I was quite pleased but I regret to say, he may be from the mountain state but he's not a mountain bird. It's one of their lazy cousins from the flatland. Heckuva bird either way for me. And to be honest, I just about passed him up to let my buddy shoot it. Based on how "whispy" thin his beard was, I thought there'd be better birds somewhere this fine morning. Not to mention this bird was roosted 15 yards away an definitely knew we were there. Had 3 gobblers behind us this morning not counting this guy. Never made a peep on the roost and I'm assuming it was because he was watching us clown around waiting for the birds to pitch down. The 2 that were with him looked better beard wise but I'm betting they weren't packing the spurs this guy did. After much debate, he talked me into shooting this bird after the other two decided they weren't going to come into range. After getting my butt handed to me last spring, figured what the heck and blew him down. Never saw the spurs until I grabbed him and then it went from "okay, I got a bird" to "OKAY! I got a BIRD!" Very thankful for this guy, especially since the business has picked up drastically and may have ended my season just as it was starting. It's looking like this may be my last day to hunt this week, weekends are crammed full with pools and hot tub work (except Sunday and I'm working on trying to better myself with the Lord), and I start back to teaching next week. If my partner can handle the contractor alone tomorrow, gonna try to get out a couple hours. Might get a few minutes Friday. Had huge hopes this spring but trying to make a career change to provide better for my family so that's a priority right now. Just glad to get a decent bird this year.
