Oklahoma triple-beard
04-15-2009, 08:22 AM
#1
Fork Horn
Thread Starter
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Oklahoma
Posts: 341
Oklahoma triple-beard
Just got home from a hunt I had yesterday evening and thought I would post the story, but first I need to back up a bit.
Last saturday I went out to some family land in central Oklahoma to try and get my girlfriend a turkey. We hunted all day without hearing a gobble so about 3pm she wanted to call it quits (dont really blame her). We went back to the house and ate some grub and took a short nap. When we woke up, I told her I wanted to go back out and try to get a bird for her but she wasnt really up for it, so I went out by myself. I decided to drive over to another piece of property we hadnt really hunted yet to see if there were any birds there because it has produced some good birds in the past. I hadnt walked 150 yards from the truck when I heard a gobble over this little rise, right below the wheat feild. I tried to set up there and call but the bird was un-responsive. I crawled up to the rise and peeked through a cedar tree to see 3 big toms and a jake scratching around in the feild. I called at them a few times with only one shock gobble response. Knowing I really couldnt do much in the way of sneeking them, I decided to watch them for a while. I was looking through my binoculars at them and noticed one had at least 2 beards, and maybe 3! I looked at the bird behind him and that bird had 4 beards (no bs)! (the third tom had 1 beard). I was pretty pumped to say the least and couldnt wait to try and get in there and kill them.
Fast forward to yesterday morning. I took the day off of work and headed to that property for a morning hunt. I got out of my truck at 5:55 am and the birds were already gobbling their heads off in the area I thought these birds might haveroosted Saturday night. While sneeking down to the area, I heard at least 8-10 different birds about 300 yards down the creek, so I decided to set up right between the 2 roosts. At 6:45 theyI could hear birds flying down all over the place and the hens started going nuts. I started to cutt and purr trying to get the toms attention but they had already found the hens they were looking for. At about 9 am, all the birds shut up. I hunted until 2 pm and only called in a couple of jakes so I decided to go back for some lunch. At 4, I went back out and set up over the area where I saw the 3 toms on Saturday, hoping they would come out and strut for the hens I could hear. At around 545 I heard a couple of gobbles and by630 I had a jake in the decoys. He strutted around for about 30 minutes and called in a couple of hens for me. While I was watching the jake I heard a spit drum to my right and then 2 gobbles from 2 different birds. They were only about 20 yards away but I couldnt turn to see what they were because I had them and the jake still out in front of me. For whatever reason they would not come in to the decoys and just went back across the creek where another hen was yelping. While all of this was going on, the jake in my decoys moved off with his 2 hens and so I decided to try and sneak the gobblers behind me. I snuck down in the creek and peeked up to see that it was not 2 birds but the 3 that I had seen on Saturday, and they were only 80 yards away! They were strutting around 4 hens and the hens were leading them to my right so I jumped back down the draw and got in front of them. They were up in the feild at about 100 yards at this point so I thought I would sneek up the draw that went up to about 40 yards from them. Mind you the grass in the feild has been grazed all winter and is only about 3-6 inches tall. While I was trying to sneak up on them, a hen popped out going back to where they had come from and I had to sit there in the middle of this feild with 11 turkeys out in front of me fighting and breeding. Its now around 730 and I only have about 30 minutes left of legal shooting time, so I was getting a little worried they would move on over the hill to the roost. Just about the time I was thinking this, 2 of the toms came out of strut and started walking directly towards me! I was worried that they would see me and I could tell that the bird in the rear was the quad bearded bird but I didnt want to risk it. The 2 toms in the lead kept looking at me but would move closer and scratch around. When they closed to about 35 yards they put their heads down to eat and I pulled up my gun. As soon as I did that they both threw up their heads and I let the front bird have it.
The Indian Creek choke with 3"#6 heavy13s is possibly the deadliest combo I have ever seen. It took a quarter sizechunk out of his neck from 35 yards. He ended up being the triple beard (I wasnt sure if it was him or the single beard but I just shot anyway, I knew I had a 50/50 chance
).
Here are his measurements:
Beard 1, 10 1/4"
Beard 2, 6 1/8"
Beard 3, 3 7/8"
Spurs - 1" left and right
Weight 19.5 lbs
All in all this was a really cool hunt that went perfectly right when it really shouldnt have given the circumstances. This is my first triple bearded bird, and you can bet your ass I will be going after that quad beard!
Last saturday I went out to some family land in central Oklahoma to try and get my girlfriend a turkey. We hunted all day without hearing a gobble so about 3pm she wanted to call it quits (dont really blame her). We went back to the house and ate some grub and took a short nap. When we woke up, I told her I wanted to go back out and try to get a bird for her but she wasnt really up for it, so I went out by myself. I decided to drive over to another piece of property we hadnt really hunted yet to see if there were any birds there because it has produced some good birds in the past. I hadnt walked 150 yards from the truck when I heard a gobble over this little rise, right below the wheat feild. I tried to set up there and call but the bird was un-responsive. I crawled up to the rise and peeked through a cedar tree to see 3 big toms and a jake scratching around in the feild. I called at them a few times with only one shock gobble response. Knowing I really couldnt do much in the way of sneeking them, I decided to watch them for a while. I was looking through my binoculars at them and noticed one had at least 2 beards, and maybe 3! I looked at the bird behind him and that bird had 4 beards (no bs)! (the third tom had 1 beard). I was pretty pumped to say the least and couldnt wait to try and get in there and kill them.
Fast forward to yesterday morning. I took the day off of work and headed to that property for a morning hunt. I got out of my truck at 5:55 am and the birds were already gobbling their heads off in the area I thought these birds might haveroosted Saturday night. While sneeking down to the area, I heard at least 8-10 different birds about 300 yards down the creek, so I decided to set up right between the 2 roosts. At 6:45 theyI could hear birds flying down all over the place and the hens started going nuts. I started to cutt and purr trying to get the toms attention but they had already found the hens they were looking for. At about 9 am, all the birds shut up. I hunted until 2 pm and only called in a couple of jakes so I decided to go back for some lunch. At 4, I went back out and set up over the area where I saw the 3 toms on Saturday, hoping they would come out and strut for the hens I could hear. At around 545 I heard a couple of gobbles and by630 I had a jake in the decoys. He strutted around for about 30 minutes and called in a couple of hens for me. While I was watching the jake I heard a spit drum to my right and then 2 gobbles from 2 different birds. They were only about 20 yards away but I couldnt turn to see what they were because I had them and the jake still out in front of me. For whatever reason they would not come in to the decoys and just went back across the creek where another hen was yelping. While all of this was going on, the jake in my decoys moved off with his 2 hens and so I decided to try and sneak the gobblers behind me. I snuck down in the creek and peeked up to see that it was not 2 birds but the 3 that I had seen on Saturday, and they were only 80 yards away! They were strutting around 4 hens and the hens were leading them to my right so I jumped back down the draw and got in front of them. They were up in the feild at about 100 yards at this point so I thought I would sneek up the draw that went up to about 40 yards from them. Mind you the grass in the feild has been grazed all winter and is only about 3-6 inches tall. While I was trying to sneak up on them, a hen popped out going back to where they had come from and I had to sit there in the middle of this feild with 11 turkeys out in front of me fighting and breeding. Its now around 730 and I only have about 30 minutes left of legal shooting time, so I was getting a little worried they would move on over the hill to the roost. Just about the time I was thinking this, 2 of the toms came out of strut and started walking directly towards me! I was worried that they would see me and I could tell that the bird in the rear was the quad bearded bird but I didnt want to risk it. The 2 toms in the lead kept looking at me but would move closer and scratch around. When they closed to about 35 yards they put their heads down to eat and I pulled up my gun. As soon as I did that they both threw up their heads and I let the front bird have it.
The Indian Creek choke with 3"#6 heavy13s is possibly the deadliest combo I have ever seen. It took a quarter sizechunk out of his neck from 35 yards. He ended up being the triple beard (I wasnt sure if it was him or the single beard but I just shot anyway, I knew I had a 50/50 chance
). Here are his measurements:
Beard 1, 10 1/4"
Beard 2, 6 1/8"
Beard 3, 3 7/8"
Spurs - 1" left and right
Weight 19.5 lbs
All in all this was a really cool hunt that went perfectly right when it really shouldnt have given the circumstances. This is my first triple bearded bird, and you can bet your ass I will be going after that quad beard!
