Gobbler Taken by Longtime Maryland Hunter Is the Pending No. 2 All-Time Turkey in the State

It took three consecutive mornings for Harry Daley to seal the deal on an enormous, hard-gobbling Maryland turkey final month. The 75-year-old hunter’s endurance was rewarded, although, as he ended up tagging one of the vital spectacular birds ever taken within the state. The tom’s longest spur is a pending Maryland state file for spur size, whereas its different spur ties the present state file for spur size.

“First morning I arrange on him in some woods on non-public property close to a creek. The chook devoured 73 instances whereas nonetheless in a roost tree earlier than daylight,” says Daley, who has 40 years of chasing toms to his credit score. “He was solely about 100 yards away from me. I soft-called, however I feel he went off with a hen away from me, so I left the woods about 9 a.m.”

The second morning, Daley arrange in the identical location on the Washington County property. He says the tom devoured 25 instances from his roost and did the identical factor, strolling away to observe a hen early within the morning. However the third morning was completely different, and Daley says all of it occurred very quick.

“That Wednesday morning, he began calling somewhat earlier than 6 a.m., and he was on the bottom at 6:15, gobbling regular and coming towards me following a hen by means of the woods,” he explains. “At 6:25, he stepped into shotgun vary and I rolled him at 35 yards with a three-inch load of Foxtrot Crusher 9’s from my 20 gauge.”

Daley went as much as the tom immediately and was surprised at its measurement—particularly the size of its spurs. He referred to as his grandson, Hunter Bingaman, and informed him he’d shot a large. Bingaman then met him at a close-by sporting items retailer, and everybody who noticed the tom was simply as amazed by the dimensions of the chook’s spurs.

Two Nationwide Wild Turkey Federation members measured the tom, and the paperwork has been submitted to the NWTF. In response to their measurements, the chook had an 11-inch beard, together with one spur measuring 2.1875 inches and one other measuring 2.125 inches. The longer spur is a pending state file, whereas the opposite ties the present state file for spur size.

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The one main shortcoming of Daley’s chook was its comparatively mild weight of 19 kilos, 9.6 ounces. Whereas nonetheless a heavy turkey, most of Maryland’s prime 10 turkeys have weighed greater than 22 kilos, with some weighing as a lot as 26 kilos.

Nonetheless, Daley’s gobbler ought to rank because the #2 all-time Maryland turkey with an unofficial NWTF rating of 84.6875. By comparability, the state’s #1 all-time turkey scored 86.3750. That chook, which weighed greater than 24 kilos, was killed by Todd Harrington in Dorchester County in Might 2007.

Daley says he’s having the tom mounted alongside the primary chook he shot this spring, which was additionally a whopper of a gobbler.

“It’ll be an enormous mount with two large toms,” Daley says, “however these birds are the most effective I’ve taken in over 40 years of searching.”