Well, I screwed up this weekend. I killed a jake. Last day of our season on public land and I hadn't heard a gobble. After about an hour of dry calling I looked up to my right and a turkey was standing there, his beard was actually hanging so I thought it might be a longbeard, but his body seemed very small to me. I thought about it for a bit and convinced myself it was a longbeard. I hate it, because I believe deep down inside I knew it wasn't. At 50 yards through the thick stuff I kept saying, "What if it is a longbeard?" So I shot! I hate it. No reason for it. I knew I shouldn't have shot, but I did anyway. He was an impressive jake from a beard standpoint. He had a 7 1/4 inch beard with 1/2 inch numbs and was a scrawny 13.4 lbs.

If you are into irony, the first day of my season down in South Carolina in some bitter cold weather I didn't shoot a longbeard because I believed it to be a jake. His head was tiny, and I couldn't see his beard. So I passed he turned out to be a longbeard. Interesting start and finish to 2005!!!

Now I can be upset at myself for an entire off season. I love to hunt turkeys, but I hate when killing one takes over and causes me to act against my gut feeling. Killing the jake isn't the end of the world, but I really didn't want to do it. So I hate that I did.