What had your gobbler been eating???

jug

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
I have only harvested 3 gobblers that had their crop sac full.
First one was a gobbler along Parkers creek in Harnett county 1998 that had eaten a quarts worth of hairy and joint vetch.
Second bird had eaten a pint of chufas up in Northampton county back in 2000.
3rd gobbler was here in Harnett county 2017. That bird had found a field of leftover soybeans.
Always amazed me how most of the birds I got barely had anything in their crop sacs.
 

turkeyfoot

Old Mossy Horns
I don't check to often anymore but every so often I do I used to all time was mostly same due to areas I hunt nut hulls acorn and hickory mixed with fescue clover bugs and some worms it varied as to how much some had lot most not so much. To busy breeding I guess
 

lasttombstone

Kinder, Gentler LTS
Most of my birds are mid-morning or afternoon birds and sacs are usually full. One was so full of clover I don't think another leaf would have fit in there. Most of the time it is grass seed, lespedeza seed and a few bugs/grasshoppers.
 

Ol Copper

Twelve Pointer
Same as Turkeyfoot, mostly nuts, hulls and bugs. Guess its just the area we chase them in. Ive also killed a bunch of gobblers that had eaten new dandelion tops.
 

sky hawk

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
One was full of weed seeds and beetle shells. One was slam full of white oak acorns. Clover. Corn.
 
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nchawkeye

Old Mossy Horns
A few years back, I was in Gates County, hunting our farms...My hunting buddy and I had noticed on the drive down that the birds were in fields that had been sprayed with Roundup and already had chick weed growing in them...We killed 3 birds that year and the dang things were full of seeds from chick weed...Blew our minds.... :)
 
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turkeyfoot

Old Mossy Horns
Yup turkeys won't starve they'll eat bout anything as long as snow ain't to deep they'll always scratch up something.
 

luckybuck

Old Mossy Horns
I have killed some with clover in them, some with blackgum seeds, some with acorns and most had oats, wheat, or corn! We don't put out feed for them but someone sure did based on all the stuff we have seen in them before. One year I got one slam full of bird seed with sunflowers and millet. I am pretty sure it was a neighbor that tried to keep them "safe" from hunters. I called it from her house direction to one of our pastures and he did the FLOP...
 
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Familyman

Twelve Pointer
The first gobbler I ever killed, back in 1980, had 433 soybeans in his crop.

After flydown, he went straight away from me and walked right out into a big bean field. I hung out back in the woods about 50 yards off the field edge and called just enough to remind him I was there. After about 30 minutes or so he re-entered the woods and came to me. He had picked up 433 beans in about 30 minutes. That's one bean every 4.1 seconds! Not bad if you ask me.
 
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turkeyfoot

Old Mossy Horns
I have killed some with clover in them, some with blackgum seeds, some with acorns and most had oats, wheat, or corn! We don't put out feed for them but someone sure did based on all the stuff we have seen in them before. One year I got one slam full of bird seed with sunflowers and millet. I am pretty sure it was a neighbor that tried to keep them "safe" from hunters. I called it from her house direction to one of our pastures and he did the FLOP...
The bird seed thing must work a certain mtn gameland I hunt has development at border where residents love to watch the wildlife them dang turkeys would cone off roost fly toward them and gobble with every breath but never budge was like banging head against wall trying kill one them
 

grim reaper

Ten Pointer
I have seen turkeys with corn in the craw as well. Watched turkeys yesterday feeding in a cut corn field...so baiting may not be the case if its just whole corn
 

turkeyfoot

Old Mossy Horns
Most of my hunting is deep ntnl forest no corn there so mine are stuck with nut hulls, bugs and what little grass they can find in the desert of mature timber
 
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wolfman

Old Mossy Horns
Two gameland birds. One had chufa. One had greens and bugs.

Last year birds had soybeans.

Called two birds over the property line from the neighbouring hunt club several years ago. Both were packed with whole corn.
 
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turkeyfoot

Old Mossy Horns
Two gameland birds. One had chufa. One had greens and bugs.

Last year birds had soybeans.

Called two birds over the property line from the neighbouring hunt club several years ago. Both were packed with whole corn.
So question the ones that were packed with corn you figure they weren't being hunted? Reason I ask is seems they would probably be dead in couple days if people were hunting over corn
 

Ol Copper

Twelve Pointer
Interesting question....
What time of season were those birds killed Wolfman ? You would figure they'd have gotten shot fairly early on.
 

turkeyfoot

Old Mossy Horns
Interesting question....
What time of season were those birds killed Wolfman ? You would figure they'd have gotten shot fairly early on.
My money would say they just running feeders birds are suckers for grain if they hunting over them they would probably be dead
 

wolfman

Old Mossy Horns
To answer the above questions, the birds were absolutely being baited and hunted over. I killed one the first monday of the season and the other was during the middle of the season. Second bird was shot at 3pm and he must have just come from the corn pile. Also, had a game camera stolen by the hunt club president who claimed he had permission to take it from the game warden because they have trespassing issues (which is bull). Got the game camera back. The club president told my land owner "You know your hunter called those birds over from our land."

My land owner replied, "Yea and they came over with a craw full of corn."
His only response was "I told those boys not to do that."

Game warden is now a regular visitor to the properties.
 

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turkeyfoot

Old Mossy Horns
To answer the above questions, the birds were absolutely being baited and hunted over. I killed one the first monday of the season and the other was during the middle of the season. Second bird was shot at 3pm and he must have just come from the corn pile. Also, had a game camera stolen by the hunt club president who claimed he had permission to take it from the game warden because they have trespassing issues (which is bull). Got the game camera back. The club president told my land owner "You know your hunter called those birds over from our land."

My land owner replied, "Yea and they came over with a craw full of corn."
His only response was "I told those boys not to do that."

Game warden is now a regular visitor to the properties.
That is truly a shame. People could use the effort they put forth in baiting to learn to hunt better slob poachers
 

Ol Copper

Twelve Pointer
Yep, thats a shame. Glad to hear that you were able to call them to the gun and enjoy the success of doing it right. The cam getting gone is just crazy pitiful.
 

30/06

Twelve Pointer
Saw one that was full of cekada bugs. Lots at out place have those little yellow flowers that bloom in the pastures in spring.
 

GTO ONE

Eight Pointer
Saw one that was full of cekada bugs. Lots at out place have those little yellow flowers that bloom in the pastures in spring.
Two years ago, the year the cicadas were everywhere, I shot a tom full of cicadas and clover...
 
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darkthirty

Old Mossy Horns
Last year the first bird my buddy killed on my farm, was slam packed full of corn. Even in the crawl, you could tell it wasn’t “bait corn”.. it had greenish tint to it and smelled like crap. We solved that mystery easily. My neighbor runs about 250 head of stocker heifers and feeds them silage every morning. I’ve never seen a turkey in his feed lot but all the turkey was doing was going around scratching cow pies and picking the corn out of it.
 
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