jake track vs mature gobbler track

[Bamalimbhanger]

can you tell the difference between  a jake  and a mature gobbler track

[Bamalimbhanger]

in south Alabama we have a lot of sandy roads and is a good place to find tracks . a mature bird will have a skinner track than say a big ole fat track of a bird.

[LaLongbeard]

The top track is a Jake the bottom is what your looking for big Gobbler. Second picture is a hen for comparison. The jake middle toe will not be as long in comparison to the whole track notice how much longer the Gobbler track on bottom is no question who made it. The hen tracks all 3 toes are nearly the same length and are not as spread out.


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[dirt road ninja]

The above is an excellent example. At mature Tom's middle toe to will be longer than a dollar is wide.

[Marc]

LaLongbeard...  Thank you for that post!

[LaLongbeard]

LaLongbeard...  Thank you for that post!

No problem. I was actually in the process of rubbing all the tracks out and I thought ,there's a good example of a Jake and Gobbler track lol.

[BTH]

I always use my fingers for comparison on easterns.

When his middle toe is as long or longer than my ring finger he is usually a mature bird.

[GobbleNut]

Interesting.  In all the years, I have never thought to try to delineate a gobbler track from a jake,...just went with "if it's a big track, it's a gobbler,...and if it's a small track, it's a hen". 

I guess my method has always been,..."if a turkey shows up and it is a mature gobbler, I shoot him (assuming I am in the mood), and if it is a jake, I don't".   

[gaturkeyhunter]

usually if you have to think if it's a gobbler or a hen track it's usually a jake since the difference between a gobbler is night and day

[The wanderer]

A couple of years ago my dad and I shot a Jake and a longbeard. That Jake's feet were much larger than the longbeard's. After that I won't tell myself that's a Jake vs. longbeard.

[LaLongbeard]

For the most part Jakes in Louisiana don't gobble and if they do it's a choppy poor excuse for a gobble. I have ran into a few that had what sounded like a mature Gobble. This year I delt with one for a couple days that sounded like a boss Gobbler but would skirt around my set up answer but never come in. I didn't hear hens I got close enough to him on the roost and heard only him fly down. I just assumed it was a stubborn Gobbler. I got on him for the third day and followed him gobbling thru the woods he crossed a sandy logging road and I saw his tracks ....gobbling Jake. One reason to look for tracks save time from being wasted on a Jake.

[Marc]

For the most part Jakes in Louisiana don't gobble and if they do it's a choppy poor excuse for a gobble. I have ran into a few that had what sounded like a mature Gobble. This year I delt with one for a couple days that sounded like a boss Gobbler but would skirt around my set up answer but never come in. I didn't hear hens I got close enough to him on the roost and heard only him fly down. I just assumed it was a stubborn Gobbler. I got on him for the third day and followed him gobbling thru the woods he crossed a sandy logging road and I saw his tracks ....gobbling Jake. One reason to look for tracks save time from being wasted on a Jake.

I'd be curious to hear if that is a region situation or if that is typical of Easterns?

The Rio's in my area are indistinguishable in their gobbles.  I have spent many hours working in what turns out to be jakes.  (I would say that the ratio this year was about 5 to 1 jakes to toms).

I wonder if it is regional in that southern states the birds breed early in the season, and thus the 1st year birds are more mature by the time the season rolls around?

[LaLongbeard]

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I wonder if it is regional in that southern states the birds breed early in the season, and thus the 1st year birds are more mature by the time the season rolls around?

I believe it is related to hatching date, but being born earlier would not make them have a Jake gobble An older hen that breeds first then successfully hatched in early May would have poults over a month older than a hen that nested late or had to renest  because of predators etc. I do know most Jakes in the Deep South don't gobble well. The further north you go the more jakes Gobble and the harder it is to distinguish the Jake from Gobbler. In all the years I've hunted La I can only remember maybe 3 Jakes that gobbled like a mature Gobbler. That's 3 that I was able to visually verifie that it was a Jake and that it was the one gobbling, there may have been more that I never saw. Usually it is easy to tell the difference.