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2024 Turkey Thread

GCTerpfan said:
No, my dad was hunting with me. We were hunting out of a blind since I was planning on using my bow. He brought his shotgun on the hopes we could double up.

This bird appeared out of nowhere and was walking fast right to left across the log landing in front of the blind. It was out of bow range so I told dad to grab his gun and shoot. By the time he picked up his gun the bird was already past his field of view. I was on the right side of the blind so I had a few extra seconds of seeing the bird. He handed the gun to me and told me to shoot.

He bought a new Steven’s 20 gauge last week. I feel a little guilty shooting the first bird with it.
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If he's anything like my Dad would have been, he was just proud his son finally did something he was told to do without having to ask 3-4 times. :p

Nice bird!! Congrats to yall.
 
Last morning of 1st season turned out to be the best of the 5 days. The birds were noisier after hitting the ground than they were on the limb. The field I sat on yesterday and didn't see a bird or hear anything close was the Hotspot today. Called 3 in at about 9:30 and shot the 1st one to get clear of the brush. 23.4lbs, 10-1/4" beard and 1-1/4" spurs.
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Opening day tomorrow. I've got a couple of spots in mind where I've seen a couple of long beards but most of what I've been seeing this preseason are jakes tending flocks of hens. Not thinking that's a good omen for this year . . .
 
Finally tracked one down, well 6 or 7. Moved in to about 70 yards from the roost in the dark. They were drumming in the tree 45 minutes before gobble light. One subordinate tom pitched down first, followed by two hens, then the 5 dominate toms. Almost immediately after the dominant birds pitched, the subordinate moved off. I confirmed he was a longbeard when strutting, but he would not give a full gobble after he hit the ground. I played my calls at him all morning, either to entice him or to anger the 5. I suspect the subordinate was a 3 y/o or better bird. The entire flocked milled around at 60 yards and after calling the subordinate back to 50 or so yards, the 5 ran him off but played closer to me. The lead bird made a move back towards his hens (or so I thought) and I let the 410 bark at 30 yards.

Upon footage review, either the original subordinate had looped towards the hens or another gobbler had moved in from God knows where and the bird I killed had seen him pop strut. Screenshot_20240422_093204_Gallery.jpg
 
A group of 7 of us just got back from a WY. We killed 10 birds in 3 days. This was our 1st time hunting Merriams. We killed 6 birds the last day. The of us drew tags in the lottery so we were able to get a 2nd tag. All tags were filled and we had a heck of a time.

The things I learned is those birds are always heading somewhere, and don’t hang out in one spot. If you get high, glass them, and figure out where going they are easy to kill. If you get a hen to come in, there will undoubtedly be a Tom with her. You are going to walk a lot. We averaged 11 miles a day.

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shmelton said:
A group of 7 of us just got back from a WY. We killed 10 birds in 3 days. This was our 1st time hunting Merriams. We killed 6 birds the last day. The of us drew tags in the lottery so we were able to get a 2nd tag. All tags were filled and we had a heck of a time.

The things I learned is those birds are always heading somewhere, and don’t hang out in one spot. If you get high, glass them, and figure out where going they are easy to kill. If you get a hen to come in, there will undoubtedly be a Tom with her. You are going to walk a lot. We averaged 11 miles a day.

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I only count seven birds! LOL! What a haul! Congrats!!
 
shmelton said:
A group of 7 of us just got back from a WY. We killed 10 birds in 3 days. This was our 1st time hunting Merriams. We killed 6 birds the last day. The of us drew tags in the lottery so we were able to get a 2nd tag. All tags were filled and we had a heck of a time.

The things I learned is those birds are always heading somewhere, and don’t hang out in one spot. If you get high, glass them, and figure out where going they are easy to kill. If you get a hen to come in, there will undoubtedly be a Tom with her. You are going to walk a lot. We averaged 11 miles a day.

d97c258e5c1b77105345bb3269a0cd5a.jpg

409c6468f2b4a6d278454fa1ca0feef7.jpg

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Congrats! I have a friend going out there in a week or so. Sounds like a blast (literally). I'll pass along the tips on hunting them to him.
 
NMSbowhunter said:
Congrats! I have a friend going out there in a week or so. Sounds like a blast (literally). I'll pass along the tips on hunting them to him.
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Tell them if the wind is blowing, keep covering ground, and call every 50 yds. There are so many elevation changes, you may hear one 1.5 miles a way, go after him, and not hear him again until he’s in your pocket. We killed 3 birds that were like that. They don’t spook like Easterns do either. Don’t get me wrong, you can booger them. But, if they spot you and it’s windy freeze, they will settle down, and keep moving. Wait for them to get out of sight, and intercept them.

If there are 2 Toms together, and one gets shot. There is a good chance the 2nd Tom is going to flog the dead bird. It’s an easy way to fill another tag.

Don’t judge the bird by his beard, look at the fan. We passed up several 2 yr olds with 4-5” beards only to be told by a hunting partner that it was a mature bird because we weren’t looking at the fans.

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shmelton said:
Tell them if the wind is blowing, keep covering ground, and call every 50 yds. There are so many elevation changes, you may hear one 1.5 miles a way, go after him, and not hear him again until he’s in your pocket. We killed 3 birds that were like that. They don’t spook like Easterns do either. Don’t get me wrong, you can booger them. But, if they spot you and it’s windy freeze, they will settle down, and keep moving. Wait for them to get out of sight, and intercept them.

If there are 2 Toms together, and one gets shot. There is a good chance the 2nd Tom is going to flog the dead bird. It’s an easy way to fill another tag.

Don’t judge the bird by his beard, look at the fan. We passed up several 2 yr olds with 4-5” beards only to be told by a hunting partner that it was a mature bird because we weren’t looking at the fans.

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Thanks! I will definitely pass along this advice.
 
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