Goal or Obsession?

[Gobble!]

If the big one comes in with the others I'll try for him. Otherwise I'm taking the first mature bird that I can.

[FullChoke]

If I know that there is a monster Tom in the area that I am hunting, I will target him and him alone. The days of the season will be spent learning everything that I can catalogue about his habits, roosts, strut zones, preferences and become intimately familiar with the terrain where he calls his kingdom. I have amassed a few tricks through the years that I may feel obligated to turn loose on him when the time seems right. Outsmarting old birds like that are completely worth the patience spent.

FC

[zelmo1]

I will be making myself available to him as often as possible. This will give him the opportunity to report for pic and grill duties.    Z

[eggshell]

My philosophy is the same as Elmer Fud's    , "I'm hunting turkeys, it's turkey season". I have almost exclusive access to 1200 acres of good turkey hunting ( cousin's grand-kids hunt two days ) and know of a couple big old gobblers, but i shoot the first bird that comes to my call, typically a mature bird, but I wouldn't rule out a jake if he worked good. After 50 plus years and a boat load of birds, all I want is a fun hunt. The heck with the biggest or oldest trophy bird. Now if I get a chance to chase one of those old legends, I certainly will give him a go and be proud of him, but it's not worth eating a tag over. For many years I have passed jakes as future seed and I have killed all mature birds. However, if it's the last three or four days of season and a fat jake appears he is going home with me. Of course that hasn't happened in a long time. I actually believe we should leave the big old dominate birds alone. I have one I think is a exceptional bird and I only hunted him a couple times in three years. You can see him out in my cousin's field almost everyday, but I just stop and glass him and move on. If I get a chance I will shoot him, but I prefer to let him sow his seeds.

[GobbleNut]

This discussion about shooting "dominant" gobblers reminded me of a story from a couple of decades ago.  We have a cabin in the mountains and, back then, we would have LOTS of hunters stay there during the spring season.  We had an old gobbler that roosted within earshot of the place all season long...and had done so for several years (yes, he had some identifying characteristics such that we knew it was the same gobbler).

He was there every spring, and every spring a number of hunters would give him a go...myself included a few times...but I had long since decided it was good to have him hanging around nearby for, if nothing else, entertainment purposes. We had one steadfast rule about him..."you can't just set up, not call, and ambush him.  If you are going to try to kill him, you have to try to call him in."

One year, towards the end of the season after several of our local guys had attempted to kill him, we had a couple of "high-falootin'" sorts come to the place to hunt with us...one of which had actually won a national-level calling contest a couple of years before.  Both of them were excellent callers, for sure.

One evening, we were discussing this gobbler and the fact that nobody could call him and that all of us had given up hope of doing so. Our two guests were listening in and stated matter-of-factly..."We will go out in the morning and kill that gobbler for you guys". ...We just chuckled and said..."Have at it, fellers".

The next morning, he obliged them by gobbling his azz off, like he did every morning...and they set up near his roost, confident they would show us how it was done.  Late morning, they came straggling in "gobblerless", tuckered out from chasing the old gobbler all over the mountain side. They said..."the last we heard of him, he was gobbling at every call we made...going over the biggest mountain in the country away from us. No matter what move we made or how we called, he moved away from us at every call. Never ever hunted a turkey like that before."

Again, all of us "local boys" just chuckled...and with a sly wink at each other. 

[appalachianassassin]

I cant remember ever looking at a birds spurs to make sure he was big enough. A longbeard is a longbeard in my opinion. The experience is the trophy of a successful turkey hunt and some of the unsuccessful ones too.

[Jfowler82]

Hunt hard but more importantly have fun ! Are you letting a mature long beard walk because it's not the big one ? I'm not. I have killed one or two I'd swear was a two year old until I picked them up .