Can Turkey Tail Feathers Tell the Age Tale?

Posted on June 5th, 2008 in Turkey Habitat by admin

Turkey Hunting Tips - Many hunters believe that turkey tail feathers can help relate the age of a turkey. Is this true, or just another well-worn hunting fallacy? The tail feathers do indeed help hunters tell the age tale on their gobblers. Here are some hints and tips for how you can use tail feathers to help put a number on your turkey.

How to Use Tail Feathers on Male Turkeys to Age Them

It can be useful to use tail feathers as a way to age your turkeys, but it is not always possible to use this method. Most experts agree that using turkey tail feathers to tell the age tale is really only possible if you are comparing one year old turkeys (also known as jakes) from mature birds. Here is how you can go about telling a jake from a mature turkey. The tail feathers of a jake are fanned out. In general, the middle sets of primary tail feathers will tend to be two to four inches longer than the rest of the turkey’s tail feathers. This will create a visible bump in the middle of the tail feathers. This is one of the easiest ways to note the age of a turkey

Other Signs of Jake Tail Feathers

There are other visible signs of jake tail feathers. In general, jakes have longer tail feathers. This is mostly due to the fact that they start to molt during the late summer, and only replace the middle primary tail feathers after this. In the second year of a young gobbler, the tail feathers begin to molt and shape into the standard adult pattern. The standard pattern tends towards molting from the outside in. This creates a full, even fan on the adult gobbler. Thus, once a turkey has reached its second year, it will have a full, even fan for the rest of its life. Of course, there are occasions where a turkey will lose one or more of its tail feathers. In most cases, the turkey will grow another tail feather in its spot. Thus, it is possible to find an older turkey with an uneven feather as part of its tail.

Helpful Aiming Hints for Shotgun Turkey Hunters

Posted on June 5th, 2008 in Turkey Hunting accessories, turkey hunting by admin

Turkey Hunting Tips - Are you a novice turkey hunter who would like to improve your shotgun skills? When it comes to successful turkey hunting skills, there are many small considerations that you can take that can help you take successful aim at your prey. Here are some tips for improving your turkey hunting skills.

Prepare for Optimal Turkey Hunting Circumstances

Before you prepare to take aim, take the time to set up the right kinds of circumstances for success. Spend the day before you go hunting scouting out the location. Late afternoon is a good time to go turkey scouting. What exactly are you looking for? Look for signs of turkey activity, including, most importantly, turkey sounds. You will want to scout at least until nightfall. When it is dark, turkeys will fly up into the trees to roost for the night. They do this in the evening, close to dark. If you think you may have missed seeing the turkeys going to roost, but you suspect that they are up there in those darkened boughs, you can elicit a response by hooting like an owl or crowing like a bird. This is a good way to get a response from nearby turkeys. However, if you do not hear anything, do not despair. This does not mean that there are no turkeys up in the trees—they may be simply fast asleep or not in your immediate area of the woods. However, if you do hear a response, this means that you have successfully set up your hunting area for the next day. If you are able to make it a practice to note where the turkeys are roosting, you are much more likely to experience a fruitful hunting season the next day.

How to Pattern your Shotgun for Hunting Turkeys

Posted on June 5th, 2008 in Turkey Hunting accessories, turkey hunting by admin

Turkey Hunting Tips - Hunting for turkey is not so much different than hunting other game in the woods, but one difference might be the size. To be able to hit such a small target, it is of utmost importance to pattern the shotgun. Not balancing and zeroing the shotgun might keep a hunter from being able to hit that turkey.

There are a few materials available that might help a hunter pattern his gun. For example, many of the better hunting and sports stores offer turkey targets. If a commercially produced target is not preferred, a hunter may draw roughly the size of a turkey’s head on a paper and pin this paper to the usual target used to train.

To properly pattern a gun, targets need to be set up about every ten yards starting at twenty. This means 20 yards from the shooter, 30, 40 and then five yards distance for any targets after the 40 yards one. When shooting at the targets, try out different types and even different brands of ammunition, since most shotguns and rifles have different accuracy levels with different loads. If the hunter is lucky he has one of the few shotguns that is very accurate and there will not be much pattern work necessary. After setting up the targets, the hunter needs to aim at the turkey head. By shooting the head, he will learn several things about the gun (given of course that the shooter is a good shooter). First of all the hunter will learn from his shot pattern, where he has to aim at with the bead of the shotgun to be able to center his shooting pattern on the turkeys head. It will show if the gun is dead on, or maybe a tad bid high or low. As mentioned before, the hunter should try out different loads, so that he can learn which load gives him the best, most accurate pattern.