Show us you Parker Turkey pictures.
 

I thought I would see if we can see your favorite Parker Turkey pictures just to get the juices flowing. It’s OK if you have posted these before would love to see them again.
I will start.

1st picture taken in Okeechobee FL, guided by Bob Hayes on a hunt Bob donated to our Silent Auction. 8 gauge hammer gun.

2nd picture taken in the Gila mountains in New Mexico. I called in to about 15 yards. Taken with a 32” VH 20 gauge.

My only turkey with a Parker to date, but I have an EH 10 ready for this coming season.

This is a PH 12 that has a somewhat open right barrel, but the back trigger is a turkey slayer.

My only True Double on turkeys happened in 2019. Two jakes with one shot at 32 yards, purely by accident.

1898 12-gauge DH with 30" Titanic Steel barrels choked F/F


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Here's a CT gobbler taken with a VH 20.

Two with a GHE and one with a 34" VHE. This has got me to thinking that I have never taken a turkey with a 20 gauge. I just might give it a shot this year, no pun intended.

Wow some really great pictures so far. I am getting jazzed up about chasing some birds.

I went scouting today seen some fresh tracks no birds seen...my wifes computer crashed so lost all my pictures...but these are great pictures really got me wound up...charlie

Savannah River Swamp 2019. Let four jakes harass the decoys, next morning 20 pound tom tried

My first Parker turkey. Last spring on my farm with a Grade 2 30'', F/F damascus hammer gun. I was shooting 1 oz of 6's at 1150 fps.

VH 12 and Repro 20 last spring opening day.

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

A few pictures I could find. Plus a nice tree I got instead of the turkey.:cuss:

10 Gauge Hammer Grade 2 Top Lever. 1st one with a Parker.

Don’t feel too bad Jerry, I’ve done that tree thing twice with careful aim - once with a big whitetail buck and once with a mature Tom.





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Nice Harold. I love to see birds taken with Parkers. And I like your sensible load of 1 oz. of shot. That’s all that is really needed out to about 35 or 40 yards, depending on the gun. I have shot a few turkeys with an 1873 Parker but my go to turkey gun is a 28’ DHE bored modified and full. I use the old trap load of 1 ¼ oz. of 6’s at 1200 fps. I’ve never seen a better patterning load for the 12 bore.

I never could understand using ultra heavy loads on turkeys. I think it encourages taking shots that are too far. Better to use a sensible load that patterns well and limit shots to 40 yards and under. Same thing for ducks and geese. If you can’t take them with that load, you shouldn’t be taking the shot in my opinion.

Unless you’re shooting #9 TSS loads at 80 yards.





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I've heard about those loads but I'm not buying it. And I have no intention of finding out for myself. Nobody needs to take a shot at 80 yards. And why stop at 80? How about a 100 yard turkey load. Not for me or other astute turkey hunters I know who have the expertise to get the birds in close. And thats the crux of the issue. Some try to make up for their lack of skill with new whiz bang loads or guns. Better that they spend the time to gain the expertise, in my opinion. There really are no short cuts if one wants to become proficient.

Tom -

To each his own. I’m not a proponent of such things either but you do it your way (which is admirable) and others will do it theirs.


** Edited for the sake of civility on the forum. **





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I must agree with Mr. Flanigan in 60 years of hunting and shooting i have seen the same thing over and over with technology substituting for the slow and hard way. Modern bowhunting is probably the best example, there are still the longbow and recurve bow hunters and they probably hunt birds with those obsolete, antique side by sides.

Dan, I agree with Tom too - I just disagreed with his delivery. But who am I ? Everyone is entitled to his opinion and his own way of expressing it.

My apologies to Tom and to anyone who I offended in responding the way I did.





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My comment wasn't aimed at you Dean. But I am passionate about some things and taking shots beyond reasonable range is one of them. Those are living creatures we are hunting and they deserve a quick death. Some people don't give a damn as long at they get a hit and those are the one's I have a problem with.

Years ago I hunted ducks in Tivoli, NY in an estuary of the Hudson River. Sky busting was common there. Right or wrong, I always screamed at them and if they didn't stop I'd walk right up to their blinds and give them a verbal thrashing. It never came to blows but I was ready if it did. Foolish? Yes, but I was passionate about wounded birds and still am. My retriever used to find a lot of still alive birds in Tivoli. I always killed them and included in my bag which used to anger me also.

I really don't care how people hunt as long as they have consideration for the game. The trend towards super guns and super loads and long shots gets to me. It encourages those with less experience to try to stretch things, sometimes wounding game. It's all wrong in my opinion.

No need for an apology. I did come across pretty hard. I rarely get hot and most of my friends have never seen me get mad. But there are two things that I am passsionate about, wounding game through not caring and abusing dogs. I respond to both pretty aggressively if I see it.

My comments were not aimed at you Dean, but in general.

Dan, I agree with you about modern bowhunting. When I was working, I stopped bowhunting about 30 years ago because it interferred with my bird shooting. I got back into it this year since I am now retired. I didn't use my Bear recurve bow. I went to a compound bow because I am 71 years old and I can shoot a compound better than I can a recurve. For me its all about not wounding game. I limit my shots to thrity yards where I am absolutely consistent. Also my upper muscles are not what they used to be and I can hold for a much longer time making my shots more consistent than with a recurve.

But taking a deer with a compound is not the same as taking them with recurve. We had to do an awful lot of time practicing back in the day. Taking a deer wth a recurve is real bowhinting while taking a deer with a compound is semi-bowhunting, in my opinion.

Tom we are a technology society and not a bad thing. I am the same on the draw of a compound, it helps this aging skeleton. Wounding is to be avoided no matter what but it will happen. That was the most extreme example i could think of at the time.

Wounding is a major issue for me and is the main reason for going with a compound. I don't trust myself to get good enough to shoot a recurve anymore. If it wasn't for the compound bow, I would have never got back into bowhunting. I always scoffed at compound bows an claimed it wasn't really bowhunting. Then for Christmas, the owner of the land I hunt bought me a compound bow. He wanted to see me get back into bowhunting. As a young kid, he remembered me bowhunting the property which was owned at that time by his father and before that by his grandfather who was a close friend of my grandfather. Between my grandfather and I, we have been hunting the property for 87 years.

I have not lost a deer since I was in my teens and then only two. My grandfather taught me to be meticulous about the shots I take on deer and game and it has paid off. Between regular hunting and crop damage permits I have taken over two hundred deer, five bear and many moose. I wish everyone could grow up under the tutelege I did.

These are modern times and we all strike our own balance with technology. However, it seems to me a good bit of hunting is now about image and identity. In that vein hunting can be about getting the shot, and I mean the photo after. It might be worth pointing out this thread is about photos of successfully bagged turkeys, but still there are hunters doing it right and hunters who mostly care about "success". Whether you learned from your grandpa or from tv and instagram, if you want to brag up your success at some point you will push the limits with your bow, gun, access or whatever. I think the responsible hunter learns more from the mistakes while the hacks learn mostly from their success. If super shot or a compounds (or shudder-xbows) gives you an edge, the responsible hunter will bank that as insurance for an ethical kill and the photo hog will leverage it into the occasional success and discount the error on the margins.
I enjoy this group because there arent many online forums where the majority of participants share my hunting values. Now ill go find a photo of an old tom I got.

Well the turkey proofs must have predated my Iphone because I cannot find them. As I recall the toms in eastern Massachusetts were plentiful and not particularly wary and the 10 ga was more than enough gun. We had some good times but i passed it on some years ago. No regrets. These shots date from 2011, I was just over 30.

I enjoy all posts with hunting pics. This particular image immediately caught my eye with the closely matching case and gobbler colours. Great pic. Cheers Jack

Great time that week Phil.Sure hope I don't run across another 8ga like yours.

One of mine from a few years ago here in Florida.
VH 12ga 30" barrels.

Just broke in my Charles Daly 10 gauge this morning! I never weighed the bird. It has one and a half inch spurs and two beards. The main beard is 10 1/2 inches long and the smaller one is 7 1/4 inches. First time shooting anything with this gun. The shell was black powder reloaded from yours truly. The Tom came in full strut around 11 AM this morning. Once the smoke cleared the bird was on the ground. I would say it was about a 25 yard shot. I used 100 grains of Fg and 1 5/8oz of BPI nickel plated #6’s. When I skinned it the neck was all jelly inside. The load did a great job.

https://i.imgur.com/3qLmo1K.jpg

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

Very nice bird. Congratulations.

Nice gun, nice bird, great pics. Congtrats Cory, it has been close, but no cigar for me so far, but I have alot of time left

We get drawn for seasons here. I had 2nd. It’s a Wednesday through the following Tuesday. I basically have a 1 week season to get it done. I bought a left over 4th, 5th, and 6th season tag as well. The fish and game makes a good racket on it here charging $10 per left over tag.

what state are you in....good luck on the turkey....charlie

Wisconsin, there are still plenty of left over 5th and 6th season tags available. If it’s a good week of active turkeys I always pick up an extra tag or two after I harvest my bird.

I'm headed for the hills of Vermont tomorrow morning. Saturday 5/1 at 0-Dark-thirty is the opener and I've got my fly-down spot picked out. If that doesn't pan out after a couple of hours I'll sneak n' peak and listen along through the woods and field edges.

My two turkey guns (DH 12 and D Underlifter 10) are out at two different beauty shops so I'll be using the 20-gauge Trojan (M/F) that I got from Russ Jackson a year or two ago. I'll be shooting RST #7 and RST #6 and keep my shots inside 35 yards. We can hunt both Sat & Sun until noon so I have pretty high hopes... if the birds cooperate.

In my next installment I hope to have a longbeard in the picture.

Our Turkey season opens Saturday May1st. I loaded up 8 gauge 1 1/2 #4's. Fingers crossed.

Here is a Upstate New York stud taken this morning just north of the Finger Lakes by one my Vanderbilt brethren.
The 1894 Parker Quality 2 hammerless 10 bore that has (most likely) never left New York state got the job done.

Here’s mine.... for some odd reason they were call-shy and the closest they would come was almost 200 yards.
Of course, just after 12 noon here are a few about 50 yards from my hide against the left-leaning tree beside the rock pile. I’ve taken 4 from this spot.
Oh well, there’s always next year...

Here’s my hosts’ 17 yo granddaughter Zoe with a nice one she took Sunday AM.



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she bagged a nice one....charlie