I know Rich, so far I've hunted 9 out of the 11 days this season, seen or heard birds everyday except for one day. I know I'm in the right area and there are lots of birds it's just hitting that right day when one of those gobblers is ready. No hunting on Monday for me this week, but I'll be out the rest of the week. We'll see.

JD

We been out a few times. Lots of jakes but nothing really to brag about. Seen a momma bear with 2 cubs, no deer.

I scored this morning. I worked him for almost an hour, it seemed like forever. It wouldn't come into my yelps or my cutting. So I shut up for a while, then purred and clucked, and he came in silent.

9 1/2" beard
1 1/4" spurs

nice bird.   Have you been hearing much down that way?    dd

Rich

One day I don't hear a peep and I know they are in the area. The next day they are gobbling crazy...

This guy didn't gobble that much.

Today when I got home, I figured I'd get myself a bite to eat before skinning the turkey. I laid the bird beside my shed and went in my place to eat. While I'm eating my sandwich I look out the kitchen window and here comes a gobbler. This gobbler sees my gobbler laying beside the shed and cautiously walks over to it and starts pecking the hell out of it. He wouldn't quit. I ended up going out side to run it off. Talk about kicking a guy when he's down...

Congrats Buff....

It look awhile but you got the job done !!!

I think this is the first year I can rememebr I have not heard one single gobble coming from the woods behind my place????

Thanks for sharing the photos

I know I did not get out as much as I would have liked to, but the only day I heard no gobbling was on # 54.   dd

I could have had a nice gobbler this morning on the way to the store...

BIG bird.. beard touching the road as it walked across in front of me...

About 1:30 yesterday afternoon a nice gobbler crossed the road between the windmills and the llamas (headed for the fields). There was a lone hen about 50 yards in front of him.

Doc,

I saw a dead turkey in the ditch on my way home from work today. Same place, between windmills and llamas. I didn't stop to see if it was a hen or a gobbler. It's a shame.

Camera "in hand" and I am off to check it out.....

thanks

Unfortunately it was a male...

Luckily... not the one I saw but maybe the one you saw in that area ??

I THINK it was probably a "jake"..

He just had "stubs" for spurs and only a 4 1/2 inch beard...

I want to save the tail (spread out) and put it in my "camp"...

I cut it off at the body..

NOW what do I do ?????
---------
Here's a photo --

 

--Last edited by Dr Trout on 2007-05-23 17:48:27 --

It is a jake. See the longer tail feathers in the middle = jake.

Not the one I saw Saturday, it was a longbeard.

Tack it spread out on a board, salt the flesh parts, and let it dry.  

--Last edited by Buff on 2007-05-23 18:54:05 --

THANKS Buff..

I got it spread out after cutting off some of the fluffy feathers on the back side and as much flesh as possible from both sides...

Loaded it with Morton's salt (not to the wife's pleasure ??)

and we'll see what happens..

Tell ya one thing..
I kind of like the spread tail.. think I'll go out behind the house tommorrow morning and see if I can call one in for REAL !!!!

Congrats Buff, nice bird. Well all my efforts paided off finally on Weds. the 23rd at 10 am. It was a strange morning in the turkey woods, we worked 3 different gobblers on the roost early. They hit the ground and that was it, not a sound until 9:55 am. Out of no where we all of sudden had 3 different gobblers in 3 different directions gobbling and yelping like mad! The bird I shot ran down the edge of a freshly planted corn field gobbling his head off.He stopped 20 yards away right in front of me and that was all she wrote, BANG!!!
He weighted 18 pounds, had a 9 1/2 inch beard and 1 inch spurs.
All told I hunted 18 days this season, a first for me ever. It was a hunt of a life time, right in my own back yard, hopefully what I learned this season will lead to future sucessful hunts. Always remember the first rule of turkey hunting- There are NO rules!!

       


         
First time I've posted pictures on the net.Any help would be great they are large!
5/23/07 18lbs. 9 1/2" beard, & 1" spurs. Taken in WMU 2B  

--Last edited by Dr Trout on 2007-05-28 17:04:47 --

Congrats long beard!

Nice gobbler.

You got the "There are NO rules" thing right!

Nice bird long beard.. Congrats !!

I took the liberty to make the photos smaller and folks can click on the "thumb nail" and see the larger version....


YOU can click on the edit icon to your post and see the coding I used to do it...

basically it's the
URL code for the large photo and then the same url BUT using an IMG tag and adding a   th_   before the  "name" of the photo..


so it looks like this  ---

[URL= http--address of the large photo] [IMG] same but
add the

th_

before the jpg name

[/img][/url$

now I used a dollar sign instead of a left facing bracket so the code would show up..

you would need a

   ]

instead of dollar sign

nice photos too


TL LATER..
Doc  

--Last edited by Dr Trout on 2007-05-28 17:25:31 --

nice birds everyone.
lb, here's a link to a pb tutorial for adding thumbnails.
http://tutorials.photobucket.com/tutorial_75.html
check the photo section for more tutorials. they're located in the thread titled "sharing photos".

Thanks Doc for doctoring up those pictures. The first time I tried it I had it right but I changed to the other setting and got the big pics. Thanks for all the helpful info. I  really enjoy your message board and the people on it. Keep up  the great work, and I'll keep telling everyone about your great message board. Thanks again.

JD