On Top of the World

“This season was very weird. Everything I thought I knew about turkey hunting went out the window this year. But it still turned out to be a great year,” says Matthew Jones. “I’ve had a great year. I’ve killed my two and have called in 11 birds for other hunters. Here are a few pictures from the first few days of season.”

Picture 1: This is Matthew’s opening day turkey (10-inch beard, 1-inch spurs, 24 pounds).

Picture 2: Here is his girlfriend’s cousin and her dad with the father’s opening weekend bird. It had double beards that measured 11 inches. The spurs were 1 3/16 inches and it weighed 22 pounds.

Picture 3: This is Matthew’s girlfiend’s cousin with an unidentified friend and one of the two turkeys he killed in Kentucky. His opening day bird weighed 19 pounds and had a 9-inch beard and 3/4-inch spurs. He then killed one later in the week that sported a 10-inch beard with 1-inch spurs and weighed 21 pounds.

Matthew killed his personal best later in the season around 12:45 in the day. He writes: “Long story short, after a mile of working the bird, I shot him at 12 yards. He was a real bouncer. He had an 11-inch beard, 1 1/2-inch spurs and weighed 27 pounds.”

Twenty-seven pounds? That is a hog. I’d love to see a picture of that one Matt.

I’ve only seen a couple that big taken by other hunters on hunts that I’ve been on. My personal heaviest has been two 25 pounders, and I know I saw one Missouri bird while hunting with Ray Eye’s brother Marty and former OL staffer Jamus Driscoll that had to have topped 30. From a distance, we thought it was a calf it was so big! Needless to say, that one gave us the slip before the morning was up.

Tell us folks, what’s the heaviest, or for that matter, longest bearded, longest spurred turkey you’ve killed?