RE: which tom do you shoot?
 

The one offering the cleanest and best shot. I would love to encounter this delimma on many occassions.;)

RE: which tom do you shoot?
 

usually will try to get the back bird, the front one is usuallythe scout, although the back bird is usuallythe dominant one, he's on the look out too, but may not have the larger beard or spurs

RE: which tom do you shoot?
 

god forbid this happens this spring but i'm going to experiment.....i'm going for one of the back birds in a group just to see if this theory has any weight....

RE: which tom do you shoot?
 

What he said.

RE: which tom do you shoot?
 

I have killed 122 gobblers, and have yet to see the spurs until he was dead.

RE: which tom do you shoot?
 

Very good point, and my viewpiont exactly.

But,'IF" you have the time to be able to lookeach bird over for a good period of time, you'll usually see one gobbler go into stut, or maybe two. Look for the bird with the "whitest head", that will be the dominant gobbler. That being said, I'm a beard guy, and could care less about the size of the bird (weight wise), the first gobbler that is sportingthe mostawesome beard in the group is getting shot, providing that everyting falls into place. Taking the dominat bird would be cool too, but if one of his buddies is carrying a dandy beard, his buddy is getting a ride in my truck.;)

RE: which tom do you shoot?
 

Well put maytom...from the dominant 'white' headto the longest paintbrush. One of the first things i look for is....which one struts within the group, then the roundest tail (that'll give me the idea of who the adult bird is, not so much the dominant)...then of course that ever elusive eleven inch beard...let me hear a BOOHAW!...lol

RE: which tom do you shoot?
 

When two toms come in, I try to line themup and take 'em both with just one shot!! (Just kidding, but a friend of mine actually did that one year when he had a two-bird permit.)

I don't know why a hunter would necessarily want to take the dominant tom, whatever that may be, strutter or "Silent Cal." To me, that'd be like taking the 10 point buck breeding the doe in front of you when an 8 point buck was standing next to it. Why would you deliberately choose to affect the reproduction rate/repopulation of the species by harvesting the bird that appears more likely to propagate?

Most of the posters here report the dominant bird is not likely to have a bigger set of spurs or beard, anyway. And from my experience and what I've read, the breeder toms actually "become smaller" over the course of the spring season, as they burn up a lot of energy and weight chasing and breeding hens. (I've seen that, too, having harvested a late season gobbler to find it weighed next to nothing and had virtually no breast fat remaining, wingtips rubbed down to nubs, breastbone barren of feathers.)

My choice on a pair of incoming toms would be to select the best shot, and if shot selection was equal, to select the larger tom (for eatin') of the two, regardless of which was "dominant."

Also, I've seen one tom be "dominant" one day and a different tom be dominant the next,so I don't thinkseeing a tom strutting on one occasion necessarily tells which bird IS dominant or the breeder tom.

Finally, let us not forget that EVERY tom turkey taken by fair chase methods is a trophy bird(at least IMHO), which is why I'd look for the best shot, then the fattest bird.