Deer and turkey

[Paula]

Where I use to live turkey and deer would be together eating what ever was in the fields. 

Is one more that the other used as a safety alarm for both? 

[G-Man]

27 minutes ago, Paula said:

Where I use to live turkey and deer would be together eating what ever was in the fields. 

Is one more that the other used as a safety alarm for both? 

Turkey are much more difficult to sneak up on..

[wolc123]

For sure they hang out together and provide mutual benefits regarding each others survival.  The turkeys sense of smell is lacking and the deer’s eyes and ears ain’t all that great compared to the turkey.  I killed one of my largest antlered bucks, right in the middle of a flock of turkeys.  
 

I was wearing orange camo that afternoon, as I sat up in my tree stand, about 10 ft above a patch of thick brush in the middle of the woods.  Had not my Lord and Savior, pushed the Bible that I was reading at the time out of my hands, I never would have climbed down (gun loaded but safety on) 5 minutes before sunset.  

As soon as I reached the ground, the flock of turkeys landed in that brush patch.  Then I saw the big buck’s head and neck pop out from behind a big tree, less than 15 yards away.  He caught my 16 gauge slug at the base of his neck, with two minutes of legal light left.  
 

Had I stayed up in that tree until sunset, like I usually always did on opening day of gun season, those turkeys would have spotted my orange camo from a mile away.  That wise old buck would have died somewhere else, sometime later.  
 

That wasn’t the first time that I saw deer and turkeys together, and I doubt it will be the last.  That was the incident that proved to me that Jesus really does decide where every sparrow falls, just like it is written in the Good Book.  Hunting, fishing and life in general has gotten way easier for me, since I figured that out.
 

Edited March 17, 2022 by wolc123

[wolc123]

Turkey buck (my skull size aging method indicates 3.5 yr old):

[airedale]

There is no doubt they hang together at times and use each other for alerting to any danger. I was reading somewhere not long ago a Deer still hunter always had a diaphragm turkey call in his mouth while sneaking around. Any time he made a somewhat loud noise he would send out a couple of yelps, his reasoning is that he hoped any nearby Deer that heard him would think he was a Turkey and come out of it's high alert mode. This fellow had killed quite a few nice Deer and what he said made sense to me and I bought into his reasoning. I now have one of my Turkey calls in my mouth while still hunting.

Al

[wolc123]

1 hour ago, blackbeltbill said:

Wolc is that a Muskie up on top there?

Yes, all “8’s” hanging over our bar: 8 point buck, 48 lb coyote, 48” musky (they only had to be 44” to keep in the upper Niagara river then, now it’s 54”, but that was the longest I have ever caught), 38” northern pike, and 28” walleye.  I killed them all, but only ate the buck. I wonder if taxidermists eat any of the fish that they mount ?

I caught the pike and walleye by accident, while bass fishing.  The musky was intentional, after we broke off 3 smaller ones on one of my favorite drifts, while trying for bass.  I finally landed a 36 incher (on a 1/4 oz bucktail jig and 8 lb fluorocarbon line that was doubled up for the last foot).  
 

After landing that one, I switched to my heaviest rod , which was loaded with 14 lb test mono.  I doubled up the last foot and tied on a 1/2 oz weedless, rubber-skirted bass jig, with a big rubber lizard trailer attached.

The 48 incher hit that on our next drift.  The muskies were on fire on the river like I have never seen, on that mid-summer weekday afternoon, about 20 years ago.

 

I have caught at least one a year out there by accident every year since then and at least 10 years before, up until last year, when we didn’t land any.  I suppose most of them have got weakened and swept over the falls by now, after having slime rubbed off of them by folks taking pictures and such.  
 

I try to handle them gently and release them unharmed, but I don’t particularly care for them.  They are very stinky, but my biggest problem with them is what they do to the bass.  One time, one came up and pulled a nice smallmouth off my line, while I was fishing in a bass tournament.  I think they hit the bass pretty hard, based on my own personal observations.  

[Buckmaster7600]

They’re often together but I’m not sure they understand each other’s verbal communications like some think. I’ve killed lots of birds after deer blew at me and I’ve killed plenty of deer after turkeys putting at me.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[jperch]

I agree they often hang out together and I'm sure a big reason for that is that it is beneficial to both for security.  I also have observed apparent "play behavior" between them.  Most often involving fawns but sometimes adults.  I've seen deer bluff charge turkeys just to make them move a bit and have seen turkeys puff up and flap their wings and jump up  in the direction of fawns, apparently for the same reason.  Sometimes I think they "enjoy" each others' company, if that is possible.