Jakes
Posted: April 17th, 2015, 4:43 pm
I'm not against killing a jake but if I know a better bird is around but staying hush I'll leave him be. In the end jakes hens or old gobblers all are worth of sizzling in the crisco pool.
In loving memory of all the gobblers we've killed
https://www.gobblernation.com/phpBB3/
I won't say that I'll never pay for a turkey hunt. I haven't so far, though I do pay for a lease. My grandfather taught me that it was counterproductive to take immature animals from a place where you hope to kill mature animals. Same goes for egg layers. Hens aren't legal here anyway, so they're off the table. When I deer hunt I do kill some does just because there's way too many of 'em around here, but its not the same with turkeys. Even when my part of North Carolina had an experimental Fall season when hens were legal, I passed on jakes and hens hoping for a grown gobbler. That's just how I was raised. I love hunting grown Spring gobblers and there is no substitute.fountain wrote:say if youre on a pay hunt and time is running our and all you can get on for whatever reason is a jake..and its a new subspecies? what ya gonna do?
and I don't need the "i'll never pay for a turkey hunt"
& a spotting scope helps alsoGrumpy wrote:As I get older it is getting harder and harder for me to tell the Jakes from the Toms while in the roost tree, I think a bigger and brighter spotlight will be the answer. Has anyone else had to get a better spotlight ?
If it weighs 50 lbs you need to spend less time in the evidence room.CamoMan4025 wrote:What if it weighs 50lbs?
So I assume you don't hunt other animals? Only two year old toms and older?appalachianassassin wrote:no jakes for me. I don't kill animals that are still in diapers.
Gobbler wrote:OK OK OK . I didn't realize so many were not ready to go Jakeless. So Rick and I will pass out some Jake Exempt cards for those who need them.
Gobblenut you better get one. You to VAturkey. Just PM me and I'll send you one.
Sxxttt!!!vaturkey wrote:Gobbler wrote:OK OK OK . I didn't realize so many were not ready to go Jakeless. So Rick and I will pass out some Jake Exempt cards for those who need them.
Gobblenut you better get one. You to VAturkey. Just PM me and I'll send you one.
Doug ! I need a few of these !
I understand what you are saying BUT you are talking about natural mortality NOT certain mortality. Going to your 13 jake instance and hearing 3 gobblers the next year, if you are to kill a jake the year before who is to say you would not have heard 4 on that morning. You pulling the trigger on that jake ensures you will not hear him the next year. Dead Turkeys Dont Gobble, this year, next year or the next. Today's fast paced society dictates everyone has to get a kill as fast as possible so that they can get a picture of them with their Jake all fanned out on facebook or forums.BuckyT wrote:I've killed a few over the years. I don't target them specifically. I'm not going to say people can't shoot jakes simply because I don't like to shoot them. Seems pretty selfish to me. There is really no data absolutely proving passing jakes promotes a massive increase in gobbler numbers the following year.
If you see a group of 6 jakes, the odds are usually half of them will die from something else beside lead or TSS poisoning before the season opens the following year. Sure if you don't kill all 6 of them you'll probably ensure that 1 or 2 of them make it. Maybe.
I saw a group of 13 jakes one season. It was the next to the last day of the season. The following season I returned thinking the woods would be filled with gobblers....
Wrong... Heard only 3 or so birds gobble on that piece of dirt.. Managed to kill one of them..
I'm new here and if this is a dead horse thread, my apologies.
How does one tell if a bird is 3+? While hunting without getting a good look at the spurs? I have shot long spurred birds with a 10" beard that did not have amber tips. For me, a longbeard is what I look for to determine if it is a shooter.ICDEDTURKES wrote:I understand what you are saying BUT you are talking about natural mortality NOT certain mortality. Going to your 13 jake instance and hearing 3 gobblers the next year, if you are to kill a jake the year before who is to say you would not have heard 4 on that morning. You pulling the trigger on that jake ensures you will not hear him the next year. Dead Turkeys Dont Gobble, this year, next year or the next. Today's fast paced society dictates everyone has to get a kill as fast as possible so that they can get a picture of them with their Jake all fanned out on facebook or forums.BuckyT wrote:I've killed a few over the years. I don't target them specifically. I'm not going to say people can't shoot jakes simply because I don't like to shoot them. Seems pretty selfish to me. There is really no data absolutely proving passing jakes promotes a massive increase in gobbler numbers the following year.
If you see a group of 6 jakes, the odds are usually half of them will die from something else beside lead or TSS poisoning before the season opens the following year. Sure if you don't kill all 6 of them you'll probably ensure that 1 or 2 of them make it. Maybe.
I saw a group of 13 jakes one season. It was the next to the last day of the season. The following season I returned thinking the woods would be filled with gobblers....
Wrong... Heard only 3 or so birds gobble on that piece of dirt.. Managed to kill one of them..
I'm new here and if this is a dead horse thread, my apologies.
A good contingent of us on hear try to promote the shooting of mature turkeys. It may be glassing him 1,2,3, or more times, or having trail cams to ensure we are shooting 3+ year old gobblers and holding out. Many of us form "Hit Lists" Nothing sickens me more than a neighbor showing up with a 10 inch bearded gobbler bragging and than aging him and finding out he was two. Do you know what that gobbler could have been 2-3-4 years down the road. Shooting a good longbeard 2 year olds is nothing but highgrading. No different than shooing a 120 2.5 year old 8 point, that buck never realizes potential. I am not for shooting jakes and folks that brag about killing 2 year olds are just diminishing the quality.
And dont give me the I need the meat argument. Turkey is dirt cheap, its cheaper to go to the super market and buy turkey than to fuel up the truck to go out in the woods looking for one. Nobody needs to shoot a Jake to have meat in the freezer, go buy it, plus a more mature gobbler gives more meat thus you should be shooting mature ones. "Or I didn't know it was a Jake" if you're unsure of your target don't shoot, could be a guy reaping for crying out loud. Or the "if I don't shoot him someone else will" argument, all you can control is you shooting him, he will be dead. Or the "he was a scrub cull Jake" nobody can look at a Jake regardless of how late he was born and judge whether he will have a 12 inch beart or 1.5 spurs in 3 years.