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Skinny turkeys?

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Boll Weevil

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Two of the birds I killed this year weighed 15 and 16 pounds...skinniest dang toms I've ever seen. Seems like we had a mild winter and good food availability just like normal so it's a little curious to me. One thought I had was they'd lost all that weight if indeed breeding began very early (because of the mild winter/early spring).

Have ya'll noticed more lightweight gobblers in your area this spring?
 
Yes.

Of the five I have weighed, none were more than 18 lbs.

That's a very viable theory on the early breeding.
 
Yeah they can drop a few pounds cause they're more worried about strutting than eating. My weights so far have been

17lb 15oz
18lb 4oz
20lb 4oz
19lb 5oz
20lb 13oz

That's about par for the course. I think it was 2013 I killed my 3 biggest birds ever and they all came from Tenn. The previous summer the cicadas were ridiculous then a bumper acorn crop that fall so I've always speculated that was the reason for the weights. They were all 23lb xx. My heaviest in va is 22lb 10oz. All mountain birds. Have only killed a few in the 15-16lb range with most averaging 18-20lb


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Mine are normal for the course of the season, they seem to have started earlier so some are thinner now then in years past. I rarely kill or see birds that weigh more then 21 pounds
 
I killed one Sunday that weighed right at 25 pounds and that's after a month of breeding. Biggest bird I've ever picked up.
 
We've killed 3, 2 year olds off one farm this year and they have all been under 16 pounds. This was through the first week of the season when they should have been at their heaviest.

This is on a cattle farm surrounded by mature hardwoods loaded with oaks and beech. We had a stout mast crop up there too.

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Thanks all for weighing in...it appears maybe it's not just an isolated data point only in my neighborhood.

I've been blessed to kill a bird or two over the years but NEVER one less than about 17 or 18 so when I flipped these over my shoulder and walked the 2 miles back to the house knew they were skinny.

Based on ya'lls observations I suspect there's a bunch of baby turkeys on the ground right now. They've been breeding for quite some time.
 
20 and 18 here so far this year and the 18 came off the same area where I know a 25 pounder was killed. I'd say they're normal size where I am hunting
 
I killed an 18 and a 21lb so far but usually they are over 20lbs around the cattle pastures I hunt. I seen 5 longbeards this evening grouped back up already.
 
Killed a couple around 15-16lbs on same farm that had one over 25 he was probably oldest bird I've seen.


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Our birds have been average this year, but we have killed a few mature birds (> 7/8") over the years that weighed 13-14 pounds. This was in middle TN and we just chalked them up to being runts. :)
 
Weight has never meant anything to me when it comes to Gobblers. It's always been about the spurs. ;) Any Gobbler weighing over 21-22lbs.is of "domestic" blood and is someone's corn fed pet :)
 
cowhunter71":wuqhugwm said:
Weight has never meant anything to me when it comes to Gobblers. It's always been about the spurs. ;) Any Gobbler weighing over 21-22lbs.is of "domestic" blood and is someone's corn fed pet :)
Click to expand...
couple years ago shot a 2 year old bird 23 lbs and some change on a public hardwood/cedar ridge with no corn around!


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cowhunter71":1prcf5hc said:
Must have come off all the private ground you talk about that surrounds the wma's you hunt :)
Click to expand...
nothing magical about the private ground around those birds...there were a lot of red acorns leftover that spring and all the birds I killed were big.


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