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Things not always as they seem

GOHUNT

GOHUNT

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Upper East TN
Yesterday morning my son went on a turkey hunting trip before work. Daylight came and a bird gobbled right behind him and proceeded to pitch out right in his shooting lane. As he swung his gun over to shoot he saw that it was a Jake and decided to pass. As it walked away he thought that the bird looked awfully large and he knew it really gobbled well. Having heard another bird further behind him he made a few calls and this same bird started gobdling again and started coming right back up the hill toward him. Now having played a fair chase game he decided that if this Jake came in range he was going to shoot it….and that's how it happened….dead bird. Upon retrieving the bird he found that it had a full tail fan, one 15/16 inch spur and 1/2 inch spur, and a two beards, 3 inches and 2 inches both with apparent beard burn. Nice surprise!
 

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I called one up several years ago that didn't sound like a jake gobbling but when he topped the hill he only had a short Jake looking beard so I held off and didn't shoot. After watching him for a couple min, he went into strut and had a full fan. I killed him and he had beard rot with 2-3 strands that were 11.5 " and 1 3/8 spurs. Congrats on your bird.
 
Shot a midget turkey back in SC that had no visible beard. I had hunted this bird and he a full gobble and fan. I roosted him just off of the side of Gene Smith's front yard in Edgefield. (Gene was my boss and former Editor of Turkey Call Magazine.) I picked a pine that was at least 24 inches wide and sat up about 90 yards from Gene's house on the edge of some 20-year-old Champion pines. When the turkey flew down about 25 yards from me I was surprised that I couldn't see a beard. He went into strut and had a full fan. There was something odd about that bird, besides me not being able to see his beard. I knocked him over with a Remington SP-10 with a Nitro 3-ounce load of 4x6s. Kicked like a mule, turkey went to flopping. When I picked him up I could tell he was a small turkey. It weighed 12 3/4 pounds, and had 1 1/4-inch spurs. I felt around for a beard, and he had a 3-inch curly, thin beard that grew to the side. It stayed tucked under his breast feathers, so that's why it wasn't visible.
 

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