Gobbler Nation

drenalinld wrote:Would have been 2.5" with Doug's ruler.

I'm good with whatever the majority wants.

ole5beards wrote:Ronnie who are you kidding those merriams are extremely tough to hunt. It's not like a guy from Alabama could go to Nebraska and load up a refrigerator full after 1 day of hunting!!

Maybe a small refrigerator.

guesswho wrote:

Gobbler wrote:I'm going to run a poll on the scoring of the birds and let the Gobbler Nation contest members decide.

please post some poll options.

heres one - leave the same as last year. NWTF scoring.

I don't get in the contest, so it really don't matter to me one way or the other. But on the multi-beard issue. I've never understood the N"WTF"'s logic of beard lenght times two. Why not count the beards for what they are. A bird with a 10" beard gets 10 points for it. A bird with a ten and a six inch beard gets 16 points. That way there's only a six point deficit instead of a 12 point deficit. I'd be good with total spur lenght x 10 plus weight plus total beard lenghth.

16 lb bird with 1.25" spurs and a 10" beard would score 51 (Typical Osceola Stats)
23 lb bird with 1.00" spurs and a 10" beard would score 53 (Typical Heavy Mid West Bird)
18 lb bird with 1.00" spurs and three beards totaling 18" would score 56 (Typical Multi-beard)
8 lb. bird with 3/8" spurs and a 7" beard would score 22.5 (Typical Gobblenut bird)
23 lb. bird with 3/4" spurs and a 9" beard would score 47 (probably closer to an actual Merriam)

I know there are exceptions to all the species, but I think a scoring system similar to this would tighten things up and make it more even. That would eliminate the huge advantage of doubling the beard lenght on multi-beards.

I'll have you know that my birds average at least 10 pounds each, bubba!

ole5beards wrote:Keep it simple. Compared to other forum contests from the past its already more effort. It's a contest for, here's the funny part... BRAGGING RIGHTS!! NWTF scoring system. Allow multi beards. A hunters score shouldn't be penalized because he(unless you're Ronnie!) unknowingly killed a superb bird. We all know a birds size regional. A 3 year old Alabama bird scores between 60-65 same bird in the Midwest scores 65-70. Nothing we can do, except move . Another idea is add a category for best bird bet subspecies. Don't make it a scoring category just a best bird per species deal(more of an individual deal). After all it's just for FUN! Kill your bird, snap a few pics, and post the score.

Ronnie who are you kidding those merriams are extremely tough to hunt. It's not like a guy from Alabama could go to Nebraska and load up a refrigerator full after 1 day of hunting!!

Ohhhh! Now I get it! You have been talking all along about those Nebraska Merriams that have never seen a hunter before and are put there for you flatlanders to hunt so you don't end up killing yourselves trying to kill a real mountain Merriams on public land! It's all becoming crystal clear now.... No wonder you guys think you're such bad MoFos!

I don't know har far it is to New Mexico but I'm pretty sure I could go to my back yard and start calling now and have one of your birds here in rock range by opening day. That is if he didn't get run over crossing the street before he got here. Biologists have traced New Mexico Merriams origins through DNA back to a Butterball truck wreck back in 1890. A couple of them survived the crash and surprisingly bred with each other.

guesswho wrote:I don't know har far it is to New Mexico but I'm pretty sure I could go to my back yard and start calling now and have one of your birds here in rock range by opening day. That is if he didn't get run over crossing the street before he got here. Biologists have traced New Mexico Merriams origins through DNA back to a Butterball truck wreck back in 1890. A couple of them survived the crash and surprisingly bred with each other.

That is funny!

guesswho wrote:I don't know har far it is to New Mexico but I'm pretty sure I could go to my back yard and start calling now and have one of your birds here in rock range by opening day.

I'm not sure you could call one that far, but I'm sure they can smell that corn you got piled up for those pet 6-beards of yours all ready for next spring.

I'm to cheap to buy shells. Olefivebeards had to drive to Columbus from Montgomery to give me a shell when I ran out this year so I could go to Kentucky to hunt. I sure ain't going to spend money on corn to attract a bird thats going to come to a call.

Heres a picture of the shell he brought me so I could hunt. Kentucky birds are a lot tougher than those inbred Butterball New Mexico Merriams. It took about a hour to kill him on the first morning of the hunt. I figure I'd accidently kill one of your Merriams by opening the truck door the first morning.

Nice bird! Good thing you didn't miss!
Let's see,..that one took an hour,...and most of your other birds are about the same,...an hour here, twenty minutes there, and so on. Yessir,...those Easterns must be really tough birds to kill! I can see now why you think so highly of them!

I figure when I get to be your age, roughly 112, I might find barn yard birds more challenging. Except instead of whining about their low scores I will apply my SPAP card points proudly so my barn yard birds score will rival that of a wild bird. I didn't use the bouncy green smiley because I couldn't hit the dang thing. I may be out there hunting barn yards birds with you sooner than I think

Dadburnit! Show a little respect for your elders, young'un! You keep it up an I'ma gonna whop you with my cane up side your punkin' hade!
...Besides, it sounds to me like you are already hunting barnyard turkeys...

gobbleNUT you aren't seriously trying to compare a merriam to an eastern or even say they're harder to harvest than an eastern are you?!

ole5beards wrote:gobbleNUT you aren't seriously trying to compare a merriam to an eastern or even say they're harder to harvest than an eastern are you?!

Lee, once you get passed a certain age you tend to get a little senile. Gobblenut is way past that age and lives in a little world called Gobblenutville. See what we have to look forward to in about 70 more years.

ole5beards wrote:gobbleNUT you aren't seriously trying to compare a merriam to an eastern or even say they're harder to harvest than an eastern are you?!

Lee, my opinion about hunting any of the subspecies is that any of them can be ridiculously easy, or frustratingly difficult to hunt, depending on when and where you are hunting them. To compare a lightly-hunted, private-land gobbler in any location to a hard-hunted, public-land bird anywhere is an invalid comparison. Turkeys become difficult to hunt based on how much they have been hunted as much as anything else.

All things being equal, in my opinion and from my personal experience hunting all of the subspecies, including the Goulds, on numerous occasions, Easterns are the most difficult to hunt due to two factors I have experienced. They generally do not readily gobble as much and when they approach calling, they will much more quickly react to errors made by the hunter.

However, anybody that states flatly that one subspecies is "easy" and one subspecies is "hard" to hunt, just indicates to me that that individual has not experienced hunting gobblers under enough circumstances to understand my first statement above.

...Of course, all of this comes from a senile, old coot,...so take it with a grain of salt. ...That's just how we think down here in GobbleNUTville...

See. Told ya!

I was worried about Gobblenut hunting those mountains in New Mexico with his age and mental state and all. So I called his neighbor to see if he could keep an eye on him. The guy said not to worry, Gobblenut isn't a threat to anyone or himself. The guy said every spring he'll look out his window and he see's Gobblenut chasing turkeys around in his pen. The guy said last year it took Gobblenut nine days to finally kill one in the pen. But not to worry, if the old geezer gets into any kind of trouble he'll just walk outside and help Gobblenut back to his house. I know I feel better knowing someone is keeping an eye on the old fool.

Okay, enough of the frivolity for a moment....

Per Doug's request, my serious recommendation for the contest, which I strongly feel is the fairest and most equitable way to treat everybody,... regardless of where they hunt, what subspecies they hunt, what weapon they use, or how many beards a gobbler has...is to use the same system we have right now in every way, except that the score of any bird is based on a percentage of how the bird scores in relation to other birds killed in the particular state it is killed in. I have already outlined how this can be done, simply and without complicating the contest, in an earlier post in this thread.

The baseline comparison can be established by using the NWTF records. It would be based on comparing anyone's gobbler to those recorded in the record book from the state it was harvested in. It could be based on a comparison to the largest bird recorded from that state,...or it could an average of, say, the top ten birds listed from a state.

This is neither difficult or complicated. It will take a bit of time for someone to establish the baseline numbers for comparison, but I will be happy to do that if needed. Anyone would be able to check the numbers for themselves by referencing the record book, however.

Gobbler wrote:I'm going to run a poll on the scoring of the birds and let the Gobbler Nation contest members decide.

Thats the best option. Let all the members vote on it.

guesswho wrote:See. Told ya!

I was worried about Gobblenut hunting those mountains in New Mexico with his age and mental state and all. So I called his neighbor to see if he could keep an eye on him. The guy said not to worry, Gobblenut isn't a threat to anyone or himself. The guy said every spring he'll look out his window and he see's Gobblenut chasing turkeys around in his pen. The guy said last year it took Gobblenut nine days to finally kill one in the pen. But not to worry, if the old geezer gets into any kind of trouble he'll just walk outside and help Gobblenut back to his house. I know I feel better knowing someone is keeping an eye on the old fool.

Guy must have really good eyes !! I've seen Gobblenut's pen and its huge. Also the next camp is not in visual so he can see through stuff too.

I don't recall Jim falling off any mountains either

timbrhuntr wrote:I don't recall Jim falling off any mountains either

I didn't fall off a mountin either, it was a cliff. And to be fair I don't have any recollection of it either. All I remember is thinking this is a first. And if your refering to the Ohio incident I didn't fall, I was pushed, but thats another story

So timbrhuntr, how do you think they should score turkeys for next years contest. Are you going to apply for a SPAP card too? Seriously, what are your thoughts on scoring turkeys? Nows the time to throw ideas out there for Doug to consider.

guesswho wrote:

Gobbler wrote:I'm going to run a poll on the scoring of the birds and let the Gobbler Nation contest members decide.

Thats the best option. Let all the members vote on it.

Hey Ronnie,...What's the matter with you buddy? You sick today? ...You didn't make fun of me a single time in this last post! You're off your game, Doood!

Oh, and by the way Tim: It's good to finally see somebody coming to my defence around here! Sic'em!

guesswho wrote:

timbrhuntr wrote:I don't recall Jim falling off any mountains either

I didn't fall off a mountin either, it was a cliff. And to be fair I don't have any recollection of it either. All I remember is thinking this is a first. And if your refering to the Ohio incident I didn't fall, I was pushed, but thats another story

So timbrhuntr, how do you think they should score turkeys for next years contest. Are you going to apply for a SPAP card too? Seriously, what are your thoughts on scoring turkeys? Nows the time to throw ideas out there for Doug to consider.

I"m sorry I didn't think the actual true facts had anything to do with this thread .

As far as scoring I have basically dropped out off the contests. I was only in 2 this year one where all you did was post your killed bird and the team that killed the most toms basically won.

The other contest was one in Michigan that I have been in for a while and since the team members asked me to be in again this year I did. They also use a different scoring system than NWTF but since it is only for Michigan birds its not the same.

Since next season I am not entering in any contests I really don't feel right about commenting how they should score their birds.

GobbleNut wrote:Hey Ronnie,...What's the matter with you buddy? You sick today? ...You didn't make fun of me a single time in this last post! You're off your game, Doood!

I read your previous post and was trying to show some respect. See below post!

GobbleNut wrote:Okay, enough of the frivolity for a moment...

But now I'm all out of repect, especially now that there's two senile people taking jabs at me. You and timbrnut both can kiss my cliff falling I think the two of you should form your own team. Team Double Nutt. Combined y'all with have 50 SPAP points before you ever throw the first rock at those oxygen deprived, brain damaged, inbred barnyard birds.

guesswho wrote:

GobbleNut wrote:Hey Ronnie,...What's the matter with you buddy? You sick today? ...You didn't make fun of me a single time in this last post! You're off your game, Doood!

I read your previous post and was trying to show some respect. See below post!

GobbleNut wrote:Okay, enough of the frivolity for a moment...

But now I'm all out of repect, especially now that there's two senile people taking jabs at me. You and timbrnut both can kiss my cliff falling I think the two of you should form your own team. Team Double Nutt. Combined y'all with have 50 SPAP points before you ever throw the first rock at those oxygen deprived, brain damaged, inbred barnyard birds.

That's more like it. I was beginning to get ever-so-slightly concerned about you. You can imagine my relief to see this last post!
And hey, Tim is a much more respectable guy than I am,...you shouldn't be talking to him like that!

GobbleNut wrote:And hey, Tim is a much more respectable guy than I am,...you shouldn't be talking to him like that!

Sounds like team captain material to me.