Aggressive jakes ???

[guesswho]

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. 

[Turkeyman]

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.

[WV Flopper]

 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.

[sixbird]

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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[nativeks]

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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[Cowboy]

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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[hootgobbleyelpgobble]

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.

[Jimspur]

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.