This will be my second season hunting turkeys. Last year I walked away with 3 major lessons. One is that becoming a good caller is important. The second is having good woodsmanship skills. And the most important is putting in a lot of work early by scouting before opening day.
Last year I spent 3 weeks scouting a couple of times a week. I had a good idea where to find the birds and was able to get on the birds by day 2. I had 3 kills 15 days into the season and ended up with my 5th and final tag 5 days before the end of the season. First season, 5 kills (4 with a shotgun and one with a bow), and the big one was 20 lbs, 10" beard, and 1 1/8' spurs.
This year I have more properties to hunt so I have begun scouting. On the first day of scouting, we found quite a few tracks. And then we saw "IT".
(http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a277/zg8/20150205_084602_zpsimmppdyl.jpg) (http://s13.photobucket.com/user/zg8/media/20150205_084602_zpsimmppdyl.jpg.html)
My buddy named him Thunderbird. But my favorite comment was, "That's not a turkey. Its a Pterodactyl!"
This bird has consistently left us a lot of fresh sign on a weekly basis. I don't doubt he will be on the ground in the first week of this season. Actual sightings last year reported that his beard drags the ground! I'm ready now!
So much fun having a specific bird your going for...good luck!
Scouting is a big part of success! I start in January every year...I love the time in the woods and it helps pass the winter months.
God bless
That's a big turkey or you have little hands :goofball: makes me think of the burger king commercials. Seriously though good luck cant wait to see pictures of this giant.
Great pic. Good luck!!!
That's a big bird, his (toes?)tracks are about as wide as your finger. Holy crap!!!!! Also he must have about 16-18 wide strides, don't see any other tracks.
Better carry a sidearm that boy is big!
Good luck.
Its hard to tell his actual stride. Each stride was longer than the last. We believe he was spooked when we pulled up in the truck and began running. The tracks took a sharp turn into the woods. And yes, I carry a sidearm. Ever since last season when I was hunting with my bow and a big Coyote came in to my calling and scared the crap out of me. It hapened so fast I had no time to hook my release on to shoot him.
The good thing about these tracks is that we see new tracks almost everyday.
"I don't doubt he will be on the ground in the first week of this season."
I've thought that before.