opening day
 

Gobble gobble!

https://www.gruv.org/IMG_0559.JPG

Great pic, but I bag my Wild Turkey at the local ABC store. Rare Breed, btw.......

Are ya done for the year? Don't know when the season opens here .... usually only lasts a day or so for my uncle (limit is 2).

Nicely done!

We reintroduced Turkey's here in Medley's Neck over ten years ago with the assistance of a Maryland Natural Resources employee who lives in the area.

They are thriving and the MNR guy is working through permits for this specific area to ensure continued growth.

My son is very excited.

Im allowed one more between now and Dec 31

Then in Spring season I get two more


My buddys property is in Columbia county so these are the Osceola subspecies (rest of Florida and most of Easrern US have the Eastern subspecies, there are like 7 in the Americas)

Here they've become pests...

1.5oz of copper plated #4 lead shot seems to do the trick... :D


(farkin $2 each shells, got 3 left.... should get my limit this fall with that and maybe a Spring bird too, though I need to buy some more ammo. At least it is way cheaper than that $10/shot tungsten stuff that has gotten popular)

There is an good balance of predators and prey here.

Like most places, deer are the real pests. My turn off the well traveled road to the farm is four miles through a mix of farm fields and woods.

Head on a deer swivel.

To the OP, how do you prepare the bird? How do they taste in comparison to store bought?

Spring bird got deboned and the breast became enchiladas. Legs were too tough so they got roasted then boiled down into stock and the meat scraps picked off and made dog and cat treats

This is a young bird, maybe a year and a half old, so shouldnt be fairly tender Plan is to whole roast it in the oven, though I could be blanching it in a hour or two and we may just have it for thanksgiving


Buddy got two bucks yesterday on last day of muzzle loader season and I have one of them in my fridge/freezer too, and a cowerker and I are trying for some feral pigs on 11/27

Freezer gonna be full!

Turkeys were hunted to near extinction here. It's nice to see them coming back due to limits on hunting. We hear toms "gobbling" in the woods now and then and saw a lone hen running hell bent for leather right down the center of our driveway. I don't know what that was about.

There are gobs of turkeys around here.:)

About every drive, I have to slow down for a group of them crossing the road. Funny thing is...I don't think I've ever seen a dead one that had been hit. They seem very smart about how much time they have when crossing.

Please:cool:

I had a large hen rise out of the soybeans when I scared her on a walk....five feet away and the first hint I had she was there was the sound of the air just being clobbered into flight, something I know a little about.

Thanks, ID, next year may be the first year here for hunting.

Last fall was the first time I had access to property to hunt.... the deer hunting I can easily leave (too farkin' early in the morning and butchering 'em out is a long and tiring process) but the turkey is quite addictive.... rattling off a call and hearing responses coming from 50 to 200 yards away in 3 different directions.... Staring down a group of jakes or hens as they cruise by.... Plus all the other wildlife. Had a lovely show of thousands of black birds swooping thru on their migration, watched and listened to some crows chasing an owl, watched a fox squirrel chillin out and finding nuts....

We've got some public park space on the edge of town that I've seen big gobblers in, my youngest (12) wants me to take her and call some birds in so she can see them up close... it is on my plans for this coming spring....

Like a lot of critters .... they weren't around here as a kid ... now they are. Last day of the season about ten years ago, I was at my pond and a Tom was gobbling up a storm all day long a few hundred yards away... I wuz like "shaddup ya big ol' dummy". Middle of the afternoon I heard a single gunshot. Gobble gone...