Fun to shoot but you would never eat this turkey.
Posted on 11/26/2005 1:30:21 PM PST by baseball_fan
Did you shoot your Thanksgiving turkey this year?
Word is more wild turkeys are to be had in North America - and more Americans are hunting them.
The National Wild Turkey Federation says with Thanksgiving upon us, there's no better time to celebrate the comeback of the wild turkey. As recently as the early 1900s, it says, turkeys like certain other wildlife "teetered on the brink of extinction."
In those years, the wild turkey population in North America hovered around 30,000. But now, thanks to federal and state conservation measures, wild turkeys have steadily increased in number and expanded their range.
"Today, wildlife biologists estimate that close to 7 million wild turkeys roam the fields and forests of North America making it perhaps the greatest conservation success story of the 20th century," says the NWTF.
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
I have noticed a few wild turkeys here now. There still arent enough to make it worthwhile hunting them her but they arecoming along. St. Mary's County Maryland.
There is a flock of over 60 wild turkeys that meanders through our property from time to time. Ten years ago, we were lucky to see a dozen. (The coyotes will trim them down soon enough, plus some are taken during hunting season.)
We had a turkey one year that my grandpop shot. Mom got buckshot in her piece, and that was the end of that.
Fun to shoot but you would never eat this turkey.
They are all over the place here in NH. I have a flock that I feed cracked corn to here every day. When I was a kid, there was no such thing as wild turkeys. No moose, either. Now they're both getting to be a nuisance.
It was quite a surprise the first time I saw one of these in someone's yard as I drove by. I didn't know if it was a family pet, a promotional gimmick, or someone's Thanksgiving dinner. Lately, they've gotten more and more common. Occasionally you can see them trying to cross the street, but they're a lot less trouble than the deer.
I've sure seen more wild turkeys in the last two years than ever before..... And I don't get out in the wilds as much either.
In fact, I saw one just a couple of blocks up the street about a week ago..... NEVER seen one 'in town' before.
And deer.... They are taking over. Literally thousands in town.. Eight have taken up residence in my back yard and the vacant lot next door.
Guess they are expecting a wicked winter to hang around town so much.
We have a few here...
There is a field by which I used to drive on the way to work and almost every morning I would see between 5 and 100 wild turkeys in it. They are quite common in Tennessee, now.
Dude...That is One ugly gobbler
We've got them running all over the back yard. (Seminole Cty., FL) When we moved to the "country" back in 1990, there was a tom that used to chase kids on bicycles. He didn't last long.
Curiously, they won't scatter for large SUVs but will move fast enough for a human and a couple of Dobes!
"...they're a lot less trouble than the deer."
and a lot more meat than doves.
We' here on in Southern Maryland would like to trade you a few hundred Geese that wont fly north, and crap all over the farm for some wild turkeys.
Owasippe Scout Reservation is a 5000 acre BSA reservation up near Whitehall, Michigan. I was walking around one of the camps (Camp Carlen) when I found a wild turkey tail feather on the ground; I have it next to me as I type this. Campers there told they heard and saw them every day.
A hiker became lost out in the woods - for three days he wandered and lived off the land, drinking from streams, etc.
When some forest rangers found him, he had killed and was eating a Bald Eagle.
The rangers had no choice but to arrest him on the spot.
His trial came up, and he begged the judge for leniency saying, "I was three days with nothing to eat, so I had to kill and eat the eagle to survive."
The judge felt sorry for the young man and dismissed the case. Just as the hiker was leaving the courtroom, the judge, curious, asked, "By the way, what did the Bald Eagle taste like?"
The hiker replied, "It tasted like something between a Spotted Owl and a Whooping Crane, but just a little greasy like California Condor..."
I sure did, and [Gollum!] it was tender and juicey [Gollum] and [Urrrrp!] crunchable! Tasssty, it was.
It will never asssk me, [Gollum!] "what's that funny stick you're pointing at me," again!
It slandered me, it did! It called me Bagger! When I [gollum] shot it, it screamed, "You bagger, you bagged me! Baggers, we HATES them forever," then died. [Gollum-gollum!]
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