Jakes! To Shoot or not to shoot? That is the question!

[joey46]

Too many assumptions there.  While it is great that myself and many others here can get out multiple times a year and can be very selective many are only a few weekends (days) a season guys.  For them to be limited to 2 year olds and be required to guess at beard length is an unnecessary hardship IMO.  If you include scouting days I probably got out 30 plus days last season on both private and public land in two different states.  I didn't shoot any jakes in 2022 but if the season had been about over and a legal bird walked in he would have been heading for the oven.  Cooking and eating the birds is a big part of the whole experience for me.

[Prospector]

OP asked for opinions on a question that interested me.... Like everyone who posted (so far) I gave just that. I assumed that it's was posted to get a respectful back and forth between people who share a love for hunting this bird (but not necessarily the same opinion).

[Crghss]

I hunt turkey for the fun of dance. I want to have a fun hunt with a mature bird. I don't shoot jakes because it's not the hunt I'm looking for.

On private land I've let 2 year olds walk. I had more days to hunt and wanted that old Tom, coming in with a slow full fan strut across a wide open field. Clucking and purring the whole way. If happens great. If it doesn't thats great too. Had a blast calling the turkeys I passed on.

Other people can do as they please. Makes no difference to me what other people do.

[jb1069]

OP asked for opinions on a question that interested me.... Like everyone who posted (so far) I gave just that. I assumed that it's was posted to get a respectful back and forth between people who share a love for hunting this bird (but not necessarily the same opinion).

You assumed correctly sir. Just looking for good conversation.

[squidd]

Bang - dinner!

[Cottonmouth]

Not legal here in MS but I wouldn't shoot them if they were. I've seen guys from here go to the midwest to reservations and shoot every jake they see so they can come home bragging that they killed X # of turkeys, never telling their buddies they were all jakes. I remember maybe 20 yrs ago a guy from La. checked in over 20 turkeys, mostly jakes.
I don't have a problem with a kid shooting one but after that it's long beards.

[bbcoach]

I agree with most on here.  I do not shoot jakes even if it is legal and will eat a tag or tags given that choice.  IMO jakes and hens are the future of the turkey population and should remain off limits.  With that being said, when I take someone new to the sport, jakes aren't off the table.  As someone said earlier, it's like deer hunting, when you first start out does and young bucks are trophies.  Don't discourage the harvest of legal animals for new hunters but do educate them on the future of the sport. 

[Cut N Run]

Never have, never will shoot a jake. 
My grandfather taught me that killing jakes is just stealing longbeards from your own future. He said that 100% of the gobblers you kill never get to chance to get any bigger.

During the peak of the pandemic, lots of jakes around here got taken out.  Since every day was like Saturday and so many hunters were home from work, the male turkey population got absolutely hammered.  The numbers here haven't recovered yet. 

Grandaddy also told me that killing hens was counterproductive.  It doesn't make sense to kill egg layers, especially in these days of declining turkey populations.  The only hens legal to kill here in North Carolina are bearded.  Many hunters have never seen a bearded hen.

You do you, but the immature birds are safe from me.

Jim

[Kygobblergetter]

I personally won't shoot them. If they make it they are more likely to reproduce and be birds I will hunt next year. If anybody else wants to do it that is completely up to them. They just really don't trip my trigger


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