Turkey time

We just finished packing up the truck and we're rollin' out at 5:30 AM for a 4 day turkey hunt in California. California has a pretty liberal 3 turkey limit (1 per day, 3 per season). My boys and I are hoping for a good hunt. We usually each get 1 bird, sometimes a bonus bird.

I'm taking my bow as well as a shotgun. But I really want a nice tom with my bow! Hopefully we'll have some quality video of the hunt and some pics to share when we get back. Stay tuned... I'll post up when we get back.
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MuleyMadness
Sounds fun, good luck and be safe!
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kadejones2
good luck hope you get a big one
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4c Good luck Mark! It's hard not to have fun when you're huntin turkey's. I did a little scouting yesterday and i'm leaving monday.
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Pulling out the morning of the 18th for some Kansas long beards. Taking my 2 oldest daughters. We go every year and it sure is a good time. I really don't care if I shoot one but it's sure fun watching my girls roast the gobblers. Will post some pictures when we get back.
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Hiker
We are planning to head to the CO/NM border on the 28th of April, for a couple of days.
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killerbee
any where around CHAMA?
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Mark
We had an excellent hunt this year. We got a total of 5 birds, 2 for my 12 yr old son, 1 for my 18 yr old son and 2 for me. Two were longbeards and 3 were jakes. We saw over 50 bearded birds over 3 days. One of the best years in the last 7.

I hunted all day Thursday with my bow and had 3 shots but just couldn't close the deal. I called in 2 long beards withing 15 minutes of our first hunt Thursday and my younger son connected and I've got that on video. You don't get to see the bird get shot but you do see Derek shoot and the bird roll down the hill. I got an arow off at the second bird and thought I got him but my arrow was clean. On the video I even said, "Got him!" It was that close!

I'm at my moms house right now so no photos yet. Tomorrow I'll post photos and the video.
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MuleyMadness
Sounds sweet!
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Hiker
Mark, Sounds like a great hunt for you and your sons. =D> Congrats.

Killerbee, We will be further east, closer to Raton.
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9er
went out last night on utahs opener! saw a few jakes, had some toms coming in, but once they got close we lost sight of them and they never presented a shot! had a lot of fun!

9er
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Mark
Here are the pics of our turkey hunt. My youngest son killed the first bird 15 minutes into the first hunt. I called in two and one walked away. I took a shot at it with my bow but wasn't able to connect. I had other chances with my bow but just couldn't close the deal. Maybe next year.

Dereks birds (12 yr old son):

1st bird stats: 21 lbs tom, 9" beard, 1" spurs
2nd bird stats: 15lb jake, 3" beard, no spurs

Marks birds:

1st bird: 17lb jake, 3" beard, no spurs
2nd bird: 23lb tom, 10.5" beard, 3/4" spurs

Josh's bird (18yr old son):

18lb jake, 5" beard, nubs for spurs!

Derek has killed 4 turkeys now and Josh has killed 9. Not bad for a couple of youngsters! I've got video footage that I need to edit and then I'll post a link to that.
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9er
sounds like an awsome hunt! that footage will be cool, cant wait to see it

9er
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killerbee
thats awsome! Hats off to you for taking your kids hunting =D> =D> they'll never forget these times. looks like it was a great hunt, congrates!!!
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MuleyMadness
Very nicely done. Looks and sounds like a huge success. Not a Turkey expert myself. So what is an average sized beard? 10.5" long sounds pretty long to me? How about the average weight of a bird also.

Anywho...nice job and CONGRATS! :thumb
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Mark
The birds that we kill normally have a beard in the 9" to 10" range. I've got one that's about 11.5". Average weight of the toms in our area is around 21lbs. The jakes average about 15lbs, the hens weigh in at 12. In the fall we do shoot 1 hen each if we can't get on a bearded bird.

My biggest bird to date was 23lbs, 11.5" beard and spurs were 1-1/4" long. Excellent bird! The beards on most of the larger birds in this area are really thick.

A lot of people won't shoot the jakes. However, this property (3500 acres) that we are hunting has a huge population of toms, jakes and hens. In an average year 4 birds are killed there so killing jakes isn't going to upset the balance in any way. The 4 birds doesn't include the birds we kill. So far this season only 1 other group of 2 hunters has been on the property and they shot one bird last Saturday.

So on this 3500 acres, only 5 people have hunted it this season and only 6 birds have been shot. Low pressure!
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Man Mark that's awesome! I'm sitting at work counting down the minutes. Idaho's opener was today and I'm leaving the second that I clock out! :222
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killerbee
i'd say average is 7-8" beard, most common is the jakes, kinda like a forkrd horn buck, young and not as smart, the 6-7" beard is your 2 1/2 yr old deer wich would be say a 18" 3x4 with crab claw forkes. then you get to the big boys i'd say the 9+ beard is your 3-4 yr old buck really starting to get some horn/ beard showing. the you get the 10-11" and those are your 180"+ bucks that everybody loves to look at. after that you get the occasional 12+ beards and those are the big non-typical bucks that people get on occasion :)) of course i'm just comparing the size per speciese{ spelling} by no means would i really put these turkeys on the samer level as muley hunting. it is a blast but still not the same!
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MuleyMadness
Cool, thanks for the info guys. Honestly had no clue on what is big. Anything over 9" seemed really big to me.

Hope to get a bird in a couple of years.
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