Hunting and Fishing Pics---Post them here!

[Gizmo]

Carolyn,
Here is what you have to look forward to.





"Please can I help clean the bird?  I'll make quick work of it.  Promis."

8.5" beard.  15.5 lbs after plucking, gutting and trimming.

[classicrockgriller]

Nice Turkey Giz! Way to go.

[Tenpoint5]

Well Done GIZ!! The first Gobbler of the season.

[Up In Smoke]

Nice bird Giz, congrats on a job well done!!
I am convinced that if a turkey could smell we would never
be able to kill one!

[Caribou]

Well Done GIZ!! The first Gobbler of the season.

Yeah!
Great job Gizmo...you got me inspired  :)
Just 25 more weeks, I hope I get a nice mature one this time, too.
Carolyn

[OU812]

Nice bird Gizmo

Are season dont start till Apr. 17th. should be a good one. I herd a bunch of gobblers last night.

[Gizmo]

The hunt was awesome and quite a story that I will post below if anyone is interested.  But here are a couple of pictures of the turkey after smoking for 1 hour 40 minutes with Maple and then a run on the Weber kettle until the IT hit 175.  I should have wrapped the wings and legs with foil as they were over cooked due to them being so lean compared to store fattened birds.
Breast meat was awesome and very juicy.  I didn't do much to flavor this as I wanted to know what a wild turkey tasted like and not what seasoning tasted like.


The green bean/mushroom soup/ french onion tasted great with the turkey.  Looking forward to making Turkey ala King with the leftover white meat and Turkey noodle soup flavored with the legs and wings.


The Story if you care to read on:
Ordered some decoys and a new choke tube on Sunday, received on Wednesday, opening day was on Saturday.  Took the decoys out of the box and noticed the tip of the beak on one of the decoys was missing (not a problem though).  I filled the bodies with crumpled up newspaper to remove the dents from them being rolled up in the box.  The decoys did perform perfectly for us and I took the 8.5 inch beard at 9 yards after the TOM attacked the Jake decoy.  The tom came out from a tree line 30 yards out and strutted the entire way passing 4 feet in front of us and then straight to the Jake when he launched himself onto the Jake.  When he bounced back, he finally stuck his head up to give me a perfect head shot.

There is one talon puncture and a stake puncture in the Jake decoy from the attack.  With the material they are made of, those punctures won't be visible.   Since I have only used them once, I can't say how durable the decoys are going to be but with their effectiveness and pulling in TOMS and getting them to attack, I think I will be happy to replace them every few seasons if needed.  The Choke tube is a little harder to tell how well it performed.  With only a 9 yard shot, the pattern was probably no larger than a quarter or maybe a 50 cent piece.  The shot was completely confined to the head and beak.  Not a single pellet below the back of the head.  I thought it was a pretty good shot considering the Tom was getting ready to pounce again and was a bit of a moving target.
Previous to the Tom, we had hens and jakes come up to the blind and mill around for 15 minutes before checking out the decoys, being content with them out in front of us and then moving on. It was great to listen to the soft little peeps and purrs.  I was hoping to be able to listen to some yelps and other calls but this bunch was real quite.  I had a great time calling in the Tom when he was across the creek a couple hundred yards away.  Got him to go into a full strut which is where I had a little hope of getting him to cross over to our side.

Now for those that stuck out the story, should I have foregone the shot gun and just jumped out of the blind and grabbed the tom and wrestled with him?  Might have been more sporting?   ;D

[OU812]

Nice picture of your bird Gizmo and a great story to go along with your long beard. I would warn you that it is not a good plan to just jump out of the blind and wrestle the tom. They  WILL flock the crap out of you!

Been there done that.

Had a close shot just like you did and was a little off, only took half of his neck off so before he could get away I thought I would run out there and finish him off. I didnt want to ruin any meat.

Bad plan. He still had allot of life left in him and luckily I didnt get spurred but he flocked the crap out of my arms and got a couple cheep shots in my face. Them wing tips are like gettin hit with a stick, very fast and very hard.

I did win but it hurt like hell, wont do that again.

[Gizmo]

Nice picture of your bird Gizmo and a great story to go along with your long beard. I would warn you that it is not a good plan to just jump out of the blind and wrestle the tom. They  WILL flock the crap out of you!

Been there done that.

Had a close shot just like you did and was a little off, only took half of his neck off so before he could get away I thought I would run out there and finish him off. I didnt want to ruin any meat.

Bad plan. He still had allot of life left in him and luckily I didnt get spurred but he flocked the crap out of my arms and got a couple cheep shots in my face. Them wing tips are like gettin hit with a stick, very fast and very hard.

I did win but it hurt like hell, wont do that again.

Now that is a life experience.  :D

[coyote]

Gizmo my friend, thanks for sharing ! the pic's , the story and the experience. IT's the folks that use the great outdoors that keep and preserve the beauty and the bounties alike for future generations. Now that is.....a taste of the great outdoors. 8)

Thanks again ,

Coyote

[KevinG]

Great story Giz & good looking bird!

[smokingthemidwest]

Well just thought i would put up a picture of my turkey this year. First one ever.

[Up In Smoke]

Congrats on the successful hunt
and on the first bird!

[FLBentRider]

Nice Bird!

[Quarlow]

Very nice, congrats.