Old Warrior Down!!!

[WNY Bowhunter]

It took 3 days to get him, but I finally put a tag on a good bird this morning!!!

22 lb, 6 oz
9" beard (3/4 of it was "froze off")
1 1/4" spur (other was broken off @ 3/4")



He's the second banded bird of my hunting career.  Unbelievably, I killed a gobbler with band #N2280 back in 2008 and now band #N2281 today on the same farm.  These turkeys were banded on a neighboring farm during the winter of 2007.  That means that todays bird was banded 5 years ago making him at least 6 years old!!!  A true legend of the turkey woods!!!  





The 2008 banded bird...



The mag blends tore him up @ 40 yds...

[albrubacker]

         That is freaking awesome!!

[redrivergar]

That is incredible. Congrats on a great bird! I have a friend that had killed two banded turkeys but I have never seen one.


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[weave]

That is just too cool.

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[dirt road ninja]

Hell ya, so glad ya got one and a monster at that. Never seen a banded turkey. Congrats!

[trkehunr93]

That is awesome!   Now thats an old gobbler!

[davisd9]

Congratulations!  That is a true trophy for sure.  So glad you got you another one!  Do you have anymore tags left or are you done for the year?

[dlquinn]

Congrats on a fine bird 

[WNY Bowhunter]

Congratulations!  That is a true trophy for sure.  So glad you got you another one!  Do you have anymore tags left or are you done for the year?

I've still got 1 tag left and 19 days to fill it.  There are plenty of gobblers around yet.  Hopefully, I can upgrade again... .

[M,Yingling]

Congrats on the bird ,,,Thats cool story with the tags   

[WNY Bowhunter]

Hell ya, so glad ya got one and a monster at that. Never seen a banded turkey. Congrats!

Here's a tidbit of info reguarding the banding study:

In 2009, DEC completed a 4-year wild turkey banding project designed to estimate harvest and survival rates of male wild turkeys ("gobblers") in New York. This study is being done in cooperation with the Pennsylvania Game Commission, Ohio Department of Natural Resources, researchers from Pennsylvania State University, and the National Wild Turkey Federation. The objectives of this work are to: (1) Estimate harvest rates of male wild turkeys during the spring season; (2) Estimate annual survival rates of male wild turkeys; (3) Estimate non-hunting mortality rates of male wild turkeys; (4) Estimate hunter reporting rates of harvested wild turkeys; (5) Use the estimated harvest rates and independent harvest estimates to calculate a population estimate for male wild turkeys in each state; and (6) Investigate landscape factors (e.g., percent forest cover, patchiness of forested areas, human population density, etc.) related to harvest rates. We designed this study as a band-recovery study so that data could be collected from all management units in all 3 states during the 2006-2009 spring hunting seasons. Also, we evaluated the retention of butt-end leg bands.

[mdtkyhntr]

Very impressive, that's a monarch! Bet the 2 yr old birds in the area thank you too!


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[WNY Bowhunter]

I watched him get into a head pecking/neck wrestling match with another longbeard thursday morning that lasted for several minutes.  My bird came out the victor.  Now, I just need the other one to fill in as the king of the farm so I can kill him too!!! 

[hunter-b]

Nice Bird

[WNY Bowhunter]

Update:

Just got off of the phone with the lady from Penn State. My gobbler had 30 mm spurs (1 3/16") and had a little over a 10" beard when banded in February of 2007. Based on this, she said that he was probably 8 years old and is now the oldest reported bird in the banding study!!!