doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Turkey season is almost upon us.

At one time, not long ago, Texas wildlife biologists noted an eye parasite in wild quail and suspected it was a potential issue related in decline. Favorable weather a couple of years ago time warped Texas backwards into high quail populations unseen in decades. I get reports from SW Georgia of wild quail numbers this year reminiscent of the 1970s. Turkey hunters across the region are complaining of lower and lower numbers of turkeys. Go figure...

I too love turkey hunting and have killed a few with different doubles. Now, however, I mostly use my grandfather's and granduncles' Winchester 1897 for sentimental (and functional) reasons. The gun has many hunting licenses stuck in the hole under the buttplate. Some are now mine, but the earliest date back to 1917 in Montana. It's not done making history and stories.

With blackpowder and a Scott 10 bore


With blackpowder, a Cashmore 12 gauge and homemade call


All modern with a Merkel 12


And one more with the Winchester

Custom Fox I call the Abby Gun. I shoot RST 1 1/4 oz number 6's out of it. Out to 35 yards they are stone dead.



PS. For western birds I shoot a 20 gauge Benelli with Federal Heavyweight. Most awesome light weight combo I've ever seen in 30 plus years of shooting those big birds.

Appealing pictures, easy to see the attraction. I googled Nova Scotia and found this, in part:

"Proposed Wild Turkey Introduction
The province has decided not to introduce wild turkeys to Nova Scotia.
A few years ago the Wild Turkey Federation submitted a proposal to the province seeking approval to introduce the species here. Wild turkeys are not native to Nova Scotia. After reviews by two government departments, public consultation sessions, an independent scientific review and an assessment for the risk of disease, the province has said no.The Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries says the province will revisit the issue if new information is presented."


"The idea of introducing wild turkeys to Nova Scotia has been raised many times by hunting interest groups for more than 40 years. However no properly prepared, scientifically researched proposal for an introduction had ever been received by the Department of Natural Resources (NSDNR). The Nova Scotia Chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF) submitted their proposal in 2001. The Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources wanted to ensure a thorough, fair and objective consideration of their review, taking into account potential benefits while at the same time ensuring that potential impacts and risks had been carefully evaluated. To accomplish this a number of steps have been required."

"The final outstanding wildlife science/management related issue to be addressed was the need for an assessment of wildlife disease and parasite risks associated with an introduction of wild turkeys from other areas of North America. A panel of experts led by Dr. Ted Leighton of the Canadian Cooperative Wildlife Health Centre (CCWHC) conducted this assessment. Their report, Health Risk Assessment of the Introduction of Wild Turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris) to Nova Scotia, indicates that, overall, the parasite /disease risks to agricultural animals and/or wildlife are low. We have been advised by veterinary authorities that these risks can be adequately addressed by an appropriate pre-introduction testing protocol which would be set by Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (NSDAF)."

Ohio in the mid 50 to early 60 traded ruff grouse for Missouri wild turkeys To gain a huntable population in the early 60s. Ohio use to have a lottery of 1500 tags for the states , my farther killed 1 of 3 birds taken in ohio first seasons. Which the skin of his bird can be seen at the OhioState university wildlife study department. I guess back in the 70s and early 80 not a lot of turkey hunters as my father and I always drew a tag prior to unlimited availability of turkey tags.

Our, quail population went from a ton of birds to pretty much no birds our kill off of quail was due to back to back blizzard with heavy ice, which caused the birds to starve to death. I remember walking through the fields after the snow melt and finding lots of dead quail which to me seemed to be almost everywhere.

The grouse population from 20 years to now are "No grouse" Division of Wildlife states habitats, which in my opinion is BS. I think west Nile and other diseases have decimated our wild bird population.

I was hunting turkeys in Hazard KY a couple of years ago, and quail were all over the place. I almost forgot what they sounded like. They filled the morning dawn with their calls prior to the gobbling.

Say KY Jon, if you need some birds taken off your property PM me, I am just a few hrs up north and alway looking for a turkey to harvest.
Rick

Does wild turkey taste like domestic turkey?

To me yes, only difference is wild birds are not as round as tame birds. Plus I find the wild birds drum sticks as hard as nails, unless you slow cook them in a crockpot

Pretty much the same. I prefer to slow cook in a crock pot the leg and thigh meat and after cooking strip out the ligaments and tendons from the drum sticks. I save the dark meat for chili. A lot of folks I know filet out the bird's breast and throw the rest away. I used to smoke the entire bird after scalding and plucking, but now filet out the meat off the breast for frying in small pieces cut against the grain and the dark meat cooked as above. I've occasionally made jerky out of the breast meat. Gil

Yes, but there is a whole lot more taste to them. It's like 2 or 3 turkey's worth of flavor in one bird.

Cooking them carefully is key, they can be dry and tough as nails. I tend to breast them and then grill steaks cut out of the breasts. Legs as suggested.

28 gauge shooter, my land is on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. I have a small farm out here but not much for hunting sad to say. I hope to move back East in a few years.

I know land use has changed so very much since I was a boy. Gone are the tomatoes, sugar corn or peas for canneries, gone are the small fields with hedge rows and corners with good weed cover, gone are the fallow fields, gone are the hedge rows around every field, gone are the days when a farmer would shoot a predator on sight, gone are the days of less use of pesticides, herbicides or fungicides. We farm in a mono or very near mono culture way, with one, two or perhaps three total crops on a large farm. Big fields, no cover left along ditches, few places for quail to nest and raise young.

But I tired to get around most of those things. I created cover, created hedge rows, natural feeding areas with adjacent nesting habitat, weeded areas, brought in birds from other areas, released birds from game bird breeders, terminated countless predators of all nature. And truth is that it could have been a parasite or virus introduced which the quail had no defense for instead of turkeys. If I ever get the answer(s) I'd spend another 100K and the rest of my life trying to give them, (quail), a comeback. Very few things give me as much joy as watching the sheer energy of a young pointer working a covey or single then locking up on point. That unsaid look she gives me after the flush, what did you do after I found them for you? Few men are worthy their dogs.