Turkey contest

How much longer do y’all need before i close it up? Is anyone hunting past the 19th or can I shut it down then? If you need longer give me a date.

Hunting tomorrow morning and coming home

Saw 5 gobblers this morning

I’m hunting this weekend.

I’m done we can shut it down tomorrow

Anyone hunting after mother’s day?

Still birds gobbling here in Dallas County !!😎

Then season is still open. Anywhere I’ve hunted before?

I’ve heard from 1 who is hunting this weekend and will be back Sunday. Let’s make Monday 5/20 the closing date. I’ll get final scores posted on the 20th at some point.

Thanks Yekrut! The contest is a lot of fun! I appreciate you doing it every year!!!

Congrats team 7. Y’all had an incredible year !

There are some turkey killing machines on this site. I can remember we one several years ago with one team member overseas the whole season. The year before that I killed just one bird. These BAMA birds are so hard to kill when someone goes out of state it’s a complete slaughter. Congrats to whomever wins.

They just don’t understand. I have a friend on Facebook named Rich Weise who lives in Nebraska and makes custom pot calls. He’s all the time ranting about calling them in close and railing on and on about people who use high dollar shells aren’t real turkey hunters. I got tired of listening to his ranting one day and told him he railed on and on about “real hunters” and hunted the dumbest and easiest birds on the planet. He asked me to elaborate and I told him we had a 45 day season here in Alabama and if I provided him with a place to stay and access to my lease every day, he’d be lucky to bang out a bird or two and really wouldn’t surprise me if he was completely skunked. Now if the situation were reversed I (or many others on here) could go up there under the same circumstances and kill every bird on his place in a week if it took that long. Of course he didn’t believe me but it’s the truth.

I was just saying the same thing to someone yesterday. I can hunt the entire AL season and struggle to kill a limit or go to other states like Nebraska and kill a limit in 3 days or less

I was just telling a guy from Illinois the same general idea last week. He said that we have so many more turkeys down here. My reply was for him to come down and hunt a week at Perdido wma, upper delta wma, or Conecuh NF and then communicate his thoughts after that.

Of course he has no idea what the hunting is like, he has never been here.

It’s also hard for them to choke down when folks from Bama and Ms show up and start killing turkeys like there wasn’t no tomorrow and they are riding around wondering what’s going on.....
Easy to make excuses about shells, guns, calling them in close, luck, etc....

Truth is money can get you into turkey killing. Well heeled people who have opportunity to hunt exclusive property in the south, or outfitted or private lands in other parts of the country, haven’t the slightest comparison of training in dealing with hard pressured turkeys from leases and public land in the south. Theses people, while they may put up numbers of kills every year, cannot even hold the Mouth call case (by comparison) of those who were trained up in the ways of dealing with pressured birds that some of us had to grow up hunting. Dealing with these birds teaches patience and tactics that otherwise would not be learned. They put tools in the tool box of the specialist so to speak. And I ain’t referring to running around with a fan, a decoy, and a blind.

On a good morning this year on the public lands I hunt I heard 2 birds, most of the time it was one. I ran into a guy on some public ground this year who retired right after turkey season started. He told me it was his 36th morning straight of waking up early to turkey hunt and he had killed one bird. He is originally from somewhere in the Midwest and said his buddies would quit if they had to hunt the same pressured Alabama birds we hunt.

Thank you, it’s been fun. Putting up these numbers as a team was kinda shocking as the season went along. It was a lot of fun. You know all about it because y’all did it before us! Your team & team 3 had solid seasons too!!

I think something else y'all have eluded to that I want to add is that really I typically only hear one bird on a given property or so on a given morning. With that one bird, there really is no second option if he is lockjaw, henned up, or whatever it maybe. These types of birds help hone your skills so that 1. You work to become proficient with whatever type of call you run and know when to call 2. You learn PATIENCE 3. A major thing that is overlooked is you learn to really get the feel of a bird as to when you need to make a move to swing around or when to just sit still....A lot of these things people out of state just don't really have learn these things due to the abundance of birds if they were to mess up on the first, and the way the out of state birds gobble so much more throughout the day. The can just go from group to group and find the ones that are looking to die that day overall more conveniently. Just a few conclusions/opinions I have formed from talking to my buddy in Nebraska and hunting up north...I would like to hear others chime in though addressing these though that have had a lot more experiences out of state.

In my limited personal experience: I went way up north last year, and the guide that I hunted with called more to these birds that I have called my entire life that first day of the hunt, and we didn't kill a bird despite having birds gobble at all times of the day. I mean literally burnt my ears up calling while the birds gobbled to every note. I had had enough though and pretty much had to tell him to let me take over calling cause I couldn't stand hearing that racquet he called turkey calling! lol Ended up killing the limit the next morning and back I came to Bama! He had seen a lot of birds die though all season calling that much to them though which baffled me. I told the guide before I left that I could guarantee that if he came down here and hunted our birds with all that calling, he wouldn't kill a single bird (he didn't believe me of course lol but I stand by it!)

This is my experience too, on a good day I may hear 3 but most of the time it’s one or none! This past season I was fortunate enough to hear at least one most days and only heard more than that on 3-4 hunts! I’ve only been outta Bama a few times and enjoyed the hunting but nothing beats tricking one of these Alabama birds

Congrats to Team 7, y'all killed some good birds this year. As BC put it in his other thread, I feel like I deserve to go hunt some easier birds after chasing them in Alabama for 25+ mornings a year. I think the western hunting is easier simply because you can see them when they aren't gobbling and make a move on them. We dealt with bad henned up birds in OK this year and still had a great trip.

Did I miss a score update or something? I thought our team would be 900+ with only 15 birds

Team 7...congrats. yall had an outstanding year and some shonuff killers on your team. Our team killed a ton of birds but not enough studs like yall did. See we took a different approach...quantity vs quality...lol. I suspect every upcoming year will come down to closer competitions as long as the people that sign up but then dont hunt...just dont sign up. There were more actual killers sign up this year than people that sign up and dont hunt which is a blessing and makes the competition more interesting.

Thanks yek for putting this thing on every year. We truly appreciate it.

I’m just getting in and haven’t had time to do anything today, I’ll try and do it first thing in the morning.