This ole boy was hoppin along all morning long....all season long actually...
Hop along Cassidy....get it?
Paul had seen him a couple times but I dont think he knew the sheer size of this rascal or he wouldnt have shot the bird he did this week to tag out....
I belly crawled an Avian X feeder hen out into the edge of the tall grass and crawled back...
He was in love....well kinda...he strutted once and looked our way when we called but he just took his sweet ole gimpy time....
Paul was praying for another tag as this bird was hopping toward us at an extremely slow pace due to some sort of leg injury. The wind was howlin' and the behemoth beard on this guy (which ended up going 14") was blowing sideways and landing on plants in the field....he would stop and his beard would be all over here and over there.......
I told Paul repeatedly that the beard had to be over a foot....then he said, while looking through his binoculars at the approaching freak of nature......
"I hate you....I should never have shot that bird!!!"
I said...."Thats not very nice...He has giant spurs to doesnt he"?
he said...."yes"
hehehe....salty much???
It took a long time for him to come to us....he actually got run off by 3 Jake birds at one time......Well, I say run off....he looked more like a one legged sack race runner....
The Jake influx finally subsided...I have no idea why they never approached the decoy unless the feared the old boy that just ran from them???
The Tom looked toward the fake hen as if he was late for his date and commenced to hoppin'.........
He hung up at 30 yards....my leg was sleeeeeepy....my azz was asleep....Paul cut on the mouth call and I squeezed.....
Enter High 5's and fist bumps!!!
Here are the stats...
14" Beard
1 1/2" and 1 3/8" Spurs
A hair under 19lbs
If I was to enter him......Looks like he would be top 15...#3 beard in WVA
Couldn't believe the size of the beard and spurs on this guy....Thanks to my little 5 yr old rugrat Riley for the MWC Team Turkey competition pics...
