Calling All Spring Turkey Hunters

[Landrover]

Oh wow.........swirling fast. Yall have at it.

[Passthrough]

This thread cracks me up!

[Aggiehunter08]

If a guy kills one turkey, he still killed one turkey. It makes no difference how old that bird is unless he wants to brag about it to other folks!!!!!

Just because your thing is killing a big bad bird, doesn’t mean that’s everybody’s thing.

Bisch

I personally haven’t specified the age/big bad bird I recommend everyone taking. My point is simply many fail to realize turkey’s value and get too aggressive on cutting tags looking at today instead of tomorrow. Then at some point in the future they are struggling to kill a tom on that acreage.

[Greenheadless]

Just when I thought the deer elitists were bad……..dang.

[bugleboy]

TPWD defines a gobbler as a male bird.

Yes sir, but after I posted, I did go look at the regs and they have changed it to bearded hens are legal in the spring season. I’m not sure when that changed. If I’m not mistaken, that wasn’t always the case.

[PondPopper]

If all I see is a Jake then an ole Jake is getting a shanking.
It’s next to impossible to manage turkey for age. Or literally impossible..

[junior]

You need to set some rules. For example we don’t allow anyone to shoot doves that are less than 2.5 years old or you get fined.

That made me laugh, thanks!!

[KenWood]

It does make a bit of difference to me because the State of Texas owns those birds, not the person that you are leasing that property from. They are a resource that I am just as entitled to as you are and I much prefer to protect that resource rather than squander it. I am encouraging you to make a good decision.

I do not accept excuses for employing poor management practices because of cost when it's much less expensive to purchase food from the store.

I posted a link to H-E-B as a joke because your rational to go shoot jakes (which is a poor management practice when you are seeing no toms) is because it is too expensive to drive to the lease and not come home with anything. It is cheaper to go to your nearest H-E-B and buy the $27 butterball.

I am taking the GFY comment as a joke...LOL

Yeah that comment was for my enjoyment. Glad you you took it well. All in good fun. At the end of the day, though, I understand your sentiments. I don't share them. My comment said I may just have to get one of those jakes. In all my years I have only actually killed one jake. I didn't feel bad or guilty about it whatsoever. Other than that I have killed mature birds.

The excuse was not yours to accept. I may not want to shoot the jake in front of me. If I do, I will, regardless what you or anyone else thinks or says. I scroll through TBH and a few other sites and see things daily that I don't agree with. I know that what I think does not matter to the person who posts it I just let it go. There is nothing worse than someone posting a pic of themselves with a deer, turkey, or whatever genuinely excited and the management police come out. I think that is BS and no one could change my mind about that. I never thought the old "needs another year" would apply to a turkey. So are we thinking he needs a 9" beard minimum? 10"? Most all the spurs are around 1.25", does that make the "Hit" list? Or should we hold out for 1.5"? Yeah, sarcastic comments I know, but where do we draw the line? A one year old is obviously not acceptable so 2? Can I shoot 2 year olds and not destroy and squander You and Texas's turkey population? Serious question.

By the way, I hate domestic turkey. Butterball being the worst.

[glen]

Shoot what you want that is legal- But to answer the original question South it seemed like Tom’s were getting hemmed up quick off the roost.

[aggieman08]

Yeah that comment was for my enjoyment. Glad you you took it well. All in good fun. At the end of the day, though, I understand your sentiments. I don't share them. My comment said I may just have to get one of those jakes. In all my years I have only actually killed one jake. I didn't feel bad or guilty about it whatsoever. Other than that I have killed mature birds.

The excuse was not yours to accept. I may not want to shoot the jake in front of me. If I do, I will, regardless what you or anyone else thinks or says. I scroll through TBH and a few other sites and see things daily that I don't agree with. I know that what I think does not matter to the person who posts it I just let it go. There is nothing worse than someone posting a pic of themselves with a deer, turkey, or whatever genuinely excited and the management police come out. I think that is BS and no one could change my mind about that. I never thought the old "needs another year" would apply to a turkey. So are we thinking he needs a 9" beard minimum? 10"? Most all the spurs are around 1.25", does that make the "Hit" list? Or should we hold out for 1.5"? Yeah, sarcastic comments I know, but where do we draw the line? A one year old is obviously not acceptable so 2? Can I shoot 2 year olds and not destroy and squander You and Texas's turkey population? Serious question.

By the way, I hate domestic turkey. Butterball being the worst.

Beards, spurs, or any other trophy related attributes don't make a hoot to me. I'm an overall population guy, I'm an age guy, I'm a carrying capacity guy, and I'm a guy that genuinely tries to make things better. In my mind, if the population is such that no gobblers are around, the last thing to do would be shoot a jake (the jake will be a breeding gobbler next year). I will also say, if I only had a couple of gobblers around, I would not shoot them either due to overall population and age structure concerns. There's not a single point to draw the line per se, there are a multitude of points that I base management decisions on. So to sum this all up, I am more concerned about tomorrow than I am today.

I agree that I do not have to accept your excuse; however, why make the excuse before anyone even comments? It leads me to believe that you know shooting jakes is not a widely embraced practice and that you know better given the current state of not seeing any gobblers.

Happy Hunting.

[Mertzon Man]

2-3" spurs?

Lol, I thought the same. Never seen one. I’m not a big Turkey hunter so maybe they are out there. I’d like to see a pic of one.

[Mertz09]

Lol, I thought the same. Never seen one. I’m not a big Turkey hunter so maybe they are out there. I’d like to see a pic of one.

That was supposed to be beards, go back and read.

[Mertz09]

Yes sir, but after I posted, I did go look at the regs and they have changed it to bearded hens are legal in the spring season. I’m not sure when that changed. If I’m not mistaken, that wasn’t always the case.

The change to bearded hens only in the spring happened about 5 years ago.

[Mertz09]

I personally haven’t specified the age/big bad bird I recommend everyone taking. My point is simply many fail to realize turkey’s value and get too aggressive on cutting tags looking at today instead of tomorrow. Then at some point in the future they are struggling to kill a tom on that acreage.

As an avid spring turkey hunter I agree. I started this post to see if other hunters on TBH had a similar experience in the south zone and so far they did. The title of this post is "Spring Turkey Hunters" If you are not then you may not fully understand how much fun it is to call in an old Tom Turkey. It's a cat & mouse game. Very similar to elk during the rut.

I hunt on my place SW of San Angelo for deer and turkey, we don't kill jakes because we value them as next years 2 year old toms.

I also guide turkey hunters in S Texas. We don't shoot jakes there for the same reason.

It comes down to what you want and value in a hunt, to each their own and have fun.

My 2 cents.

[willie]

My guy backed out on me for the same reason, not many mature birds in his area, alot of jakes tho. So if anyone knows of any place with openings this weekend thru next week let me know please.