Congrats @retrieverman !
Blind hogs do find acorns…
I gambled on where to set up this afternoon, and it paid off. I was about 400 yards northwest at the opposite end of a grove of tree along the river from my camera where I’ve been seeing turkeys, because I know they hang out in those tree. The wind was blowing pretty hard so I was up wind to hopefully get the sound to carry into the tree. I called a few times and after a while got a glimpse of something moving in the shade about 50 yards away. When he came out into the light, I could see it was a tom I’ve been watching that has something wrong with his beard (maybe beard rot), so I just sat still and watched him for about 30 minutes as he milled around my decoys (which I set up way too close). All of a sudden I hear a gobble south of me, but I was afraid to call back because of getting busted. Well, the other tom acted as my live decoy and coaxed this tom within 10 yards. It was a bang and no flop. The 1 1/4 oz #7.5 load dropped him like a hot rock even out of a modified choke.
He has a 9 1/4” beard and 1” and 1 1/8” spurs.
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Congratulations. Nice bird !! Appreciate the description of the hunt.
Congrats on a dang nice tom!!
Where the beard came off the body was really full and thick and looked like it was lighter in color on the ends. There were a half dozen strands that were still long. He was a bigger body bird than the one I killed.
Blind hogs do find acorns…
I gambled on where to set up this afternoon, and it paid off. I was about 400 yards northwest at the opposite end of a grove of tree along the river from my camera where I’ve been seeing turkeys, because I know they hang out in those tree. The wind was blowing pretty hard so I was up wind to hopefully get the sound to carry into the tree. I called a few times and after a while got a glimpse of something moving in the shade about 50 yards away. When he came out into the light, I could see it was a tom I’ve been watching that has something wrong with his beard (maybe beard rot), so I just sat still and watched him for about 30 minutes as he milled around my decoys (which I set up way too close). All of a sudden I hear a gobble south of me, but I was afraid to call back because of getting busted. Well, the other tom acted as my live decoy and coaxed this tom within 10 yards. It was a bang and no flop. The 1 1/4 oz #7.5 load dropped him like a hot rock even out of a modified choke.
He has a 9 1/4” beard and 1” and 1 1/8” spurs.
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I'm heading out in the next couple of days to try my luck again this year.
What I'm most curious about is how you processed him. Did you do him much like we do the dove and pull the skin with attached feathers away and fillet the breasts ? and call that good ? I would suspect that there's probably not a lot ....and probably pretty tough meat on the legs and thighs. I know the free range chickens I raise and butcher occasionally don't have good meat on the legs and thighs like store bought chicken.
I fileted the breast halves and took the hind quarters. I have a proven method for smoking chicken quarters perfectly every time, but the last turkey hind quarters I smoked were tough as boot leather. I intend to give them one more try.
That's pretty much what I do with wild turkey legs/thighs. Usually a pot pie or tetrazzini or something similar.
I had a rough opening day in the wind. One gobble early this morning, but nothing showed. Turns out, I caught them going to roost this evening while I was out driving past the private property that borders the public. I know exactly where they are now and I'll be waiting in the morning. About 5 big toms in the group.
Fantastic turkey retrieverman!
I had a rough opening day in the wind. One gobble early this morning, but nothing showed. Turns out, I caught them going to roost this evening while I was out driving past the private property that borders the public. I know exactly where they are now and I'll be waiting in the morning. About 5 big toms in the group.
Fantastic turkey retrieverman!
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