A sea of "Jakes"

[slyoldtom]

Had my son up for youth hunt and he shot a jake! On the way home I was thinking about how good our hunt was except for I didn't see a single long beard all day! We called in 6 hens and 5 different jakes to which 1 less my son shot but only heard 3 others we didn't see! The jakes were the only ones around the hens!  I'm not sure if the jakes took over the area?  I know there's long beards around but going to be tough to hunt! Any advice?

[ALfwlmth]

Had a situation at my place last year where the gobblers were making themselves seen late Feb/early March. As the weather heated up, a group of 9 jakes all but ran off the gobblers. My 6 yr old was after his first turkey and wanted a gobbler but I talked him into shooting one of the jakes. It busted up their little posey and made them more skittish. The gobblers re-established their dominance shortly their after. Maybe you will see the same thing. Hats off to the young man for his bird!!

[slyoldtom]

Are season starts Saturday and there are 3 of us that hunt that property that are on the same team! We all have our bonus tags so we might have to get rid of a few!, but i don't really want to shoot a jake!

[ALfwlmth]

I don't know how long your season is, but I wouldn't shoot one just yet. Your sons beat down on their buddy might have done the trick.

[KANSAS_GOBBLERS]

Well when I started turkey hunting oh 27 years ago I learned that those long beards are more mature and therefore are a little bit wiser... My point is you can over call and those toms are smart and they know, but on the other hand those jakes are not as smart and they will check out about everything I mean this is just based off of my experience I mean it am help may not but just be glad you got to spend time with the youngster and got him a turkey it's always a good experience Goodrich to you in the future

[Longshot]

Congrats to the young man on bagging a turkey!