zubba

Here are the beard and spur pics...

Bible_Man

Nice work, folks! I had fun with my wife and daughters in the blind with me Saturday. We had a bird respond to some calls at about 4:00. My three year old was getting tired, so I decided to crawl out and try to make a move on him (she fell asleep 3 minutes after I crawled out!). I worked up the hillside outside the tree line slowly, and got to about 80 yards of him, and still hadn't spotted him. Finally saw him, but there was a ton of thick mess between me and him, and he wasn't budging. Every time he would turn his back, I'd crawl just a little closer, and got to 45-50 yards of him, but still had a good bit of undergrowth to get past. There was one big, thick briar patch another 10 yards ahead of me with a small opening at the bottom of it, and I planned on slowly crawling to it, sticking my head barely through it and taking my shot from there. Well, I got to it, but to get my head under, I had to take my eyes off the bird for a split second. That's all he needed...spotted me moving while I had my head down. Still got my heart to racing!

I probably won't have a chance to get out again before Saturday...wish I could go in the morn...drove by one of my places this evening and saw two gobblers flying to roost in the distance. Jobs...they're nice to have, but sometimes they get in the way!

Phil from Maine

That sounds like an exciting hunt Bible_Man.. Getting out there and enjoying the hunt is the biggest part of it!

zubba.. I am thinking your beard is bigger than you have called it,, If 1 fiber even hits that 10 inch mark you have a 10 inch beard.. It looks a tad shy but I am not pressing on the beard either.. Maybe give me an up date on it and I can re-score as it would boost it up a little bit.. Those pics will work fine as well..

zubba

Phil, the longest fiber is right at 10". The majority of the mess starts around 9.625", but I'm always conservative to avoid any drama. Similar to one spur actually being 15/16", haha. In the end, I just feel blessed with another bow kill.

Phil from Maine

I hear you zubba.. But, I am taking both of those measurements and running with it.. Yes I think a kill of any bird, deer, or what have you with a bow is truly a lot of work and hours practicing! that alone is quite a feat! Congrats again!!

Your score has been updated..

Total Score is 58.125

turkey harvester

Way to go zubba.
Long story short, had a good bird at 30 yards to our right heading to the field edge towards the decoys. Everything seemed perfect as the wife was going to get to harvest this joker. Had 15 yards left to hit edge and a freakin hawk swooped down and tried to take Mr. gobblers head off. The hawk missed and is now on the ground have a stare down with our bird. Hawk decided to give it one last attempt on having a turkey dinner and failed. But managed to send our gobbler heading into the other direction rapidly. We got him to gobble again but he didn't want to play anymore. Should have shot that sum beach when he hit the ground but didn't. So day 1 is a bust for me but I think I'm going to take another day off this week. After that I'm weekend only. Too much stuff going on at school.

Phil from Maine

That sounds like an exciting hunt. I saw a hawk yesterday scouting for birds.. It had something but could not tell what it was.. I was thinking either a rough grouse or a woodcock?
Hopefully you will have some better luck next time out? But any way enjoy the hunt and stay safe doing it!

Phil from Maine

I have done some scouting and still not seeing a lot of birds.. I did get to see to nice long beards and 2 jakes.. The long beards were a long distance from each other.. But both were in my old hunting areas! The one that looked to be the biggest of the 2 had what looked to be about an 11 inch beard. I hope I can locate him come May 2nd opening day as he will surely help the team out some.. Here is the best pic I could get on him as he was walking away from me.. I could not get him to turn so that I could show you his beard but it is a long one..
http://www.huntingnet.com/forum/memb...28-hen-tom.jpg

Talondale

Sorry for the long silence. Got back to work and catching up. I spent 5 days chasing birds in weather that ranged from snow to 78 degrees. We had several close calls and lots of gobbling but no kills. The last day I had a black bear come up on me and walk between our decoys. I got him on video. That made the hunt. Lots of trout fishing in the afternoons. Got a couple of leads on birds and more time to hunt but it's weekends and short morning hunts for now.

Congrats on the birds on the ground though.

Phil from Maine

I am sorry to hear about your luck Talondale.. But it sounds like some exciting hunting you have had.. Hopefully one will come out and play for you to get a shot at him.. But, I am sure the gobbling kept you going.. That black bear would of made me nervous to say the least. I had one a couple of years ago come into my blind once. Fortunately I was not there at the time and he left me some mending to do on my blind. It is till use able now that I had fixed it back up.. Now good luck on the turkeys!! We are all routing for you..

I went out to check on a locked gate to see if they may have opened it up early or not today. They guy that wanted to take a ride up with me suggested we use his Jimmy. So off we went with his Jimmy and we were almost to the gate when we had a flat. That is when I found out he had left his spare home.. So I had to walk around a mile to get enough cell phone service to get a call out. I could see the gated road up ahead was still gated and was lucky enough to get a hold of my wife. I asked her to come out with his spare which he stated his wife knew where it was. Then waited around 2 1/2 hours for them to show up with my truck and a spare.. We got that tire changed and headed back. On the ride back I saw a huge long beard running for the woods. Then almost home we saw another nice bird with 2 hens.. So i did manage to see a couple of birds late in the day. We never expected that.. i can hardly wait for my season to open up!!

Good luck everyone that is out there hunting....