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2020/2021 Hunting Thread


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6 hours ago, Alex Karev said:

Get your gear ready for Spring Turkey season.

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Wife and I went to the lease this weekend to grab the camper, do some relaxing, and maybe squeeze in a turkey hunt.  Well we did too much relaxing Friday night, and decided the turkey would have to wait.  About 0830 I rolled myself out of camp to take a leak, and there was a Tom strutting and hollering and making all kinds of ruckus about 50 yrds from the camp house.  If I make it back down there soon I may make a sit for him.  

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We have a guy in Jacksboro that pays anywhere from $0.10-0.20/pound on wild pigs. Cellular trap paid for itself in less than 90 days

Herbie, where’s your place ? We are down 114 from him, if that’s the guy you are talking about.


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2 hours ago, T’Boo Ted Marshall said:


If trapped they have to be removed within 24 hours correct?

It's probably ideal.  Shade, water, temp. would determine alot of that. 

I have a friend that used to (might still) get paid big $$$ to trap them, then turned around and sold them.  Getting paid on all ends.  He was the TX/LA/SW distributer for Jagerpro, so if he could sell one to the landowner on the way out, even better.  Dude took ALOT of hogs off some places.  

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Went out to the lease this past weekend to prep for Total Archery Challenge this coming weekend and to do some hog hunting. We were able to put a stalk on a group at one end if the property, and Dad got it done.

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Great shot by him at night with iron sights. Cool as shit that he got to do it with his M1 and interesting to see what ball ammo does to a pig head. He’s excited as hell to cook this guy up. We’ve had pretty good luck in killing pigs that don’t smell like shit.


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Anyone turkey hunting?  I have not been able to go due to Little League games every weekend.  May try and sneak down to south Texas next week.  At our place we have a creek with live water running right through the middle.  Turkey are all over it.  It is so easy to use a locator call, then setup a decoy to call them in with a box call it takes no skill. I still love seeing them come in to the decoy mad as hell.

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13 minutes ago, Johnny Sack said:

Anyone turkey hunting?  I have not been able to go due to Little League games every weekend.  May try and sneak down to south Texas next week.  At our place we have a creek with live water running right through the middle.  Turkey are all over it.  It is so easy to use a locator call, then setup a decoy to call them in with a box call it takes no skill. I still love seeing them come in to the decoy mad as hell.

Post #1406.   Bunch of my group going this weekend but I bet they aren’t that mad at it. Out of town or Id be down there.   Wish we had a way to manage some of the hens though, we are over run in a bad way. 

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21 minutes ago, markstanco said:

Shoot hen, clean, eat that night.  One down!

(I kid, I kid)

I need to do more looking into what is a natural ratio but I’d wager it’s 20:1 on our place.     Got a few bearded hens in there that are legal and need to come out.   I had more run off deer this year from turkeys than I’ve ever had with hogs.  Frustrating af. 

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So, I’m working up north near DC on a project, and these super elusive creatures keep me missing home. The locals up here keep telling me how easy it is to hunt Rios, and the Eastern is where you’ll find a real hunt. Thinking about just walking over and catching one of these and taking it to them lol.

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3 hours ago, fattyflattie said:

So, I’m working up north near DC on a project, and these super elusive creatures keep me missing home. The locals up here keep telling me how easy it is to hunt Rios, and the Eastern is where you’ll find a real hunt. Thinking about just walking over and catching one of these and taking it to them lol.

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Near Washington DC?  I see them all the time almost anywhere there's woods. But I think that's also because anywhere closer to the city is public land where there's not a lot of public hunting.  

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Took my boy out Easter weekend to our place in Kimble County.  Didn't see any turkey the first two years, but my mom put out a turkey feeder, and we actually started to see them this last fall.  We saw a big group of hens, but no toms.  He did shoot the big boar (220 lb or so) that we've seen on the game cam.  Which was nice...

The following weekend, I was cruising around looking at property in Hays Co with a big mug of coffee on an early Sunday morning and came upon THREE groups of big toms within a mile of each other along a little side road head the headwaters of Onion Creek.  I'll post pics when I can download them.  Any sound I made from 100 yds away in my truck had them blowing up.  Rios will come to a dog barking if they're chasing hens.  We used to have a tom that lived in the creek behind our old house.  We'd hand feed him.  During the spring, he'd gobble back at a fart once you got him interested. 

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12 minutes ago, Mdhorn said:

Near Washington DC?  I see them all the time almost anywhere there's woods. But I think that's also because anywhere closer to the city is public land where there's not a lot of public hunting.  

Yeah I’ve been bouncing around between Haymarket, Tysons, and Winchester for the last 9 months or so.  While it’s not home, it’s freaking gorgeous the last month or so. I’ll give it that. 

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I need to do more looking into what is a natural ratio but I’d wager it’s 20:1 on our place.     Got a few bearded hens in there that are legal and need to come out.   I had more run off deer this year from turkeys than I’ve ever had with hogs.  Frustrating af. 
I actually killed a hen by accident back around 99 or 2000. It was a total ignorance thing, rookie year.

We went ahead and dressed it, then ate it that night even though we had a bunch of sausage and meat. Fryer and fire, it was great.
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48 minutes ago, markstanco said:

I actually killed a hen by accident back around 99 or 2000. It was a total ignorance thing, rookie year.

We went ahead and dressed it, then ate it that night even though we had a bunch of sausage and meat. Fryer and fire, it was great.

So that’s my next step. Trying to figure out how to eat them.  But think I’m going to miss this year.  Ready for next year!

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My go-to recipe is chicken fried breast.  I've tried to roast a whole wild turkey and even tried to smoke one.  Both were pretty tough.  From my experience, the breast is good, but the thighs and legs aren't worth doing anything special.  The last time I harvested a wild turkey, we actually used the wings, thighs and legs in gumbo.  That was probably the best use I've found so far.  Would love to hear if anyone has any whole bird recipes.

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14 hours ago, Spaulding Smails said:

Any sound I made from 100 yds away in my truck had them blowing up.  Rios will come to a dog barking if they're chasing hens.

Fastest way to locate Rios this time of year is to roll your windows down, open then slam shut your truck door.  If he’s in the area a Tom will respond and you can start hunting him there. 

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3 hours ago, Spaulding Smails said:

My go-to recipe is chicken fried breast.  I've tried to roast a whole wild turkey and even tried to smoke one.  Both were pretty tough.  From my experience, the breast is good, but the thighs and legs aren't worth doing anything special.  The last time I harvested a wild turkey, we actually used the wings, thighs and legs in gumbo.  That was probably the best use I've found so far.  Would love to hear if anyone has any whole bird recipes.

You're not wrong.  Everything other than the breast needs to go in gumbo (don't forget the neck and the gizzards), though smoking those parts first makes for a great, dark gumbo.  I have wet-brined and smoked the breasts whole or halved with good results.  Aside from frying the whole breast, you can cut it up into smaller cutlets, pound them flat, bread them up, and have some great turkey chicken-fried steaks.

A nice benefit of not trying to do a whole turkey cook is that there is no need to screw around with plucking the harvested bird.  Just pull the skin off, eviscerate, and turn it into groceries.

P.S.  -- Just like with deer, it's better to let a turkey hang in a cool environment for a while before doing all of the processing and freezing.  It lets the enzymes do their thing and really improves the meat.  The hardcore French do this on all game birds and let them hang until they fall down from the neck rotting off.  I'm not quite that hard core, but some aging really does improve the flavor and tenderness of any meat.  

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On 4/23/2021 at 8:36 PM, Spaulding Smails said:

Took my boy out Easter weekend to our place in Kimble County.  Didn't see any turkey the first two years, but my mom put out a turkey feeder, and we actually started to see them this last fall.  We saw a big group of hens, but no toms.  He did shoot the big boar (220 lb or so) that we've seen on the game cam.  Which was nice...

The following weekend, I was cruising around looking at property in Hays Co with a big mug of coffee on an early Sunday morning and came upon THREE groups of big toms within a mile of each other along a little side road head the headwaters of Onion Creek.  I'll post pics when I can download them.  Any sound I made from 100 yds away in my truck had them blowing up.  Rios will come to a dog barking if they're chasing hens.  We used to have a tom that lived in the creek behind our old house.  We'd hand feed him.  During the spring, he'd gobble back at a fart once you got him interested. 

You were on Pursley Road, just S. of Creek Road.  That's a whisper away from me.

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On 4/24/2021 at 9:52 AM, DalTxHornFan said:

A nice benefit of not trying to do a whole turkey cook is that there is no need to screw around with plucking the harvested bird.  Just pull the skin off, eviscerate, and turn it into groceries.

My go to method as well.  God help a new hunter opening up a wild turkey that's been eating all kinds of weird stuff.  Jesus it's bad.  Depending on what they eat, they can be worse than hogs.  

I split the skin, breast them out and then get to the other parts I want.  Keep the cavity intact and avoid plucking.  

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1 hour ago, markstanco said:

Yall ever watch North Woods Law? It's about new Hampshire GWs. Their fines are ridiculously low. Some dude just shot a deer decoy from the road on posted property. His fine? $124 for each ticket.

Benny Richards does not approve.

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14 hours ago, markstanco said:

Yall ever watch North Woods Law? It's about new Hampshire GWs. Their fines are ridiculously low. Some dude just shot a deer decoy from the road on posted property. His fine? $124 for each ticket.

They missed a comma and two zeros.

Game law fines are ridiculously low for aggregious infractions.

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Anyone heard of aoudad die-offs in the freeze?  I may have asked before, but don't recall.

Our aoudad near F'burg have been conspicuously absent from cameras since the cold hit.

I would have assumed if any animal could withstand the cold, it would be those bastards, but I'm beginning to have my doubts.

Only seen a few rams and no ewes since Feb. in places where we normally see herds on the regular.

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