Anyone ever been attacked by a turkey?

[lyingflatlander]

Just curious if anyone has been attacked by a turkey and is alive to share their story?

 

[TSAMP]

Sort of. I was shed hunting my farm and on the phone with a buddy as I came up on a Tom in old cattle pasture. This was around March in Iowa 7 or 8 years ago. I wanted to get a picture so I kept walking in and got around 20 yards. It started to walk toward me. So I started walking backwards. Then as I sped my pace so did it. I ended up taking off my pack for a shield and bluff charged it a bit. At that time I noticed a second bird was on the other side of the Barb wire and he too ducked the fence and joined the party. I turned dropped my bag and ran. I didn't look back for about 50 yards but they didn't really pursue me. Oddly enough I never even considered hunting turkeys until that day and I buy 2 tags or 3 tags a year now. It's war and they started it.

 

[rclouse79]

I saw a video with a couple toms chasing a cop around. I definitely don’t feel as accomplished with our turkey kills after watching their behavior. My sons turkey waited around for him to finally kill him with the third and final shot. I dumped my first bird and was able to call the rest of them back in for a double.

 

[Grumman]

When I took my old man on his first ever turkey hunt he picked up the bird he shot and it wasn’t fully dead. I thought I was gonna have to shoot in there amongst them for a bit. He had it by one leg as it was flogging him. Cut his ear pretty good but he got loose and was lucky overall to not get spurred worse. Turkey tasted good afterwards.


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[lyingflatlander]

I picture an old man with a huge grin eating turkey...

 

[hilts]

I didn't witness the event, but saw the aftermath. Years ago a friend has some turkey poult's cross the road in front of him. He decides he's he's always wanted a pet turkey and jumps out to run one down and grab it. He accomplished grabbing one when momma came out of no where and whooped him all the way back to the road.

Seeing him after, you would have thought he was in a car accident. Cuts everywhere, shredded and bloody shirt, he said those feathers are like razor blades.

 

[Nealm66]

We had turkeys free ranging when I was a little kid. Got my arss kicked a few times. Had a German Shepard that always put himself in between me and turkeys geese cows and whatever that went a long ways but turkeys are sneaky

 

[MattB]

My friend stoned one with a 10 gauge and it came back to life when he put his hands on it. He was able to finally drown it in a puddle, but it beat him up pretty badly before he was able to do so - said the wings felt like he was taking jabs in a fight. He took a spur in between his finger, thought he was going to have to go to the ER to have it closed.

 

[FLAK]

Went to work in Central FL with the Fl. Dept. of Agriculture in 2001 doing insect surveys. Had a trap I would run in a "rural area" / county park thing.
Had seen Turkeys there before and I had one of those throw away cameras just for the purpose of getting some pics.
Well, I was driving down this long road where i always see them and there they were. They saw me coming so they eased off in the woods. I got up to em pretty quick and hustled into the woods behind them to get a pic. They didnt like that one bit!! Chased me back to the truck. Then they proceeded to flog the tire as I was backing up outta there. I did get a pic of one giving me the stink eye right outside the door. And he tried to fly through the open window after me.
People at work didnt believe me till i showed them the pic.

 

[Nealm66]

What a funny thread. Bet a lot of people had no idea. When I was working in the woods up in the mts, the blue grouse roosters would sometimes attack the crew bus during the rut. Craziest thing I ever saw

 

[thinhorn_AK]

Yes but never while hunting them. I had a friend years ago who had a pet turkey that was a real bastard. At my friends house he had an outhouse so you had to go out into the backyard into the turkeys area.

That bastard would come out of nowhere right at you, you really had to run fast and check to make sure things were clear both on the way too and back from the outhouse.

 

[TheCougar]

I went one-on-one with Wild Turkey once. It won. I felt like crap the next day, but vowed to redeem myself and finish the bottle.

 

[TX_Diver]

Only a domestic one. It weighed 42lbs bled out and with the head off though.

In the future I'm going to stick to butchering them at 16 weeks or whatever the recommended timeframe is....

 

[lyingflatlander]

I live in Northeast Wisconsin and turkeys only started appearing 25 years ago. I was shocked there wasn’t a thread for this already. It’s not uncommon to hear stories of gobblers beating themselves bloody on egressed windows or sliding doors on patios. My neighbor had car damage from a group of gobblers beating themselves into his car door. On a different note, my uncle was chased by a group of tame wild jakes by his house routinely one summer. It was quite comical to hear him tell stories of doing surveillance before heading out to the car.

 

[BluMtn]

During breeding season we have people all the time getting chased here in town. I have been challenged but I held my ground getting ready to drop kick that tom into next week, but he must have figured out I was serious because he blinked first.

 

[Fordguy]

This season i had some birds come in before I was ready, so I jumped into a washout and held my hen decoy up infront of my face. One territorial irritated hen came in to about 10 feet, clucked, fluffed her feathers and stood up as tall as she could- obviously mad at the new hen in her territory. She started toward me and I lifted the decoy a few inches higher, she turned away at about 5 feet and walked back the way she came from. She stopped several times to cluck and make short runs at me before leaving. I was sure i was going to have a hen/decoy fight in my lap.

 

[Marbles]

No, but just a fun fact; there are somethink like 4 to10 different ICD-10 codes for attacks by turkeys.

ICD-10 codes are medical billing codes. If you code that someone was pecked by a turkey, but they where actually spured insurance will refuse to pay.

 

[Wetwork]

This story is a no-kidding there I was, my very first hunt ever for turkey, I had spent weeks scouting a area in Southern Oregon, They were unicorns back then. It was a two hour drive to get to the ranch I'd been allowed to hunt. I get there in the morning and as I was walking in another hunter passed me on the way out.

Bare chested, covered in blood, crazed look in his eyes, almost the famous thousand yard stare. I was like "Geebuz man, do you need help? What the hell happened.? He explained he'd knocked one down and it had laid there stone cold dead. Said he'd let out a victory whoop and everything. He laid his gun down and walked up to his prize and it leap in his face. He said he couldn't see or anything, all flapping wings and talons. Somehow he got his hands around it's neck and it went to work on him with its spurs. Flayed his chest and arms somthing fierce. Right through his shirt. In panic and rage he said he choked it to death, but a nasty price. I offered to render aid but he spit and said he was fine and staggered off with his enemy proudly draped over his shoulder....

So I'm suddenly thinking this is no joke...dangerous game right?.. I called a bit here and there with no results, then saw a flock of about twenty hens and one tom headed toward a bridge. I beat cheeks and got under that bridge. Thinking about that guy, I was shaking. That tom was the last to cross that bridge and from about five yards I pretty much took his head clean off. Walked right into my barrel. He did a feather, dirt tornado, all wings and talons spurring for like five minutes before I came out from under that bridge. I picked up a stick and poked that evil bugger several times, even though with the gore it was pretty evident he'd gone to the green lands.

No, my first bird I didn't call to my decoy....my later ones I sure did. Hey I was under duress.-WW

 

[Fatcamp]

LOL. I had a friend show up at my house years ago all ragged and freaked out. He had cornered a group of turkey in a fence and ran one down. Beat the snot out of him but he finally got it killed and threw it in the back of his car. A mile down the road he looked up and that turkey was up and moving in the backseat, saw him looking in the rearview mirror and the fight was back on.

This guy was no joke. His dad was full blooded Sioux and a Navy frogman. His whole family were blocklayers and fighters. He told me he would never play that game again.

My wife lassoed and killed her yard turkey while pregnant after it chased one of the kids. Before I knew her but not a doubt in my mind she did it.

Check out, "My life as a turkey." Pretty interesting show.

 

[lyingflatlander]

No, but just a fun fact; there are somethink like 4 to10 different ICD-10 codes for attacks by turkeys.

ICD-10 codes are medical billing codes. If you code that someone was pecked by a turkey, but they where actually spured insurance will refuse to pay.

Hilarious, I’m in healthcare too, and routinely use ICD-10 codes. No surprise about what insurance won’t pay for...