At one time I figured to have shot about 70 turkeys. however I sat down and mentally went over every farm and place I've hunted

[Del in KS]

At one time I figured to have shot about 70 turkeys. however I sat down and mentally went over every farm and place I've hunted and counted birds. Several times I thought of another bird. The final total came to 60 mostly gobblers with a few jakes, a handfull of fall hens and 1 bearded hen. How many have you taken so far?

[Reid Jones]

2! a jake, and a hen. the hen was an accident. i took a 25 yard shot at a leaving tom. there were 4 toms so i picked out the best one. and i missed him..but in the background there was a hen floppin around. i felt terrible. i didn't even know she was there. that was the most angry i have ever been with myself while hunting.

[KMB33]

1 tom

[jbird]

18 Toms, 4 Jakes, 3 hens, give or take a couple on the Toms. Gettin' old does terrible things to your memory.

[ishawooa]

6 toms but you would not like the way I bushwhacked them with a rifle. I never was much good at calling turkeys. My old mentor was a magician with a call but I never adequately mastered the skill. Although I normally am a very patient guy somehow that patience failed me in the turkey woods.

[Big O]

Been hunting them scince I was 4(with Grand-Pa)19 Toms with him shooting.
Scince he's been gone. Been out with several buddys shooting 7(4 Toms/3 Jakes).
Me personaly 3(2 Jakes/1 Tom.
Got a new idea on a trade though(Elk Ivorys/Whistle-teeth for 8.)

[huskerguy]

1 Tom, 1 jake, and 2 hens so far. Hoping to get another tom or jake before the season ends.

[usmcturkey]

2 jakes so far, do not get the chance to go out that often the last few years.

[steve182]

Still trying to break the ice as a turkey hunter. Gave me the slip again today!

[Beekeeper]

Del,

Like you, I've been lucky enough to be able to hunt Wild Turkeys for a long time. I started when I was a kid too young to drive. I was fortunate in those days that my love for the bird grew as the flock in my state rapidly expanded. Georgia put a great deal of effort into restocking the birds over available habitat and they literally exploded in the early 70's and into the 80's. The good part was that there were few to no hunters who knew how to hunt them and even fewer who cared to even try in those days!

I learned to call by listening to phonograph records by Penns Woods and ML Lynch. My best teachers though were barn yard hens and wild birds that I had a chance to listen to. I could really get the barn yard girls going with an old lead framed mouth call given to me by one Mr. Ben Lee who hailed from L.A. (Lower Alabama).

It was a great time to have been a budding turkey hunter. Guys like Mr. Lee and Mr. Cost would come to the local "Bait Shop" and Otasco store to sell thier calls and teach those who would listen how to work them. Heady days for a young turkey hunter indeed!

Times were simple back then. The box call was the most used call but the old snuff can also held sway. Mr. Arthur Truelove (who looked alot like an old Gobbler) showed me how to make and use a snuff can call. I'll never forget the look on my mother's face as sat at the kitchen table and sliced up spare reeds from a trojan condom using her sewing scissors, one of several given my by Mr. Truelove for that purpose! I guess now I'd get plenty for call production from the local school system or health department...

That love for hunting has driven me to hunt the Wild Turkey from my home state of Georgia to the Missouri Breaks of Montana. I've hunted the swamps of deep south Florida and the mesquite and Live Oaks of south Texas. I've even slipped across the line into Tennessee and N. C. while hunting in the Blueridge Mountains of my home state. Funny how boundaries seem to fade in the wild. Along the way I managed to collect a Grand Slam doing all the calling myself. My most memorable hunt was taking a gobbler in 4 inches of snow in Montana. He gobbled his head off!

I won't shoot a Jake, but I do love to educate them! I've gotten to the point where I love to watch more than kill. Don't get me wrong, a hot gobbler gets my blood boiling and if he is a good one I don't mind eating fried turkey breast fingers dipped in my own honey mustard sauce!

This was the worst Turkey season of my career. Poachers baited the birds off of my best spots. We had a really wet spring for which I'm grateful to the Lord above because we needed it. Work also got in the way too much this spring as I've had to pick up additional duties. You know about the one bird I took off public land, a good one with a rope beard and 1 3/8 pink spurs. That one brought the total to 75...

[Jeff Bowers]

18 Swift Butterballs and 3 Hormels...

[kolbster]

3 jakes and 1 tom.

[Happy Myles]

Beekeeper,

That was a great post, thank's for sharing. I am embarrassed to admit I've never hunted turkey, one of the few North American critters I have not. Friends rave about it. Maybe I've been called one so many times it is too close to home.

[Golfing Sportsman]

I taught myself to hunt turkeys seven years ago and after much trial and error shot my first tom last year, which brings my total up to one tom.

[Beekeeper]

Thanks Happy!

If it ever gets into your blood you have had it. A friend says it has to be similar to Malaria with the exception that you don't die from it!