# Lil feller!



## Mushijobah (May 4, 2004)

Had been watching a couple of long skinny fields surrounded by woods in Central Ohio recently and noticed birds out in them almost everyday. Setup at daybreak and had two birds in the field by 0730. They heard my brother and I calling and started sprinting towards us. They ran at least 500 yards until they eventually got in range. We shoot, only one falls, brother shot over the head of his! Oh well, 4 more birds appeared in the field after I shot mine and the one he missed ran off. They follow the same pattern but get hung up. Another hunted walked in on us at about 0710 and setup in the same 6 acre field as us??? What a moron. There's literally 90 acres of other fields adjacent to the same big woods. I didn't think anyone else had permission to be here either. Oh well. Anyways, they get hung up because this other hunter is hammering away with his pushbutton call and is confusing these birds. They eventually head our way but see something they don't like and put-put-run away. Oh well! It was a fun hunt, I wish we could have doubled up though.

The end of his beard is discoloroed, sort of a rusty red. Someone told me that this is caused by ultra-cold weather....anyone know?


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## M.Magis (Apr 5, 2004)

Congrats. The red color on the beard is called beard rot. Its not caused by cold weather, though sometimes beards can freeze to the roosting limb and break off, or be pulled of completely. They can also form ice balls and break off. 
Heres a description from the NWTF site explaining beard rot:



> "Melanin is a dark pigment that makes turkey beards dark gray or black. When a beard has a lack of melanin, there may be a strip of orange or amber across the beard that not only affects the beard's color, but also its structural integrity, causing it to become brittle and susceptible to breaking off."


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## the_ghost (May 5, 2011)

Congrats! Good shootin! I didn't hear one gobble this morning. It's a good thing I didn't have to buy a tag.
On a positive note, I did kinda sacrifice my hunt so a father and daughter could hunt the youth opener! 
She took this gobbler on Sunday at the property!










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## bobk (Apr 30, 2004)

Congrats Kyle. Nice story too.


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## 9Left (Jun 23, 2012)

nice job and nice bird man!!


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## Mushijobah (May 4, 2004)

Thanks for the info on the red beard...and nice work letting a youth get her bird! Was it a Central Ohio bird?


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## the_ghost (May 5, 2011)

Mushijobah said:


> Thanks for the info on the red beard...and nice work letting a youth get her bird! Was it a Central Ohio bird?


It was southeast, vinton county bird!


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