First trip to NC.

[pdaugherty]

First off let me start by saying that I am not making this post to brag or boast about these turkeys. I am not that kind of hunter or person, I am starting this thread to see if anyone else has ever ran into a situation like this or been lucky enough to harvest birds of this caliber. I've been turkey hunting for 24 years and have been lucky enough to kill two turkeys like this in AL. This was my first trip to NC to hunt with some good friends who come every year to AL and hunt with me. Man was it one I will never forget or top.

First turkey I killed was on Sunday morning of opening weekend, my buddy had been on these gobblers opening morning but some thoughtful fellow and his friend decided to do some poaching and tried to fan the gobblers. They of course ruined my buddy and his sons hunt and scared off the turkeys. Fast forward to Sunday morning. Long story short we struck this gobbler around 8 and by 8:15 he was on my shoulder. I called in the bird I shot and there were two other birds with him. They both got out of there quick once they realized what had happened.

Second turkey was killed Monday morning in the same area about 200 yds from where I shot the one Sunday morning. He came in alone without the other gobbler. Pretty much same scenario but this gobbler was vocal on the limb and was dead by 7:15.

These two gobblers were 22 and 21 lbs on a digital scale, true measured 1.5 in spurs on both birds, 11 and 10.5 in beards. I've never seen birds this size running together and I'm curious to see what everyone's thoughts are on this.

Good luck to everyone the rest of the season and let me give a big shout out to Daryal Gosey (NCbowjunkie on here). I ordered one of his trumpets he posted on here and used it on both of these turkeys. Thanks for such a great call Daryal.

[USMC0331]

Congratulations

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[Tail Feathers]

Congrats on a pair of fine birds!
We all love those long, sharp hooks!

[JeffC]

Congrats on 2 fine Toms, great trip, guess you will be back?

[pdaugherty]

Congrats on 2 fine Toms, great trip, guess you will be back?

Oh there is NO DOUBT about that!!

[bear hunter]

Congrats job well done. Birds like these are rare as hens teeth atleast in my part of NC

[Vintage]

Congrats x 2

[3bailey3]

Great birds, Congrats!

[Yoteduster]

Super nice gobblers... Congrats!

[Meleagris gallopavo]

This is related to a post I made about dominant birds having less "trophy" potential than subdominant birds without a harem of hens.  I made the remark that I often see larger Toms individually or with other Toms in bachelor groups.  Someone commented that the dominant birds breed and strut more and don't feed as much as Toms without a harem, thus resulting in lower weight birds.  That doesn't cover the spur or beard length, but it may explain the weight.


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[Vintage]

Congratulations

[tomstopper]

Congratulations on 2 fine gobblers

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