Riddle me this.....

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pass-thru

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I shot a gobbler yesterday.....full fan, no spurs, just over 7" beard, under 15#'s. Nice red head.

Has anybody ever heard of a jake with a full fan tail? Even the fall jakes I've seen have the long middle feathers. Beard longer than what I've seen on most jakes, but the spurs were not formed. Bizarre.
 
My brother killed one last year in Va with no spurs but it had a 10" beard and was 22lbs. But yours don't make sense with the small body, full fan, and the in between beard size. Could be a pink unicorn turkey like the one on this thread under (birthday bird)
 
I've killed a few with no spurs, not even a bump that were older birds with big thick beards and around the 20# mark. If it was in fact a he and not a hen it wasn't a jake, just wasn't going to have any spurs. With the body weight it sounds like a hen though. You have any pics of its plumage or head?
 
YEKRUT said:
I've killed a few with no spurs, not even a bump that were older birds with big thick beards and around the 20# mark. If it was in fact a he and not a hen it wasn't a jake, just wasn't going to have any spurs. With the body weight it sounds like a hen though. You have any pics of its plumage or head?
Click to expand...

I got a pic of the head that I will up load tomorrow when I get home. The head was red when he came in, but is now white/blueish. The spurs are smooth, but you can see where they are formed....I took a pic of that too. Weight is 12#.
 
That sounds like what I have always called a "super jake". Sometimes the fan looks full, but if you look close, the last one or two feathers on the bottom of the fan are a little shorter than the rest. I shot a bird like that 4 or 5 years ago.
 
Sounds like a super jake. But even at 7 inch beard and pushing 15 lbs it should have small spurs at least. I killed a super jake/longbeard last October that still had 3/4" spurs and a 7 or 8 inch beard. I'd guess your bird just didn't grow spurs, sounds like a late born 2 year old
 
Also I killed a 2 year old yesterday that was only 16 lbs 11 oz but he had a 10.5" thick beard and 3/4 and 7/8 inch spurs. Can never tell... Like anything that grows, no two are the same...
 
Well I guess I flagged myself as idiot with this one. I have called many hens in and always recognized them as such instantly. With this one, head color and behavior....silent skirting like a subordinate male....had me looking for the beard and I would have been surprised had I not seen one. In retrospect, I can clearly see that I was mistaken.

I have no problem killing a hen. We are overrun with turkeys in my part of VA and fall hunting goes back in those parts much further than spring hunting. Hope to get back after them in a couple weeks and call in a big Tom!!
 

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