We're on the board again guys. Had an awesome hunt this morning, and smoked a really nice tom.

20 pounds (bathroom scale)
11" beard
1.125 & 1.3125" spurs
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66.375 Points

I have some pics on my cell phone, andsent them to my email, but for some reason, my cpu here at work won't recognize the file format. If anyone wants to PM me their email addy, I can send the 3 picture files over, and you can try it out.

Anyway - got there at daybreak, hooted a little off of the east slope of the ridge. Silence.

I hoofed it all the way to the other end of the farm to the next hollow when I heard one shock gobble at a crow. He sounded like he was on the ground, maybe a couple hundred yards off. I only had one deke with me, so I put it out (a jake), and clambered down against a small sassafras tree on the field edge. There's only one field corner nearby, so from past experience, I knew that I was in the right spot.

After hitting a few clucks on the aluminator, it was clear that he was interested, so I shut up for a while and tuned my call. Gave a few purrs on the mouthcall. He started firing, gobbled nonstop, closing the distance 300-200-100, but circling my position. He was flanked out to my hard left, when he finally popped up from behind a little natural gas well at the field's edge. Yeah baby, this is game over. He sees the decoy. This is the Mariano Rivera of jake decoys. He is the closer. No turkey sees Mariano and walks away. I saw the tom crane his neck up and give old Mariano a good, long, hard stare.

Just then, a second bird starts hammering down over the bank behind me, no idea where he came from. This complicates things, b/c he'll have me silhouetted if he gets within 10-20 yards. He's within 50 already.

The one in the field - he's played this game before - he saw that deke and was not fooled. Had Rivera met his match? Was this the David Ortiz of turkeys? Now I'm stuck. He held fast at 40 yards, gobbling his brains out, strutting back and forth, but would not move another inch, mocking me. I could tell by his body language that he was really hoping to see a hen, a little nervous, but he was being persistent. It's a total standoff. He's cautiously eyeballing my decoy and gobbling his guts out. Refuses to budge. He was in range, but my pattern was going to come dangerously close to that gas well.

Meanwhile, Bird #2 had closed the distance to 20 yards, and I could see him out of the corner of my eye, coming up the bank behind me. Pfffffffffftvvvvvvvvvv. The bird in the field was the most vocal, and he was not budging at all. Finally, he took a few steps to the north, away from the well, easily clear for the shot.

So, I had a choice to make - I knew the bird in the field was nice, and a little bit cagey. I figured he was at least a 3 year old. The one over the bank, my gut said two-year old. So, instead of swinging the gun and taking the chipshot on the close bird, I rolled the dice and opted to take a poke at the big boy. It wasn't gonna be long before Bird #2 was standing on my head, and it was gonna be game over. There was no cover - nowhere to hide - and totally pinned down.

Well, I dialed him in at 40 yards and turned one loose. He went down like Barbaro.

Really nice bird, really fun hunt, and now I'm sure there's at least one more out there who will probably make it out of the season. That was my first 11" beard in a long time. Truthfully, he's a 10.5 incher, but he does have a few strands that stretch all the way to the 11" mark.

I really can't figure out how he has such a long beard - he's not a real heavyweight, so my guess is that his beard was plugged a little bit higher than normal, and his legs looked to be on the long side. Something helped give him that extra inch. Really gorgeous coloration on him though.