Nice job guys!

I start May 1 in Michigan and may hunt NY over Memorial Day weekend.

S&R

Good job Man of the Fall.
 

Nice bird, some details of the hunt would be cool. And Zim, take it easy, don't drive tired it will get ya.

I got set in my spot around 5:30. Birds began gobbling a little before 6:00. I heard them from several different directions. About 6:30 I saw 4 birds pop out from the tree line and responding to my calls. One was a hen and the other 3 were Jakes. I took the biggest of the 3 Jakes when they got to about 20 yards. It was right at 6:40 so my hunt was over rather quick as you are limited to one bird per day here in Ohio and 2 for the season. My next day out will be Friday morning. I know there are some big boys in the area so hopefully it will be my lucky day.

I'm getting out to a new to me public area in the Eastern part of the state to try and tag an Eastern. I will only get Thursday and Friday then thanks to work my season will be done for. Good luck to those getting out

Bird #1
 

OK finally got time and entered score for bird #1. Taken on southern Illinois public land Alexander County from my portable office cubicle. I took my ipad and was entering data for work when I was rudely interrupted with gobbling within 15 minutes. These three jakes came in towing two mature toms. Not a big one only 17#, 53.43 but on the board.


I failed to fill tag #2. Tag #3 for an Illinois Cass County property begins tomorrow. I have a good spot scouted just hope nobody else shows up. Weather forecast is excellent for both Thurs & Friday. Hope to score a bigger bird #2.

Rough going
 

It seems that all the gobbling has shut down for the moment, hope they will get their second wind. Hope all have luck this weekend, some states have very complicated seasons. In South Carolina we get 3 tags and the season runs from the 20th of Mar to May 5th. All the zones and drawings and second seasons would drive me crazier than I already am! On a lighter note I took the head from bird # 2 & buried it in the biggest fire ant mound I could find, if a coyote doesn't dig it up and all goes well I'll make a mini European mount!

We are now turkey neck & neck for the lead. Within 22 points. Good job everyone. Keep'em rollin in.

I will be out again tomorrow morning and Saturday morning. Tight-lipped, heavily pressured birds have made my season a difficult one so far. Not giving up, though! I may try to put one to bed tonight, but not sure that I'll get a chance to leave the office in time.

Good luck, everyone! Y'all are keeping us in this thing!

Am I missing something? Do we have some birds not scored yet?


Team 1 - 345.0625 - 6 birds (bornagain64- 57.9375, 48.625) (RPD63- 58.625, 54.75) (DTC Jr.- 62)
(xOEDragonx- 63.125)


Team 2 - 160.1875 - 3 birds (Shemp- 54.3125) (SouthernStrut56- 55.875) (Uncle Nicky- 50)


Team 3 - 940.62 - 16 birds (JoeA- 49.75) (superstrutter- 63.125, 52.375, 52, 49.625, 58.25, 57.875, 60.5)
(Camokenny- 59.75, 64, 57.75, 57, 64.62, 63.5, 50.5) (BIGDONNIEBRASCO- 80)

Team 4 - 336.8675 - 7 birds (springspur- 53.25, 58.4375) (Kellyguinn- 48, 57.75) (BigDaddy12t- 28)
(ManofTheFall- 39) (Zim- 52.43)

My bird is not on the list.

I was reading the score sheet wrong!! LOL!! I see now!

:groupwave:

It looks like you didn't post your photos and measurements in the "Picture and score" post thread.

So after DTC's bird is posted, we should be in the lead!!!!:barmy: Unless there are birds not scored in other teams....

I now have 3 I need to post. Just got an eastern this evening. 19 lbs 1" and 7/8" spurs and 12" beard

Got my 2nd bird down this morning. Looks a little bigger than the first one I killed. I will post story, pics, and score later.

Once again I set up at 5:30. I started hearing some relatively close gobbling at 5:50. The gobbling went on pretty solid til about 6:30. At that time it seemed to fade out and I'd hear sporadic gobbling but nothing very close. About 7:35 I heard a loud burst of gobbling over in the trees to my left. I let out a few yelps and out pops 4 birds. It appeared they were all jakes. I have some calls on my cell phone so I did a gobbling call on my phone and that's when they turned and came my way. They closed to about 20 yards and again I picked the biggest one and put him down. The beard was 5.5 inches. Right spur was.5625, the left spur was .5 and the weight was 18 pounds 10 ounces. The total score was 40.25, so it is a slight upgrade over my first one. BOOYAH!!!!! I will post the pics at work tonight.

Congrats on the bird.

I'll get mine posted when I can get to a computer.

Ya never posted the measurements Brother

Where did you get a gobbling call on your cell phone?

I want one!

Just upped my score and notched my final tag this spring. Finally got on some birds that wanted to gobble this morning. I've been watching these birds for a few weeks. Got set up and made a couple calls and he pitched out in my lap. 23 1/2 lbs, 11" beard, and 1 1/8" spurs.

Nice bird DTC. Is DTC Jr. still hunting? We haven't seen much of him over on the team 1 thread.

I got it google aps playstore. I typed in turkey calls and there are several different aps that have them. I tried several different ones until I found ones that sounded legit. They have all the different calls on them too. It has gobbling, clucks, putts, tree calls, hen yelps, cutting, excited hen yelps, assembly calls, fly down cackles, kee kee run, purrs, cluck and purr,. They all sound really good too.

Congrats on the bird Man of the fall. I should drive down and hunt with you next week! OUr north east section opens monday. Hoping to be out Tuesday and Wednesday.
-Jake

Here he is, score of 40.25.

Nice birds
 

Awesome birds guys, it's been very slow the places I hunt. I haven't heard a gobble the last 4 times I've been out. I was hunting the Shaw Air Force Base bombing range and did hear a hen yelping, she was blowing it up! I trailed parallel her to her on a fire break road as she went through thin brush and oak seedlings. I hoped that a gobbler or even a coyote would pop out on the road but no joy. I did get a free turkey calling lesson and it was a beautiful morning.

Attn Zim
 

found a really nice Zim under cabinet jar opener at a thrift store, if that's your real name, or nickname I think you need it, new old stock still in the box.

Went out to my hunting spot today to put up an elevated blind for deer hunting next year, and to check my cams. They had been soaking for 2 weeks, and boy the Toms are still showing off for the girls!! Lots of nice pics. Before I went out back to where I hunt, I stopped and talked to my land owner. As we were standing there talking, a tom gobbled once out back!! When I drove out there, I looked over to my right, and about 15 yards away there was the tom, strutting like crazy!! Looked like he was with a couple of other jakes. I backed up to see if I could snap off a couple of photos, but they walked off the other way. Still pretty cool... That was the first tom I have seen strutting up close. Good Luck to anyone still hunting!!

Here is the bird from 237April2017. First time trying to get after the Easterns here in Oklahoma. Walked about 15 miles through out the day. A completely different style of hunting compared to what I am use to with the Rios.

My last name is Zimny and yes I'm old stock my body reminds me every morning. Got an AZ elk tag in my pocket and worry about my fitness level daily. Just can't do what I used to.

Hey DTC if you could get the measurements up for your first bird I will get it posted

He got brought back to reality this spring. We made our annual trip to TX, no luck during the MO youth season, and he killed a bearded hen opening morning of season. The weather here has made things rough plus our bird numbers are way down. I will get him out a couple more times before season ends. Maybe he can notch if last tag.

22 lbs, 10" beard, and 7/8" spurs. I had posted all the info just not all together. Sorry about that.

Alright guys. I'm pretty sure I have all our birds updated on the picture and score thread.


Will yall please double check and make sure I didn't leave any out.


My season here is done with. I was lucky enough to tag out in Kansas and in Oklahoma along with taking my first Eastern. To say it has been an exceptional season would be an understatement. The only downside is how quickly it has all come an gone. I only spent 7 days in the field and finished with 5 birds. Unreal!


The last one (the eastern) came as a buddy pointed me in a few public areas that he said he had heard birds. I set up in the morning with no gobbling coming from the roost but when they hit the ground they were very vocal. They were what sounded like right beside me but down a pretty steep hill and I just couldn't coax any of them to come in for a look. At about 8:30 am it was like a light switch went off and all gobbling stopped.


I sat still till about 10 or so then decided to check a few other spots out since I had never been there. I did the searching till about 2pm with no luck and decided to drive 25 min north to a different WMA. Walked a fence line for about 2 miles and stopped occasionally to do some calling with no luck so I figured I had better get back to the truck and go set up where I had heard them in the morning.


While driving out of the unit I glanced to my right and seen 5 birds. At least 1 had a beard and I could make out 1 hen as they went on alert and hurried back into the timber. I drove a few hundred yards further down and out of sight and snuck out of the truck and into the woods. After a few light calls I could hear the hen and she was not happy. It wasn't long before she was almost on top of me. As she continued to tell me off the others I saw started gobbling...(Game On) They never did show up and eventually she wandered off back to where she came so I quietly got up and snuck around a big hill to get on the other side of them. I did a few calls and they started putting. I though I had blown it but I shut up for about 15 min and hit the high pitched box call again and here she came again looking for a fight. This time however they followed. 4 toms all with over 11" beards. I waited till the last one came in so that I could get a good look at all of them and unfortunately the first was the largest. By the time he wandered back to where I could move the gun toward him the others were less that 10 yrds from me and had noticed something wasn't right. As I slowly tried to aim the first 3 ran right and the last one (which was originally strutting up the rear lol) ran left. Then he stopped and ran right back to where the others were at 10 yards and I dropped him. Not the largest of the group but I am very happy. He has great coloring on the wings and even white streaks going up one of the tail feathers that is kinda neat.


Over all I walked about 15 miles that day. That was after getting up at 2am to make the 3 hr drive. Hunt till I got the bird at 5:30pm and then after showing him off start the drive home where I arrived at 11pm. Awesome experience and I can't wait till next year. Only down side is that part of the state has a 1 bird limit.

Awesome work, fellas! You guys are killing it! I went out this past Friday and Saturday, and again got snake-bit. Heard one bird gobble two times Friday, but he was on private land close to the public that I was hunting. He went away from me with his harem, and never returned...I stayed in the area until about lunch time.

We were on birds most of Saturday...went the other way off the roost. Then we set up on a bird out in the middle of a field, but at the first sound of calling, he spooked off...so much pressure. Then we walked up on a bird, and ended up following him around for a while, but never could close the distance enough. It was a fun morning, but didn't end with a turkey in the truck. These birds I am hunting have been pressured so much, I believe that if I'm going to kill one, I'm gonna have to leave my calls in the truck, and happen to be where they plan to go before they get there. I've been trying to do that anyway, but they keep changing their minds about where they want to go!

Probably on 3-4 more hunts for me... I will continue to do my best to post a score.

Hi All,

I go out on Wednesday.

I took my son out last Friday (he wanted to hunt the 2 week private-land early season). We set up on private property and had birds gobbling hard off the roost. They had hens hard.

After about 45 min I managed to call in a satellite tom. He came into about 50 yards, gobbled 4-5 times, didn't see a hen (no dekes) and then high-tailed it back the way he came. I cut hard and he cut me off every single time, but he never returned.

30 min later here come a trio of longbeards - 2 sentries and 1 strutter. I told my son to take the strutter when he dropped his fan - he made a good shot and rolled him. Unfortunately, the birds were on a hidden rise about 45 yards away - we both thought the birds were at approximately 35 yards. His 20 gauge is a good 35 yard gun - the Triple Beard (5,6,7 shot) has a nice pattern at 45 yards (cause we tested it) but obviously not enough power at 46 steps. I suspect most of the pattern at that distance is the 7 shot, and pheasant load isn't gonna take out a 3yr old tom at 45 steps (ugh - #epicfaildad). I was sure he finally had his first bird, but only found feathers and no blood. He was bummed, and rightfully so, but I reassured him that he did absolutely nothing wrong, and that the bird was a prizefighter - he took a hard punch and then got up and ran off. I then told him all the stories of birds I've missed and sent him a few online articles from turkey gurus who also miss birds. He's got some self-doubt, but he's only 11 and will go out with me Wednesday to help me get a bird with the 12 ga.

Hopefully I'll have a big old Michigan farm bird on the board soon.

S&R

PS> Kelly- that's one hell of a season! BTW, white streaks up the center tail feathers on Easterns isn't uncommon - probably half my birds have those same white streaks...

Got a little one this morning. I'll update pictures later today.
-Jake

Congrats Bocajnala! look forward to the pics. Anything helps. We are about 1 bird out of the lead.


Good luck Strut&Rut. Even with out getting the bird I'm sure your son is hooked. I'm still trying to get mine to go with me and he is dang near 18. He'll go deer hunting a little but can't talk him into going after turkeys.

Good job bocajnala! Keep them birds coming!

Ok, heres my first Ohio turkey. I've shot them in PA before, but never as the one calling them in. Since this was my first try at calling myself I wanted to take the first legal one I could. I called for about a minute, and heard them fly down off the roost. Saw three coming in and they came all the way in to my decoy. WHen I shot this one he started flopping, so I jumped up to catch him and ripped almost all of his tail feathers out in the chase but, lesson learned don't try to catch them by the tail. I was really excited and had been sitting in the woods in my spot a grand total of 18 minutes when I shot. I'll be looking for a better bird now in both OH and PA and will be carrying a 10gauge I picked up as well.

Alright, Ya'll tell me if I did this score correctly.... And if not, feel free to tell me what I need to do. First time scoring a turkey I believe.


Updated with spurs at 3/16" Thanks for the help guys.
13lbs
3/16" on spurs = .1875
4" beard.
Total Score=24.75

-Jake