2026 Spring Turkey Contest
 

Just for fun. No teams, you are on your own. Post as many legal birds as you want.
Please add, State harvested, weapon used, distance of shot, then specie, weight, length of spurs, length of beard. And post pictures. Also any thing you may have learned. Include calls used.

Help thers take others on your hunt.

I'll score and add that to your post at some point using NWTF Rules like past events.l


SO
Bocajnala
RPD63
Phil from Maine
DTC


The Prize.
Just HNI "Bragging" rites. Lol


Good luck
JW

Good stuff JW. Count me in.

- Jake

I'll be hunting ohio and PA but only have a couple days.

-jake

Just post Jake.
I'll be hunting Michigan and Wisconsin
Also hunting with a member from here that I've never met face to face. DTC.
Looking forward to that.

JW

Haven’t had much luck down here in Florida but have a pretty good draw hunt starting next week

What the heck I’m in but, our season doesn’t open until May. We are almost always the last ones to head out there.. I have always enjoyed the contests in the past..

Well Phil. You and I are in the same boat. I get Michigan soon in mid April. But the last 3 weeks of May for me. All the dumb ones are gone by that time in my zone of Wisc! :)

JW

Yes and I have seen some nice ones in the fields strutting up a storm right now. When our season opens up they will have disappeared looking for other hens. But I know when those horse tails start growing in the hardwoods the turkeys won’t be far away. They seem to draw the hens in to feed on them..

Finally got to pull the trigger in Florida. I’ll get the stats up

Florida
Osceola
20 gauge shotgun..TSS
20 foot shot
15 lbs
8” beard
zero spurs… completely smooth.
ceramic pot call… my design.

The birds we shoot in this particular area of the WMA are always light in weight. I ended up being about 100 yds from the roost… closer than I like. Two days before the hunt he was roosted deeper in the creek bottom so I was quite surprised when he gobbled that close.

Ray

I'm early may also

-jake

Got home Thursday from a very successful hunt in Iowa and South Dakota. My Iowa bird was 24.25 lbs, 10 1/2” beard, and 1 5/16ths spurs. My South Dakota turkey was 21 lbs, 9 1/2” beard, and 7/8ths spurs.

Missouri opens Monday then head to Indiana toward the end of the month. In May I’m hunting Minnesota and then headed to meet up with JW so he can educate me on Wisconsin turkeys.

Nice bird RPD63..congratulations

A pair of nice birds you have DTC.. Congratulations!

Thanks Phil.

Nice birds DTC.

Nice to hear folks are getting some birds!

- Jake

Tagged a nice Missouri gobbler Monday morning. He was on the light side, 17 lbs, 11" beard, one spur was an 1 1/8 and the other was broke off, measured 1/2. Headed to Indiana next week. Good luck to everyone hunting and be safe.

Congratulations and I am still waiting for May 4th.. I can hardly wait for opening day..

Rumors are swirling in the Midwest that JW tagged a hammer in Wisconsin.

Contest over!

I tagged a bird that I thought was going have decent weight this morning. It turned out being 15 pounds in which I contributed to being caused by the severe drought we had last summer and fall. Both spurs were 11/16th inches with a7 3/4 inch beard. It was still a nice bird but lacking the weight..

I can’t appear to up load any pictures.

Well done Phil.

Thank you RPD63

I had the privilege of hunting turkeys in Wisconsin with The Legend, JW. What an experience to hunt and pick his brain about turkey hunting tactics. Thanks JW for your hospitality. It was a pleasure to hunt turkeys along side you.