Soooo.........in 43 years of playing this amazing game in the spring..........
I have read scores of times in this forum and others.........in books and magazines........of gangs of jakes running mature birds off. Messing up hunts or even entire seasons in a particular area.
I'm here to say........... I've never ONCE seen an example of this behavior. EVER. As a matter of fact, in my core hunting area, it's pretty uncommon to even have jakes respond to (as in "come in") the call. But, never once have I seen a jake or group of jakes chase, bully, harass or otherwise interfere with a mature gobbler.
Wonder how come ??
Well I can say I saw it this season, jakes were gobbling and strutting and drumming and would shut the gobbler down, later in the season it seemed like the gobbler would go to the jakes and shut them down but they would then shut down.. I hope all the Jakes I called in work that good next season..
I've only seen it a couple of times. I too have read about it but rarely have seen it.
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I've never encountered it either. Lots of times I've had groups of jakes running around acting like eighth graders asked to senior prom, but I've never seen them shut down a dominate bird. I've seen them strut and gobble, sure, some even sounding and acting like adult birds, but just never seen them subordinate a dominant bird.
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I've seen it. After spring break up there was something like 1 tom and 4-5 Jakes in that area. These were like super Jakes though not late hatch smaller Jakes but larger early hatch ones. Those Jakes were fired up and strutting really early in the year too.
Whenever they saw the tom strutting alone in an opening they would go and chase him off until he was strutting on the out skirts of the property away from the Jakes.
Those Jakes owned that property and would bug the hens. Of course after the season they linked up with the Tom and all was well again.
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I have never witnessed this myself but based on what I have read and various conversations with other hunters I know it happens.
I just write it off as Turkeys being Turkeys!
I witnessed it first hand this season. Group of 5 jakes. Very belligerent and they would gobble too. One of the 5 would strut as well. Called them in on 3 different occasions. This was during the youth season so it was late March and first weekend of April. First time we had a gobbler that had been gobbling behind our setup. The jakes came passed us and went straight to that other gobbler and beat the you know what out of him. Wife and kids were with me and had never heard such a racket before. Knock down drag out fight. That was the first time I had actually witnessed it by myself for sure. Next weekend, called in these clowns again. Once again, lots of aggressive behavior and lots of gobbling. They were fun to watch.
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It's a respect/ fear thing, lol. I have seen it also, but never 2-3 jakes. Usually a bigger " gang" of jakes will harass a lone Tom around here during the breeding season. But most of the year they hang together.
I've seen it a few times. Kind of rare but it does happen. It has been mostly a gang of jakes attacking a single Tom or 2. I think it is more likely to happen when you have a very bad hatch followed by a really good hatch. Then you have a bunch of jakes running around very few two-year and older birds. The jakes gang up on them. I think there is also less gobbling, generally speaking, in those years as toms gobbling will attract the jake gangs and they are a bit reluctant to gobble.
One time I have seen a jake run off a tom in a one on one situation. I chalked it up to some individual birds are just more aggressive than others.
I can't say that I've ever seen it also. I have seen plenty of Jakes this past spring coming to the calls and just bunching up together. I have seen both Jakes and gobblers together, but not necessarily fighting, more so just playing around. I'm sure it's different in other states how the turkeys react to each other and the number of birds in a given area.
Add me to the list of those that have never seen jakes harassing mature gobblers. Around here, jakes tend to group up, but be somewhat reclusive and keep to themselves. I have, however, on numerous occasions witnessed gangs of mature gobblers getting into it with each other.
It is interesting how these groups of gobblers will run into each other, have a tussle, and then sort themselves out again and go on their way. I would assume these groups are separated by family/genetic dynamics and all of these interactions are dominance-related. Whatever it is, it is an interesting evolutionary phenomenon in wild turkeys.
Seen it a handful of times, one place in Nebraska one year we quit hunting a property, had the same group of Jake's run off a tom every time I went there. Came really close to executing one of them to see if they would stop responding to calls.
I have seen in several times. It was always groups of 4 or more jakes. Either run in to the calling or decoy setup and scare the gobbler off while they beat the hell out of the decoy if using one. Best I can recall it was always 1 "dominate" jake that would strut around while the others did the dirty work.
This year on a property for many years now I have permission to hunt on, I called in a group of 4 jakes early in my season. They seen my lone strutting decoy and walked around it like they were trying to intimidate it. They didn't attack it just walked around by it then slowly left after awhile.
Funny thing is I never herd a gobble this whole season in that area , a first for me hunting that property.
I was able to kill a Tom on public a few miles up the road but it was pretty quit every time I went back to that private land.
???
I've seen it twice. Once in Nebraska there were 3 jakes that would run off lone longbeards. As a previous poster said, I was starting to think about shooting one. It was very frustrating.
Once at my place here in PA I had a group of jakes, hens and 2 longbeards hanging around preseason. The jakes were with the hens and the longbeards hanging around the fringes. If a Tom would work over close to a hen, the group of jakes would immediately go over and chase them off. Interesting to watch preseason. Not so much when the season starts.
I've seen it numerous times over the last 50 plus years. One thing I have noticed is it seems to be more common in open areas. I'm trying to think if I've ever seen it in a timber setting, can't think of a single time right off. But I can think of several instances involving field turkeys.
I've been fooling with a group of birds since the season ended...the primary purpose being to practice my trumpet and EZ wingbone on them. Anyhow, they're in an ~5 acre no-hunting area more or less surrounded by suburbia. The group consists of a tom, 4 jakes and several hens. The jakes stay together but at the same time don't bother with the tom, nor vise versa. The tom gobbles well...until flydown...but all I hear from the jakes are jake yelps. Close to home so I'll visit them every 2 or 3 days. I want to see just how long he'll keep it up.
I had it to happen six times this spring. All wooded timber areas. These Jakes weren't interested in hens either, only Toms and running them off/around.
I've also seen it a number of times.
A few years ago I saw four jakes beat the life out of a gobbler.
Gobbler tried to get away as they were running in but he wasn't fast enough.
Jakes were actually dragging gobbler around and beating him unmercifully. I thought they were going to kill him but he did finally get away.
I've seen gobblers strutting at my decoy and when jakes showed up. Gobblers folded up and beat feet to get out of there.
It's a cruel world in the turkey world and the little hoodlums are no different than human hoodlums except there's no police force to rein them in.
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I had a group of 7 jakes that would be the piss of longbeards that tried coming to me. You would see the gobbler strutting, he would be coming, then you would see him take tail and run. Here would come the jakes.
So I am sitting there one day and they run the longbeard off. An hour later here comes 3 longbeards and they run off the 7 jakes after kicking the crap out of them. Ah the good ole days when we actually had turkeys
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Quote from: sixbird on June 18, 2022, 04:07:38 PM
I've also seen it a number of times.
A few years ago I saw four jakes beat the life out of a gobbler.
Gobbler tried to get away as they were running in but he wasn't fast enough.
Jakes were actually dragging gobbler around and beating him unmercifully. I thought they were going to kill him but he did finally get away.
I've seen gobblers strutting at my decoy and when jakes showed up. Gobblers folded up and beat feet to get out of there.
It's a cruel world in the turkey world and the little hoodlums are no different than human hoodlums except there's no police force to rein them in.
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Yes. I used the comparison of jakes to the wife and kids like this. Street thugs . One on one they are all talk and little do but get a gang of them and they get belligerent and like to bully. Street Thugs.
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Quote from: Cowboy on June 20, 2022, 10:41:01 AM
Quote from: sixbird on June 18, 2022, 04:07:38 PM
I've also seen it a number of times.
A few years ago I saw four jakes beat the life out of a gobbler.
Gobbler tried to get away as they were running in but he wasn't fast enough.
Jakes were actually dragging gobbler around and beating him unmercifully. I thought they were going to kill him but he did finally get away.
I've seen gobblers strutting at my decoy and when jakes showed up. Gobblers folded up and beat feet to get out of there.
It's a cruel world in the turkey world and the little hoodlums are no different than human hoodlums except there's no police force to rein them in.
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Yes. I used the comparison of jakes to the wife and kids like this. Street thugs . One on one they are all talk and little do but get a gang of them and they get belligerent and like to bully. Street Thugs.
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That is the perfect analogy for a group of jakes.
I've seen it a number of times and like others have said it's usually at least 3 jakes on one longbeard. I also think it may be dependent on the size
of the jakes in your area. For example, I hunted in the mountains of Maryland for 25 years and never witnessed this one time. The jakes up
there average about 12 pounds. Around where I live and hunt in southern
MD and Northern Virginia the jakes are much larger, sometimes hitting
16-17 lbs. As I think back I can't recall this ever happening in the mountains of any state I've hunted and I think it's because mountain jakes
are usually smaller.