Smaller turkeys?

catman529

catman529

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Last two years I was killing gobblers in the 20-22 pound range, including 2 year olds. This year, they were all in the 16-20 pound range. Wonder why they are smaller this year. Maybe it's just the turkeys I happened to kill but has anyone else been killing lighter weighing birds this year?
 
I've killed some brutes and some lightweights. During my two day ky season one bird weighed 23lbs and was a 3 year old, and the second bird the next day weighed 17 lbs and was also 3 years old.

It seems dependent here on beech trees, if there are beeches where the birds are they are heavy, while an area with no beeches they're lighter. We had a monster beech nut mast and some birds really did well gorging themselves on them
 
Setterman said:
I've killed some brutes and some lightweights. During my two day ky season one bird weighed 23lbs and was a 3 year old, and the second bird the next day weighed 17 lbs and was also 3 years old.

It seems dependent here on beech trees, if there are beeches where the birds are they are heavy, while an area with no beeches they're lighter. We had a monster beech nut mast and some birds really did well gorging themselves on them
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I recall seeing leftover beech nuts or hulls while hunting this season. Also 3 of the birds came from near a cut corn field where 150-200 turkeys spent the winter. I figured they would have enough food between all the corn, acorns and other nuts
 
Of my TN birds, 1 was a little over 21 lbs while the other 3 were between 17-19 lbs. Yes, maybe a little smaller this year.
 
I've heard several hunters mimic your observations Cat, lighter birds this year "generally speaking". To clarify, I'll add that these were middle TN birds that were killed early season.
 
like deer they are typically heavier before mating season starts so if you kill them early they will have a bit more weight on them usually. the later the year goes the more calories they burn fighting and mating and loose weight until the bugs really get in and they can load back up on protein.
 
last bird I killed was a stud and barely weighed 20lbs. didn't have hardly any fat on him though, like REN said, breeding, strutting, fighting and chasing the ladies burn off a lot of weight.
 
It's not because of late season, I killed em early, middle and late this year and all were lighter than usual.
 
I'm thinking the ones you kill early are going to be heavy, but once they start mating, they do less eating and more breeding, so they thin down some. I noticed as the season went on the birds I shot got lighter.
 
Roost 1 said:
Then fall back to the fact we had a tough winter.... It's not rocket science..:)
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it got cold for a little while, but other than that I thought they ha plenty of food
 
I bet it is just random, and those were the cards you were dealt this year.

Mine average at about 19-20lbs and always have. I have killed a few mature longbeards that only weighed 14-15 lbs.
 
All body weight tells me is two things. They had a good diet during the winter months, and they haven't been breeding a lot of hens yet. Once they begin running hens, all they mainly do from daylite to dark is walk, strut and breed. This was a bad, tough winter. Probably stressed lots of birds.
 
of the 4 i have killed in my area they were all average if not above average weight early in the season, I mean 2 of them were over 24lbs and the other 2 were over 20.
 
Your birds are probably suffering from lead poisoning from the misses over the past couple of years :D !
 
The two i killed were just over 19 and 17 lbs which seems a lite lighter than past years. This time of year is normally when I have more success and if memory serves me right most have been in the low 20-22 lb range. Regardless they all tasted great. :)
 

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