2019 Turkey Picture Thread

mallardsx2

Veteran member
Jul 8, 2015
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I am certainly not ragging on you guys for hunting them with your bows but stories like this are 100% why I dont hunt them with a bow.

I stuck a gobbler in archery season one year and it was a good shot buy he took to the air and got up above the branches and the last I saw of him he was gliding down into a clear-cut slashing a couple hundred yards away. I knew I had to have killed him so I went home and got the lab (Which may or may not have been illegal at the time, but I felt pretty bad about not being able to find him on my own) and we found him very dead in the middle of a huge brush pile a couple hours later.

I had hit the bird about as perfect as you would want to hit one with a muzzy 4 blade.

Total distance traveled -At least 200 yards.

Glad to see you guys are tearing them up!

Congrats!
 
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CrimsonArrow

Very Active Member
Feb 21, 2011
850
355
Minnesota
This is only the 4th turkey I’ve shot with the bow, and I’ve gotten every one. Sure, the recovery was sloppy and very lucky, but so are some big game kills. I limited myself to 25 yards, and under most circumstances I can hit a golf ball every time at that range. In reality,an arrow strike in over half of a turkey’s body will result in a dead bird very quickly
 

Bonecollector

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Mar 9, 2014
5,852
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Ohio
This may be alarming to some but I fancy myself to be extremely accurate at long range with a bow as I?ve discussed on here before. My furthest kill with the bow on a turkey was 74 yards. I?ve never lost one will stick and string. However I do typically hunt them with a shotgun.


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Fink

Veteran member
Apr 7, 2011
1,961
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West Side, MoMo
This may be alarming to some but I fancy myself to be extremely accurate at long range with a bow as I?ve discussed on here before. My furthest kill with the bow on a turkey was 74 yards. I?ve never lost one will stick and string. However I do typically hunt them with a shotgun.


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I've shot 3 birds over 50 yards with my bow, recovering all of them. All 3 birds were clean up birds after a buddy had shot at a tom in the decoys. The only birds I've ever lost with a bow have all been within 15 yards.

This year, we enacted a head shots only rule, with using the bows. Its been really fun, and I like the idea of either a clean miss, or a pretty much instant kill. A strutting tom facing you makes for an excellent head/neck shot opportunity.
 

bowtech840

New Member
Sep 12, 2018
12
20
I started shooting large mechanicals at turkeys and haven?t lost one since switching (knock on wood). I don?t think any of them have even made it out of the spread that I can think of. I started bow hunting turkeys using coc heads years ago but I got sick of chasing after them so I switched to grim reapers. With front deploying blades the turkey takes a lot more of the shock from arrow impact rather than just zipping through them with coc. Usually knocks them off of their feet and they don?t make it far. If you are using coc heads and are having trouble with losing birds try a mechanical. Good luck!

A friend and I got a double this morning here in Iowa









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cking13

Active Member
May 20, 2017
249
175
VA
Busted my first eastern of the season this morning. I?ve been messing with this bird every morning for a week. He finally messed up this morning when he saw my jake decoy. Completed my first single season half slam haha.


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CrimsonArrow

Very Active Member
Feb 21, 2011
850
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Minnesota
F21E4B3D-49D2-47EF-B7A3-320D3BDBD896.jpgmy son called this big guy in for his friend last night. 10 1/4” beard and spurs over 1”. It was the kid’s first turkey
 

Fink

Veteran member
Apr 7, 2011
1,961
204
West Side, MoMo
Welp.. That's a wrap for my turkey season. hunted 5 days, killed 4, and called one in for a buddy. Get to play guide/caller now!

Hunted a farm this morning that I've had success on in the past. Set up under the tree where I shot one last spring. Bird starts gobbling across from me, pretty much in the same spot as last springs bird. Only problem is the field is way overgrown this year, last year it was a beautiful mowed pasture.
The bird hammers it on the roost pretty good, before flying down and hanging out with his hens. By about 8am, with no ability to close the distance, and having a terrible strutting field in front of me, I was resigned to daydreaming.
I was sitting there at 830, staring off into space, minding my own business, when I hear:
TICK! boooooooommmmmmmmm!
I was thinking I was hearing things, but then heard baabooommmmmmmmmmmm again, but couldnt tell where it was coming from. I finally got the turned around to check behind me. No strutter. Nothing in front of me. Maybe I'm hearing things...
Baaaboommmmmmmm!!
Look to my right, Oh, there he is. 150 yards away, in full strut. I yelp to him, he hammers out a gobble. I yelp a bit more excited, he hammers it again, then, out of nowhere, a hen cackles in front of me, jumps up and flies directly at me, and lands in my tree, 10 feet above me. OMG.. I'm screwed, hen right above me, gun sitting on the ground beside me... There's no way I'll be able to get my gun and not have her bust me. She starts calling, and he goes nuts.
Over the next 5 minutes I slowly grab my gun and get it up, just in time for him to completely commit, and come racing in. Shot him at 15 yards with my old A5.

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00BUCK

Active Member
Feb 23, 2011
290
177
NorCal
I was able to get my daughter out in the field before church on Sunday. It was her first Turkey hunt and she loved it.MVIMG_20190421_065513.jpg
 

ando_31

Active Member
Sep 14, 2012
402
0
ND
Had the step kiddo out on his first hunt. His grandpa tagged along as well. Both had a great time. Only got 2 hours of turkey hunting in before stalking up on this bird. Climbed a lot of buttes and shot a lot of prairie dogs for the rest of the weekend.

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87TT

Very Active Member
Apr 23, 2013
593
1,052
Idaho
Went up the mountain today and managed to call in this jake. Was cool to run into a herd of elk and some deer on the way out

IMG_7965 FAVE Steve and his turkeyaa.jpg
 

CrimsonArrow

Very Active Member
Feb 21, 2011
850
355
Minnesota
Had the step kiddo out on his first hunt. His grandpa tagged along as well. Both had a great time. Only got 2 hours of turkey hunting in before stalking up on this bird. Climbed a lot of buttes and shot a lot of prairie dogs for the rest of the weekend.

View attachment 23387
What a cool place to kill a bird, wish nonresidents could get a spring tag there
 

Slugz

Veteran member
Oct 12, 2014
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Woodland Park, Colorado
Got my ass kicked in Nebraska.

1) First off. Nebraska has some of the nicest people around. If you never hunted the state it was awesome interacting with others. Love the small towns. We hunted around Elwood Nebraska.
2) I'm used to turkey hunting in the mountains with only 30-50 yards of visibility due to shrubs, forage, trees. I never realized or experienced how good their eyes are 500 some yards away.
3) That being said I gooned up a couple set ups due to concealment issues, full moon that was brighter and allowed them to see me during the sneak in while roosted, moved my barrel once 3-5 inches.....and totally fonged away a 30 yard shot on a screamer that came running in.

All in all it was a utter blast and we had a great time. We hunted 2.5 days and heard gobbling and got into birds every hunt. 3 am and 2 pm hunts. My buddy got two jakes that were tender as all heck.

The overriding lesson learned was I underestimated the birds. Thought it was gonna be easy like on tv. Man was I wrong. Cant wait till next year as we are already planning a Turkeepalooza 2020 multi state trip for 10 days.

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Joseph

Active Member
Jan 25, 2014
221
109
Creston BC Canada
Eleven days into our spring season, fourth morning of hunting so far and had this mature tom come into my set up at 6:30am. I got in there and set up before 5am and had the first hens cross the opening 15min later but I didn't hear this guy until 6am, and it took almost exactly 1/2 an hour to commit. Once he laid eyes on my cheap(but surprisingly effective) blowup decoys he came right into 30m. A beautiful mature Merriam tom, 9" beard, 1" spurs. Just a perfect morning here in the Purcell rockies, I didn't even have to climb too high to get him. Turkey hunting has become by far my most favourite spring hunt, I like getting out and looking for black bears but calling in a tom is addictive.

Hopefully I can get my daughter onto one this year but with soccer season in full swing and her outdoor adventure class she doesn't have a lot of time this spring. We got out once last weekend but she was sore from games and didn't have a lot of go left in her, we heard birds quite close twice but never did see them. We still have time, fingers crossed.DSCF1870.jpgDSCF1867.jpgDSCF1874.jpgDSCF1868.jpg
 

Bonecollector

Veteran member
Mar 9, 2014
5,852
3,656
Ohio
50 yard poke - big bird down!
No not The Big Bird. [emoji23]

10 1/2 beard
1 1/4 spurs
22lb









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Joseph

Active Member
Jan 25, 2014
221
109
Creston BC Canada
Very nicely done Bonecollector, congratulations on a successful hunt. Are those also Merriam turkeys? It's the only type I've ever hunted or seen.
 

Bonecollector

Veteran member
Mar 9, 2014
5,852
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Ohio
Very nicely done Bonecollector, congratulations on a successful hunt. Are those also Merriam turkeys? It's the only type I've ever hunted or seen.
Thank you Joseph. This particular sub species of turkey is called the Eastern Turkey. Found predominantly in eastern United States and the southern portion of eastern Canada if I am not mistaken.


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gonhunting247

Veteran member
Jan 21, 2014
1,161
730
Had my son over and we set up on a bird I've been working on for awhile. It worked perfect and he hammered him bright and early.ATT00001.jpg