Heavy birds this year

We weight all our birds. I had more than 1 person around when weighing my bird saturday. It was 26 lbs and a ounce. Only second bird I've ever had that heavy. Mine come off public ground in deep wooded ridge. The ridge is still covered in acorns and his craw was full of them. On average my birds usually weight in the 21 -22 lbs range. My landlord killed one on Saturday that weight 23 lbs 5 oz. I believe it is the heavy acorn mass that is contributing to the heavier weights.
 
Honestly, I think birds on cattle farms tend to be heavier than woods birds. My hens love to feed under the calf creep feeders. Although I've never seen the gobblers using them in the spring much, they do seem to like to hit them when it's not breeding season. Our birds average around 21-22lbs on fish scales, but my personal heaviest was 26lbs. My cousin has taken one that was 27lbs (fish scales), and our largest bird weighed 29.5lbs on certified scales (this is out of approx. 200 birds taken in past 25 years). Unfortunately, one of his spurs was broken off and the other partially broken down to 1 1/4".

They also LOVE to pick the undigested corn out of cow patties, and leave no dried pattie unturned looking for grubs, worms, and beetles underneath them.

Of course, that doesn't count the 35lb'er I killed back in '95 than ended up being a domestic bird belonging to a neighbor 3/4 mile down the road- oops. I still feel bad about that one.
 
My heaviest weight is 22.3 pounds. My Dad has several 24's and one 26 pounds. All weighed in at the local check station on their digital scale. I now weigh my own since we can tag over the app. I use Moultrie digital scales to weigh my deer and turkey with. I've referenced mine agin the checking station scales twice and both weighed alike. So I feel good about my scales.
I would love to kill a heavy bird but would willingly trade out for 1&1/2" plus Spurs


Sent from my iPhone that I ain't smart enough to use with tapatalker
 
megalomaniac":1mob1ypz said:
Honestly, I think birds on cattle farms tend to be heavier than woods birds. My hens love to feed under the calf creep feeders. Although I've never seen the gobblers using them in the spring much, they do seem to like to hit them when it's not breeding season. Our birds average around 21-22lbs on fish scales, but my personal heaviest was 26lbs. My cousin has taken one that was 27lbs (fish scales), and our largest bird weighed 29.5lbs on certified scales (this is out of approx. 200 birds taken in past 25 years). Unfortunately, one of his spurs was broken off and the other partially broken down to 1 1/4".

They also LOVE to pick the undigested corn out of cow patties, and leave no dried pattie unturned looking for grubs, worms, and beetles underneath them.

Of course, that doesn't count the 35lb'er I killed back in '95 than ended up being a domestic bird belonging to a neighbor 3/4 mile down the road- oops. I still feel bad about that one.
Click to expand...
I agree, most birds are not heavy birds... But I do hunt a big cattle farm and every bird I have taken there are exceptionally bigger (22-25lbs)
 
The main reason the birds are coming in a little heavier this year is the same reason many hunters' deer sightings were down:

Acorns, specifically red oak acorns.
In my areas, the turkeys are still finding and focused on eating them, and they're almost totally ignoring lush plots of clover.
 
Wes Parrish":27b5c0z1 said:
The main reason the birds are coming in a little heavier this year is the same reason many hunters' deer sightings were down:

Acorns, specifically red oak acorns.
In my areas, the turkeys are still finding and focused on eating them, and they're almost totally ignoring lush plots of clover.
Click to expand...

Yep. Same thing I've been seeing.
 

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