I didn't see a five bearded bird show up for our team. Would be cool, tho. Way to go on the jake, jmedenf!

The season here has been weird this year. Very few toms anywhere, and seeing turkeys in places I normally don't see them, and none in their usual places. Then I go after some this morning, a nice tom with a long beard walks by me with a jake strutting behind him. Why is the jake the one strutting? Anyways, I shot the jake. I was just glad for turkeys to come by. I was getting tired of the two bucks stand in front of me this morning licking my jake decoy (I lost my hen decoy last week).

Got my turkey!it was a jake I shot it Saturda, but it looked like it had a double beard and wanted to be sure before I posted....but it didn't the beard just kinda split.
its a pretty interesting story, I'll post the story later though.

17 lbs
4 1/2 " beard
1/4" spurs




here's the reason I thought it was double bearded

pics
 

Pictures of my bird I got the other day.

Heres the story
*disclaimer* please excuse the punctuation errors, its 3:30 I just woke up and have never been good at that kind of stuff hope you enjoy anyways

It was friday may 10th, I go out to blow my owl call a few times (I do this every few nights), I here a gobble at a posted field that I have permission to hunt. And at the "strip lot" (a house lot where they pretty much clear cut) and I think nothing of the gobble at the strip lot, because I've roosted that turkey and hunted it on 4 different occasions.

the next day,saturday may 11th.
I woke up late at 4:30 got ready and headed to the field at 5:00.
as I apraoch the field I hear a gobble about 100 yards away. I rush to get the decoys set up, As i set up the decoys I hear a gobble just in the driveway of the abandoned house (100 yards from my blind).
I rush back to the blind, start calling, and I'll be damned if I didn't hear 9 different turkeys gobble in the matter of 10 seconds.
But the turkey in the driveway didn't gobble once after I put the decoys up. :sad: I'd say It saw me setting up the decoys.

I'm sitting in the blind Thinking of what to do with 9 turkeys in every direction and only 45 more minutes to hunt, I see a flash of black to my left. I look up and see a porcupine 10 yards to my left, still making its way towards me. I put my gun on it at about 5 yards away,it noticed me and continued to run towards me, at about 2 yards I shot it.

Now I'm thinking I just scared every bird that was gobbling back at me, I hear a few gobbles coming from the Strip lot 200 yards away.
So i figured it cant hurt to scare a few more birds.
I make my way pretty nonchalantly through the field towards the strip lot. I hit the woods about 100 yards away from the strip lot.
I sneak up to the rock wall 50 yards from where I though they were gobbling from. they gobble again I hear at least 3 gobbles from about 80 yards away. At this point I'm getting pretty pumped because I can tell they are IN the lot, not in the woods 20 yards out of the lot where they always are.

I cross the rock wall head up the little hill between me and the birds, It seemed they were gobbling every time I would step on a twig or do something slightly loud. so I did a few clucks to make them Think I was just another hen. as I clear the hill I see about 7 turkeys, I don't know what to do at this point. 6 of them are in a group, couldn't tell what they were because they were sorta walking away from me, But I know there was at least 2 toms in the group, because at the beggining of the season I roasted them every 2-3 nights and they never seemed to move.

I see the Jake all by his self with his tiny little beard poking out. I put my bead on his head and squeeze one off, the Jake kinda goes on alert mode and picks his head up more, and I put another one into him. the second shot nailed him at 50 yards with Remington nitro turkeys #4's. I walk down and I hear all kinds of noises, from clucking, to gobbling, to the sort of cackle pheasant make when they get flushed.
as I get closer to my kill I see a what I think is a male turkey from behind (judging by the bright head), I put me bead on it and it started clucking so I didn't shoot, as it runs away i see the 9" + beard. but I was excited about my Jake. I keep getting closer and at about 10 yards the Jake picks its head up and starts freaking out.
I have never seen a turkey do this, it wasn't the normal nerves causing this, the thing was Half ALIVE. I put my bead on it and pull the trigger *click*. I throw a shell in there and finish it off.
now it does the classic nerve caused wing flap.

So even if I would of got greedy and shot at the tom I would have been empty anyways.

The Jake weighed 17 pounds (not sure how accurate the scale was)
the beard was 4.5" and the spurs were 1/4"

I already posted pictures but I'll throw one in for kicks and giggles.

put a pretty good bird down this morning. 22 lbs, 11'' beard, 1.25'' spurs. sorry and pics to follow.

Well, I planned to hang it up and call it a season. I toted my bow for much of the season. During that time, I had I believe 22 bearded turkeys within 35 yards, But no such luck with the bow. I thought it would be s slam dunk with my gun, but between switching jobs and a little girl, I didn't get out a whole lot with my gun. So anyways, like I mentioned before, today is the last day of the Iowa season and because of some yard work I wanted to get done. I didn't plan to go. Last night however, I heard a bird gobble in the roost behind my house. I got the call out from the deck and he responded to everything I threw at him, so I thought I would give it a shot in the morning. This morning I snuck up the hill to within 60 yards. I had him all worked up in the roost and he came in on a string.

Here are his stats and pic for our captain. 22.0 lbs. Beard was 11'' long. Both spurs were 1.25''. Total score is 69.

Nice Bird:barmy:

congrats guys...

I know i'm not officially on the team still, but here are a couple of my birds from this year... just figured I'd share.. can't get the other to upload.