Trophies?

[appalachianassassin]

 I don't take (quote) trophies per se. ive never kept a beard, ive never kept the spurs. that stuff all goes in the turkey hole with the carcass. I hunt turkeys for the extreme adrenaline rush and the meat. the last jake I shot I was 16 years old (33 now) and I felt ashamed. don't know why but i did and ill never shoot another one. i don't shoot young deer either.

[Uncle Nicky]

It all depends on the situation. If I have a lot of time to hunt or know there are a lot of longbeards in the area, I'll give the jakes a pass and save the tag for a mature bird. If I'm getting desperate, then I'll shoot a jake. Never did understand why shooting a jake is looked down upon, guys shoot hens, poults, and jakes in the fall, why is the spring any different?

[Cut N Run]

As long as a bird is taken legally I don't care what size the turkey is. Any turkey is a trophy.  However somebody else wants to spend their tag is up to them.

I'm not going to shoot a jake because I was raised that way.  My grandfather always told me that killing a jake was stealing longbeards from the future.  He also told me that if you could consistently kill mature gobblers, you had achieved impressive hunting ability.  Most of the properties I hunt are fairly small and if I started killing jakes, I definitely wouldn't see as many longbeards.  I hunt for the pursuit and the meat. I want as much of each as I can get.

Jim

[Swampchickin234]

All in the eyes of the hunter. I hunted a bird years back that gave me fits. Took 3/4 of the season to get him in. Turns out he was a jake. He went home with me and I was happy with him. Hunted one year with my arm in a sling and had to shoot one handed. The jake I killed that year was a trophy to me. Actually, those two birds are probably more memorable than most others. My 5 bearded bird came running in to my first set of calls and my 12" beard 1 3/8" spurs bird flew of the roost into gun range. I feel that the hunt(or hunts) for an animal make it a trophy, not the size.

I would agree with that. Not necessarily how big the bird was, but how it all went down.  For instance, I got my butt kicked in 2016 in my home state.   On the 11th morning in a row, I finally killed.   It was a 2 year old and that bird still means a whole lot to me even though Ive technically killed bigger since ten and before then.  Another "trophy" was taking a public land mountain bird with my grandpas brothers Ithaca 20 gauge.  That made 3 generations to take with that gun and it means a lot to me.  My first small bore bird (with a 28) will always be a trophy.  Those I had to work for are trophys. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Happy]

My big stigma is people who kill an animal just to kill it. I have no respect for that whatsoever and whoever is capable of that has something wrong with them. I am not talking predator/population control. I am talking about the person who kills an animal with no reason other than that they can. My kids are raised with the understanding that if they kill it then they are going to clean it and eat it. And if you waste an animal then that's just as bad.


Sent from my SM-G800R4 using Tapatalk