A buddy and I hunted together this morning as he wanted to film and we heard a few birds early but no luck. Had one come across a cattle field in neighboring property and thought he was gonna come all the way but something changed his direction and he was gone. Had some sagebrush in front of us and not sure where he vanished to. Continued on and bumped some hens but never heard or saw another gobbler. Made it back to the truck and drove to another spot on the lease. Eased down to a field that because of a dirt berm, growth, and a deer blind you can ease up to it without being seeing. I peeked around the blind and saw a bird that I initially thought was a hen. I peeked again and realized it was too big and looked like a jake so we sat down thinking more might pop out. As we did he gobbled a few times and I thought it was weird since he had a jake beard. Started looking for his spurs and noticed they were long. About then he went into full strut and I knew we had a mature bird with what I assumed was beard rot. When we initially saw him he was maybe 25 yards away but had moved out to about 80. I called to him and he turned around and started easing back so I shut up. He hung up at around 45 but I wanted him closer so called again when he turned around. He finally closed another 10 yards in what seemed like 10 minutes strutting, spitting, drumming, and gobbling. I decided he was close enough and asked my buddy if he was ready. He said go ahead so I squeezed the trigger. Ranged him afterward at 36 yards. This is my first bird with the SX3 I picked up from REN earlier this year and pretty cool to have video of it. Unfortunately I can't get it to load.
22.8 lbs
2 3/8" beard
1 1/4@ spurs
22.8 lbs
2 3/8" beard
1 1/4@ spurs
