zmax hunter

We had about a 1/4 to a 1/2 of rain monday morning,..tuesday kelly and i were going to try to get a bird or 2 for me,..kind of have them patterned,..i called off the morning hunt,..as it rained another 1.1 to 1.3 inches which finally ended about 9am,...reports indicate it rained another 2.2 last night..our river will be coming up.
We had 5 or 6 strutters on the property, seems like maybe even more, ,..saw about 10 jakes,..quite a few hens,..i have a week to make it happen,..rain in the forecast for the next 6

I had often wondered what turkeys do in the rain,..they seem to have the demeanor of a soaked cat,..haha mad at the world,.

Really enjoyed making a new friend and sharing.

kellyguinn

Alright, while cleaning the beard up on the second beard I noticed a section of the beard that is seperate from the main beard and has about 1/4" of skin between the 2. Wanted to get everyone's thought on this before I put a score. Most doubles I've seen have more space between so I was unsure.

Western MA Hunter

That is a double beard.

Strut&Rut

Nice birds!

The wet bird in your first pic has distinct banding in his tail feathers, that should make a sweet tail mount...

I'm hedging double beard because you say there's skin. I blew it up and can't see the skin, but that's probably because of the angle of the pic. I've found the best way to determine the difference between double and split beard is to stand the beard on end, with the base on a flat surface. Pull the two beards apart - if there is skin between the two and two clearly distinct pedicles (bases), then it's a true double.

kellyguinn

Here is a pic with it on end like you recommended. I'll post scores with and without the added beard and let captain decide lol. Doesn't bother me one way or the other.

1st bird
18 lb
7/8 right spur
7/8 left spur
8" beard
51.5 total

2nd bird
18.9 lb
1" right spur
7/8 left spur
8 5/8" beard
3 1/2" beard
54.5625 total without second beard
61.5625 total with second beard

Strut&Rut

That second picture is pretty definitive in my book; to me, there's no doubt about skin between the different bases = double beard

Nice bird!

springspur

Nice bird, the only double beard bird I've killed was a jake. Something to cherish. Nice to see team 3 still laying them down.

springspur

On the question about turkeys in the rain, on several occasions I've seen turkeys come out in the open to preen, If you have rain gear with you and it's just bands of rain moving through stay out and wait out the rain, you might see birds that were low profile.

superstrutter

Congrats on the birds. I would consider the bird a double bearded one.I will submit it as a double bearded tom.

Uncle Nicky

Lightning strikes twice in the Garden State, killed my second NJ bird this afternoon. First real gobbling I have heard since mid-April. Had 4 or 5 gobblers sounding off at 4:30 PM, what the heck??? 1" spurs, 9 3/4" beard, and a whopping 13 lbs! I have shot fall hens that weighed more than that, the man at the check station said they've all been light this week, I guess the warm weather & spring ritual have taken their toll. Heading up to NY state this weekend to see if I can fill a couple of these tags I still have. NWTF score 52.5.