myself. :)


Will set sail Sunday morning.

Way to think outside the box Zim!!! Good Luck!!

All geared up and ready to go Monday morning.

Just nocked #4 down. After a mile long stalk using the fan from the bird I took thursday as cover. Wide open field with 2" grass. Bird has 1 3/8 spurs but only 8 1/4" beard

Haha sounds dangerous. I just scored #1 this morning. Went the safer route.

Bird #4
20 lbs
1 3/8 L spur
1 2/8 R spur
8 1/4 beard
62.75 Total

Bird #3
19 lb 5 oz
1 1/8 R spur
1 1/8 L spur
10" Beard
Total 61.8125

I'll get the official measurements when I get home with a better tape.

The story on Bird 4 is ..

It was about 3:30 pm and I was fixing to head home but decided to stop at one more place to take a look. Across the road from the public land is a 640 acre private field that the grass the owner grows hasn't took in a few years. He also has cattle on it. This land is flat and yo can see completely across in all directions.

While driving up to the public unit there is a dang Tom strutting 30 yrds from the road on the private field. I make a turn and drive down a ways, hop out and sneak up to about 10 yrds from the fence line hoping I can entice him to come on over. Unfortunately he had some better looking girls than I so he wasn't budging. I ended up watching him feed away thru a cattle feeder pen and out of site behind an old house.

After packing up I drove down the road that went by the direction he headed and there he was a half mile down the fence line. I called the owner and as luck would have it he wasn't leasing out to hunters this year and he gave me permission to try a stalk.

I apparently lost the fan I had prepared for decoying in all the wind we had the last few days (40+ mph) so I grabbed the fan from the bird I had gotten Thursday, left everything else except a mouth call in the truck as I wanted to carry as little as possible, and headed for em.

I slid under the fence and crawled a half mile. There were cows between the birds and I and the preceded to walk down the fence line as well sometimes at a trot. This pushed the birds away to the far corner of the property which is a mile from the dang road.

At this point my knees had about gave up the ghost so I kept the fan open and squatted the rest of the way to about 180 yrds, All the while the cows got more curious and had a stare down with me. For a moment I though the boss bull was going to attack lol. When the cows walked off the hens (6 of them) that the Tom was courting started to slowly come my way so I sat beside a tree that was along the fence and waited it out. They passed by at about 50 yrds but the Tom was hanging 60 yrds or so back. Well he had 2 more hens that showed up out of no where. They decided to go a little wider than the previous 6 at about 70 yrds and the dang Tom followed but stayed at 63 yrds. When he got in front the 1st set of hens noticed me and alerted him. When he came out of strut and stuck that neck out I took the shot and dropped him there.

All in all probably one of the most exciting and rewarding hunts I have done. Took right at 3 hrs to make the stalk and was very luck to have it come together. His beard looks like it had been a little rotted. He only had 2 strands that made it the 8.25" the rest was right around 7" but the spurs are great for a Rio out there.

Since my hunting is very limited this year I took out this young gobbler this morning. He scores 38.75. I will get pics up later.

Nice work, folks! I almost made it happen between tornado warnings Saturday, but the birds hung up at about 60 yards. It's been a frustrating season for me so far, but I will continue to get out as much as I can.

Congrats to Zim and KellyGuinn
 

Good job guys, Wondering how the scoring will end up.

Bird # 2
 

Friday morning gobbler, I was late and didn't get out to my club land till 11am. I got my decoys up and set up in the treeline. High winds so started with the box call and another set of yelps about 20 minutes later 2 longbeards stepped into the field. They never did gobble just strutted and fanned when I called, between the jake decoy and doing some soft jake gobbles they finally came in. Rolled the strutter at 35 yards. 18.2 pounds, 10 1/8 inch beard and 1 inch spurs. As usual Thanks to son Erik for the help with pic.
http://i558.ik fo.com/albums/ss28/springspur/20170421_115423_HDR1_zpslspha6ev.jpg" />

Beard was 5 1/8, both spurs were 1/2 inch and he weighed a whopping 18.8 pounds. Total score was 38.75. Here are some pics

springspur, I burned myself out pretty bad today, then drove 2 1/2 hours back up to St. Louis for work. My tom's measurements are just slightly less than your #2 bird. I'll file him tomorrow.


I'm bailing on my other 4th season tag due to I was not impressed with any of the public land there, outside the one that flooded. The only two great properties are designated refuge. But there's only two days left for that tag anyway. Next for me is a 4th season North permit JEPC starts Thursday. I'll go there this evening to scout for some dust bowls. Should be able to top my first bird by season's end.

I've posted springspurs #2 and ManofTheFalls birds


I'll get the others as measurements get in.


Congrats fellas this might be a race although there is an 80pt bird checked in.

Looks like the several days are going to be a wash here. Might try to roost a bird this evening for a quick hunt in the morning. Congrats to you all that have got to hunt!