A small pair of binoculars can be worth their weight in gold when it comes to identifying a trophy spring gobbler in the field. Deer hunters spend vast amounts of time judging antlers to determine if a buck is a trophy, yet hardly anyone does that for turkeys. Often, we are so excited to lure a big tom into shotgun or bow range that we put the hammer down quickly.
The close range nature of turkey hunting makes gobbler ID doubly difficult. Generally, at the first sign of a gobbler’s approach, a hunter should subtly change to the shooting position, raising the gun barrel so that the kill shot can be made without further movement. These are precisely the times that a trophy hunter should have his binoculars up to evaluate the bird, easy if we had four hands.
Scout and Glass
One solution to this dilemma is to use your binoculars to locate and scout for turkeys before the season. Often a tom will stake out a territory and if you see it strutting in a particular opening, it will do so repeatedly. Set up and count on that big bird coming to you. In the Midwest and Plains states, turkeys are often spotted at long distances and binoculars and even spotting scopes come in handy. If you can locate a big tom with hens, you can bet the flock will contain it. Likewise, if a few old toms travel together, they will usually remain together for the breeding season. Often one is a “strutter” while less dominant birds do not.
Look for Hooks
You are about to see 17 really cool shots of mature gobblers and you may be surprised at how visible a toms spurs can be. Beards can be worn down by winter snow, yet spurs continue to grow and are the best indication of a gobblers age and size. This Post from the Realtree website has some real lookers. Check them out:
High-quality optics, effective camo, woodsmanship skills and calling play a big role in tagging a boss gobbler. Scouting helps hunters identify individual birds by a unique gobble, body size, and/or beard and spur length. The digital camera age, (think cell-phone cameras), and high-resolution trail cameras, have enabled the turkey hunting possessed to learn more details than ever about turkeys.
Check out this gallery of photos for some surefire and little-known ways to identify individual gobblers, and take your turkey hunting experience to a whole new level. Be a keen observer. Whether it’s learned before or after the shot, knowing more about the turkeys you hunt makes the memories that much sweeter!
http://www.realtree.com/turkey-hunting/galleries/17-cool-photos-for-advanced-wild-turkey-gobbler-identification?mc_cid=7fe8afc316&mc_eid=8fe2237aad
