Did I make the right call?
This past weekend, my buddy and I went out chasing longbeards. He got his the weekend before and it was time to get mine.
We got up on a ridge early in the morning and as soon as I got set, we started to call and 2 Jakes wandered in...followed by 2 more Jakes. None of them had beards. They all looked pretty young to me, but they had red heads and gobbled. (BTW, I had never seen 4 Jakes gobble simultaneously until then. They are LOUD!) They were about 15 yards away and I could clearly see that they didn't have beards.
I know that they probably had nubs under the feathers, but I just didn't feel comfortable pulling the trigger on the youngsters.
The rest of the day we saw 4 hens and that was it. That is probably the last chance I will have to go this season, and I didn't fill my tag.
It has been tearing me up that I had such an easy shot, but chose not to hurt next years hunt. Many of the more experienced hunters I have talked to said "smoke-em", but when you have about 45 seconds to make an ethical decision, it is more difficult than most people think.
So, what is the opinion of the people on here? Would you have taken one of the Jakes or let them walk, like I did?