2nd Triple Beard in a Week
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Joined: Feb 2006
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Last Monday I took a day off from school and managed to kill a 3 bearded gobbler about 11 a.m. Well this Monday I managed to kill another triple bearded turkey on the same property. We had been seeing the same gobbler and hens in a field for 4 straight mornings, but none of my family members had been able to close the deal on him. Finally Sunday morning I had him at 40 yards, but couldnt get a shot before he strutted to the middle of the field to meet with some hens. Rather than chase him around the field and risk spooking him I backed out and decided to return Monday (a holiday for teachers) with my 9 year old cousin. My cousin and I got settled in on the small ridge that the gobbler had strutted on the previous 4 mornings about 6:15 and waited for flydown. Finally about 6:35 after hearing nothing gobbling I made a few soft yelps. A few minutes later my cousin saw a turkey at the other end of the field. I made another series of yelps and he gobbled on the ground at the other end of the field. Just a moment later we could see the gobbler and a hen in the field. I made one more series of yelps and he gobbled and began to strut our way. For the next 25 minutes we watched him strut 250 yards across the field until he reached about 50 yards. I had my cousin set up to shoot, but as the turkey strutted in he went to our left where he could not swing his gun around to shoot. The turkey strutted and gobbled for ten minutes at 25 yards, but he couldnt get his gun on the turkey. He did great for a 9 year old and managed to stay still while the gobbler looked for the hen. Finally the bird began to work to our right and where my cousin could shoot. About 10 yards before he would be in front of Gunnar's gun the bird saw the little 20 gauge barrel stuck through the fence and began to PUTT!! As he turned to run Gunnar laid down and I managed to kill him at about 35 yards. I hated to shoot Gunnar's turkey, but his gun was hung on a tree and there was no way he could shoot. He was excited we high fived and hugged while we retrieved the turkey. I thought he would be upset he didn't kill the turkey, but he told me to shoot him before he ran off and he was glad to just be there. When we looked at the gobbler and saw he had 3 beards (10.25", 8", and 1.75") with 1 1/8 inch spurs and weighed 17.8 lbs it capped off one perfect morning. One of the guys that hunt with us watched this gobbler breed two hens Saturday morning. It was an incredible hunt!!




