Post by: kselkhunter on April 15, 2017, 01:23:27 PM
I harvested my first ever turkey this morning. Pretty excited about it. I have called them in before, but never had one actually come in to shooting range. As it seemed large to us, I went to the National Wild Turkey Federation website to figure out if the bird I shot was average size or not. We plugged the measurements into the online calculator and came up with a score of 53.5 based on the measurements it asked for (the two spurs, beard, and weight). It was 19.5 pounds, beard was 10.5", and spurs were 0.6" and 0.7".
Is this average, good, bad? Never harvested a bird, but it seemed big to us. Plus I mainly want to eat it, as it's lots of meat. Any suggestions for turkey recipes? My wife wants me to smoke it. I kept the tail fan and the wings and put in the freezer....any suggestions for preserving those?
Attached is photo of the bird with my best friend and I.
Cheers,
Keith
Post by: chester on April 15, 2017, 01:34:14 PM
Post by: PA BEN on April 15, 2017, 01:37:02 PM
Post by: nwwanderer on April 15, 2017, 02:17:00 PM
Post by: Mfowl on April 15, 2017, 05:47:52 PM
Post by: Oh Mah on April 15, 2017, 05:54:38 PM
Post by: jpharcher on April 15, 2017, 06:09:59 PM
Got my first last year, got my second this afternoon.
This is what I did with my first to commemorate.
Post by: tgomez on April 15, 2017, 06:49:00 PM
Post by: kselkhunter on April 15, 2017, 06:56:45 PM
JPHarcher - did you do that mount yourself or send to a taxidermist? If sent off, to whom? I cut off the tail and wings intact and put in the freezer until I figure out what to do with them. That display looks nice.
The interesting part of this bird was he was chasing a smaller tom into our decoys and my call. Can't know what the bird was thinking, but seemed as if he wanted to prevent the smaller tom from getting to us (ie hens). My buddy shot the small tom, and we still heard a gobble but coming from about 20 yards behind where my buddy shot the first tom (at that point we didn't realize there were two). This larger tom (in the photos above) kept coming and went right for the other tom's flopping body, still 20 yards from my decoys. Was bizarre, but I said to myself "OK", rose up and shot the second tom. Fun day.
In terms of being hooked, I've been hooked since years ago when the birds first started talking back to me. Just finally got one in close, and learned enough over the years how to get one to come in that it finally came together.
Post by: jpharcher on April 15, 2017, 08:00:18 PM
Post by: PA BEN on April 15, 2017, 08:12:16 PM
Post by: kselkhunter on April 15, 2017, 08:14:20 PM
Post by: PA BEN on April 16, 2017, 06:10:06 AM