Vince,

I bought this place in 1980 and have only taken one turkey. My wife loves watching them. She always says that you can’t feed them year round, and then go shoot them. She say’s that would be cruel. Now, if I could teach them to root up the yard (like the wild hogs), she’d be telling me to kill them all!!!!!

Cary

You need to convince her that thinning the flock to improve the flocks genetic health needs to be done.

Too many weak Toms, can breed with unsuspecting hens and play havoc with the overall health of the flock.

That is of course assuming you like eating wild turkey, Yummy!

The best way to cook wild turkey is to cut the meat into small steaks, dip it into a batter and fry them like chicken or chicken-fried steak. Make sure you cut the meat across the grain. Tame turkey is best deep fried.

Cary.

OntheLasGallinas wrote:

Les, I just thought of one other thing to think about while hunting turkeys. If you see a “jake” (young male), you may not be able to call him in with a hen chirp if he’s living in a flock with older gobblers. He knows (he’s had his butt kicked) that the older gobblers will not let him mate with the hen. He may act frustrated and go back to feeding. Most of the time, he’ll leave the area. Cary

Cary,

With all due respect, I will disagree with you when it comes to Jakes responding to calls. (Remember, I'm not a scientist, just a student of Ol' Mother Nature).

Jakes seem to respond more readily than Toms (most of the time) to hen yelps. I dunno if it has to do with a response to a Maternal call, or if they're just more willing to move toward a hen, but I never seem to have a problem gettin' Jakes within shotgun range. Only problem is, I don't usually shoot Jakes. If I did, I would have tagged out on day #2. Just this morning, my 16 year-old niece missed a Jake that was running in to a hen yelp (her first miss ever), and her father killed this one later in the morning. He was with a group of 8 Jakes that came in silently to our calls, and after watching them mill around us within 25 yards, he decided to take this one at 9 paces. The force of the shot rolled the bird an additional 6 feet away.

I guess all the jakes around here have had their butts kicked by the big old toms (that nobody hunts).

I've had other people tell me that they get run over by jakes comming to a call. I've just never had that experience.

Cary

I don't think it has anything to do with Toms kickin' the Jakes rear ends. Jakes are gonna do what Jakes do...Make a ruckus on the roost (while they feel safe), then try to steal away any hen they can. They're just like 15 or 16 year old boys. They THINK they know everything about girls, but when the $%!* hits the fan, they have no idea how to respond.


The Toms don't have time to bother with Jakes right now. They (the Toms)are locked in a major competion with each other, and will fight each other to the death. I watched a HUGE bird run 250 yards across an open field this morning to challenge a rival that was strutting in front of 2 hens. He ran past at least 10 Jakes with no intention of acknowledging them. His focus was on that bird strutting on the other end of the field. Once he ran off the smaller bird, he went about his business, which included accepting the Jakes that remained in the field.

That is an awesome site. I saw a big tom do exactly the same thing yesterday evening. You wouldn’t believe how fast they can run. He came in so fast; the other tom broke and ran like crazy.

I’m assuming that you have the Eastern sub-specie of the varieties. They are supposed to be the largest of the sub-species. Down here, we have the Rio Grande sub-specie. These are supposed to be smaller, slimmer, and have longer legs.

Cary

Yes, we're hunting the Easterns. Again, I don't know the difference (as far as hunting the sub-species), since I've only hunted what we have here. HENCE, I don't have any experience with the others.

I'm currious about the weight of the eastern birds. Have you ever weighted one of your big toms. I've never thought of weighing one of the Rio Grande varity.

Cary

Cary, a friend here took an Eastern the other day that weighed 23 pounds, 12.5" beard and 1.6" spurs. I think that is on the large side for here but I'm really not sure.

Have weighed several and have had some to go as high as 25lbs, but most are not that big. I like to Deep Fry the Wild Turkey Breast and when done shoot Cajun Seasoning into the breast. Seasoning injected into the cooked breast will spread more evenly.