Watch outdoor shows on TV or YouTube and you’ll learn that many whitetail hunters are very specific about targeting only mature bucks, meaning at least 3.5 years old. No matter how large the rack carried by a 2.5-year-old buck, it’s off limits. And some deer hunters on prime private property won’t shoot bucks until they’re 99 percent sure a particular buck is 4.5 or even 5.5.

All of this is fine with me. I’ve always believed that any hunter should shoot whichever animal they want, provided it’s legal of course. If you want to pursue one and only one particular whitetail buck this fall, then more power to you. If you want to target only 4.5-year-old bucks with reddish coats and extra-large tarsal glands, then knock yourself out. Within the laws, do whatever makes you happy. 

That said, I find it interesting these same hunters won’t bat an eye when pulling the trigger on a 2-year-old tom turkey. Why don’t they pass on an immature tom and wait for a fully mature gobbler? (And what exactly does “fully mature” mean in the turkey or deer woods?) Some deer hunters will pass a big buck because it busted off much of its rack in a fight, but they don’t worry if a tom has broken half its beard. Why the difference?

And yet, while most turkey hunters won’t pass a tom with a 5-inch beard to wait for one with a 10-inch beard, they’ll eat turkey tag soup at the end of the season before they’ll shoot a jake.

Wait, what?

Again, I’m all for shooting whichever animal you desire, buck or bird. I simply don’t understand the logic — or lack thereof — of passing a jake (1-year-old turkey) and then pulling the trigger on a 2-year-old tom. In the whitetail woods, this would be like hunters passing every 1.5-year-old buck they encounter only to drop the hammer on the first scrawny 2.5-year-old buck that walks under the stand.

How come the turkey “experts” on TV and YouTube don’t talk about fully mature toms? Wild turkeys are often homebodies, even more so than whitetails, and yet no well-known turkey hunter spends 30 minutes talking about his spring “hit list,” filled with trail cam video clips and pics of specific gobblers with beards so long they drag on the ground. Target bucks get clever names such as Chubbs, Junkyard, Houdini, and Bo Derek or Kate Upton (perfect 10s). Why not clever names for target gobblers, too? How about Gobzilla, Street Sweeper, ZZ Top or Captain Hook?

This spring in South Dakota, I’ll release an arrow at the first legal turkey that gives me a high-percentage shot. They all taste the same. I stopped saving big beards prior to the panic of Y2K, and what would I do with another gobbler fan?

If you want to pass on a jake, that’s fine with me. If you want to pass on an ancient tom because it broke one spur, that’s fine, too. Shoot whichever legal bird makes you happy.

Check out the jake jamboree below. Have a fun and safe turkey season!