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I am curious how many people shoot jakes. I am a strong believer if you let the jakes go, you will always have gobbling turkeys in the future. So where do you stand on this subject?
You pretty much described me there as well.Depends on if its late in the season and if I have taken a bird or not.I take a turkey more so for there table fair than to just be able to say I killed a long beard.Luckily the past few years I have managed to get a long beard early,I've had a few that I could have taken and did'nt.
I sure can't grasp that reasoning. You'd pass a jake (and a jake is a jake whether 2" or 5") but you'd shoot a hen? You'd let one bird go that might make it next year and might gobble for you, but you would take out a bird that has potential to produce somewhere between 2 and 10 gobbling birds?If he cant gobble....well, he probly ain't much....as far as having a 5" beard, that bird is able to gobble, and is fair game! Unless it's a bearde hen, in which case she's done...WOs tell me to smoke them bearded hens!:wink:
I'm telling you, the WO I talked to said we don't want bearded hens....his reasoning? If all the hens had beards....we'd probly run outta turkeys pretty quick. I never have killed a hen, but my son has killed two, and he sports those beards like they are trophys one is 8" the other 9"!:wink:I sure can't grasp that reasoning. You'd pass a jake (and a jake is a jake whether 2" or 5") but you'd shoot a hen? You'd let one bird go that might make it next year and might gobble for you, but you would take out a bird that has potential to produce somewhere between 2 and 10 gobbling birds?
I feel about this just like I do about shooting small bucks. If it floats your boat and you are satisfied, then by all means shoot the sucker. If you don't want to and think it unsporting, then that is cool as well. Just quit trying to tell everyone else how to think about what constitutes a good hunt or a trophy harvest.