2025 BIG GOBBLER FUN CONTEST - Leaderboard
Post your story, pics and measurements here
This thread will be updated periodically throughout the 5 week season
Good luck to all
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2025 BIG GOBBLER FUN CONTEST - Leaderboard
Post your story, pics and measurements here
This thread will be updated periodically throughout the 5 week season
Good luck to all
May as well get the party started....
Had a great morning for an opener, cool, but not cold, no bugs yet, bit of a breeze, and no rain....got to my spot where I've taken 80% of my birds and didn't fail me this morning. Was set into the woods 515 or so and waited. Heard coyotes in the distance and worried that the hunt may be turning over to a coyote, but they settled down, but not before 3 birds behind me started sounding off....like right behind me....perhaps 50 yards... Only thing that saved me was the patch of evergreens that I was set into that would have blocked their view of me coming in or setting decoys...Either way they were sounding off....this went on for 20-30 minutes, music to my ears, only broken by the odd robin or whip or will announcing the day...
A bit before 6 they started settling down, getting quieter, I heard them fly down to my left and behind me, not sure if they were coming out or staying in the woods. Didn't take long to find out as I could hear Mr. Tom strutting with his spit and drum, not far from me and I can see him through the underbrush....So now the question is, going into the field or follow the treeline...? Watched him until he went into a roll of the field but could still hear him...and he was getting closer....Next thing I see is a half dozen hens moving into the field, but where's the Tom...Out of the corner of my eye I see him, he's in the woods with me moving to the decoys from within the woods....maybe 20 yards out...He gets to 15 and I turn....You can see that he realized "Oh ", let him have it from the old 870. paced off at 12 yards...21.86 lbs. 10 inch beard, 1 1/4 in spurs, Greedy Gobbler left 6 real hens for a chance at another only to get a face full of number 5s...
Only way it could have been better would have been if TurkeyWes had been there, but he'll get out I'm sure...and he can tote the gear in and out for old Dad,
TurkeyJohn
Way to get the party started John! Nice bird and great story.
WTG John really nice tom to start the season
Way to go Johnny Boy congrats
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...89b3e196ab.jpg
Almost forgot my tag, had to remove from the leg, old habits die hard
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Congrats John! Set the bar pretty high!
Went out with a friend Saturday morning and it was miserable with high cold wind and drizzle.
We were set up by 5:45 with decoys out and the wind was just howling figuring that it was going to hard to hear any gobbling.
we heard nothing and saw nothing until 8:00 when we saw 2 hens sneak thru a fence row and run thru the field being chased by a coyote. after it was getting colder and windier and we figured the morning was going to be a bust.
So we got up and starting checking surrounding fields for birds and didn't see any birds other than ducks, geese and crows so we headed back to our original spot and decided to sit for another hour before calling it quits.
Well glad we did as we saw 4 toms sneak thru the same fence hole the hens came out and they started strutting and fighting with each other. I made some calls but they were about 200 yards away and with the high winds they couldn't hear my calls so I started with fighting purrs as loud as I could without wearing out my slate call and got the attention of one of the toms.
I kept up with the loud fighting purrs and all four stated to walk slowly towards the dekes and they kept on coming.
As they got closer I said to my friend to not shoulder his gun until they reached the dekes. When they got to about 60 yards I stopped calling and all four went into strut and slowly walked in, I whispered to my friend to take any bird on the left I would take a bird on the so we wouldn't be shooting at the same bird as soon as they split up i said shoot and we doubled with 2 big toms.
My bird 9-1/2" beard, 3/4" spurs and weighed 24.4lbs, his bird 10" beard, 7/8" spurs and 23.6lbs he never entered the contest.Attachment 45020
I was able to post the tag photo with no problem but site won't upload the other pictures I thought this issue was fixed any advice ?
Also please note I notched the wrong month but it is a valid 2025 spring turkey tag.
[IMG]Beard.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]Spurs.jpg[/IMG][IMG]Firearm.jpg[/IMG]
Congrats on the double Articcat and friend. Can’t wait to see the pics
The "problem" with this site it will only upload very small file sizes and storage is very limited so basically you have a few postage size stamps worth of picture space. So save yourself the aggravation and use a third party site. Mine is Flicker. Once you get the hang of it you can upload billboard size pictures to your hearts content.Quote:
Originally Posted by Articcat
Today was my opening day. The early morning was real quiet but around 8 I heard a strong gobble. Perfect I said to my self, game on. Nothing like hearing the first gobble since last year. To make a long story short no gobblers showed but I had 3 big jakes doing a circle around me. I waited to see if that gobbler would come but he never did so I decided to take the biggest Jake. I sent a crossbow bolt and it did a complete pass through. The Jake was doing the flop so i sent one more bolt for good measure. As I got up to go get my bird the other two jakes flew off and the bird that I thought was dead got up and walked to the neighbours property. I had to wait until 11 not to bother the neighbours to early and went to ask permission to go search for it. Unfortunately I could not find the bird after hours of searching. I did find one bolt that was full of feathers and blood. This is the bad part about hunting and I know it happens but it’s still a hard pill to swallow. Sorry for the rant but I had to get this off my chest.
Definitely a hard pill to swallow tom gobble but it happens to all hunters at some point as hard as it is you learn to move on and try again
Attachment 45028
Finally I was able to post the pictures as per Finsfurfeathers advice to upload on Flicker, the first is my bird and the second is my friends
Doubles never get old Arcticat, awesome bird, buddy needs to enter next year for sure,
TurkeyJohn
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Sorry to hear the bad luck Tom gobble, it happens to a lot of us, even shot gunning is no guarantee, frustrating for sure..Quote:
Originally Posted by tom gobble
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Leaderboard
Turkeyjohn - 45
Articcat - 34
Thats a tough one for sure.Quote:
Originally Posted by tom gobble
Unfortunately its the downside of using a crossbow.
Been there, done that. Almost the same situation.
Nothing you can do about it. Just gotta move on.