A Turkey Hunter Takes a Fearless Inventory
I finally stopped procrastinating and put together a log of the turkeys I’ve killed over the years. There were some surprises. For instance, I didn’t realize that I have averaged filling 1 tag /year since I took my first bird. That is a huge thing considering the number of years I went dry, because I didn’t have enough time off work to make a decent go of it.
Other surprises:
- I have only bagged one gobbler in May. It makes sense. Most years, I’m tagged out, and though I’ve done a lot of hunting in May, it’s usually been as a caller for my sons or SuperCore.
- I’ve now taken more birds at Flydown as opposed to the afternoon. Mid-Morning is still my most productive time, but I now average one bird pitching down to me off the roost per season.
- I’ve killed more mature gobblers than jakes.
- My average successful shot is 20.53 yards. That doesn’t count the number of times I’ve missed a bird at 5 yards. If you count those, I’m at 17 yards for an average shot.
- Half of my birds are taken on Saturdays. I’ve only taken 2 birds on a Friday. I’ve only taken 1 bird on a Sunday.
- If I miss a bird, the chances of not filling any tags that season goes up dramatically.
- If I take a bird on The Opener, I usually fill both my tags. The one exception was 2011, where I developed pneumonia on the The Opener and had to go back to town by mid-week.
My Average Gobbler:
- 20.23 lbs
- 9.9 inch beard
- .85″ spurs
My average Gobbler is shot:
- Before Friday afternoon of Opening Week
- Before 0900 in the Morning
- With the following weather conditions:
- Temp: 56.6 F– that’s warm for the Trans-Bluegrass in April
- Barometer: 30.03″ Steady to Rising
- Dewpoint: 47F and Falling
- Wind: Calm to 5 MPH
- Clear to Partly Cloudy
One of the big takeaways from this is an affirmation of my belief that taking a bird at Flydown is the mark of an advanced turkey hunter. As I’ve gotten more experience, the number of roosted birds that will pitch down to me has increased. Part of this is due to learning to stick it out and not to give up. Part of this is becoming a better caller and learning to read the birds. However, my admonition to beginners has been proven out: you stand a lot better chance of bagging a bird if you concentrate on hunting after the gobbler has flown down and had some time to spend with the hens.
Just so y’all know, here is the list of fields I included in my log worksheet:
- Â Date of Kill
- Â Beard length
- Spur length
- Weight
- Time of Day– Not exact time, but I differentiate Flydown from Mid-Morning, Afternoon, etc.
- Distance of shot
- Day of Week
- Days into Season
- Temperature
- Wind Speed
- Wind Direction
- Cloud Cover
- Barometric Pressure + Rise/Fall
- Dewpoint + Rise/Fall
Some hunters have index cards. My method up until now has been to include the basic info in my weblog entries. From the date and approximate time, I can get the weather info from WUnderground.com.
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These stats are so cool! I wish I would have thought to log all my harvests with such detail.
Actually, most of the detail comes from this weblog (weight, beard, etc) However, the bulk of nitty-gritty data came from Weather Underground. If you know the date and the approximate time, WU can give you fairly exact weather info for as far back as you’re going to need.