Gobble... Gobble... (PICS)

[Hunter8282]

MI's turkey season opened up on 4-21. I haven't got a turkey in 2 years and am very busy right now and with only a 7 day season I took the day off with the intent to shoot the first legal turkey I had a clean shot at!

Weapon: Remington 870 with a Indian Creek Turkey Choke and Hevi-13, 3", 2oz, #7 shot. Approximately a 25yd shot.

Deep fried turkey breast nuggets, mashed taters and corn and Sweet Baby Ray's! (I assure you that was just the start on nuggets; more were in the fryer.

 

[Jessie]

Good job! We can't use any thing smaller than #6.
Last week I heard a couple gobble coming off roost but then they shut up and wouldn't respond. Only thing I saw was a tick on my leg and they don't fry up very well.
I'll hit it again after this weather passes.

 

[Hunter8282]

Good luck Jessie! In MI it has to #4 or smaller. When I use up my #7 I think I'll try some #6 to see how it patterns.

 

[pharman]

1st Turkey...no gun

Got my 1st turkey Saturday with my Nissan Frontier pickup on Ohio Turnpike coming home from Berea, Ohio gun show. Sorry NO PICTURES...not much left except pile of feathers after hitting turkey at 70mph. Luckily no damage at all to my new Nissan.

 

[jgh4445]

What is a legal bird up there?

 

[Hunter8282]

What is a legal bird up there?

Any bird with a beard for the spring hunt.

"Bag Limit
One bearded turkey per licensed hunter. it is unlawful to take or possess a turkey that does not have a beard, or tag a bird you did not kill. Turkeys may not be taken while they are in a tree."

 

[fat tom]

These were taken 2 weeks ago today about 4 hours apart. Mites took half of the beard of the bird on the left.



f.t.

 

[Rangerpat]

Good shooting... and eating!

 

[BigBill]

Nice. I had 24 gobblers in my yard recently. The other day six watched my misses put cracked corn up in the back of my land. I never seen turkeys run so fast to the corn. Do they taste that good? My buddy says they taste different than the store bought turkeys?
Do you cook them a special way?

 

[Hunter8282]

I basically just fillet of each breast. Because this guy as a young turkey, I also took the drum sticks to make a turkey soup with.

A lot of people grill the breast but I love making a good batter and deep frying them.

I've never tried a whole wild turkey, but my mom did once and said she wouldn't do it again.

 

[zirrow]

I shot my first turkey this year, and we took the time to pluck, brine, and roast as I would a store-bought. The white meat was pretty similar to a store-bought, though a little tougher. The dark meat was where the wild game flavor really shined. All in all, a good Easter supper, but way more work than necessary. I figure in the future, I'll try something like Hunter8282 unless stores quit carrying frozen turkeys.

 

[Hunter8282]

Nice bird zirrow! Is that a Rio Grande wild turkey? We don't have those here in MI, just the Eastern.

I'd LOVE to go on a Merriam hunt some day.

http://www.nwtf.org/images/2014_wild_turkey_range_map.pdf

 

[zirrow]

I'm not 100% and from what I gather, they can be difficult to distinguish from a Rio, but based on where I was hunting, I'd say it's a Rio.

ETA: Now that was just sneaky, Hunter

 

[Hunter8282]

After looking at the map, I thought it must be a Rio... LOL