WI Gobbler

[Quack me up!]

I finally got lucky and took my first WI gobbler on May 4th at 5:50am.
Very exciting as he was gobbling off the roost as soon as we left the vehicle. He pitched down about 75 yards from me and gobbled constantly but didn't want to come in to my dekes. I was using a mounted hen and a plastic jake but he just stayed at that distance and paralleled me. I then saw a hen pitch down about 125 yards from me in the direction he was heading and I thought it was all over. She yelped a few times so I did also and she liked that. There were actually three hens when they crested the little rise in the field. Two of them actually flew over the barbed wire fence to come into my dekes so that was great. As they left him he just stood there for a minute as if to say " hey where are you going, I'm right here" Then he slowly started to follow them. About that time I had another hen fly right over my blind from behind me. I could hear the wings coming and she dropped right in with the other hens.
I let him get to about 25 yards and pulled the trigger. He tipped over and the hens never even left for about another 5-10 minutes.
Very odd as he did not have any visible beard. I have heard of this but have never seen it in person. I've heard this may happen due to it freezing off etc. He weighed 21lbs.
I was using my 12ga. VH 28" bbls. choked .037 each barrel and used Kent Matrix 2 3/4" 1 1/8oz. #5 shot.
Here's a couple of pics.

[Dean Romig]

Yup, could have stuck to the ground in a freezing rain... at least that's what I hear. The beard won't simply freeze off, it has to freeze to something and then the bird rips it off trying to get unstuck.

Where I hunt you cannot shoot a tom with a beard shorter than 3".

[Double Play]

Congradulations Bob,
That is a great looking bird and it sounds like a very exciting hunt. At 25 yards are you sure you didn't blow that beard clean off?

[charlie cleveland]

nice bird glad you got him..ive seen the no beard thing in mississippi before..heard some weierd ideas why the beards fall off...our legal beard lenth is 6 inches...good storey and you gave all the facts us turkey hunters like to here... thanks charlie

[Richard Flanders]

Nice story, bird, and gun Bob. I have a question for all the turkey guys... how long does it take and how do you pluck those monsters?? They look like it would take a chainsaw to clean them...

[Quack me up!]

Plucking is not too bad. I use a turkey fryer with water in it brought up to about 140 degrees. Dip the bird for about 30 seconds and it really helps the feathers pull out much easier.

[charlie cleveland]

for me with bad hands to pluck one for the oven it takes me a good hour to pluck and clean the bird....now if you skin the bird for deep frying no feathers to pluck just pull skin and feathers off together..maybe 15 minutes this way but still the cleaning part...much easier for me to skin the bird but for cooking in the oven the lady folks like them plucked... charlie

[Marc Retallack]

Charlie

Roasting bags do a decent job if you want to make a skinned turkey in the oven. Not quite as good as one with the skin on but they come out pretty tasty all the same.

Cheers
Marc

[C.O.B.]

Nice bird Bob congratulations.

[charlie cleveland]

never tried the roasting bags will have to follow up on this tip.. thanks mark.... charlie