Trophy Hunting

[retrieverman]

I've gotten lucky and killed 3 turkeys in my life but am not a "turkey hunter", but I am a trophy deer hunter.  I have a question for real turkey hunters.  Do y'all pass on younger short beard toms and wait on a long beard or do you take the tom that comes to your calling?

[Dtrkyman]

Almost never see "short bearded toms", if he is a tom he gets shot!

[Scottf270]

I have never shot a Jake. Not being snobby, just prefer to kill a mature gobbler.  I am willing to go home empty handed. And with the sad state of most turkey populations, it just seems right to leave the young ones. My opinion only.

[deathfoot]

I'll pass on a Jake every time. But when I was younger I wouldn't (I've killed a couple) but the last 20 years or so I have. I have no desire to kill a jake, let them live and be back for them next year.

[Howieg]

It's a sin for a grown man to kill a jake in my circle . It's also not legal .
Imo , it ok for a young hunter to start out with one or 2 , but after that it's grown gobblers only .

[Gooserbat]

I've out grown shooting Jake's... 99% of the time. Nothing wrong with joining club Jake but now days anything with a full fan or a full beard gets shot in the noggin.

[retrieverman]

Would this one be a shooter?

[nativeks]

Years ago when we had turkeys everywhere we trophy hunted spurs. Let alot of birds walk looking for nice sets.

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[GobbleNut]

That's a mature gobbler (full fan being the obvious indicator), so yes, I would consider him to be a shooter.  In addition, that looks like it might be a Merriam's, which generally have less-developed beards than the other subspecies, so going by the beard alone, he would be a representative specimen.  Spurs are considered by some to be a better indicator of trophy quality,...but we obviously can't see those to make that determination. 

As for your question about passing up birds while looking for a "trophy", I used to do that quite a bit,...but times have changed.  Used to be we could pass up a few gobblers around these parts knowing that there would most likely be another one to take later in the season.  Not so much anymore.  Passing up a mature gobbler nowadays means you might not get another chance later on. 

[squidd]

Bang, bang, dinner

[runngun]

I just passed up 2 Gobblers yesterday morning. I had 2 cone into my calls and they had 8 inch or so beard, at less than 10 steps. I just didn't want to shoot either one of those so I passed.  I am hunting a Bronze/Copper colored Longbeard that is in the same bottom. I have killed plenty in the 9-12+ inch beards. Hope these will survive this season.

Have a good one and May God bless, Bo

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[Callmn closer]

I enjoy hunting for a mature long beard so give the Jakes a pass, same with deer hunting and letting the younger bucks walk. 

[Brillo]

I am a recent convert to turkey hunting and had no issues shooting a jake my first couple of years and have no regrets.   Now I see them more like a deer hunting equivalent of a fork horned buck.  I no longer shoot small deer so passing on a jake is logical. 

[Tom007]

One of the most memorable hunts I had was a Tom that had a 3 inch beard, weighed 23 pounds, 1 1/4 inch spurs. It took me 3 hours to get him, about 10 set-ups covering about a quarter mile. He gobbled about 10 times total. When I walked up to him, I noticed his beard was blonde and curled at the tips. Beard rot I was told. Moral of the story here, short beard, but in my top 5 trophies that I can remember. This guy was extremely smart. I pass on Jake's, but when it comes to Tom's, I judge a trophy by the quality of the hunt, not the length of his beard.....

[guesswho]

No jakes for me, period.   As far as mature gobblers go, it has as much to do with the hunt than it does beard size.   I'd rather kill a two year old with a 9" beard who gave me fits than to kill a four year old with a 12" beard who just happened by.