Not a Parker but it is always nice to hear when a young person gets into hunting. This is the 5th bird my brother George helped in calling in this season. George received a call yesterday asking if he would be willing to help a local girl try and get a turkey. They meet at 5:15 is morning, had birds gobble of the roost. 45 minutes later the gobbler arrived and gave them a show a 30 yards. Even better her dad was there to watch her get her first turkey.

That's a great look'n turkey no matter what gun it was taken with.

I need to get out west for one of those colorful birds.... :D

A great gobbler in anybody’s book!

Congratulations to the shooter and caller. Must have been a very special moment!





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What a turkey! Beautiful and huge!

Hoosier Bird
 

Birds were very active this morning, one of the most exciting hunts I have been on. I had set up before daylight on a field edge where I have been seeing birds. Put out one Jake decoy and very luckily ended up in the perfect spot. 1 bird to my right at 75 yards or so carrying on and another across the field in the tree line about 150 yards with I don't know how many others gobbling. Not long after daylight there were 3 Toms, 3 Jakes, and 6 hens out in the field. The Toms were trying to figure out who was boss and not gobbling much after they hit the ground but the hens were talking and that got several other birds gobbling. Next thing I know I have birds coming from the North and the South at the same time. It wasn't long before this guy decided to check out the Jake decoy. Long shot at some 15 yards but the GHE was up to the task with 1 1/8 oz of #5's from Morris of RST fame. He was so close I used the Mod barrel. When he hit the ground and commenced to flapping things really got crazy. Every bird in the field joined in, the more I cut and carried on the more excited they became. Pretty darned enjoyable morning. Kept the thighs and drumsticks off this one to make some soup, yummy.

Put that one down in your journal as "Perfection." Refer to it when times are not as wonderful. Congratulations, Randy. What do you suppose your heart rate was during all this?

Don't know Garry but it sure was exciting. I'll remember that hunt a long time, as you know they only come around like that so often.

When we get to PA in June , remind of spring turkeys . Might have a little something for you .:cool:

Yes sir !

Thats what I wanna do , if I can get my cousin out to call one in for me . Can't decide between the DH 8 or the hammer 8 :whistle:

Were you using 1 1/2 or a 1 3/4 load ?

Hmmmmm, that's putting a lot of pressure on me to remember.

that's a big fine bird congratulations to the shooter and the caller....charlie

Last few days of the season Gobbler
 

Getting late in the season, but, sometimes you need the big gun:)

Congrats. Season is closed here so the Toms are back in the yard again strutting by the Grandkids swing set.

We have been seeing a bunch of turkey, I think I observed about 15 gobblers that morning in the field I was watching, maybe 4 long beards and the rest smaller birds and jakes.
I would have loved to shoot a long beard, but they were not at all interested in my calling, so after sitting in the stand/blind for 7 hours, I decided to take what was offered.
Stan

We saw a bunch on Dad's place this weekend. As usual . . . they know the season is not in.

Ha, you have that right, Mills. When I pulled up to the farm the other day for some work, I was greeted by 4 toms at my gate.

You should have invited them in for dinner.

:rotf::rotf::rotf:

Been a tuff year! Finally got my bird the other day! He’s an old boy for sure. Longest spur was almost 1 3/4” if the tip wasn’t broke off. Must have been a fighter. The beard was long but no where as thick as most I shoot on my property. Looks like he’s got a little white/grey in a few of his tail feathers…like me.lol. Where the white is the top bands are thinner. Wonder if he lost them and they grew back that way?

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I got in the woods late. It was 8:10am. This guy started gobbling at 10:53am across the road on my neighbors property. He kept gobbling non stop every 30 seconds to a couple of minutes till it finally showed up at 5:03pm! Made for a long, long, long, but rewarding day. I did shoot and remove a coyote coming into my call last week as well. One less hunter in my property!

Very nice bird. Love the picture of the spur.

The other spur was broken off about an inch is so out from the base. He must of gave that coyote a lashing before I did!

That’s a fine old longbeard Cory!





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Nice old mature bird there Cory,
You showed some great patience on that bird, what area of the country are you in, the birds here in Pa showed no interest in my calls?

It was probably my awful calling but it seemed to me they were past the mating season, no gobbling or strutting.

Except for a small jake that was intent on breeding my hen decoy, he kept on her till he had knocked her off the stake in the ground and then when she was laying/sitting on the ground, he had his way with her:whistle:

Stan

I’m in Wisconsin. It depended on what day I was out. Some days I heard zero gobbling and the next day they gobbled all day. It’s like they turned on and off like a light switch. Seems like right after a rain or on a day with zero wind was when they were most active. Today is the last day of of our sixth and of our season here. It rained all night and the wind was blowing 30/40 mph. I’m waiting to see it the wind dies down a bit before I head out. I did hear one yesterday with 20 plus mph wind but it stayed out in an open field on the neighbor’s property. I have one day left and another tag to fill. I’m sure I won’t get lucky enough to fill it but will at least get out some time today for a while and enjoy nature. I called in a lot of birds this season. Some I couldn’t get clear shots at and some wouldn’t close the distance. I had three different birds so close I could feel the ground shake when they drummed but couldn’t see them because the new growth and brush in my woods is so thick. I finally got smart and left my DSD decoys in the truck. I had four different Toms and hens lock up and wouldn’t come in because of them. They would stop out of range and lock up staring at them and eventually walk away or spook from the decoys for some reason. As soon as I stopped using my decoys birds were walking right up to me. I just checked our forecast currently the wind is 16 miles an hour and it’s supposed to get up to 18 miles an hour so I believe my hunting for spring turkey 2022 is probably done. All my property is wooded so the birds definitely will not be coming in with the trees and leaves whipping today. They roost on my property and fly over to the neighbors field. Normally between nine and 11 they’ll come walking back in after they breed when all goes well.

Edited…I did go out for the last day of our 6th and final week for about five hours. The forecast said the wind was 18 mph plus. It had to be closer to 25 to 30 mph like yesterday by the time I called it quits. Didn’t see or hear and birds today. I did have a red tailed hawk take a swoop at me and come within about 10’ before I flinched and it veered off. Close one!

Finally got around to mounting my fan today. Used a fallen cedar tree on my property.

Two days working on and off trying to fabricate a fan mount. I cut up a few downed cedar trees blocking my trail last winter. Plan was to was to use them for firewood and smoking. Started with three pieces a coupe of days ago and broke all of them trying to open up the inside to insert a photo. I glued this one back together and started sanding. Finished it off with minwax antique finish left over from my 1873 Charles Daly stock set. Left the mount on the table to dry over night. I’ll hang up it by my other fans tomorrow.


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https://i.imgur.com/aYlMVjM.jpg

If anyone is interested I used fiberglass bondo on the tail fan to set it. I first cleaned all the meat and fat off around the tail feathers and applied borax. The fan was pretty beat up and lost a lot of feathers so I was pretty pleased it turned out as nice as it did. Saved a few extra feathers to add to the fan but I think I’m going to leave it the way it is.

really nice the way you have fixed the fans...charlie