doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Spring Gobblers 2025

Hopefully this thread will be added to by other's successes. I expect Coosa to fill the page with his birds. Been a spotty season as far as trip numbers go due to family obligations. Was able to go yesterday and this one started up in the dark. I was almost three miles deep into the swamp along a ridge trail behind a gate. I biked in on my 30 year old Cannondale hard tail mountain bike rigged out for turkey hunting with a collapsible rear basket large enough to carry a grown bird which it did on the way out. Rest of the gear including the folded Yildiz fit into my backpack. He didn't gobble over fifty times, but more likely not less than twenty five times. I was carrying my Yildiz TK36 .410 loaded with 13/16 oz. #9.5 handloads. It was a 45 minute hunt and he finally came in and the trigger pull was a 20-25 steps as he came out of strut. The gun was bought at Academy for $125 and barrel cut off and originally choked by Sumtoy. He added the Skinner adjustable peep sight to the action after milling the radius flat. Steve Bertram added the metal collar and mounted the front sight ramp to which I dove tailed in a Marbles fiber optic post. It is my wet weather .410, but conditions were perfect yesterday. It weighs 3 lbs. 4 oz. and is a feather to carry. Photo taken where he fell and rump feathers still in half strut. I don't weigh turkeys because I feel it is too cruel beyond shooting them to deprive them of gaining weight over the years as I recount the story of the hunt. Gil

Well done, Gil. My three friends were here from AR opening weekend and each took a nice gobbler. They returned home to a deluge of nearly 12" rain over four days.

Sorry, no pics here, but enjoyed yours.

Well done Gil!

Thanks for starting a thread, Gil, and congrats on your gobbler. Riding a bicycle to get one is impressive! I would be out of the game if I had to do that, but I can still chase them using an electric golf cart.

Our season in Alabama is into it's 3rd week now. I didn't have any luck opening day, but on the first Friday of the season I went to very hilly tract of land near Lake Martin and heard one gobble. He was down a steep draw that I didn't want to enter, so I set up near a deer plot on the ridge. I got him to answer a Hatchet Creek mouth call and he was soon in the patch, where the little sawed off Yildiz took care of him:


He was a nice bird that weighed just over 20.

The next Friday I went to my farm and heard one gobble about 10 times in the tree. I got in good position on him and had a long and loud conversation with a hen that was with him. She eventually came in to settle the argument, and her boyfriend followed. It was another nice one that weighed just under 20:



This past Friday, I went back to the farm and heard one gobble twice on the roost. I hunted him for 3 hours, walking a big circle around him and setting up to call from several different locations. I never saw or heard him again, so at 10 am I decided to do a little blind calling. I set up beside a recent cutover and called with a Dixie Darling box. A box produces a sound that carries well when the wind is blowing and I often use it for blind calling. I had been sitting there a few minutes when I suddenly spotted a big gobbler coming right at me at a fast walk. I got the gun up without him spotting me and gave him a bad headache.



I knew as soon as I picked him up that he was an exceptional bird, and he weighed 23 pounds. That's the second heaviest I've ever shot. The weights, beard, and spurs are just a curiosity to me, but I do measure those things. What's important to me about the turkey is the quality of the hunt he provides. This one wasn't very exciting since he didn't gobble or do anything to let me know he was there, but I will take him and be thankful. Good luck to all the turkey hunters!

I have 3 Jake's running around my property gobbling up a storm, I'm afraid a coyote is going to get them before the season starts on the 15th.

Uh, shoot the coyote?

Just a thought….

Best,
Ted

It kills me to see all these 'turkey' loungers in the turkey threads. I hunted in one for a couple of years and before long I realized that I could no longer get up to a standing position from the lounger. Now instead of disappearing into a sitting position I have to carry a folding chair (carefully located in whatever cover there is). Folding chair has gotten heavy in my dotage. So has my shotgun.

Our GA season began a couple of weekends ago and runs to May 15th. One of my sons has already tagged out with two long-beards. All I've seen has been a few hens in 7 mornings of hunting, and I hate getting out of bed before sunrise. I may switch over to afternoon hunting out of my comfortable deer ground blind.

I'll be 77 the first of June. I need to quit all this hunting and fishing nonsense. But I can't just yet. Maybe when I get old...Geo

If I was to see a coyote it would be the first to go, I only see them on my trail cameras, but this jake trio is easily called in with my turkey call and if one gobbles they all gobble.

Geo, I'm sorry you can't use the Gobbler Lounger any longer. We have different issues, as I have so much back pain that it's the only way I can hunt without resorting to a blind. I don't like having to carry it around, but it makes it possible for me to sit long enough to have a chance to call one. I have to sort of roll out of it, but I can still make it. Gonna use it as long as I can. Hang in there!

Geo, adhere to the definition of "old": Someone 20 years older than you.
Buddy Jerry had knee surgery a month or so ago. At least for this season he uses a folding chair. He restrung it with olive drab webbing and spray painted the aluminum. Gil