Spring turkey season is about a week old here in Virginia, and in Kentucky as well. I see that today is opening day in Ohio. Anyone planning to bag a longbeard or two this spring?

I haven't done any hunting this year, or in the past several, because apartment living doesn't make cleaning your kill very easy. Now with a house I plan to start hitting the GWNF, again.

I plan on bagging one:

(04-22-2019, 11:15 AM)Tiger Teeth Wrote: I plan on bagging one:

I'd say get the limit on this!

(04-22-2019, 09:04 AM)Belsnickel Wrote: Spring turkey season is about a week old here in Virginia, and in Kentucky as well. I see that today is opening day in Ohio. Anyone planning to bag a longbeard or two this spring?

I haven't done any hunting this year, or in the past several, because apartment living doesn't make cleaning your kill very easy. Now with a house I plan to start hitting the GWNF, again.

I've never been a big hunter, wild animals that is, but does wild turkey taste gamey? 

(04-22-2019, 11:58 AM)sandwedge Wrote: I've never been a big hunter, wild animals that is, but does wild turkey taste gamey? 

I'm a bad judge of these things, but I don't think so. Full disclosure, though, in that a lot of things I don't think taste gamey do to other people. Wild turkey tends to be less fatty than store bought and has a different flavor altogether because of the difference in diet.

What your food eats changes the flavor. A pig raised in a commercial farm and fed their type of feed has a much different flavor than forest raised pork that eats acorns and such. The same is true for turkeys on the farm and in the woods.

(04-22-2019, 11:58 AM)sandwedge Wrote: I've never been a big hunter, wild animals that is, but does wild turkey taste gamey? 

(04-22-2019, 02:57 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: What your food eats changes the flavor. A pig raised in a commercial farm and fed their type of feed has a much different flavor than forest raised pork that eats acorns and such. The same is true for turkeys on the farm and in the woods.

That's the big thing.

I haven't been hunting in a while (my kids prefer fishing, so that's what we tend to do), but my family hunts. I get a lot of deer. A few years ago, my dad went out west and hunted. I was amazed how different the meat tasted. It was bad, bad, bad. The sage brush diet changed the flavor completely.

(04-22-2019, 11:58 AM)sandwedge Wrote: I've never been a big hunter, wild animals that is, but does wild turkey taste gamey? 

Funny thing is that people used to claim grass fed beef had a "gamey" taste.  Now they consider it better than corn fed.

Wild game does taste different.  It does not matter much if you use it to make sausage or put it in a stew with a lot of other ingredients.  A venison steak or a roasted wild turkey does taste different, but usually not really in a bad way.  

Biting down on a piece of lead shot can also bee unpleasant.

(04-22-2019, 11:15 AM)Tiger Teeth Wrote: I plan on bagging one:

Brown bag?


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(04-22-2019, 03:23 PM)Benton Wrote: That's the big thing.

I haven't been hunting in a while (my kids prefer fishing, so that's what we tend to do), but my family hunts. I get a lot of deer. A few years ago, my dad went out west and hunted. I was amazed how different the meat tasted. It was bad, bad, bad. The sage brush diet changed the flavor completely.

You know, I never thought about that for game out west, even though I said this. All the game I've had was harvested here in the east. I kind of want to try a blind tasting on deer of similar ages shot in different areas to see the effects. I watch videos of some YouTubers that hunt in Texas and I'd like to let them try some deer, elk, and turkey from our area to show them what they're missing!

(04-22-2019, 04:54 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Funny thing is that people used to claim grass fed beef had a "gamey" taste.  Now they consider it better than corn fed.

Wild game does taste different.  It does not matter much if you use it to make sausage or put it in a stew with a lot of other ingredients.  A venison steak or a roasted wild turkey does taste different, but usually not really in a bad way.  

"Gamey" really is just a more intense flavor that does come from the diet and activity of the animal. Grass fed beef would have a stronger flavor and their activity level would be different than grain fed beef. Chickens eating the bugs from the front yard will taste gamier than grain fed chickens. But gamey isn't a bad thing overall. One, it's personal preference. I like gamey meat and I grew up on it, so I know I'm desensitized to it more than my wife is and it's something I prefer. Two, if it is prepared well, then the gaminess is irrelevant.

(04-22-2019, 04:54 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Biting down on a piece of lead shot can also bee unpleasant.

Yeah it is. I hate squirrel hunting with a shotgun for that reason. But I am a strictly non-lead hunter. Copper, steel, and tungsten have replaced all my lead in hunting and almost all of it in fishing. The amount of lead hunters consume is insane, plus the other impacts of the introduction of lead into the ecosystem is pretty rough. I really just wanted to plug lead free hunting with this. lol

(04-22-2019, 05:52 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: You know, I never thought about that for game out west, even though I said this. All the game I've had was harvested here in the east. I kind of want to try a blind tasting on deer of similar ages shot in different areas to see the effects. I watch videos of some YouTubers that hunt in Texas and I'd like to let them try some deer, elk, and turkey from our area to show them what they're missing!

My family is fortunate enough to have some hunting acreage. We've got 6-8 guys who come up from Florida every year just to hunt here because, according to them, the venison is better. They come in and tag their limits, and my brother usually has some extra to send back with them where he's tried to thin down the does. I always thought it was nuts to go that far for something you can bag a lot closer to home, but they say it's worth the drive.

(04-23-2019, 12:54 AM)Benton Wrote: My family is fortunate enough to have some hunting acreage. We've got 6-8 guys who come up from Florida every year just to hunt here because, according to them, the venison is better. They come in and tag their limits, and my brother usually has some extra to send back with them where he's tried to thin down the does. I always thought it was nuts to go that far for something you can bag a lot closer to home, but they say it's worth the drive.

I listen to a podcast and watch videos from a group called The Hunting Public, and the episode I was listening to on my drive to Virginia Tech this morning they were talking about how shitty the hunting in Florida is, specifically on public land. Granted, they were talking turkeys, but I'm sure it's the same for deer. And since there is so little huntable public land, the private land owners charge a premium. I have zero doubt that it is more cost effective for them to come up your way.

I need to find some private land owners around my neck of the woods, though. The GWNF is so pressured for deer that we have tighter bag restrictions than some other areas, and we also have CWD on its way to us.

I also have no problem helping thin out some does. I'm in it for the meat, anyway.

(04-23-2019, 12:22 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: I listen to a podcast and watch videos from a group called The Hunting Public, and the episode I was listening to on my drive to Virginia Tech this morning they were talking about how shitty the hunting in Florida is, specifically on public land. Granted, they were talking turkeys, but I'm sure it's the same for deer. And since there is so little huntable public land, the private land owners charge a premium. I have zero doubt that it is more cost effective for them to come up your way.

I need to find some private land owners around my neck of the woods, though. The GWNF is so pressured for deer that we have tighter bag restrictions than some other areas, and we also have CWD on its way to us.

I also have no problem helping thin out some does. I'm in it for the meat, anyway.

With Land Between the Lakes and thousands of additional acres in wildlife refuges, we're overrun with deer here. I don't want to say game wardens turn a blind eye to tag limits in the area, but you don't hear of anyone getting in trouble for it.