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Couple of Fall birds for my girls...

Posted: December 19th, 2017, 10:58 am
by toasty
We had a good time on our hunts. They both missed several birds this fall, but I finally put a red dot sight on the 28ga O/U and that was the ticket. Now I need to teach them to head shoot, they both body shot their birds with TSS ruined way too much meat. That second image is the best ever from a turkey hunt, love seeing a bird as big as the huntress.

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I slipped out for an entire day and covered about 200 miles and finally found some toms at 4:00PM. I had a great scatter, but only saw hens and jakes after the scatter. Checked one more spot right before end of shooting and I intercepted the flock of 10 toms on the way to the roost and was able to put down this bird. 9" beard, just over 18lbs (big bird for my area), and 1" spurs. My personal best fall bird.

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Re: Couple of Fall birds for my girls...

Posted: December 19th, 2017, 11:12 am
by MAK
hot dang - good for you guys

Re: Couple of Fall birds for my girls...

Posted: December 19th, 2017, 11:12 am
by Grumpy
Way to go with the girls, nothing wrong with that and nice gobbler too.

Re: Couple of Fall birds for my girls...

Posted: December 19th, 2017, 11:20 am
by Gobbler
Congrats. Great times!! :thumbup:

Re: Couple of Fall birds for my girls...

Posted: December 19th, 2017, 11:30 am
by Hognutz
Great stuff, right there!! Well done.

Re: Couple of Fall birds for my girls...

Posted: December 19th, 2017, 12:07 pm
by soiltester
Congrats on a great fall hunt and I know you sure had you're hands full, fillin' those young ladies tags :thumbup: :lol:

Couple of Fall birds for my girls...

Posted: December 19th, 2017, 12:34 pm
by Hoobilly
WTG dad! Them are some beautiful fall turkeys


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Re: Couple of Fall birds for my girls...

Posted: December 19th, 2017, 1:08 pm
by hookedspur
Awesome stuff right here

Re: Couple of Fall birds for my girls...

Posted: December 19th, 2017, 1:58 pm
by 2Shooter
Don’t get no better than that!!! WTG young ladies!!!

Re: Couple of Fall birds for my girls...

Posted: December 19th, 2017, 2:36 pm
by HunterGKS
Congrats to you & the young ladies but someone gonna have to larn ya bout cuttin off heads in pics. It's bad enough to cut off the birds head but the girls too?????? That just ain't right!!!!
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ROTFL.gif (47.53 KiB) Viewed 6183 times

Re: Couple of Fall birds for my girls...

Posted: December 19th, 2017, 2:40 pm
by toasty
Sorry man, I don't post my kids faces online. A rule my wife has that I support. I showed the turkey heads in pic #2...

Re: Couple of Fall birds for my girls...

Posted: December 19th, 2017, 4:21 pm
by strutnva
Congrats on the birds with the young ladies!!!! I have one and she is enough, couldn't imagine taking two.

Re: Couple of Fall birds for my girls...

Posted: December 19th, 2017, 5:18 pm
by guesswho
Very nice. Family of killers!

Re: Couple of Fall birds for my girls...

Posted: December 19th, 2017, 7:10 pm
by OLE RASPY
Congrats on the girls birds. πŸ‘πŸ»
And your bird.

Re: Couple of Fall birds for my girls...

Posted: December 19th, 2017, 7:16 pm
by Turkinator
Way to go!!!!!!

Re: Couple of Fall birds for my girls...

Posted: December 19th, 2017, 7:32 pm
by Grumpy
Is there a different breed in those pictures, one has white tipped feathers and one has a tan tint to the feather tip. I have noticed this with the turkeys hobbes posts that are shot here in Mont. , they have snow white feather tips where all the ones I have killed in Mont. have the tan tint to the feather tips. We are suppose to be shooting Merriams here but I was told there were also some Rios planted here back in the 50's. Wild turkeys are not a native bird in Mont. and they got their start from birds being planted here from Nebraska back in the 1950's, I don't mean to hijack this thread but have wanted to ask this before and when these two birds showed up in the same picture I thought I would ask. Thanks for any replies,,,,Grump

Re: Couple of Fall birds for my girls...

Posted: December 19th, 2017, 8:54 pm
by toasty
Grumpy wrote: ↑December 19th, 2017, 7:32 pm Is there a different breed in those pictures, one has white tipped feathers and one has a tan tint to the feather tip. I have noticed this with the turkeys hobbes posts that are shot here in Mont. , they have snow white feather tips where all the ones I have killed in Mont. have the tan tint to the feather tips. We are suppose to be shooting Merriams here but I was told there were also some Rios planted here back in the 50's. Wild turkeys are not a native bird in Mont. and they got their start from birds being planted here from Nebraska back in the 1950's, I don't mean to hijack this thread but have wanted to ask this before and when these two birds showed up in the same picture I thought I would ask. Thanks for any replies,,,,Grump
Those were shot out of the same flock of 200 birds in the same field. Pretty much everything we have here in Utah are now Merriam/Rio hybrids. I will get a white tipped bird one year and a tan buff tipped bird the next in the same area. Some higher elevation areas have predominately white tipped feathers, some lower desert areas have tan tipped feathers, but most areas are mixed. In the spring, if we go high and hunt the pines, most birds will be white tipped, river bottoms, they will be buff, but you never really know until you see the birds. It is more of a mountain bird vs river bottom bird. Usually the white tipped mountain birds weigh less, the tan bird on the pic was 13.5lbs, the white tipped bird was 12lbs. My bird was shot 15 miles from these other birds and it was as close to a rio as I have ever shot.

Re: Couple of Fall birds for my girls...

Posted: December 19th, 2017, 11:23 pm
by Grumpy
Thanks toasty, we must have the same breed mixes here I suppose as they are the same variations of colors. I am shooting as far north in Montana as turkeys can be found and I believe hobbes is in the center and south center of the state. These turkeys here were planted on an Indian reservation but moved off soon, I suppose they didn't like getting shot at on a daily basis. Several big ranch operations in the foothills is where they winter and as soon as the snow melts the go back up into the high country. I would love to get a snow white tipped feathered one but for now I'll settle for these mongrels.

Re: Couple of Fall birds for my girls...

Posted: December 20th, 2017, 6:52 am
by Uncle Nicky
Sweet. Winter birds!!! :thumbup:

Re: Couple of Fall birds for my girls...

Posted: December 20th, 2017, 8:31 am
by HunterGKS
toasty wrote: ↑December 19th, 2017, 2:40 pm Sorry man, I don't post my kids faces online. A rule my wife has that I support. I showed the turkey heads in pic #2...
That makes sense & is probably a good idea.

Re: Couple of Fall birds for my girls...

Posted: December 20th, 2017, 9:15 am
by timbrhuntr
That is awesome all the way around.

Re: Couple of Fall birds for my girls...

Posted: December 20th, 2017, 10:34 am
by hobbes
Grumpy, my birds have come from central, eastern, and northwest. Color seems to be somewhat regional. The birds weve killed on limited tags here close to Helena have been much darker (rio looking). I recently learned that there may have been some birds released near here by private parties illegally. I'd guess Rios. All my other birds here appear to be Merriams.

I believe Montana's first transplants were from Southern Colorado. They did get some at a later date from NW Nebrasks, but I think that was before the potential for statewide hybridization in Nebraska (I still believe NW Nebraska's Pine Ridge is largely isolated and is still Merriams). One thing that protects flocks in MT from hybridization is the vast areas of turkeyless land and big mountain ranges that isolate particular areas.
At some point years ago someone also illegally introduced easterns near Kalispell and i have seen birds up there that look full Eastern.

Ive got a MT DVD that discusses the introduction of turkeys in MT. I need to review it to make sure my info is correct.

Re: Couple of Fall birds for my girls...

Posted: December 20th, 2017, 11:04 am
by crow
congrats to your girls and you on your fall turkeys, great job getting your girls out and getting them their birds

Re: Couple of Fall birds for my girls...

Posted: December 20th, 2017, 12:31 pm
by toasty
I think there is still a good population of pure Merriams left in Southwest CO. I have plans next spring to hunt the Utah/Colorado border and see if I can get a pure Merriam bird. How you would tell if it is a pure Merriam, I have no idea.

Re: Couple of Fall birds for my girls...

Posted: December 20th, 2017, 1:23 pm
by timbrhuntr
I believe that gobblenut posted once about how to tell if a bird is pure merriams or make a good guess. He is in New Mexico and I believe that he had something to do with the release of them there. I believe they are a pure strain because they are isolated in a mountain area something like Hobbes stated. Most of the birds were buff coloured not pure white when I hunted with him there. I think alot of people believe the white birds are pure but that may nor be the case.