Coming of Spring(TURKEY)

[cowboy]

Don't spose you have any trouble locating fletching material Shannon ?

[FlintWalker]

Naw, I save all mine and have all my friends including a check station and a taxidermy shop or two save them for me.. I have 4 or 5 hundred I need to send out and have ground.  I usaully have Raven Arrows do it for me, she grinds all my right wing in exchange for the left wing.

[mullet]

  What do you do with the wing bones?

[FlintWalker]

Chuck them. I never really thought about keeping them for calls since I use mostly mouth and friction calls.. If you wanted some, I suppose I could save you a few this spring..
  Btw, i'm not a poacher.  I hunt Ky and Tn spring and fall seasons. That's usually good for 6 spring birds and 2 or 3 fall birds.  Minuteman said it well when he described me as "a turkey huntin fool"
  Two years ago I hunted 27 mornings straight and saw 13 gobblers fall.  I guess you could say I like it a little.

[mullet]

  I'm just like you. I'll take 2 weeks vacation and hunt states as far as I can drive. I need my Merriam for my Grand Slam. Then it's off to Costa Rica. Turkey is my favorite hunt, Nothing like hearing those Wippowills and Owls  just before the "witching" hour.

[huntertrapper]

I love being up in the mountain before daybreak laying in the leaves waiting to hear that, Gobble gobble Gobble. its awesome.

[El Destructo]

Down here it's the Owl's and the Coyotes....right before the Turkey come down from Roost....the Coyotes start to making all kinds of Hell....sounds a lot like a lot of Hounds on a hot trail

[hawkbow]

up here it is wolves and grizzlies.... lol .. Hawk....A/ho

[FlintWalker]

Just about everywhere I hunt has a bunch of barred owls. I never have to use a locater call to get one to gobble.  Most of the time they won't work around here anyway . Before season opens, every Dick, Tom and Harry around just has to go out and blow on owl calls till there blue in the face, just to make them gobble.  I love to hear it, but I want a gun or bow in my hand when I do. I think an old bird gets wise pretty quick to locater calls. Seasons a couple months away and i'm already starting to get butterflies in my stomach just thinking about it.
  I dream of killing one of them long spurred Osceola's one day.

[huntertrapper]

o yeah we got plenty of yodlers too. and we use owl calles to locate

[mullet]

  Hunting Osceola's is a different kind of hunt. These birds aren't afraid if getting their feet wet. And they have some nice hooks.

[lowell]

I like the spurs too.  Wish I had kept all of mine that way!!

[mullet]

  The length of the spurs is the only true way of aging a Tom.   A bump , a late hatch 1 year old. A bump with a point a early hatch Jake, 1 year old. Short , 1", 1 1/4" sharp, 2 year old. NICE 1 1/2" ,1 3/4" , (2" approaching in the record category) hooked(curved),spurs, 3 years old or more. Most of them don't live much longer than that.

[FlintWalker]

Around here it takes at least 4 years for a gobbler to get 1-1/2" spurs. A jake would have a bump, a two year old would be less than an inch to a blunt 1", a three year old will be from a sharp inch to 1-1/4 and a 4 year old will usually be over 1-3/8.  There's just something about them osceolas, they seem to have longer spurs than these easterns around here.

[huntertrapper]

have any of you seen hens with beards? i had one land some couple feet from me last year. i though about shootin since it had a beard and all and didn't. then my dad says after she flew, you coulda shot her now that i think of it.