Tail feathers and fan questions.

[BOFF]

I would suspect the gobbler on the right (looking at the picture) had feathers missing/lost, and he grew some more. Notice the far left, bottom feather (looking at picture) of the bird, and then the  1,3,4, and 5, feathers are shorter. What about the middle feather which has less banding color, it is the longest. What causes the fading of color, and why is the middle feather longer?





What about this bird with the white coloration in the feathers, what caused this? And the less banding on the feathers as well?





God Bless,
David B.

[TRKYHTR]

The whit stripes in the 2 middle feathers is very typical as is the black band being very small or almost non existent. I've only seen this happen in the 2 middle feathers. As far as the feathers being different lengths, this happens when turkeys loose their tailfeathers and they are growing back. Most of which is caused from fighting. Nice flock of turkeys David.

TRKYHTR

[BOFF]

I figured fighting, nature, etc for the feathers to have to grow back. As for the white, it's not the middle feathers though. Well it's the middle "feathers" just not exactly.




God Bless,
David B.

[TRKYHTR]

Count from the outside in. A typical tailfan will have 18 feathers. That tailfan looks like it is missing some feathers. So the middle of the fan would be feathers 9 and 10 from the side that is not missing any feathers. This is interesting because I've only seen it in the 2 middle feathers. I always thought it was only in older turkeys but I have also seen it in a 2 year old turkey so that blew out that theory.

TRKYHTR

[BOFF]

I have taken one in years past that had the white bars in the fan...... I thought it was pretty neat.

Nice looking bird!! Appreciate you posting it!!


Thanks for the info Joe!!  

Tegfan, I'll have to see if I can find it.

God Bless,
David B.

[doepee]

Boff- what kinda shotgun you got there, almost looks like a riot gun converted to turkey

[BOFF]

Boff- what kinda shotgun you got there, almost looks like a riot gun converted to turkey

Benelli M2 Tactical 18.5" barrel .660 Rhino choke H13 #7s

Patterns
http://oldgobbler.com/Forum/index.php/topic,4261.0.html

Before I painted it



After:






God Bless,
David B.

[doepee]

Hey that makes a awesome turkey gun... I have a sbe and sbe2 . I kinda thought it looks familiar.. You got some great patterns to boot with that short barrel... You did that camo job yourself? I got a 10 ga. bps that I thought about doing myself... does the paint job come off?      Thanks

[BOFF]

Hey that makes a awesome turkey gun... I have a sbe and sbe2 . I kinda thought it looks familiar.. You got some great patterns to boot with that short barrel... You did that camo job yourself? I got a 10 ga. bps that I thought about doing myself... does the paint job come off?      Thanks

Thank you.

Yes I painted it myself. I wanted to dip it, but funding wasn't an option, nor the time to get it back.  Roughly $15.00

Used these paints



Desert tan first,  coating the whole gun, then layered with earth brown, then layered with  olive drab. Allow each coat to dry before layering the next.

I used pine limbs, various leaves, vines for the layering/stencils.



Allowed the gun to dry for 5 days with ocilating heater on it at times. I just taped the scope lens, and the pistol grip and buttstock. I tried to paint the buttstock and pistol grip, but the paint wouldn't dry on them.



God Bless,
David B.

[BOFF]

Nice looking bird!! Appreciate you posting it!!

God Bless,
David B.

That was my first solo longbeard..... very memorable hunt for myself...... took him at 18 steps.


Where did you find that brand of camo paint? Your gun looks great and I have one I want to paint myself rather than have it dipped.......

Bought it from my local paint store.

God Bless,
David B.

[hookedspur]

Nice 

[Tail Feathers]

Saw the title, though you wanted to ask me somthing...

Sometimes you just see odd colorations.  Check out the fan on this one from 2009.

[BOFF]

Saw the title, though you wanted to ask me somthing...

Sometimes you just see odd colorations.  Check out the fan on this one from 2009.

Neat thanks for the pic.


God Bless,
David B.

[RutnNStrutn]

The barring in the tail feathers is actually quite common. I've seen several friend's birds with that, and taken a few of them myself. Here's a pic of a WV Eastern that got me my Grand Slam. He had it in his tail fan.




Here's an odd one. My friend Jim from WV (who's land I killed that WV Eastern on) joined me in Florida where he took this Osceola. It had white leg feathers. I emailed Lovett Williams with the pics, and he said that he had never seen a bird with that coloration before.

[BOFF]

Thanks for the replies.

Keep them coming!!


God Bless,
David B.