MN Season A Success: Fattest Bird I've Ever Shot

notsure · April 18, 2020, 07:14:10 PM

So, MN's Season A started this past Wednesday (4/15). The temperature in Chatfield hovered around 13 degrees when I headed out on opening day. That's a cold morning in April, even in MN. The morning ended with no bird, but I did have two gobblers enter the far end of the alfalfa field I was hunting. On Thursday, I hunted in the morning and afternoon, but still no luck. So, I head on Friday morning and the birds aren't even gobbling on the roost (or too far away for me to hear them). And then a Barred Owl landed in the cottonwood tree 100 yards from my position, the eagles decided to make their presence known, and a coyote attacked my decoys (he came in so quiet by the time I spotted him, he was making tracks, so no shot). By the time 9:30 rolls around, I'm ready to leave and save some PTO. And then she showed up. A big hen started chattering, and came into my decoy setup (hen and jake). She was cozying up to my "hen", when about 80 yards away, a strutter and a second hen showed up. Well, a few cuts and purrs on my little scratch box was all it took. I wouldn't say he charged in to the decoy spread, but he wasn't wasting much time either. And he really didn't like the posturing jake: He managed to beat on it for at least a minute until I was able to get a clear shot without destroying my decoy (Dave Smith decoys are expensive!). I let him have it with a 2 1/4 oz. of TSS #9 shot at 21 yards. Needless to say, he hit the dirt hard. When I took a close look at him, I immediately determined that he was a 2 year old bird, given his small spurs (3/4"). And then I lifted him up. Immediately I said to myself, my G_D this bird is heavy! When I put him on the scale I did a double take: 25 pounds, 15 ounces! So, I weighed him again. Same result. OK, I have a 26 pound kettle bell, so let's see if the scale is off: 26 pounds, 6 ounces. Assuming the kettle bell is actually 26 pounds on the nose (probably not), this guy weighs at least 25 pounds, 9 ounces. Talk about bagging Baby Huey! He "only" scored 59.94 points, but I don't care. I like long spurs as much as the next guy, but I doubt I'll every shoot a bird bigger than this hog, not matter how old he may be.

Paulmyr · April 18, 2020, 07:37:05 PM

My brother lucked out his 1st mourning ever hunting. It was in se MN and shot a huge 29lb bird. He thought that turkey hunting was easy. That was back in the late 80s. I think he maybe bagged 4 since then but he don't get into it like I do.

Paulmyr · April 18, 2020, 07:38:11 PM

Oh by the way congratulations. Dang nice bird.

JeffC · April 18, 2020, 07:51:29 PM

Congrats on "Big Bird". 13 degrees is deer hunting weather, not spring turkeys, guess that extra weight needed to keep warm, at least that's my excuse.