Post up your birds from this year-

Here's my 9 year old from Wednesday's Kansas youth opener (made a separate thread up in the circus with more pics)

Single shot .410, #9 tungsten, 7 yards from a blind. His second bird, just a bit smaller than last years. 9.5" beard on this one.

Awesome! Congrats to the kid!

Hell yeah!!

Nice spot for pics too.

Great picture, deserves being put in a frame, in his room. congratulations to the your man.

I love it !! Atta-Boy

Beautiful pic, Congrats.

No success pic for me today, called in a pair, but they hung up in thick stuff about 40 yards away. Had a blast though, they were hot. Tomorrow is another day!

Great picture!



Called in 3, killed the first one that ran his head up.

20.5lbs
9.75” beard
7/8 spurs

25yds

Youth 870 20 gauge
Federal Heavyweight 7’s
Tightwad .570

Opening day gobbler. 21 lbs. , 1" spurs , 9 3/4" beard ( with small double beard 8 1/2").

Called in to 33 yards.

Remington 11-87 Special Purpose. After market super full choke. Federal 12 ga. 3" Heavyweight 1 5/8oz. 7s.

RS

Nephew got a 10” beard this afternoon over at dads. Kid has a terrible poker face....

Nice pics cheesy! Thanks for sharing.

Nice bird ripsnort. What state?

Congrats to the young men! Only success I've had so far this season is drawing tags! My seasons are later this month.

8 am this morning
1 down
3 to go
2nd.day of Tennessee season.
Had a jake come in yesterday
Fugg jakes
Let em go let em grow.

9.5 beard
3/4 spurs
Probably 19 or 20 pds
2 yr old bird
Came in full strut from about 90 yards out
Gave him 2 clucks with the mouth call
Dropped fan tucked his wings
Waylayed him 38 39 yds out
Hevi 13 3.5 # 7,s
35 40 hits in the noggin

Thought I would have ta give him the boot heel
Got out to him in about 20 or 30 seconds
No boot heel needed.

Go back out tuesday or wensday.

4 tags, that’d be nice. We just got cut back to 1 tag from being allowed 2 in eastern Kansas. Population is way down. Thinking I can still get 2 in Missouri. It Ive never checked in on it.

Congrats on the bird.

Ripsnort-what state are you in? Looks like everybody is going to smaller, heavier shot. I will when I run out of my old lead shells in 20 years or so...

Don’t let this post keep you all from posting your own thread on your hunts either. Wasn’t intent of it at all.

Its a good thread to post up kills on.
Started out right with a kid waylaying one!!!!

That is a Tennessee bird. Came in silently after gobbling twice ten minutes apart to locate me.

RS

Great pic Cheesy. Congrats to the rest of you too. Youth season going on this weekend here, and the regular opener for most of the state is tomorrow.

Looks like the fun has started for most folks. Keep at it!

I had another come in this morning and couldn’t seal the deal. He was about 30 yds out, then turned and headed back to where he came from.

Headed back out tomorrow.

Getting antsy, 9 more days till opener. save some for me. Nice spurs, Popapi!

Had another come in this morning and hang up at about 40. 3rd day in a row. Decided to hunt until 11, moved around a bit on the ridge and 10:20 I had gobbling. Called a pair in took the first one to stick his neck out. 10” beard. Just finished plucking him, think I’m done for the year.

Awesome birds men, congratulations!! Our opener is next Monday and I’m ready for the aggravation, headaches, hurt feelings, tired feet, sore back, lack of sleep, ticks, chiggers, other dumb-ass hunters like myself, heartaches, heat stroke and a few more things.

But I wouldn’t have it any other way and I’ll love every minute of it...

Lol... Good summary. I welcome it all each Spring. Just like cold fingers while trout fishing.

Absolutely!
What scatter gun did you use to get the gobbler? Looks like his head caught hell.

12 Gauge 870 Express, the cheap Remington 3” turkey shells...haven’t moved over to the TSS, Heavyshot, etc. yet. Gun throws a pretty good pattern with old fashioned lead.

#2 this morning


18.5lbs
9..5” beard
3/4” spurs

17yds

Youth 870 20 gauge
Federal Heavyweight 7’s
Tightwad .570

I guess the only thing good about the quaritine is its turkey season, and I have land. Shot with my 12 gauge Rem 870 Special. #2 steel shot, 30 yds.

Nice! Always wondered how steel would work.

Anyone else plucking there birds, or is everyone breasting them out?

First time I have ever used steel shot. Really need to pattern this, as I only saw 2 hits to the head ,and 1 in the breast!!

9 yr old grandson got his first bird on Youth hunt in SC. 35 yds, Rem 1100LW mod choke, Fox Trot TSS # 8's. Don't know who was the most excited, him or me.

Charlie

keyboard test multiple keys

Good job Charlie gettin the young man on his first bird. A good one to boot.

Great thread!!!
Specially cause of the kids slaying em!!!!


#2 bout 2.5 hours ago

That is the way I was with my 9 year old as well. He knocked his over, its just laying there doing the death flop "did I get him? did I get him? did I get him?" yeah buddy, you got him.

Great pics everybody.

Warm evening tonight per weather report.
Need ta get back out in the morning.
Kinda wondering how high the cumberland has risen up.
Which might be a good thing forcing birds onto higher ground.

Agree, tomorrow morning will be good for Turkey shooting. Some hens out feeding in the fields tonight. Believe they are nesting nearby.

Nice work fellas, especially the kiddos! I'm hunting them vicariously this year since our Governor and game managers deemed hunting too risky. Hopefully in couple weeks they'll "let" us out to play.

Keep up the good work!

Just go, nobody is going to prison for hunting.

Henned up bad...
6 of em all around him
Watched him for 20 minutes.
He followed em all to that tree line.
Ph pic on 4x
Close as he got bout 110 yds.
2 of the hens drifted to within 45 50 yards of me
He hung back with his other honey babies
Called it a day at 10.
Try again tommorow.

https://postimg.cc/BL1cBkKw

https://postimg.cc/648sc90x

No, I won't go to jail but since the season is closed until further notice, that would make me a poacher and I'd just as soon not have that on my record.

Now, back to the success/out hunting posts!

Monday.

Huntin' & Fishin' are essential activities here. Did a little scouting and set up a blind on Thursday. Woods are really pretty now; violets, Virginia Bluebells, Trillium, redbud, dogwood, and some others I don't know.

Congrats to all the lucky boys, young ones and old ones too.

Bird #1...



And bird #2



Pretty good spurs. Both Idaho birds.



Dave

Roof-----Nice gobbler-----Did you do the hog hunt this year? I thought I saw your ugly mug in the group photo? LOL, Bob

Try and get out tommorow morning.
Mid 50,s tonight .
See what happens.....


Congrats on the birds guys!!!

Yes,.Had a blast as usual.....

I got my gobbler on Saturday 4/18 @ 7AM. Very typical hunt for me. I know where they like to roost and was there about 30 minutes before the 1st gobble. I heard him sound off on the ridge above me and I setup covering the floor of the canyon. I make a couple of soft "yelps"---he hammers back. Then I just let him gobble & gobble. About in another 15 minutes----I do another couple soft yelps. He hammers back. All is quiet. He's down out of the tree. He gobbles once on the groud----I yelp back. Then he comes out of the scrub oak @ 150 yards down the canyon floor. He's comes my way and stops @ 100 yards out & struts around for a good 10 minutes. I do a real real soft yelp. He gobbles & struts over to the creek bed & looks down it both ways. Then turns & come up the creek bed towards me. He gets about even with me & heads right to the tree I'm sitting under. He gets to about 25 yards & I hammer him. He was in strut this entire time @ 20 minutes from the when he comes out of the scrub oak to the shot. He's a 2 year old. About 5/8" spurs, 8 1/2 " beard. I used my old 870 Remington that I bought back in 1971 from money I made delivering newspapers after school . It only shoots 2 3/4" shells. I use #4's 1 5/8 oz Kent Shells. I do love turkey hunting----I'm hooked on that "Gobble."


[img]https://www.trapshooters.com/attachments/upload_2020-4-20_13-3-7-jpeg.1677039/[/img]
[img]https://www.trapshooters.com/attachments/upload_2020-4-20_13-13-2-jpeg.1677041/[/img]

Congrats on some nice hints fellas. Nice write up Bob.

Quickest hunt ever. Opening day my 17 year old daughter and I bagged this double. Then entire hunt was over in 15 minutes!

I had not heard any birds in over a week so I was not very optimistic. We hit the first field at daybreak and called a little with no response. Moved on to our second field and in the trees between the two she heard a gobble probably a quarter mile away. I rushed to set up two decoys and fumbled a little as I have never hunted over decoys in my 30+ years of turkey hunting. I no more than got them set out at about 25 yards and they gobbled on the edge of the field where we couldn't see them. I gave a few yelps and they lit up again. Since I could hear multiple gobbles I assumed we were about to get a visit from a group of jakes. Nope, first bird struts up to the decoys and he was a "swinger" (if the beard is swinging, where shooting). I tell her to wait as another tom passes behind him, once by she drops him in his tracks with the little 20 Gauge, 2 3/4" #5's. At the shot the second tom heads left and I stand up and bust him at 30 yards, 12 Gauge 2 3/4" #4's. All over but the cleaning!

Nice! Sounds like a well done hunt.

A couple of nice gobblers---Conglads-----Plus you got to hunt your daughter----Way Cool.

Good post.

Here's one of your pics-this bulletin board only allows a web address ending in .jpg or .jpeg (and a couple other file types). Yours ends in the numbers, but if you delete the numbers it gives an error-so I uploaded it to imgur for you-

Good to see some real turkey guns being used.

I'll tattle on myself, Sunday night set up where dad had been seeing some birds each evening. After an hour or so of hearing nothing I see a hen across the creek by her lonesome. Just messing around throwing some yelps at her trying to get her over to me to maybe entice a longbeard later, she totally ignores me. In one of those calling sequences to my right I hear some exited putting. Another hen had came into the field not 30 yards away from me and didn't like my calling evidently. She eventually calms down, cozies up with my decoy and goes to feeding. Hear a gobble back in the timber a long ways off. Another hen shows up, plus the hen that was ignoring me comes across the creek. They all end up within 10 yards of me at one point. Purring, and putting and yelping full volume. Those live decoys worked, and here comes the tom. The girls go off in his general direction, he's putting on a show. I'm yelping. He's gobbling. Strutting. Good show. Head glowing red. The hens start moving in the other direction, he starts to follow, I get impatient. Take a shot that I knew was too long for my modified choked 16 guage, and get the pleasure of watching him fly off into the sunset.

Luckily, last night dad texts me that he is watching what has to be the same bird following the same hens at the same time. He was strutting and got up to about where I took my shot from before he decided he didn't like a repeat of the night before and went and eased off the other direction.

Sunday morning we got up at .4am to drive the 90 miles to hunt. My daughter had never been. She got to hear continuous gobbling on the roost for 30 minutes and then watch a display for another 30 minutes of strutting and gobbling while a longbeard followed some hens around at 100+ yards. Didn’t want to come in though.



Her brother that I started this thread off with, slept.

8 am this morning.
# 3 Tn bird.
1 Tn tag left.
Be nice if they opened up Ft Campbell from this overblown C19 scare .....
Would have 2 more Fed tags then.

Did your dog slobber all over him or what? Looks all wet.

Nice bird. We can only shoot one bird in eastern Kansas. Population way down due to several years of flooding in a row.

Carrying him out thru wet field grass.
Shotgun 1 hand , turkey other.
I dont carry em over the shoulder.
Especially on public lands.

Got my Missouri bird today. 20 gauge tristar raptor. 33 yards Old school Federal premiums 3" #6. Hunted for other stuff too.....

Nice Bobby!

One Oregon Rio so far.....limit is three.
9 10/16” beard.
Fell to a load of #6’s from a 20ga muzzleloader shotgun.
I missed the first Tom I shot at. Two jakes came into my setup and a big Tom ran in from behind.
He saw me raise the shotgun and started jinking and dodging..... I shot right over his head at 10 yards!

Print that last picture in a large format or canvas or something.

Might do that cheesy......Preciate it.

Thanks Joe

Nubby buck.




SBE2 w/ 3.5"/#5 Longbeard

Late afternoon the boss bird returned to the morning strutting zone following a hen who had called him in for me:

Trophy pic here:



































At least MN allows me to try again in the last season.
Hope to score around Memorial day time.

Success this AM.

Pretty uneventful hunt. Birds really didn't gobble much. I set up calling to a bird I felt was across a creek and a couple hundred yards away on another farm but nothing else going on so I thought what the hell.

Called once, this joker gobbled less than 100 yards away. Gave him a minute and he gobbled even closer, called once and he gobbled about 40 yards. Came another 15 or so and the 10 bore roared.

About 3-4 minutes from first call sequence til I dropped the hammer.

Love the photo. Rick looks like your another Lefty !! What semi is that?

Thanks Colorado. Actually I'm a righty, picture somehow got reversed. It's a Stoeger 3500. Opening morning here in PA. Had an eventful morning. Had one longbeard come in to 100 yards and strut off for no reason I could figure. Moved toward another bird that gobbled. Got set up and a coyote came trotting by, again too far to shoot. Bird went quiet for a while. Finally gobbled again, so I moved. About 45 minutes and this one came in with 2 Jake's. Dropped at about 25 yards. It was a fun morning.

By the way, pretty bird in your avatar.

The "Serb" and I went out this morning and he brought in this jake.....Took him with an old school Model 59 Winchester......

Nice birds fellas! I always enjoy hearing how hunts unfold. It’s never what you’d expect. Good stuff!

Great bunch of pics, fellers !!! ESPECIALLY like the youngsters !!!

Cheesy.........that second young man in the barn pic...........you got Rios creeping into your neighborhood ??? Really light borders for a MO bird. Liking it !!!

I ran into this one yesterday. Pulled the trigger, honest to goodness, at 11:59 AM. We gotta quit at noon.

Got this bird in CT this morning. They went the other way off the roost but I was able to loop around and called him in. A dose of Magnum Blend ruined his morning!





Had a busted spur..

Thats 70 miles or so into Kansas at my dad's place. If you look at a turkey distribution map thers often a band right through there labeled as "hybrid". They're just a turkey to me though....:)

Great pics guys-

Got my first ever in Maine this morning
Can someone post a pic if I text a pic?

Here’s bluefishes

Cheesy was kind enough to offer to pose a couple pics. I got a call about 530 this morning from my hunting partner who said they were pretty active behind his place so I went there and after a brief council of war decided I'd head down about broadside to the calling gobbler with a ridge between us. I found a nice big tree root to sit on in a shady spot and hit the call. The gobbler immediately went silent and then called back. We did this three or four times and then I sat still. In about 2 minutes he came up and over and was about 40 yards away doing his thing with the fan out and strutting along. I hit the smaller call and he started bobbing and weaving toward me. I picked out an opening at about a 45 degree angle to my left and right about 20 yards ahead. Thought he was goin to stay the course to the right then changed his mind and went left. When he hit the spot I pressed the trigger and down he went. I must say it was about as exciting as having a nice buck come through during the November deer season. I'd never really hunted them and certainly hadn't called before but figured to try this year. He was missing a couple of tail feathers but I got the spurs off him. Guess I'll fill them with something so they don't collapse or get broken. I understand why folks get so into this. We can shoot two bearded birds in Maine in the spring and one of each sex in the fall so I thing I'll be going back out to see if I can call another one in. Thanks again, Cheesy for putting up a pic for me!

Jeff

Guess I need a better camera!

Congratulations bluefish. Welcome to the addiction. That's a great first bird.

It is addicting for sure.

I'm guessing you were moving on that second picture is why its blurry.

Gotcha.

"Just a turkey", maybe............ But cool lookin birds with those pale buff tips. Good stuff !!

Been a hard year for me. Started the 15th of April and did this for 3 weeks.



Saw hens, a couple of jakes and one big tom. Been chasing that tom for 3 weeks. Called him in twice but couldn't get a good shot. He finally made that fatal mistake. Pretty happy with this one. 8+" beard, 1" hooks. 20 year old Beretta 391 Sporting, full choke that came with it, Remington Nitro turkey 3" #5's. Thanks for looking


gary fallout

Nice gobbler

Called another bird in for my Dad today. Having a pretty good spring and he just got a new hip in March.

Son of a friend killed this one a couple days ago in Virginia.....He kills a big every year....



Video in the future a possibility..

Great pics.....

Thanks, battle. I’m of the age where phone cameras kinda amaze me. Just an old iPhone 6. Modern technology is a wonderment. (If that’s a word)

Video of my Bud's Son's Turkey at 15 yards.....


https://www.instagram.com/p/CADceOWA-V2/?igshid=1k4y7f2s2vhg7

Thanks for posting Harry! The boy has been bagging them Tom's with that 20 ga since he was 9 years old.. @ 23, still his go to gun for turkey season!

Whelen Nut made use of a leftover/bonus permit.
Penitentiary-face-in-photos scores again.

Well naturally a thumbs up!!!!
But seriously the Turkey looks happier. 😁

LOL. I said the same thing.
I'll buzz ya soon to catch up.

Killed a couple birds here in NYS.

A couple weeks ago I had a great morning chasing what I thought was an adult but turned out to be a jake after 3.5 hours around about 100 acres. When he actually came into the call he wasn't alone, he had four buddies. I'd have bet a $100 it was an adult coming in but when they did come, only one had the white head and all had short beards. grin



Yesterday I had another good hunt but this one ended with a nice adult. 9.5" beard, 1" & 7/8" spurs and 19lbs bird on the ground.



I used my 20 year old SBE with #5 Winchester Long Beard 3.5" loads for those interested in that.

Well done, Larry!


I wrapped things up today. I enjoy the later seasons (usually buy a leftover bonus tag) but damn, the birds have had the kitchen sink thrown at them for almost 6 weeks now - I believe they're even suspicious to the calls of live hens - even when they have visual contact.

3.5"/#5 Longbeards

That’s a great picture, congratulations, well done.

Great picture. Congratulations......

Nice bird

Love using my SBE..congrats.