# Oddball bird



## I_Shock_Em (Jul 20, 2008)

So I get a text this morning while in the turkey woods. Its a pic of a longbeard that one of my buddies shot this morning. Later this.afternoon my buddy gave me a call cuz I told him to let me know the measurements on the bird. Get this.... 7.5 in beard. NO SPURS. ELEVEN FREAKING POUNDS!!!!!!! full, mature bird fan. Anybody ever see anything like this before?


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## Bulldawg (Dec 3, 2007)

Sounds like a hen ! Did they hear the bird gobble at all ????


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## Mushijobah (May 4, 2004)

A hen that made a trip to thailand!


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## firstflight111 (May 22, 2008)

look at the head send me a pic


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## M.Magis (Apr 5, 2004)

Sure sounds like it could be a hen, but would need a picture to know for sure.


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## Carpn (Apr 5, 2004)

Sounds like a bearded hen...Did he find eggs in it?


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## I_Shock_Em (Jul 20, 2008)

Ill try to.get.the.pics off his facebook page, but I know the difference between a hens head and a gobblers head. This WAS a gobbler


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## Fishingislife (May 20, 2004)

My buddy killed a gobbler with no spurs also but his weighed around 22 lbs. But 11lbs with no spurs... that is odd!


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## I_Shock_Em (Jul 20, 2008)

Here's a pic and a close up, definately not a hen


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## M.Magis (Apr 5, 2004)

Of course beard length doesn&#8217;t mean anything, but I would have guessed that to be longer than 7.5&#8221; Having no spurs is uncommon, but it happens from time to time. The 11 lb weight is the strangest part in my mind. No answer here. Interesting.


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## Mushijobah (May 4, 2004)

A well endowed jake?


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## Bulldawg (Dec 3, 2007)

I shot an oddball bird yesterday also ..... Imo ..... 16lbs , 7 in beard 3/4 spurs. Definitley a 2yr old . But never shot a 2 year old that small . Last 2year old I shot was 23lbs , 8in beard with 3/4 spurs . 

But that is definitely a gobbler .


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## foundationfisher (May 12, 2008)

Mushijobah said:


> A well endowed jake?


maybe. the last bird i shot had a good beard, short spurs and weighed 15#. the taxidermist said it may have been the dominant bird in the area, and was worn down from breeding.


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## TRHOD12 (Nov 15, 2008)

The lack of spurs is definately an oddity.

The beard length-- it looks like in the picture there is a little "beard rot" going on. Sometimes the beard of turkeys will get funky and then break off. I've seen mature beards with stub 2-3" beards that had beard rot. So this isn't too uncommon.

The low wieght-- Remember, this is the 3rd week of season. The gobblers have been running around like bucks during the rut, thinking only about loving the ladies. They don't think about eating, just lovin. This couple with the funky weathered spring, which has not made available food sources (ie bugs, etc) readily available for them to put on extra pounds. Also, the winter was pretty hard, deep snow, so they went into spring malnurished. It is not uncommon for a turkey that started out wieghing 20lbs when spring breeding season started, to end up wieght 14-15lbs by the end of season.
So if you take a bird that was malnourished going into season, say maybe 15-16lbs, the wieght your bird had would not be out of the ordinary.

Just some thoughts. Congrads on getting the bird, its been a tough year.

Blessings


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## Carpn (Apr 5, 2004)

Huh, wonder if it was a really late hatched bird from 2 yrs ago...
I shot a bird last yr that weighed 17# and had a 10.5" beard and 1" spurs...That on struck be as being kinda smallish but not to that extreme.


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