WIll you shoot a jake this year?

[TrackeySauresRex]

It all depends on how my season goes. I've shot a jake before after a long frustrating season. Jakes taste good 

[Kylongspur88]

If he really tempts me then yes. The season is short and Im going to make the most of what time I get in the field.

[jblackburn]

Maybe, depends on the circumstances.  If I decide to take my bow out again this year, heck yes I will!  Shotgun, probably not, but you never know.  If it looks like a jake or tag soup at the end, well, jakes eat well, too!

[tnturkey]

absolutely not. but I also don't drop my standards just to kill a bird at the end of the year either. but that's just me its what ever floats your boat if it is legal.

[BowBendr]

Why not ? Jakes taste just as good on the grill as spike bucks do.......

[ShortSpurs]

YUP!

Well, maybe, as the season hasn't opened here yet.

Ask me again in May.

[pogo]

I've been hunting turkeys since the 80's and sometimes I do, sometimes I don't shoot jakes, but I never rule them out unless I'm on a piece of private land where the owner wants to save them.  I hunt mostly public land that has lots of pressure.  Occasionally I will also get to hunt a little bit of private land that is just small acreage.  So each year my chances to get a turkey are limited.  Most years I do kill a tom or two, but there have been several years where I happily called in a jake and shot him.  I love to hunt turkeys, I like to enjoy a meal or two of wild turkey as well, and jakes taste just as good to me.

[PALongspur]

I don't have a problem shooting a jake, especially if he gives me a good hunt!

[WV TURKEY THUG]

if it gobbles and has a beard im dropping it if its in range. atleast for the first bird of the year

[knightrider]

I don't drop my standards either I WILL shoot a jake from the first tag to the fourth one 

[DirtNap647]

yes I would just not first part of season to each there own 

[suburbhunter]

No. However, if one comes in for my youth hunter or someone that has never taken a turkey before that's a different story. Their choice.   

[bpsmag1026]

I will if I get a chance! I am planning to carry my TK2000 this spring and have never killed one with it.

[Fullfan]

absolutely not. but I also don't drop my standards just to kill a bird at the end of the year either. but that's just me its what ever floats your boat if it is legal.

X-2

[learn2hide]

I will certainly try not to kill any jakes. But as others have said no shame in it for anyone.  Turkeys are not easy to kill even when you're in a good area.  I have seen them gobble 200 times in a morning and sound pretty darn mature.  How can that not be fun?  Almost all of us started out shooting some jakes but as I matured I set my goals a little higher just like with hunting whitetails.  I ended up killing a jake last year late in the MO season. The thing gobbled a couple times on the roost far away then pitched into a clearing closer to me.  I could see him as he strutted around a hen at about 200 yards.  After a short series of yelps he popped his head up, saw my strutter decoy or like the call and came on a line.  Knew he was a male legal turkey, had good body size.  I shot him when he cleared a tree I had ranged at 40 yards never even thinking twice...he weighed 17 1/2 lbs and had a 5 inch beard.  No spurs at all, definite jake but with the way he acted I got fooled.  It was still a nice hunt experience but given some of the numbers of birds have been lower lately I was definitely not trying to shoot a young one.  Last jake I shot prior to that just made me mad, he came into the strutter decoy and simply beat it to death, broke the stake off in the ground.  Once he did that, he got a free ride to town :-)  I say everyone have fun, and understand the choices you make affect the flock, and accept the results.   Good luck this year everyone...