Biggest Turkey, Best Hunt

[TN Deer Slayer]

Subject says it all. What was the best turkey hunt you have had and what is the biggest turkey you have killed. Include stories of both the Biggest turkey and best hunt. For me:

Biggest Turkey: 12 inch beard, 1 3/4 inch spurs, 26 pounds.

Got up 1 hour and 30 minutes before sunrise and slowly started making my climb up the great mountain that I hunt in KY. I was sitting at the top well before daylight I got positioned and situated. The mighty Thunders of a mature bird filled the woods. Called alittle bit and I heard him fly down. 2 Minutes later he was 10 yards just over the crest of the mountain. I have my gun raised and just happen to see the tip of his fan. I point my gun just a little in front of the fan tail and wait. He poked his head up in a quick motion that caught me off guard. Then he started clucking many thoughts went through my mind then In one quick instant I stood up, gun in hand, and blasted him at 8 yards. You can guess what happened next right? I walk around 10 steps to the crest and see the turkey flopping down the opposite side of the mountain. I slowly make my way down the mountain. Long story short almost a 2 hour walk back to the truck.

Best Hunt: posted soon Fingers hurt to much.

 

[strutandrut]

http://www.tndeer.com/tndeertalk/ubbthr ... ost1275963

 

[Harvester]

just a good eastern longbeard and the other is the only double I have ever been apart of. Shot almost exactly the same time.

I love the colors in the center of this one's fan.

 

[nate17]

My best to date. Double beard.

Beards
1. 11.25
2. 8.5

Spurs
1 1/8

My only double. Same bird and a Jake. Would have been a triple if one more person was with us.

 

[InfoMan]

Best Hunt: a Good Friday about 14 years ago when I called in two 2-year-olds and my son (11 at the time)shot his first bird and I took the other. My first time on a double also.

Quiet a good day.

 

[vanleerbuckbuster]

Best Hunt: 2007 day before easter it was freezin cold and im hunting at my uncles im sittin in a clear cut watchin the turkeys fly down in the church yard where i hunt the property behind the church the birds used to fly down and cross the road onto my uncles property but they put a fence up and they would just stay in the church yard til about 9 then work back up the ridge this mornin i watched the tom i had been hunting for 2 weeks and decided it was to cold to wait for them 2 go up the ridge where i've got permission to hunt. I walked out into the road so they would see me and they all started goin up the ridge i jumped in my truck drove the 300 ft to the landowners house ran up the ridge setup and made a few clucks he was the first one to show up. first time i had a paticular tom picked out and able to harvest

 

[vanleerbuckbuster]

Best turkey: 10'' beard 1 3/8 spurs 24lbs perfect 28 feather fan

 

[Setterman]

Out of the 100+ longbeards I have sacked, they all would be categorized as the best. Each and everyone is a trophy to me.
But.....
Best Spurs: 1 1/2"
Best Beard: 11 1/2"

 

[YEKRUT]

Weight: 24# Michigan
Beard: 12 1/4 Tennessee
Most unique: leg banded bird from TN, same bird with 12 1/4 beard
Spurs: 1 1/2 Alabama

Best all around bird 1 1/2 Spurs, 11" beard, 20.5#

Best hunt from 2008:

We arrived in S. AL. around 2 Thursday afternoon after a week of training in Montgomery and hit the woods on a 800 acre hunting club near where we were staying at. Nothing was going on and it was HOT so we headed in to get some much needed rest and fill our stomachs to prepare for the day ahead of us. We were headed to a 4000+ acre plantation to hunt Friday to Sunday so we were pumped up about that.

We met the guy that owns the plantation at 5:30 Friday and he took us to a listening spot. We finally heard the first bird sound off late about 6:30 and he said that is ole "Headache" right there and you don't want to waste your time on him because no one can kill him. I sort of laughed and thought I needed to try him. He told us that he would gobble on the limb 1-3 times and when he hit the ground he was done gobbling for the day. He and his buddy had tried to kill him the last two years and could never make it happen. I told my buddy that I would guarantee a bird that acted like that was an old coot that would have razors 1.5" long. We did not go after him then, but chased another bird a couple ridges over with no luck. We came back to the hardwood bottom he was in and tried him a few times over the rest of the day, but never heard another peep out of him.

Saturday we met up again and headed in after old "Headache" this time and was able to get within 100 yards of him before flydown, but he only gobbled 3 times and then nothing else the rest of the day after he flew down. We put some serious miles on the boots from noon to dusk and never could pull another gobble out of a bird. There were some of the most beautiful virgin hardwood swamp bottoms, large pine stands, and fields that I have ever had the pleasure of hunting. I did manage to come within a foot of stepping on a 3.5 - 4 foot cottommouth that was not happy at all to see me. I about crapped and I think my buddy may have. He is petrified of snakes to say the least.

Sunday morning we did the same thing again, but we got in there a little earlier in hopes that old "Headache" would sound off and we could get close to him. As it got daylight we were ready and old "Headache" sounded off at about 200 yards across a huge lake in a location he and later on his grandfather said they had never heard a bird in. He told us to "KILL THAT BIRD" so we made a circle through some pines that had been cut last week and got between him and a 200+ acre hayfield that I thought he would want to go to. We got set up on a long stretch of road that was slicker than ice from the rain. They call the stuff post oak mud down there, but I call it the stickiest mud ever made. It isn't deep, but it sticks to EVERYTHING it touches and builds up by the inches under your boots. I am sure some of ya'll know what I am talking about. We put our guns on our knees and tried to settle down some from the sprint around on him. I was pretty sure if there was a perfect setup on him that this was it. We finally had a good idea where he wanted to be after 3 days and knowledge that the guy had given us earlier on of what he liked to do. I was able to get 4 more gobbles out of old "Headache" as he slowly worked his way through the cut pines and made his way onto the road in front of us. He was very cautious and just ever so slowly was walking towards us. I flipped the safety off and told my buddy that I could see him coming in. He would take a couple steps and crane his neck, take a couple steps and crane that neck, he finally got to a large opening where I was sure I could kill him and I let the Super Black Eagle and a load of Nitro's sail down range at his big old softball head. He hit the ground and I was sort of stunned that we had hunted this bird 3 days and were completely disgusted with him and the other guys had hunted him for 2 years straight and had never gotten a shot at him to my knowledge. He was a wise old bird that deserved the nickname they had given to him.

my biggest bird to date:
20.5#
11 inch beard
1.5" razor sharp spurs
NWTF score of: 72.5

 

[nate17]

nice hooks yekrut

 

[buckhorn40]

Only long beard I have ever killed. Only hunted one season too!
7/8 inch spurs, 10 3/4 inch beard.

[/img]

 

[kdxdude]

This is my youngest son Hunter & I after a GREAT turkey hunt. He was 13 yrs old & this was the 1st Gobbler that he did it all by himself. He got the bird to gobble about noon, moved to the left to a little meadow, stuck a hen decoy up, a few clucks & yelps, Gobbler double & triple gobbling. About 20 mins. later, Hunter hasn't called in about 5 mins, the bird gobbles & I tell Hunter the bird is looking for you now. He gives 1 cluck & the big boy gobbles again & then we get to watch him strut in for about 70 yards. We had a friend of mine with us who had never been on a turkey hunt & Hunter let the bird put on a show. We watched the Gobbler from 18 yards stay in full strut for about 3 min. Spittin & drummin & then Hunter laid the smack down on the big tom. 10 3/4 in beard 1 1/4 in spurs 22 lbs. This hunt tops the list of GREAT turkey hunts I have been fortunate to be a part of. My friend had his camera with him & he made this picture of Hunter & myself walking back to the truck (I carried the boy's gun for him). My friend showed me all of the pictures he took except for this one. He had this picture framed & my son gave it to me for Father's Day. GREAT gift. I hope you enjoy the pic as well as the story.

 

[adamf5353]

hurry up spring!

 

[spitndrum]

Cool, I'll post mine tonight!

 

[strutandrut]

Only long beard I have ever killed. Only hunted one season too!
7/8 inch spurs, 10 3/4 inch beard.

[/img]

Thats awesome Steve.... er Marc, or whatever. :laugh:

Nice bird dude.

 

[make'em strut]

not my biggest but the 1 i will never forget it started on a thursday afternoon i killed a nice 23lb 9 oz tom 10 3/4 inch beard then friday my father inlaw sat in the same place an killed an 18 lb tom 8 inch beard sat i hunted hard an my buddies text me so i told them to come on up an sit with me till dark maybe we would roost some birds well we roosted 3 real nice toms so i said ok guys meet me right here at 5:30 in the morning they were late lol when they finally did get thier it was almost light an the birds was just starting to sound off well we watched the fly down past us about 250 yardsthier were 6 hens and 4 toms we watched them from the time they landed till 10 after 8 they had worked thier way all the way back to the top of the field so i started calling an got the biggest to turn an come down hill to us an he brought his buddies i worked 4 toms away from 6 hens called the biggest withen 10 yards it was my buddies birthday so he was gonna kill it he said can you an whitt shoot the ones in the field i looked up an said oh yeah baby lets do this 1 2 3 now an we all 3 shot at the same time nathaniels was 21 lbs with 8 inch beard an mine an whitts was 18 lbs with 10 inch beards also me an whitt shot our birds at 70 an 75 yards whitts only had 1 pellet in its head

 

[make'em strut]

what a great pic

 

[ShaneHallum]

Thats an awesome pic!

 

[bvoss]

Best turkey: 11 1/2'' paint brush 1 3/8'' spurs

Best hunt:
My little brother was with me the previous spring when I killed my first long beard at the end of the season (2001) I promised him that I would put him on the first bird that I could the following season. Opening day we had had no luck at daybreak so we drove to a different spot. We walked up to the top of the ridge and blew a crow call. A tom gobbled about 300-400 yards away on someone else's property. We sat up and called to him, but he didn't answer back. Still being wet behing the ears when it came to turkey hunting we got up and walked directly away from where the bird had gobbled to try to cut and run and fire up another bird. We walked a total of 500 or so yards and never could fire up anything so we decided to head back to the truck, but we thought we would go back to where we had first called and try once more to fire up the One bird that did gobble. When we got back to the spot I cut really hard on the slate call and he hammered less that 100 yds out. We just had time to get my little brother set up when I saw the toms fan as he was strutting in. He strutted,spit and drummed, and frankly danced his way to within 15yds when my little brother layed the hammer down on him. 9in beard 1'' spurs. Not bad for a 10 yr old boys first turkey. And one happy big brother to boot!

 

[kdxdude]

Best turkey: 11 1/2'' paint brush 1 3/8'' spurs

Best hunt:
My little brother was with me the previous spring when I killed my first long beard at the end of the season (2001) I promised him that I would put him on the first bird that I could the following season. Opening day we had had no luck at daybreak so we drove to a different spot. We walked up to the top of the ridge and blew a crow call. A tom gobbled about 300-400 yards away on someone else's property. We sat up and called to him, but he didn't answer back. Still being wet behing the ears when it came to turkey hunting we got up and walked directly away from where the bird had gobbled to try to cut and run and fire up another bird. We walked a total of 500 or so yards and never could fire up anything so we decided to head back to the truck, but we thought we would go back to where we had first called and try once more to fire up the One bird that did gobble. When we got back to the spot I cut really hard on the slate call and he hammered less that 100 yds out. We just had time to get my little brother set up when I saw the toms fan as he was strutting in. He strutted,spit and drummed, and frankly danced his way to within 15yds when my little brother layed the hammer down on him. 9in beard 1'' spurs. Not bad for a 10 yr old boys first turkey. And one happy big brother to boot!

Awesome!!!