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My first Eastern


grayghostsafaris

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I admit I'm not a dedicated Turkey hunter. I find that odd within my ownself as I've been a waterfowl fanatic for many years. Love calling in Elk, Antelope, Deer...but I could take or leave Turkey, and learned how to be a fairly good caller years ago when I mastered Elk calling. I've only hunted Eastern's maybe 10 times and all I came home with were some lessons from Ole Tom. Well, recently that changed. A good friend of mine took me to one of his "spots" and I took my first Eastern. 22.8 lbs, 5 inch and 9 inch beards, 7/8 inch spurs. I'm guessing a two and a half year old bird? I used my SBE with Federal Mag Shok #5s. Only 20 yards but so stone dead he never kicked or flapped a wing...not once. Those 3.5" shells are bad medicine. I killed my next Eastern the next morning. Would you believe 15.25 inch beard? I'll post that photo next.

b28ec511.jpg

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Thanks. Actually, both birds had double beards, just younger birds. I've tried before to spot mature birds by checking their spurs, but in TX you couldn't see them either in time to use bino's or the grass was just high enough to cover them. I'm not trophy hunting at this point for sure, so if a jake walked in, I'd have no questions about shooting him, as I find the meat outstanding. Maybe at some point I'll only look for good spurs but dang if I can tell most of the time. My friend took the 3rd tom off that property two days after my second bird. We won't hunt that place again until other toms move in or next year. I've enjoyed getting to hunt with my friend and with luck I'll go again before the season ends.

Good hunting!

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