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How many folks here have shot banded turkeys?

Just so happens I'm a diehard waterfowler, so the mystique of bands has been with me since my first waterfowl hunt when I shot a banded mallard.  Never even realized they banded turkeys until many years later when I shot a banded eastern in MD.  It was a longbeard with a 9 3/4" beard and 1 1/8" and 1 1/4" spurs.  Good bird, but nothing exceptional.  Turns out that bird had been banded 3 years earlier as a 2 year old.  Would have never guessed he was as old as he was.  We don't live in rocky or hilly terrain and still he was no monster given his age.  Showed me that after 2 years old there's no true way to tell the age of a turkey.

Years later, I was in the Black Hills area and shot a banded merriams with no spurs.  That bird had travelled 200 miles from its banding location in the northern part of the hills to the prairies south of the hills.  He was 3 years old, but with no spurs and half of his beard frozen off there wasn't anything to tell his age properly.

I full body mounted the eastern thinking there was no way I'd ever shoot another banded turkey.  I didn't dare press my luck with the wife to have the merriams mounted.

Who else has shot banded turkeys?

I killed a banded jake on a local WMA here in Tn 3 years ago
He also had orange tags on his wings

Wow that is awesome! I know they band turkeys but not to many to my knowledge, but you killed 2! Congrats!! I'd like to see pics of the mount.


Neal

I killed a bird on public land in MS in 2000 and listened to another bird tearing the woods up while i worked the one i was on.  My buddy was having a slow season, and that night i told him exactly where to go to get to where i heard that other bird.  The next morning he called me around 7:30 and had him in the truck and he was BANDED.  Couldn't believe it.

Here are some pictures of one my boy shot in SD a few years ago.

I have, several times, but everytime I get to them I wake up?? ???

Quote from: turkey slayer on February 07, 2011, 01:37:03 PM
I have, several times, but everytime I get to them I wake up?? ???

Me too...shot about 4 last night

Awesome....I didn't know they banded turkeys

Got this one my lease a couple years back.  He was banded about a mile away on another property.  Still don't know exactly what to do with the band.  How can I incorporate that into a call?
(http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a308/TailFeathers/DSCN1557-1.jpg)

Very cool I would love to kill a banded bird

Quote from: Gobble! on February 07, 2011, 06:54:40 PM
Very cool I would love to kill a banded bird

Same here!  I have not nor do I personally know anyone that has.

I killed a 2 year old that was banded as a jake the year before, within a mile of where he was banded. The neat thing was, he was banded by George Wright the turkey biologist that helped get the wild turkey population up where we could have a state wide season here in KY.

Not yet!

Does anyone know if this is standard practice in their state? I've never heard of it personally in MS but clearly it is done.

Dang Hookspur did you get lovett his equipment back

Never killed a banded turkey, but put a many on birds.  We are still banding for our gobbler mortality study.

Quote from: Hookspur on February 08, 2011, 05:23:58 PM
Yeah shootum; he got the radio back (the antennae had broken off about a year earlier, so they'd lost contact with this tom), but I kept the wing tags and leg band, plus they sent me a copy of the data recovered in the study.

Hookspur, That is way too cool. I would love to see a copy of the data sheet. Just curious to see what all they look at other than locations.

in VA i toke two in the 90s got 20 bucks for each band dint know if they still do it

I killed one in 2004 on a WMA in central Florida. He was a good old bird to with some razor sharp hooked spurs. I'd scouted that bird for weeks and saw him through the bino's strutting in a field and that he was banded. I made up my mind I was going to spend the entire 4 days on him if I had to. On opening morning he gobbled over 100 times on the roost (more than any Osceola I've ever killed) and finally flew down from his big ol' pine tree and ever so slowly strutted over to me and died at about 18 steps. I think I remember every detail of that hunt, it was a fine morning to be a turkey hunter.

I killed one during the 2008 season...

(http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b284/WNYBowhunter/Turkey%20Hunting/hjgvhj.jpg)

Quote from: Basser69 on February 08, 2011, 05:26:23 PM

Quote from: Hookspur on February 08, 2011, 05:23:58 PM
Yeah shootum; he got the radio back (the antennae had broken off about a year earlier, so they'd lost contact with this tom), but I kept the wing tags and leg band, plus they sent me a copy of the data recovered in the study.

Hookspur, That is way too cool. I would love to see a copy of the data sheet. Just curious to see what all they look at other than locations.

In 2009 when I was trying for my first Osceola turkey at Three Lakes WMA in Florida they were doing a turkey tracking research study. I got to know the people doing the tracking because I had found and shown them a Swallow Tail Kite nest. Any way I road around with him one afternoon all over that management tracking them turkeys. If you could get the results of that study ( It was a three year study and finished last year) I think you would find a lot of interesting things in there. I know after the third day one hen had traveled out of her home range on the north boundary line and ended up on the south boundary line, he had a heck of a time finding her. He though the movement was caused just because of all the pressure of people every where. I know it sounded like it was a very thrall research project and a lot of work he only did it one year because of that. It was interesting just talking to them one day, and no it didn't help me shoot a turkey that year but it did help me understand there movement a little better. I shot one the second year.

(http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u61/MEGAN_POLLACK/Spring%20and%20Turkeys/DSC_0039.jpg)
My 12 year old daughter took a double bearded banded turkey in 2008 on her first youth hunt in NY.

A good friend of mine killed a banded hen with gps pack on her back in PA. The band was worth $100 and it was the first one I had herd of in a very long time. WNY Bowhunter was that bird taken in 9R here in WNY? The tag looks like it says that if so you got it in my neck of the woods. :you_rock:

the game commission trapped and banded a bunch here in pa. awhile back and some of the tags were a 100 bucks if you called them with the band info.

Quote from: SR1 on February 10, 2011, 05:36:22 PM
A good friend of mine killed a banded hen with gps pack on her back in PA. The band was worth $100 and it was the first one I had herd of in a very long time. WNY Bowhunter was that bird taken in 9R here in WNY? The tag looks like it says that if so you got it in my neck of the woods. :you_rock:

Actually, I killed this bird in 8R.  Guess I'm a little east of you...

Not yet, but I would love too.