Home Forums Birds & Dogs Turkey Hunting Opening Day Oklahoma Tom

I drove up to my place yesterday, and it was surprisingly warm and very windy. I gambled on where to set up, and it paid off. I was about 400 yards northwest at the opposite end of a grove of trees along the river from my camera where I’ve been seeing turkeys, because I know they hang out in those trees. The wind was blowing pretty hard so I was up wind to hopefully get the sound to carry into the trees. 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.

Nice bird. Congrats!

Congrats!

Real nice bird with a cool shotgun. Congratulations on a fine morning.

😎👍

Very nice, congrats. Can you share some info on your firearm?

Nice bird, shotgun and field photo!

The gun is my Blaser BBF97 12 ga over 308 with an Aimpoint micro red dot. I love hunting with it, but it handicaps me a little for turkey due to being a fixed modified choke. I set up my decoys close to compensate, but having the turkeys get too close creates movement issues.

Very nice!

Congratulations

Nice, congrats

Nice bird congratulations!

Nice job. You should get a prize for most unique turkey gun. Pretty cool.

Great bird wit a great story.

I'm jealous! 😉
I didn't make it out opening day.
Turkey's are still a bit thin here. They haven't recovered from the pox. ....AND....my hunting area is full of pigs! 😖
In fact, this year is the first time I've even SEEN any birds since 2019!

Congrats on a nice bird.
BTW, do you keep a hunting journal? You're still a young man! If you start now, you'll have all kinds of stories for your kids and grandkids!

P.S. - I'm about halfway between Lawton and the river, near Randlett. You?

Very nice bird. Sometimes I really think I stink at turkey hunting but occasionally I get lucky.

My place is in Alfalfa county about 10 miles south of Kansas.

I’ll be 55 next month, and I don’t keep a journal but need to.

I’ve spent years working to improve habitat, trapping and killing nest raiders, and NOT hunting turkeys with the hopes of seeing the population grow. At the same time, the guys on the places around mine are hunting them. Last year, I just said screw it and decided to quit denying myself the fun.

So, is that a Merriams? Tail tips look pretty light.
Maybe a Rio/Merriam's cross?
Apparently, the "pox" didn't hit as hard up there as it did down here.
It nearly wiped the slate clean down here.

I didn't start keeping a journal until I was about your age. It's still worth it!

Great bird!

Keep up the trapping and help with nesting cover and the birds will come. I'm seeing dramatic results here.