Turkey

[HuntingGold]

I'm sitting here with my wife "out west" and those dirty birds are winning the day. Wind is not helping the matter.

That's my report from the turkey woods today.

 

[HuntingGold]

This was the last of my three birds of the year. I tried to post his pic with the other 2 yesterday but failed. Alas, here he is.

 

[Hunt anything]

@HuntingGold, are your birds classified as Rios or Merriums?

 

[HuntingGold]

Oregon does not have a Native population of wild turkeys. In the 50s and 60s the state introduced Easterns and Merriams. Those introduced populations just never took off, floundered. In the mid-80s the state tried Rios and those birds took off and in some areas bred with the holdover birds. So with all that, we have Rios with areas of hybrids.

 

[Mtn_Infantry]

I have hunted birds in Florida, GA. SC, Alabama, mid west states and several states out west.

The further south east I’ve hunted the more educated the birds seemed. Maybe due to having been around for decades longer than the transplants in the Midwest.

Compared to the Southeast birds. And Osceola’s especially. The Midwest birds including where I am are a push over. And out west they seem almost eager to run in and be shot. And the western birds respond much easier to calls.

They are all fun. And of course each hunt is unique. And I’ve had individual hunts that were easier in the east than the hardest hunt in the west. Sometimes they run in and make it easy other times they make you pull your hair out. But those SE birds can be a handful.

100% it’s part of why I love turkey hunting. Sometimes that over pressured love sick Tom in the SE just can’t resist our sweet talking and comes running in double gobbling and cutting you off. Other times the western birds don’t cooperate at all.