ive killed pro 20 or so and ive been hunting for 8 or 10 years

I've killed 5 in 7ish years.

Jake with a bow and gobbler with a gun in three years.

Only one jake within seven years, hope to get a nice tom this coming season.

jeez your guys turkeys are huge!

My 11 year old son and I started turkey hunting last spring and thanks to all of the kind folks here on the forum I was able to harvest 2 nice toms and my boy took a jake.

1 osceola, 1 merriams, 3 rios, 16 easterns with my bow and I have lost track with my shotgun. We are very lucky to be able to harvest 6 birds a year in MO. 2 in the spring, 2 in the fall shotgun, and 2 during archery season.

10 spring and 10 fall seasons under my belt....

killed 4 long beards in the spring and....3 hens in the fall that i can remember off the top of my head...


spring i hunt longbeards only...pass on jake birds since day 1..wont say i'll never kill one...but ive passed them thus far....if one gives me a great hunt late in the season or im short on time and have a good hunt, i may take one...not opposed to it...i just like longbeards and sharp hooked spurs! ive had legitimate shooting opprotunities every spring season...usually good for a few shot opprotunities each spring...but im pretty picky on my shots....and usually get "caught up in the show" and dont pull the trigger or wait too long...one spring i did that early in the season on a long beard...passed a jake that same hunt...then spent the rest of the season hunting a BEAST boss tom...first day i hunted him i had him in range..waiting for a better shot and the heiffers ended up spooking him!! errr! lol....im picky for alot of reasons...mainly the lenght of the season...and i LOVE to spring turkey hunt so hunting all season doesnt bother me one bit...tag filled or not....

fall, i dont hunt as hard...usually bowhunting in the fall now....before i bow hunted i chased alot of small game....just never got into the fall hunting thing...most of the time they are targets of opprotunity in the fall for me...though the one i killed this fall i was actually hunting them....


dont get frustrated and give up....spring gobbler hunting is about the best hunting there is IMO....and i'll let you in on a little seceret.....you learn more by HUNTING than you do from SHOOTING....if you fill your tag, your done and not in the woods...even if you take others out or whatever, i been there and done that...just dont have the umph and desire to get up at 0400 and go hunting after that tag is filled...if you dont learn something on every hunt, your doing something wrong....10 years at the game and i still learn EVERY hunt...even if its something tiny....gotta learn to pickup the mistakes or what could been done differently etc etc....

I have been turkey hunting for about 12 years now. I shot my first bird (a jake) on some public land here in NC. Since then i have shot nothing but mature gobblers and there has been about 20 of them.

I can relate!!! Been hunting WILD turkeys on public land for 16 years... I've killed around 30 of them...

I love it when I see the pics of the guys with that have been hunting turkeys for like10 years and they have like 50 sets of beards/spurs...

GOD knows were they huntSame place's Jim Casada hunts