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2022 Turkey Season

I've seen a few turkeys on the property, but I don't usually hunt until the fall season. Right now, with the dwindling numbers of turkey on the property due to wolves, coyotes, bobcats, foxes, and bears, the bird population has taken a serious hit.

I haven't hunted any turkey in the last several years actually. The last time I saw some, there were 7, which is better than it had been. There for 2 years, I didn't even see a turkey. Then I saw one. At the last time I had seen any, there were 7. So, that's an improvement.

Now, if I could just see the grouse population come back. I love eating grouse and seeing them in the wild.
 
Having never hunted turkey, (it was not allowed in my county until about two years ago) I don't even know what I would do with one if had a successful hunt. Do most turkey hunters eat them? Have it mounted?

I'm clueless.
 
Having never hunted turkey, (it was not allowed in my county until about two years ago) I don't even know what I would do with one if had a successful hunt. Do most turkey hunters eat them? Have it mounted?

I'm clueless.
Omm nom nom.................
 
Do most turkey hunters eat them? Have it mounted?

While many will mount one, I'm not one of those kinds of hunters. If I can't eat it, I won't waste my time trying to find and kill something. But that's just me.

Fresh wild turkey breast is so much better than store bought.

Here's one of my favorite recipes.

Skin the breast meat, get off all the fine down feathers. If you simply run your knife down the center of its' breast like you were unizipping it's shirt, you can pull all the feathers off just like you were undressing your sweetheart. Then just cut the entire breast off. That's really the only thing worth eating. The wings don't have enough meat to fool with. And the legs are rather tough because they're like chickens and constantly scratching and walking. So, the breast is the only thing really worth fooling with in my opinion.

I let it soak overnight in buttermilk in the fridge.

Rinse it off and ub it down with butter and roast it like you would any other.

If you like green onion potato chip dip, you can also slather a little bit of it on it while baking for a little extra pizzaz if you want. It's really good that way too. But I like onion chip dip.
 
@ Nitesite. I used to pluck the whole bird and deep fry it. However, I stopped doing that cause a mature Tom around here is typically 22 lbs and up. They don't fit in a 30 quart fryer very well. Now I just breast them out and save the beard and spurs.
For the trophy I cut the plastic off the shell I shot the bird with and knock out the primer. Then I tie a little loop of paracord and run that through the spurs and then through the primer hole. Then I epoxy the beard up in the brass part of the shell and label the shell with the year. Nice compact little package. I stopped saving the fans cause they take up so much room.
@ JohnA, you got wolves there? I did not know we had wolves this far south.
 
@ JohnA, you got wolves there? I did not know we had wolves this far south.

That's a cool idea for the shotgun shell. I like that. Next Tom I get, I'll do that.

As for your questions about wolves, yes, unfortunately we do have some. I've been hearing them howl for about 4 years now. Got what I believe is one on the trail cam once too.

It shouldn't surprise you that the state vehemently denies it. But, they always deny everything. It took them 15 years to finally admit we had bears, even though everyone had already knew that and had been telling them that for years.

They also say we don't have mountain lions.

Pfft. Yeah, they're just big beavers I guess.
 
I have property about an 1 1/2 hour east of Evansville, Indiana. People down here have talked about lion sightings for a number of years here. Bears would not surprise me either, or Bigfoot for that matter. There are some big stretches of Hoosier National Forest here that go on for well over a mile uninterrupted. I have yet to hear what I thought was a wolf though. Either way, my S&W .44 is riding comfortably on my hip as I write this.
 
@ Nitesite. I used to pluck the whole bird and deep fry it. However, I stopped doing that cause a mature Tom around here is typically 22 lbs and up. They don't fit in a 30 quart fryer very well. Now I just breast them out and save the beard and spurs.
For the trophy I cut the plastic off the shell I shot the bird with and knock out the primer. Then I tie a little loop of paracord and run that through the spurs and then through the primer hole. Then I epoxy the beard up in the brass part of the shell and label the shell with the year. Nice compact little package. I stopped saving the fans cause they take up so much room.
@ JohnA, you got wolves there? I did not know we had wolves this far south.
Do you mind posting a pic of one of your shotshell trophies? I'd love to see one.
 
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