CowboyLeroy
Well-known member
Large Georgia birds too dads was 26 lbs and mine was 25
Gobble gobble Spring Turkey 2025
- Thread starter Gellar
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caddiscrazy
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Those are some really big birds!! Congratulations
Gellar
Well-known member
Those are big birds no matter where you are. Good eating too!
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I picked up two new properties today to hunt in MO. I also passed a lot more today with birds out showing off. I’m gonna make some phone calls this week to see if I can get access.
CPAjeff
Well-known member
The birds are really fired up around my place.
I picked up a dog on January 6th. We go for a walk every morning and I hear gobbling almost every morning. Even in early January when we had 15 inches of snow and was around zero degrees. Bird counts have been down for a few years but im seeing quite a few this spring. Youth season was this past weekend and the neighbors kid shot a nice bird.
WildWill
Well-known member
Any pics of the fan.
Knighted
Member
thanks! I want to get the slam some day but so far I've only hunted Osceolas.
I saved it and I will get a picture of it. I was alone so I didn't have much of a way to get a good hero shot with him spread out.
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What exactly about it leads you to believe it's a hybrid? Tail coloration seems pretty normally Rio looking which would be spot on for Nebraska.
Not saying it's not a hybrid, just curious as to how you arrived at the conclusion. I've killed a pile of birds that look similar that I pretty well figured were Rios. I hunt a lot of areas that have Merriam's and Rios so maybe I'm just shooting a lot of mutts.
Not saying it's not a hybrid, just curious as to how you arrived at the conclusion. I've killed a pile of birds that look similar that I pretty well figured were Rios. I hunt a lot of areas that have Merriam's and Rios so maybe I'm just shooting a lot of mutts.
Lack of a distinct black band on the second row of tail feathers. I guess that’s how we’ve always tried to distinguish between them because we come across Merriams, Easterns, and Rios in Nebraska.
The pic attached is from a pure Rio I killed on the Kansas-Colorado border. Slightly different coloration than from the bird this weekend.
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I had to go back and look at turkey pictures from the last few springs. Any of you more die hard turkey guys feel free to chime in. No offense will be taken. I just like hunting them, I don't worry too much about subspecies.
The below was taken 7 years ago on the same property I killed what I believe to be a hybrid this past weekend. Nebraska. Looks to me in this photo there is a pure Merriam's and a pure Rio.
Below is two pure Rios. Killed in Nebraska.
Pure Nebraska Merriam's
Pure Nebraska Merriam's
Back when you could still shoot two birds on the same day. Two hybrid Nebraska toms.
You guys tell me if I am way off. I'd honestly appreciate the knowledge.
The below was taken 7 years ago on the same property I killed what I believe to be a hybrid this past weekend. Nebraska. Looks to me in this photo there is a pure Merriam's and a pure Rio.
Below is two pure Rios. Killed in Nebraska.
Pure Nebraska Merriam's
Pure Nebraska Merriam's
Back when you could still shoot two birds on the same day. Two hybrid Nebraska toms.
You guys tell me if I am way off. I'd honestly appreciate the knowledge.
Gellar
Well-known member
You help me with Osceola I’ll help you with easterns.
WildWill
Well-known member
I'll make the same deal with him for Rio's.
WildWill
Well-known member
Pretty cool and I think you're right about the latest bird being a hybrid. We have a spot in the panhandle here in Oklahoma where we get Merriam/Rio hybrids and a large band running north to south in the eastern part of the state with eastern/Rio hybrids.
This seems to be the thread I should post in cause its all about turkeys and I need your help... I have never really turkey hunted and this year Im trying so my 7 year old can see one get shot. Hes excited haha.
Im in the sierra foothills of CA, and have access to 20 acres of private land with deer and turkey. The 20 acres is surrounded by an HOA on 2 sides (E/W) and backs ups to another uninhabited 20 acres to the N which juts further into the HOA. Property to the S holds birds too and does not get hunted. So the birds do not get much pressure at all and roost in multiple places, including the edge of the 20 acres I hunt, next to the 20 empty acres.
Last Saturday a buddy and I hunted it (kid was sick) and we set up 75' from the roost tree, hiding behind branches of oak. We put 5 decoys out in the open 20 yards away from us - 1 fanned tom, 2 jakes, 2 hens, no particular pattern of set up. Gobbles started before dawn all around us and we did some light calls in response. Right before daylight, the roost tree next to us let out a big gobble. I figured it was an old tom as he let us call and didnt say a word. Then he proceeded to stay put until 8am, well after legal shooting light. When he came down he lit right on the fence line of the empty 20 acres and dipped out, looking back at us like he knew the game. Big old tom, 10" beard easy. Slight limp too. He gobbled a few times and eventually ended up on the HOA below us with a single hen.
In the fall I watched 20 turkey come out of that tree, sometimes into the property, sometimes not. Its on a hill so they either go down to the HOA or up to where the cows are fed. Last fall I stood within 15' of all these turkey multiple times as I fed the cows and none were scared of people.
So how would you hunt the roost tree? Sit on the fence line in the open or next to a tree with no decoys? Sit under roost tree? Put decoys far away? Call? No calls? Chairs n blind or no? Cant sit any closer to the HOA.
Should I hunt the top of the property where cows are fed instead of the roost tree? They can come in up there too from all directions. Decoys or not? Call or not? Chairs n blind or no?
Does morning or afternoon matter? Midday? Ive seen them come into the cow feeding area in the evening then go downhill to that roost tree too.
Appreciate your help cause I dont know what Im doing. Id love for my kid to see a turkey strutting into decoys gobbling his head off, but Ill be happy to take one howver we can get one. Thanks everyone. Pic of property map to help.
Im in the sierra foothills of CA, and have access to 20 acres of private land with deer and turkey. The 20 acres is surrounded by an HOA on 2 sides (E/W) and backs ups to another uninhabited 20 acres to the N which juts further into the HOA. Property to the S holds birds too and does not get hunted. So the birds do not get much pressure at all and roost in multiple places, including the edge of the 20 acres I hunt, next to the 20 empty acres.
Last Saturday a buddy and I hunted it (kid was sick) and we set up 75' from the roost tree, hiding behind branches of oak. We put 5 decoys out in the open 20 yards away from us - 1 fanned tom, 2 jakes, 2 hens, no particular pattern of set up. Gobbles started before dawn all around us and we did some light calls in response. Right before daylight, the roost tree next to us let out a big gobble. I figured it was an old tom as he let us call and didnt say a word. Then he proceeded to stay put until 8am, well after legal shooting light. When he came down he lit right on the fence line of the empty 20 acres and dipped out, looking back at us like he knew the game. Big old tom, 10" beard easy. Slight limp too. He gobbled a few times and eventually ended up on the HOA below us with a single hen.
In the fall I watched 20 turkey come out of that tree, sometimes into the property, sometimes not. Its on a hill so they either go down to the HOA or up to where the cows are fed. Last fall I stood within 15' of all these turkey multiple times as I fed the cows and none were scared of people.
So how would you hunt the roost tree? Sit on the fence line in the open or next to a tree with no decoys? Sit under roost tree? Put decoys far away? Call? No calls? Chairs n blind or no? Cant sit any closer to the HOA.
Should I hunt the top of the property where cows are fed instead of the roost tree? They can come in up there too from all directions. Decoys or not? Call or not? Chairs n blind or no?
Does morning or afternoon matter? Midday? Ive seen them come into the cow feeding area in the evening then go downhill to that roost tree too.
Appreciate your help cause I dont know what Im doing. Id love for my kid to see a turkey strutting into decoys gobbling his head off, but Ill be happy to take one howver we can get one. Thanks everyone. Pic of property map to help.
Gellar
Well-known member
on that small of a parcel I’d be careful not to blow them out. I’d probably set my blind up on the feed.
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