Settled a score with an old Goobbler

[eggshell]

Yesterday a buddy from Batavia e-mailed me and wanted to go turkey hunting today. His honey hole had dried up and he wanted to come spend a day with me. Since I'm not one to turn down a chance to chase turkeys I said sure thing, I'll take you to a couple spots. We hunted all morning and never saw or heard a thing. So I decided to check out a spot where an old bird had give me fits for three springs and falls. This ole bird beat me opening morning this fall. It was windy so we just stayed on old log roads and called every little bit. On the last valley and log road we came to a spot where I told Steve, "if they're here they'll be right around that bend. As we approached the bend I spotted three heads coming down the road. They spotted us too but just walked off over the bank. I told Steve we'd go for the hump in the middle of the road as fast as we could and be ready to shoot when we went over it. Sure enough they had just walked over the hump and was standing there looking back for us. He was ready and took the  nearest bird. I'm sure this is the old smarty that has drove me nuts. He weighed right at 18 pounds had probably a 10-11" beard and one of the longest set of spurs I've ever seen. Below are pictures.

[Fargohunt]

Dana, that is a great story, beautiful bird and one nasty set of spurs--ouch!

[kenturkey89]

Congratulations on such a wonderful bird eggshell and you're spot on about the hooks on that bird, they are extremely long. He has a beautiful fan on him as well. Hopefully I'll be coming across some of his distant relatives here in KY this coming spring!

[Duke0002]

Super fall bird.  Congrats!

[BigBuckeye]

Great job, that is a great looking bird!!
 
Just in time for Thursday [:D]

[WillowRidgeCalls]

Great job at chasing that one down Dana [;)].

[MAKEemQUIVER]

Thats one great bird, congrats on getting him!

[dewey]

Congratulations to your friend eggshell!! Sounds like you could write a bad bird story for T&TH magazine.[:D]

What are the lengths of those spurs? 1-1/2"?

Very impressive spurs and beard.

Dewey

[Cut N Run]

That's a fine gobbler, Dana. Congratulations for helping a friend take a nice bird. Those are some serious stickers on that bad boy.

Jim

[rsmithpa]

WOW.. what a super trophy.  Congrats to both of you and a great story!