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Big Bad Toms
I’ve been fortunate to kill some big gobblers over the years in states like Missouri, Iowa, Kentucky, Texas, and elsewhere, birds that weighed in the 22- to 23-pound range. Twenty-pounders aren’t all that uncommon if you hunt hard in a bunch of states as many of us do. Actually, they’re squirts compared to the current Top 3 Eastern (“Typical”) birds registered with the National Wild Turkey Federation.
Kyle Nook’s tops the list at a weight of 35.8125 lbs., a gobbler taken in Guthrie, Iowa back on April 28, 2001. A box call brought the bird to the gun.
Scott Cernohous is next in line. His St. Croix, Wisconsin longbeard creaked the scales at 34.5000 lbs. He got that one by the feet on April 10, 2002. The medicine? Again, a box call.
Allen Vanderpool’s 34.2500 lb. Whitley, Kentucky gobbler ranks third on the list. His date of kill? April 13, 1998. You guessed it. This longbeard was also lured in with a box.
My assessment? Use a box call and hunt in April! Kidding aside, I killed this 22-lb. Merriam's in the South Dakota Badlands this past spring. (Heaviest Merriam's ever? George Connors's 31.5600 lb. Stevens, Washington bird taken on April 29, 2006. Yes, he also used a box call, and a diaphragm too.)
What’s your heaviest gobbler ever, Strut Zoners? What call did you use to pull it into range, assuming you used one? Did you do it in April?—Steve Hickoff
April 04, 22 1/2lb rio, Texas, slate.
Posted by: Dirty | December 01, 2008 at 06:51 PM
22lb, April 21st 2007, MO. I set up decoys in a flat, open river bottom. He started 600-700 yards away and strutted across the field toward my "hens" over the course of an hour. He had two buddies with him also. It was a heck of a show.
Posted by: Justin | December 01, 2008 at 07:20 PM
P.S. I hardly called and he never made a sound.
Posted by: Justin | December 01, 2008 at 07:20 PM
Hearing from both of you guys has me fired up for spring turkey hunting.
Nothing prettier than a full fan Texas Rio working to the calls, moving past the prickly pear, back lit by the sun. That's a good bird, Dirty. I'm a big slate fan too. I use all the calls, but if you asked me to pick one, well it's hard to beat a good slate with a sweet call-making striker.
And that story you shared Justin is great. I can picture it. You got your money's worth on that one!
The Spring '08 Badlands longbeard I'm holding in the pic (& the hen that pulled him along) came to a glass call and box . . . he gobbled as I shot.
Wish I had a vid of that one!
Steve
Posted by: Steve Hickoff | December 01, 2008 at 07:41 PM
Illinois bird that weighed 25lbs and called in with a box call cluck. Longest beard I called in the fall in Missouri and it had a half dozen strands that measured 14 inches with most of the beard at 12. I called 4 in with a box call in a bread wrapper due to the drizzle. Thought I had two super jakes and two long beards but as it turned out, all 4 of them were long beards, two of them were especially long.
Posted by: Joe | December 02, 2008 at 08:44 AM
Awesome stuff Joe.
That fall Missouri hunt is about as good as it gets! You ever try some of the waterproof box calls on the market these days? Some are pretty good, though I'm a "bread wrapper" box caller from way back too!
Thanks,
Steve
Posted by: Steve Hickoff | December 02, 2008 at 09:21 AM
Hey Guys.....Love some of the waterproof calls on the market these days, but if you don't want to go that route, pick up some fiddle resin from a music store. Work it into the lid and rails and you're all set.—Gerry Bethge
Posted by: Gerry Bethge | December 02, 2008 at 09:39 AM
Last April my cousin was doing the calling with a diaphragm and slate call and I killed my biggest bird ever. 26# Eastern in PA. He was with one that was bigger. He gave me the best shot so I took it.
He got those two to come screaming down that hill with those calls.
Posted by: George Petronelis | December 02, 2008 at 10:13 AM
I didn't have the most accurate scale, but ~23 pounds in October of 2006. He'd been fattening up on wild grapes. No calls, just an ambush. In April of that year I got one that was at least 20 pounds, he came in to a homemade tube call, but never made a sound. He'd been eating corn that had been left standing over the winter.
Posted by: Levi | December 02, 2008 at 12:32 PM
What part of PA, George? Not the GPS coordinates, just the general area!
I'm originally from Cameron County, a ridge runner. Did my first turkey hunting there at age twelve (1971) . . . make my home base in New England now where the turkey hunting has gotten better and better every year I've been here.
Yep, mixing a couple calls can definitely get 'em fired up, eh.
Thanks,
Steve
Posted by: Steve Hickoff | December 02, 2008 at 01:03 PM
Hey Levi,
That's a HUGE fall gobbler. Nice. Crop full of wild grapes eh. Reminds me of some of the grouse I've taken over the years (um, smaller in weight!) . . .
Homemade calls are great fun. Did you make that tube call out of a plastic 35mm film canister (or pill bottle?). Did you cut out the cap lid in a half moon, and remove the other end completely? Medical latex stretched over the top and the lid placed over that to hold it down with an opening near the latex rim to blow past, right? I've made a bunch like that myself . . .
Got a different way to make one? Speaking for the rest of us Strut Zoners, we'd love to hear it!
Steve
Posted by: Steve Hickoff | December 02, 2008 at 01:14 PM
Just like that Steve, using a film canister, that was my first turkey call. I made a couple one with latex and one with nitrile for a different sound, it made a pretty good kee kee. Speaking of making turkey calls, I'm thinking about branching out a little and trying box and slate calls. I've read you can cut slate with tin snips, anybody ever tried it? Or is there something you guys know that works?
Posted by: Levi | December 02, 2008 at 02:10 PM
Hey Levi,
Here's one link to a Michael Pearce article that ran in the Feb. 1997 issue of Outdoor Life . . .
Google "How to make a slate call" and you'll find a bunch of others to use as references for making a slate call too.
Steve
Posted by: Steve Hickoff | December 02, 2008 at 07:56 PM
The link:
http://www.customcalls.com/makeaslatecall.htm
Posted by: Steve Hickoff | December 02, 2008 at 07:57 PM
Levi's note reminds me of my first turkey call, sitting behind glass to my left as I type this, retired there.
It consists of a palm-sized slab of slate, an ash & corncob striker, and white string to hold it all together. You cup the slate in your palm of course. Soft clucks and yelps are what I used to get from it.
Back during my college days in Pennsylvania, it once called in two spring gobblers--though I doubted it at first. Only when I got up to meet my buddy down the trail, did I learn that.
I can still see those two birds flushing . . .
Steve
Posted by: Steve Hickoff | December 03, 2008 at 06:38 AM
Killed a 22.5# gobbler in late April in Mass while at Gerry's camp. He had an 11" beard and 1-1/4" spurs. Definitely my biggest bird. Pulled him in with just a Quaker Boy E-Z Yelper. Took quite a while as he didn't want to budge, but he finally broke and came in strutting.
Tony
Posted by: | December 03, 2008 at 10:16 AM
Hey Tony,
Awesome turkey man.
Like you, I flat-out love the Quaker Boy Easy Yelper for a handful of reasons.
It makes sweet, soft tree-calling clucks and yelps before fly-down, not to mention when you're working a gobbler that's coming, maybe just a little hung up, but still out of sight.
It's great for making fighting purrs.
I love using it in conjunction with a diaphragm to sound like several birds.
It's easy to use, sure, but you've got to use it at the right time and in the right way.
Sounds like you did!
Steve
Posted by: Steve Hickoff | December 03, 2008 at 01:24 PM
Tony,
You and Strebbie do anything with the New York fall turkeys?
Steve
Posted by: Steve Hickoff | December 03, 2008 at 01:25 PM
I killed my largest in Kansas in 2007, a 26.5 pound double beard. 11 7/8" and just over 6" on the beards, 1 7/8" razor sharp spurs, a Rio-Eastern hybrid that was fooled with a diaphragm and gobble tube combo. He just couldnt stand the site of B-Mobile with his ladies.
Posted by: Zac | December 04, 2008 at 09:27 AM
Hey Zac,
Man, that is one fine gobbler. Super tactics too. Love it!
Steve
Posted by: Steve Hickoff | December 04, 2008 at 09:34 AM
Steve,
I killed a hen but Strebbie didn't have a chance to get out much. Something called "work"? I try not to get involved much myself in the fall.....
I love the E-Z Yelper, too. Killed my first bird with Strebbie using one many moons ago and he signed the call and gave it to me. Two days later called in my first solo gobbler with that call.
I have never been able to use a mouth call, so all my up-close-and-personal work with gobblers is done with an E-Z Yelper.
Tony
Posted by: | December 05, 2008 at 02:56 PM
Heck, Strebbie doesn't have to hunt to help kill gobblers . . . I'll tell you what I mean in a minute.
For you Strut Zoners, Tony & I are talking about Dave Streb of Quaker Boy Game Calls.
This past spring I used an old Quaker Boy slate Streb gave me after a successful hunt in New York back in the mid '90s. It's one of many I have here in the office with me. It's got that magic vibe, and yet another gobbler fell to its clucks, cutts, and yelps this spring.
Sure, the wooden pot has a little ding in it, and the QB strutting gobbler image on the back is a bit worn from plenty of in-and-out vest pocket time, but it still sounds as sweet as the day I first used it.
P.S. Congrats on your fall turkey too T. It never gets old eh.
Steve
Posted by: Steve Hickoff | December 05, 2008 at 08:11 PM
Steve,
Thanks man, you got that right. My wife thinks I'm nuts most springs (and falls).
Last spring I was fortunate enough to have both my NY birds by May 3rd, but I lined up enough other guys to hunt with to get me another 20 or so days of hunting.
She asks me why I keep getting up if I am already done. I just tell her that I waited all winter to hunt and it only lasts for one month. Gotta get out there while I can!
Take care.
Tony
Posted by: | December 06, 2008 at 10:28 AM