First Gobbler of the season

[Ninering62]

I’ve seen this bird with his little “ Entourage “ for several days now in the field where our blind & decoys are. It’s one of the big birds I’m after this season.
I’d say it weighs about 20lbs.
Spurs are 1 1/8”
Beard is 10.5” which ties my biggest. Now I go after one of the 11”-12” 25lb Toms that are around here.
Looks like some more of that Turkey soup is on n the way.
Hopefully Anonymouscowherd will be able to come out to play tomorrow & we’ll get after them again. The season has just started & we had a great first two days, considering neither of us shot a bird. That happens when you truly enjoy hunting & enjoy hunting with that person.
Anyways, I DID NOT COUCH HUNT this bird.
I did see him from the fam rm door, I changed clothes faster than I thought was possible & headed out the front door & down the tree line to hide behind where my truck is parked, hoping he would come out there.
When I got behind the truck & popped my head up, he was headed into the pines next to my shooting range. I’d let this guy strut around here enough, so I blasted him.

 

[deermanok]

Congrats my friend. Great bird.

 

[toytruck]

Way to go! Do you pluck them or skin?

 

[MrTom]

Congrats! That's a dandy bird.

 

[CGhost]

congrats Tom on a beautiful bird, did you get him with the Tk?

 

[Ninering62]

Congrats my friend. Great bird.

TYVM

 

[phalanx]

Beautiful bird!! Congratulations!! Alaays good when a quickly developed plan works out!

 

[Ninering62]

Way to go! Do you pluck them or skin?

TY. I did pluck it. I have skinned them out, but I like the flavor & fat the skin provides in the soup stock. So I'll pluck a bird more often than I skin one out.

 

[Ninering62]

Beautiful bird!! Congratulations!! Alaays good when a quickly developed plan works out!

Thank you, Yes, absolutely. I was on the phone with Decay yesterday afternoon, around 6pm & this bird was in the field. I told Decay that I gotta go, I'm gonna put the " stalk " on him. When I got around to where I thought he'd come out, he was gone. But that excitement of the stalk on a turkey is priceless, regardless of the success of it. Yesterday, It was a " swing & a miss " today, it was " Blam-O ". The stalk without actually " hunting " was still fun & exciting to do. The success today was " Bonus Points ".

 

[Ninering62]

congrats Tom on a beautiful bird, did you get him with the Tk?

Thanks brother. No, I didn't use the TK bc I wasn't sure if I could get close enough to him without getting busted ( 5 sets of turkey eyes, nothing gets by them ) so I grabbed the trusty ole Accura. The shot was 70yds.

 

[Slingingslugs]

Great bird. Congratulations Tom. I'm hoping the rain don't come to heavy in the morning. Gonna try my favorite public land spot if it does.

 

[Slingingslugs]

Do you use the same load for turkey as for deer? I've always thought of sighting one of my guns in for a non expanding bullet with a lighter load for shooting something that I wanted to eat without messing it up.

 

[anonymouscowherd]

Yeah after talking wiht @Ninering62 at lunch time I was gonna bust out of work (working from home today, normal Thursday thing for me) a bit early and head up for an evening hunt.

Something however has gone wrong and I have a lot of unhappy electrons to deal with, but I have to sit in a teams meeting waiting for one person to get back and respond about stuff....

And tomorrow is supposed to be rain.

Aaaargh!

 

[michiganmuzzy]

Yeah after talking wiht @Ninering62 at lunch time I was gonna bust out of work (working from home today, normal Thursday thing for me) a bit early and head up for an evening hunt.

Something however has gone wrong and I have a lot of unhappy electrons to deal with, but I have to sit in a teams meeting waiting for one person to get back and respond about stuff....

And tomorrow is supposed to be rain.

Aaaargh!

If it aint the dang electrons, its them stoopid protons. Don’t even get me started on them ole neutrons!

 

[BuckDoeHunter]

Congrats!

 

[JBushnell]

Nice bird - Congratulations. We have Merriams here so I have to ask, Eastern or Osceola?

 

[Tony gilbert]

I’ve seen this bird with his little “ Entourage “ for several days now in the field where our blind & decoys are. It’s one of the big birds I’m after this season.
I’d say it weighs about 20lbs.
Spurs are 1 1/8”
Beard is 10.5” which ties my biggest. Now I go after one of the 11”-12” 25lb Toms that are around here.
Looks like some more of that Turkey soup is on n the way.
Hopefully Anonymouscowherd will be able to come out to play tomorrow & we’ll get after them again. The season has just started & we had a great first two days, considering neither of us shot a bird. That happens when you truly enjoy hunting & enjoy hunting with that person.
Anyways, I DID NOT COUCH HUNT this bird.
I did see him from the fam rm door, I changed clothes faster than I thought was possible & headed out the front door & down the tree line to hide behind where my truck is parked, hoping he would come out there.
When I got behind the truck & popped my head up, he was headed into the pines next to my shooting range. I’d let this guy strut around here enough, so I blasted him.

oh hell yeah fry that bird

 

[Ninering62]

Great bird. Congratulations Tom. I'm hoping the rain don't come to heavy in the morning. Gonna try my favorite public land spot if it does.

Great bird. Congratulations Tom. I'm hoping the rain don't come to heavy in the morning. Gonna try my favorite public land spot if it does.

Thank you, good luck in the morning. I hope the rain holds out for you.

 

[Ninering62]

Do you use the same load for turkey as for deer? I've always thought of sighting one of my guns in for a non expanding bullet with a lighter load for shooting something that I wanted to eat without messing it up.

PM’d you with reply

 

[Ninering62]

Nice bird - Congratulations. We have Merriams here so I have to ask, Eastern or Osceola?

TYVM
I’ve had the op to hunt Eastern, Osceolas & Rio’s, never Merriams.
I’m in north central Fl where both Osceola & Easterns can be found. I understand they have crossbred too. There isn’t much diff between the two. I think this is an Eastern.