Mtnman,
Can you use a bird of prey to take a turkey? I mean legally,of course I know it would take something larger than your falcon.
Just curious,would be cool to set a golden on them!
Legally, we do not have a season for turkeys with our falconry birds, so we cannot pursue them.
I've had a redtail grab a hen turkey though, while out hunting squirrels, and that was interesting... I had to run in to assist her with it before she got hurt, but she let go of it right before I got there. It was probably for the best.
We do have a federal rule in place for instances like that, where our bird catches something we cannot legally go after... I cannot "send" her after anything like that, and cannot legally take possession of it if she kills it. I can let her feed on it at the point of kill though.
A golden can kill a turkey fairly easily. A friend of mine was involved with some golden eagle trapping for a scientific study last winter here in Wisconsin. They used wild-turkey-colored domestic turkeys as bait... Wild goldens hunt pronghorn in Wyoming in the winter. They also predate on calves and lambs out there...
The falcon I'm flying this year would probably go for a turkey, actually. She goes after canada geese and sandhill cranes as it is. She hasn't killed any yet, and I don't pursue those birds as quarry, but she has a serious attitude. On one of my last training seesions with her this spring she went after a very large canada goose that was in a nearby field, feeding on the ground. She strafed it, and clocked it in the head, leaving it a bit addled and confused. Had she landed on it I think she could have killed it. However, she just continued to strafe it, and didn't make any more contact with it. It eventually flew off when she began to ease off. If she did that with a turkey...
When she goes after sandhills, she chases after them, gets above them, and then stoops in and tags them repeatedly. She drives them lower and lower, and eventually into the ground, but doesn't attempt to kill them (which is a good thing). I think she just doesn't like them in the area. I've quit flying her when sandhills are around as a result...