Shooting Jakes ??

[eggshell]

I have a hard time believing the protection of jakes is the salvation of our turkey flocks. In any given flock only a few gobblers do most of the breeding. There's usually a surplus of gobblers. Jakes often out number adult gobblers, but the adults are doing most of the breeding, couldn't you argue your impacting the breeding by removing adults. Just food for thought. If you killed half the jakes in a flock wouldn't there still be enough for future breeding stock? Why limit people's opportunities over something we don't have data to support?

[NOmad]

eggshell - I don't think anyone is necessarily claiming that saving jakes will save the turkey population, but I do think people are saying that killing more turkeys hurts the turkey population. People kill hens in the fall, they aren't breeding then so why does it matter? Because they now have NO chance to breed regardless of if they would have or not during the next breeding cycle. Its a pure probability game. I like a jake having a 6% chance to breed the next year versus a 0% chance when he is killed.

[eggshell]

I agree NOmad, i was only offering food for thought. A discussion primer....

[Tommy Strutsalot]

I do not intend to shoot Jakes but as others have said, I've been fooled twice.  One time was last spring.  It was late morning and I fired one up deep in a wood block and he just came running.  Never strutted but I saw this beard swinging and was certain it was longbeard.  I didn't know until I went to check out his spurs.  Beard was 7.5"



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That sure looks like a Tom to me......

lol, thanks for the affirmation, frankly that's why I wasn't too ashamed to share it and admit I had made a mistake.  It had nubs for spurs and the fan was almost full but not quite - had he strutted I would've known.  I've heard the term super jake before but don't really know what it would mean biologically but I assume it was probably a very late hatch bird and was about to turn 2 in the summer.  The beard, waddles and snood had me fooled.  He also had a commanding gobble - and while that's not a reliable indicator of maturity - it played into my whole perception of the events.


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[g8rvet]

Good question on the super jake age, but I always assumed the opposite, that it was like the earliest hatch of that year and had more growing time.  Never thought of it is a 1.5 year old bird, but like a 11 month bird instead of a 9 month bird.  Anyone know?

An actual biologist on here one time said how much beard might grow based on time, but I don't recall.

[Bottomland OG]

Good question on the super jake age, but I always assumed the opposite, that it was like the earliest hatch of that year and had more growing time.  Never thought of it is a 1.5 year old bird, but like a 11 month bird instead of a 9 month bird.  Anyone know?

An actual biologist on here one time said how much beard might grow based on time, but I don't recall.

I agree with you as it being an early hatch. I recon it could be the other way just an easy tho. As far as how much a beard will grow in a given time might be hard to determine. For example in the fall and winter of 2021 I had a group of 8 Jakes on my farm, beards ranged from probably 5" beards to not even showing, by spring 2022 they all had 3" to 6" beards and a few of them sounded just like a Tom gobbling. Fast forward to spring 23' they  all had 9" to  10" beards.  I'm assuming they were all brothers because they were together all the time. If so their growth spurts hit at different times but they all ended up about equal by almost 2yrs. I don't know this to be facts by any means but I have always felt genetics ,along with Mother Nature has a lot to do with beards and spurs.

[WildTigerTrout]

I killed several jakes when I first started out hunting spring gobblers.  After a couple years I decided to pass them up.  I have not killed one in years and have no intentions of doing so. My answer is no, never.

[PharmHunter]

Never.

[Yoder409]

Good question on the super jake age, but I always assumed the opposite, that it was like the earliest hatch of that year and had more growing time.  Never thought of it is a 1.5 year old bird, but like a 11 month bird instead of a 9 month bird.  Anyone know?

I don't KNOW.  But, I can speculate as well as anyone.   

I get a kick out of the term "super jake".   

But, If I were a guessing man............ I would think a bird with a full tail fan, 6 or 7 inch beard and nubby or maybe 3/8 inch spurs would be a 15 or 16 month old bird that was a very late hatch 2 seasons prior.

I posted here a couple years back about finding peeps that were a few days old on Labor Day weekend.  My theory is that THIS is where these birds are originating.

A buddy of mine calls them "jake and a half".

[Tclipse01]

My first bird was an Osceola jake on my first youth hunt in my teens. It was super exciting at the time and I was just happy to get my first turkey.

I've never harvested another jake and wouldn't consider it at this point.

[eggshell]

Here's my opinion on the super jake. I have killed a lot of fall gobblers that were jakes the previous spring. That makes them around 16-18 months old in my area. They look just like your bird, they average 7-8" beard and slightly more than nub spurs and usually weigh 16 to 17 pounds. My bet is he was a very late hatch from a  second nest during mid to late summer. That would put him in the 18-20 month age group and about that stage. I have seen some small poults in the fall. I would shoot him as a two year old and never look back.