JFT Turkey Tour 2022

[ClayW]

Put some to bed last night, knew one was a gobbler and figured the other was a hen. Got set up about 100 yards from them early this morning. Birds were talking a lot more than yesterday. Waited til fly down to give a few yelps and see what happens. As soon as they flew down I gave a soft yelp and got cut off by a hen behind us about 80 yards in the brush, I cut at her and then had the Tom gobble about 60 yards out headed our way. My brother and I were sitting against the same tree and he had first shot today. Well we got eyes on the one gobbler at about 45 yds and I hear his safety click and him ask if I’m on him and ready, but I don’t think he has a clear shot yet. Tell him shoot him when you’re ready. No sooner he shoots and the bird I have eyes on takes a few steps and stops so I give him a face full of #9’s at about 35 yds. 2 birds down before 7:30. Apparently the other bird was a Tom as well but never gobbled and was blocked by my view and he shot him at about 15 yards. Grabbed our birds and dropped them off at camp to go get on another. Played with 2 more toms but got beat out by 6 hens. Still not quite time and fewer birds than normal. An absolute blast like always.





Brothers had 1-7/16” hooks, I’m pretty sure it was a 3+ year old bird as I’ve never seen such huge feet on a Turkey. Both had decent beards ~9”. Thin birds though with things so dry, not much in the way of bugs and other food.


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Love it!

Congrats man and look at those hooks!

[Smart]

Daaaaang Luke had to hire him a guide to put his wife on a bird? Did he sleep in?



Congrats to Vicki!.. Great pic Clay!

[Dale Moser]

Good stuff, Clay Dub! Congrats to all on the birds!


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[basschump]

Fantastic! Want a tremendous hunt. Congrats on two great birds.


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[El General]

Y’all are killing it. Great weekend down south.

Two more **** weeks. I need a south zone spot baaaaddd!

[MASTERS]

This was a first for me….

Most of you guys know that a strutting turkey wears their wing tips down. Both of these birds had full wing tips showing no wear from strutting.

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And both birds were solid mature birds with 1 1/4” plus spurs

Crazy

Longer leg bones than normal and short wings.......��


FWIW the ones we killed Saturday didn’t have worn primaries either, but saw several wing drags in the sandy roads while changing setups.

[ClayW]

Longer leg bones than normal and short wings.......��


FWIW the ones we killed Saturday didn’t have worn primaries either, but saw several wing drags in the sandy roads while changing setups.

Ha..no chance

I'm tellin you...something is "off" about this flock of birds!

[diamond10x]

Longer leg bones than normal and short wings.......��


FWIW the ones we killed Saturday didn’t have worn primaries either, but saw several wing drags in the sandy roads while changing setups.

Ha..no chance

I'm tellin you...something is "off" about this flock of birds!

Either of the 4 birds y’all killed have any marks from fighting? Thought it was odd both our birds were in pristine condition as far as zero marks on legs, chest, or underside from fighting.

[ClayW]

Either of the 4 birds y’all killed have any marks from fighting? Thought it was odd both our birds were in pristine condition as far as zero marks on legs, chest, or underside from fighting.

These fellas I've been hunting haven't been doing anything but wandering around with a few jakes.

[Passthrough]

These fellas I've been hunting haven't been doing anything but wandering around with a few jakes.

Buncha gay turkeys…..thems the worst to call up

[buck_wild]

They are strutting and following hens in Refugio/Sinton areas but still in larger flocks. Normally they'd be in smaller groups by now but I guess the colder than later weather has them pushed back a little. Saturday morning I was within 100yrds of 8 different strutters and several other gobblers tagging along. There were three flocks roosted within 500 yards and they all staged in one spot. I could hear gobblers sounding off on the roosts for miles !! Every 5-10 mins another group of gobblers strutted out of the river bottom. It was the best turkey morning I've ever had!! And yet I wasn't able to close the deal. I moved my set up a little closer, and Sunday morning not a single turkey walked by. Around 7:50 am I found them 300 yards off and followed them for one hour. I was able to call in a satellite gobbler finally. He is probably a 2 yr old bird. Had 9 1/2" beard with 1" spurs but they weren't "sharp" yet. As you noted, wing tips with pristine with no dragged, tipped wings yet.

Sorry for the pics. I was by myself.

[ClayW]

They are strutting and following hens in Refugio/Sinton areas but still in larger flocks. Normally they'd be in smaller groups by now but I guess the colder than later weather has them pushed back a little. Saturday morning I was within 100yrds of 8 different strutters and several other gobblers tagging along. There were three flocks roosted within 500 yards and they all staged in one spot. I could hear gobblers sounding off on the roosts for miles !! Every 5-10 mins another group of gobblers strutted out of the river bottom. It was the best turkey morning I've ever had!! And yet I wasn't able to close the deal. I moved my set up a little closer, and Sunday morning not a single turkey walked by. Around 7:50 am I found them 300 yards off and followed them for one hour. I was able to call in a satellite gobbler finally. He is probably a 2 yr old bird. Had 9 1/2" beard with 1" spurs but they weren't "sharp" yet. As you noted, wing tips with pristine with no dragged, tipped wings yet.

Sorry for the pics. I was by myself.

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Nice bird Joe!

I quit trying to understand why they do what they do. Last year I thought they were "a little late" but here we are...Its always something . Its crazy to see mature birds (3+ year old in our case) not showing interest in hens and very little strutting!

[ClayW]

Chels and her dad are on their annual Lake Fork trip

Dodged showers this afternoon and picked up a few good ones

[ClayW]

The big flock has been fairly consistent over the last 2 weeks. They usually roosted in a large cottonwood tree on the edge of a mesquite lined creek bottom. They fly down into our plowed field and then work their way south into a hay field, and then ultimately into the creek bottoms and farm land.

Rather than getting in tight to their roost tree, I opted to set in the hay field about 400 yards away. My scouting showed them entering the hay field in the same general area each morning that I watched them.

Opening morning had us (my sister in law and I) just inside the fence line of the hay field facing the plowed field. I set the blind the afernoon before and to our surprise, our big flock was scattered in several roost trees up and down the creek. I didn't like our setup but it was too late to make any changes. For the better part of an hour, we had the birds in and out range. The only birds that would come to the front of the blind was the jakes. The longboards would be 10 yards behind the blind just watching....

After watching all the birds gather and then exit the field together, I decided to move the blind about 75 more yards into the field. I also decided to try the motion pair of decoys to try to entice some aggression from the flock.

First thing I did this morning when I pulled into the gate was glass the big cottonwood. unlike the day before, there were 30+ black spots scattered throughout its canopy. The birds flew down right at 7:30 and then hung out in the plowed field for a while. Finally around 8:30 they started heading our way. As turkeys typically do, instead of crossing the fence and heading towards us, they took a hard right and headed toward the dirt road. They took the road around us and entered the field about 150 yards behind us.

As each gobbler entered the field, I started pulling on the jerk cord. All I needed was 1 bird to show some aggression and the others would follow. Finally, the 11th longbeard showed some interest. A couple more tugs and he was on a dead sprint right towards us.

My SIL, Vicki, has never been turkey hunting and she asked if I could take her. The gameplan was for me to arrow the first one and then she would follow up with the shotgun. I knew that if I could just get a couple birds in bow range, the opportunity for a follow up shot would be likely.

I told Vicki to get ready that a couple gobblers were coming in. Next thing I know is 8 jakes and a pile (7 or 8 or so) of longbeards enter the frame and start laying into the decoys. It was nuts!

I got drawn back, confirmed a long beard, and connected. He flopped away a few yards and the others started attacking him. I look over at Vicki and she's a mess. Heavy breathing and shaking like crazy...even with the gun in a vice grip. My gobbler was down with 5 or 6 birds on top of him...2 being gobblers. My coaching advice was made up of "don't shoot more than one", "shoot", "no...not yet. don't shoot", "shoot now". Poor woman was having a hard enough time without me in her ear....Finally the birds calmed down enough for her to make a great shot

Heck of a morning and heck of a way to start the season!

Dang that was a fun morning!!!

Official LDP below….it’s not the best picture I’ve taken but my mustache looks good

[eradicator]

Digging the stache! Congrats