Gobbler Nation

Anyone have any survivors from last year that they have been looking forward to tangling with again. I’ve got two that have kept me up at night over the last year.

One of them lives in a cow pasture in Alabama surrounded by stripmine reclaim and planted pines. Been trying to get on him with my father for the last two years. Big, chubby breasted fella, you know the type. Lotta hurt feelings on my end. I almost had him 2 years ago after roosting him the night before. He didn’t gobble at daylight and I busted him (even after sneaking in right) because I convinced myself he was a turkey gobling half a mile a way from where I was. The other’s ones in Mississippi. He’s hurt some feelings too. I hunted him 6-7 times and almost had him twice on the same hunt. A low flying cargo helicopter busted him the first time. Then, after miraculously firing back up, he took flight when a striker fell and hit my pot call as I was raising my gun to shoot. The last hunt I fell asleep laying flat during a late season, late morning hunt (you know that type too) and I woke up to drumming so close it could have been the damn cargo helicopter again. Insult to injury.

The Alabama bird is one of those gobblers that will gobble every other day if he remembers. I don’t like hunting him. I hope a bobcat gets the sob and eats him alive. The Mississippi bird has been a lot more fun. I hope I get to him first but if the bobcat gets him then good, sob deserves it.

I have more messed up hunts last year.. I don't know where to start this year lol

hoobilly wrote: ↑February 8th, 2018, 2:26 pm I have more messed up hunts last year.. I don't know where to start this year lol

In the last week of the season last year, I had a full grown gobbler skirt me about 90-100 yards. He used the knoll to hide his body and his periscope to search for the hen he'd heard. He only gobbled twice in the space of 45 minutes. So it was definitely not his first day at the rodeo. He never saw me, but I saw enough of him to know that I want to use one of my tags on him this year. Looking forward to the next time our paths cross and hoping I get a better outcome.

I killed one of his buddies down the ridge a few days later that wasn't as big, though that one weighed 22 pounds and change, 1.25 inch spurs, and 10 inch thick beard.

Jim

SwampDrummin wrote: ↑February 8th, 2018, 1:33 am Anyone have any survivors from last year that they have been looking forward to tangling with again. I’ve got two that have kept me up at night over the last year.

The Alabama bird is one of those gobblers that will gobble every other day if he remembers. I don’t like hunting him. I hope a bobcat gets the sob and eats him alive. The Mississippi bird has been a lot more fun. I hope I get to him first but if the bobcat gets him then good, sob deserves it.

That made me laugh...twice.

only turkey im dead set on is a smokey-grey longbeard near my mothers house. first white tom ive seen here, hope he stays around.

I can only recall one turkey in 28 years that I think that I hunted from one season to the next. Even then I wasn't completely sure it was the same bird. Day to day during the season, sure, but one spring to the next I'd have to see some physical feature that convinced me it was the same bird.

bpettet wrote: ↑February 9th, 2018, 8:36 pm

SwampDrummin wrote: ↑February 8th, 2018, 1:33 am Anyone have any survivors from last year that they have been looking forward to tangling with again. I’ve got two that have kept me up at night over the last year.

The Alabama bird is one of those gobblers that will gobble every other day if he remembers. I don’t like hunting him. I hope a bobcat gets the sob and eats him alive. The Mississippi bird has been a lot more fun. I hope I get to him first but if the bobcat gets him then good, sob deserves it.

That made me laugh...twice.

appalachianassassin wrote: ↑February 10th, 2018, 12:58 pm only turkey im dead set on is a smokey-grey longbeard near my mothers house. first white tom ive seen here, hope he stays around.

Man a bird like that would cost me a whole season. I wouldnt be able to go anywhere else.

hobbes wrote: ↑February 10th, 2018, 1:55 pm I can only recall one turkey in 28 years that I think that I hunted from one season to the next. Even then I wasn't completely sure it was the same bird. Day to day during the season, sure, but one spring to the next I'd have to see some physical feature that convinced me it was the same bird.

I met a lady in Nebraska once that had a Tom come to their farm house every year spring for nine years and then it would disappear in the winter to over-winter with the winter flocks. There's no way of really knowing without physical characteristics.........but sometimes you just KNOW. It cccould have been a different bird ;0 but sometimes they just do things and act a certain way that its gotta be "him".

As for the farm bird, her husband ended up having to kill it because in the 9th spring it decided to attack any chickens that had poults following them. Thought that was crazy.

I'm sure plenty of folks have had the opportunity to hunt a bird for multiple seasons. Especially private land hunters that are limited to a relativel small tract if land. Ive just never had much confidence that I was after the same bird, probably because I was running back and forth from one end of the county to the other chasing whichever bird seemed the most likely to want to die. Its even more difficult to make that year to year connection out west.

I think the first tom that my son killed in 2015 in IL was a bird that had no interest in my attempts the previous season. The birds location, strutting patterns, and beard (although they can change some due to various factors), and my brother was keeping an eye on him led me to believe that it was likely the same bird. However, my brother killed a good tom in the vicinity a few days earlier and texted with "I got him". Then the next day, "I guess not, he's back out there strutting with the same hens. He'll be waiting on you wnen you arrive". The field was close to a gravel road so my brother had to tell a couple locals that we are friends with to leave the bird alone when they asked. It took two days to kill him once we arrived and he clearly had some years under his belt.

SwampDrummin wrote: ↑February 11th, 2018, 4:33 am

appalachianassassin wrote: ↑February 10th, 2018, 12:58 pm only turkey im dead set on is a smokey-grey longbeard near my mothers house. first white tom ive seen here, hope he stays around.

Man a bird like that would cost me a whole season. I wouldnt be able to go anywhere else.

if he stays he will have my full attention for sure. very rare in my area. ive only seen 1 within 50 miles and it was poached with a 22mag by a local jackass.