Quote from: MKMGOBL on May 31, 2013, 06:42:31 PMHe was a mature gobbler. The beard rot or something got to his beard.
About 3 years ago, I shot a nice, limbhanger Osceola, but his beard was only a little over 5" long. I was hunting with a friend the day before. We got on the same bird, but when he saw the beard, he thought it was a super jake because we couldn't see the spurs for the grass. The next morning I killed the bird, because I couldn't see the beard for the grass. Glad I popped him though! His beard was flat at the bottom, like someone had taken a pair of scissors to it.
A few years before that, I shot a gobbler with an almost 10" beard with 1-1/8" spurs that had a jakelike fan. I posted up a pic of the fan first asking what the guys thought he was. They all said it was a jake.
Then I posted pics of the beard and spurs, showing it wasn't a jake at all!!
Just oddities of the turkey woods I guess?