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Self-imposed limit?

Will you try to shoot your limit?

  • Yes

    Votes: 18 32.1%

  • No

    Votes: 19 33.9%

  • Maybe, depends on what I hear/see.

    Votes: 19 33.9%
  • Total voters
    56
Boll Weevil said:
Can't stand these dudes. I've wasted more than a few hours and setups only to find out it was a stubbybeard.
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No. Doubt. Several years ago I battled one half a day. Finally made an aggressive move that I'm still proud of that involved about a mile of hard jogging around the edge of a farm, 100 yards of wet creek crawling, and a final leg of belly crawling to get to a spot in front of him. He cut off my first yelp and came strutting around a point right into my lap in all his stagger-fan glory. I yelled a profanity at him, he ran off, and I called it a day.
 
Andy S. said:
As LBLman says, it just depends on the cards I am dealt. I turkey hunt for the hardwoods experience and to kill turkeys seeking me out, no qualms about it. I travel to spread my kills out and I take others throughout the season so I can stay in the woods. Last year I was in on a lot of good hunts and experiences with 4 hunters, over 2 States.
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you didn't take me...
 
So, if it's not about pulling the trigger, but the experience that leads up to it, why not shoot the jake? Seems hypocritical.

To me, if he plays like a big boy and gives me everything I dream about as far as a great, memorable turkey hunt, then he can die like a big boy.

I'd much rather have that experience than a non-gobbling 2 yr old that comes sneaking in silent. What's there to remember about that?
 
PalsPal said:
So, if it's not about pulling the trigger, but the experience that leads up to it, why not shoot the jake? Seems hypocritical.
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Because it is not about pulling the trigger, but the experience that leads up to it.

I feel no absolute NEED to kill ANY turkey as long as I beat him on fair terms. The kill is the icing on the cake after beating a tom. Killing a jake just leaves me with a bitter taste in my mouth, knowing I did the wrong thing biologically for the flock.

Heck, if we went to a limit of zero, I would still hunt just as much, just without a gun and I'd use a camera instead. I'd miss the meat, but it's the simple experience of working a bird that is the real thrill.
 
I go all over on different tracts of public, if I kill my limit fine if I don't that's fine also. I spend a lot of time with my son during turkey season and I would rather hunt with him than kill anything myself. I think the limit in place is fine so I don't self impose a limit. If I had a big piece of private land and felt I needed to set a limit based on the flock I had on my property then I would do so since it was my place. Again some of that might be useless if your neighbors hunt and they cross the line and get killed anyway. Last year i dealt with the gobbling jake crew , I got all worked up on more than one occasion. One of them sounded great! I enjoyed hearing him but the deal with if he acts like a big boy die like a big boy has never really entered my head. He is not a big boy but will be the next year is always how I think of it. Just like if a doe comes running by me and I hear a deer grunting. I get ready and worked up but if I see it's a 4 pointer chasing once I see it, I don't shoot it just because he is acting like a big boy and has a loud deep grunt. That's just my perspective . May not be right but just the way I look at it. If anyone wants to shoot that Jake and it's legal then I will be excited for them and not look down on them at all I just personally don't have a problem with letting one walk that I thought was a gobbler until I seen the broken fan and stubby beard.
 
I'm sure them longbeard sounding, gobbling, strutting, act like a gobbler jakes are fertile enough to breed hens. But I've never killed one and looked at his nuts to see if they were big and fertile.

I don't know if those jakes are born really early, or have the nutrition to put on the body weight, or both causes that.
 
woodsman04 said:
I'm sure them longbeard sounding, gobbling, strutting, act like a gobbler jakes are fertile enough to breed hens. But I've never killed one and looked at his nuts to see if they were big and fertile.

I don't know if those jakes are born really early, or have the nutrition to put on the body weight, or both causes that.
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Don't quote me on this but I'm pretty sure Lovett Williams said Jake's will be sexually mature at 9 months.
 
PalsPal said:
So, if it's not about pulling the trigger, but the experience that leads up to it, why not shoot the jake? Seems hypocritical.
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I'm not sure how to answer this without sounding like a smartass. If I think the hunt is more about the experience than the kill, how is it hypocritical to enjoy the experience but pass on the kill?

In my gobbling jake hunt story, of course it was more memorable than a silent 2 yr old. It was so memorable, in fact, that I'm posting the story on a public forum 16 years later. It was frustrating at the time, but obviously still enjoyable.
 
woodsman04 said:
I'm sure them longbeard sounding, gobbling, strutting, act like a gobbler jakes are fertile enough to breed hens. But I've never killed one and looked at his nuts to see if they were big and fertile.

I don't know if those jakes are born really early, or have the nutrition to put on the body weight, or both causes that.
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I think some are just early hatch, but according to Joe Hutto's observations discussed in Illuminations in the Flatwoods, it's more social hierarchy than nutrition and age.
 
woodsman04 said:
I'm sure them longbeard sounding, gobbling, strutting, act like a gobbler jakes are fertile enough to breed hens. But I've never killed one and looked at his nuts to see if they were big and fertile.

I don't know if those jakes are born really early, or have the nutrition to put on the body weight, or both causes that.
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I witnessed more gobbling Jakes last year than I can ever remember. For whatever reason they had no qualms about sounding off. I am hoping just because there was more of em'....
 
Bgoodman30 said:
I witnessed more gobbling Jakes last year than I can ever remember. For whatever reason they had no qualms about sounding off. I am hoping just because there was more of em'....
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Yeah I hear them often but they usually have that weak I'm a teenager gobble, but those super jakes have fooled me more than once.
 
Southern Sportsman said:
I think some are just early hatch, but according to Joe Hutto's observations discussed in Illuminations in the Flatwoods, it's more social hierarchy than nutrition and age.
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He's probably right. Birds can mature them selves kind of without another male being around.

But in all poultry birds, it's all about a mix of weight, age, and light stimulation.
 

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