2018 Turkey Hunting Picture Thread

Outside of SoonerMedic's thread about the upcoming turkey season, it has been way too quiet regarding the turkey season. Let's see your pictures/posts/stories about your season thus far.

Opening day was Wednesday, April 18. My best friend and hunting buddy for many years was once again here in Kansas for the opener. We struck out for the morning hunt, but we each connected on a nice gobbler that afternoon. Where I am at in Kansas, there is an overlap in Rios and Easterns, with most turkeys here being hybrids. But as you can see, his bird (on your left) shows mostly Rio color traits, while mine (on your right) shows more of the Eastern traits.


I got my second gobbler Friday morning, about 5 minutes after fly down. When this one hit the ground, he started toward my buddy and his decoy. He must have seen something he did not like, turned around, started putting, and walked directly toward me. Shot him at about 8 yards. (Ouch!)


My first gobbler had only one complete spur, along with a nub on the other side. But he had a double beard, only the second one I have taken in nearly 25 years of turkey hunting. My second gobbler had both spurs to go along with his nice beard.



My buddy continued hunting hard the rest of Friday, Sunday (it rained all day Saturday), and Monday. He was always within eye and earshot of gobblers, but they just would not come within gun range. It's raining today, and the gobblers are still out there, gobbling and strutting. I think we had a good and fun turkey season, once again. It's always good to be with your best friend, sharing stories, telling lies, and sipping some good Kentucky bourbon in the evening.

SoonerMedic said:

This was a few of the toms I spotted when I showed up late. They were about 300-350 yds away on another property. I glassed them for about an hour before I called two jakes in. They looked at my decoys for a few minutes and decided they weren't very convincing and then moseyed on out. I then went home and took a 2 hour nap and came back out at about 4:25. Set up by 4:30. Shot this next bird by 4:35.
...
That was the only damn spur on that bird! The other was barely more noticeable than his scaly damn legs. I assume it was ripped off at one point in his life.
This is my first ever bird, so regardless of 1 spur or 2, I'm quite proud of him. He was very delicious and I donated half of his breast to the land owner.

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You are learning well, Grasshopper...

Captcurt said:

Didn't get a picture but I did get to hunt the last day of the season. I had surgery on my left hand and didn't know if I could handle my pump gun. Found a flock of 13 birds in a field and crawled within 150 yards. Messed with them for 15-20 minutes and finally one of the big birds started working my way. He finally got behind some brush along the fenceline to my left. The last time that I saw him he was about 60 yards out. I eased my gun around to cover him if he came down the fence and then cut on my slate. The next thing that I see is 6 jakes running to me. Stopped 15 yards out and started clucking and putting. I couldn't move. I had 12 eyes close enough to see them blink. Finally one slipped through the fence and worked in behind me. When he gave an alarmputt a head popped up just to the right of my gun barrel. The big bird had walked the fenceline and was in my face. I shot him at 20 feet. 22 lbs, 1' spurs, and a 9 inch beard. The Winchester Longbeards shoot like a slug at that range. That is why I have sights on a smoothbore slug barrel. Really easy to miss one when they are that close. Oh, BTW, I didn't need to pump the gun.

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Glad you were able to make it out! Hope your hand heals quickly. I, too, was using Winchester Longbeards this year. Second gobbler was close enough that a big chunk of his neck was missing after the shot. It's OK that you didn't get any pics. Your story provided quite a few pics in my mind. Congratulations.

Now that is a nice pair! Congratulations.